One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"Parking brakes are overrated. Especially on steep hills...."}]

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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>One More For The Road: Tuesday, January 30, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Parking brakes are overrated (especially on steep hills)...

One More For The Road: Tuesday, January 30, 2024

 Parking brakes are overrated. Especially on steep hills....

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Politics

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"GREEN RIVER--Yes, Libertarians organize. "}]

They did so Sunday, in a state party convention at the Eagles hall in Green River. The demeanor was relaxed, the attendees were few. 

But the indie-brand IPAs sat untouched and the punch-up jokes fell silent when Shawn Johnson, who sought and later unanimously won the party’s nomination for U.S. House, delivered a speech that left attendees electrified. 

“The Democrats promise to manage your own life for you and your own good. The Republicans promise smaller government, and when they have the power, they grow it,” said Johnson. “The American people are left with the bill, the debt. With fewer choices, fewer freedoms, less trust in the system.” 

He cast this moment as historic, as a moment in which faith in the two-party system is crumbling, leaving only frustration for the “political establishment,” but opportunity for a revival of the Founding Fathers’ policy ethics. 

“We’re told that freedom is dangerous, speech must be dangerous, and privacy is outdated. We’re told economic choices belong to the bureaucrats and corporations,” Johnson said. “We’re told our rights are conditional. They’re rights to be restricted, granted, rationed - and suspended whenever the power decides they need to be suspended.

“But rights do not come from politicians or government agencies. They don’t come from the president. They belong to the individual,” he said. “They’re rights from being, inherently, human. And it’s the duty of the government to protect them, not to ration them.” 

Johnson urged Americans to heed what he called modern warning signs of encroaching fascism and authoritarianism: a growing demand for censorship, expanding surveillance, and “political leaders who increasingly view dissent as a threat” instead of a cornerstone of this nation’s system of governance. 

“We see government agencies exercising powers never imagined by our founding fathers,” Johnson said. “Authoritarianism does not announce itself. It arrives piece by piece: one emergency at a time. One exception at a time. One expansion of power at a time.”

Authoritarianism grows, Johnson continued, when people are told to trade their “liberty for security, freedom for convenience, and individual rights for political promises.”

Johnson cast the American governmental power as centralizing in an unprecedented volume. He said it falls to each generation to decide whether to tolerate that. 

And he launched a stark policy stance of his own. 

“The answer is not a stronger ruler. It’s not a more powerful bureaucracy. It’s not putting people in charge of the machinery,” said Johnson. “The answer is dismantling that machinery. Because the problem isn’t necessarily who holds the power. The problem is how much power exists to be held.” 

Johnson isn’t messing around, he indicated. 

While the Libertarian Party hasn’t been a major party in Wyoming since 2014-2015, it’s maintained a quiet influence. 

Former state Rep. Marshall Burt, L-Green River, held a seat in the House for one term from 2021-22. 

Riverton-based Libertarian candidate Bethany Baldes has run two close races for House District 55. She lost to two different Republican opponents, by a mere 53 votes in 2018 and 32 votes in 2020. 

Johnson told the convention delegates it’s time to get serious. 

While the Wyoming Legislature is around 93% Republican, multiple members have evident Libertarian streaks - such as Sens. Bob Ide (Casper), Evie Brennan (Cheyenne) and Cale Case (Lander), and Rep. Daniel Singh (Cheyenne). 

Democratic legislators in Wyoming often break Libertarian on issues as well - as a means to stave off Republican social policy overtures. 

“Now is not the time for the Libertarian Party to think small,” he said. “We’re often seen as a protest vote. Someone who can throw a wrench in the system. I think it’s the time to win.” 

He said Wyoming’s rugged, courageous, hardworking, independent cultural temperament makes the state the perfect planting ground for a liberty revival. 

“Wyoming doesn’t wait for Washington (DC) to get permission. We didn’t build our destiny on government programs. We built it on grit. On courage. On self-reliance,” he said. “And the people who settled this land did not ask bureaucrats how to live. They weathered blizzards, droughts, isolation and uncertainty.”

He added: “They endured. Because they believed in something more powerful than just comfort. They believed in freedom - and that spirit still lives here.” 

On Nov. 3 Johnson will face Lisa Kinney or Elena Del Reel - whichever wins the Democratic nomination in the U.S. House race, as well as whoever wins the 10-way contest for the Republican nomination. 

The GOP contenders are state Senate President Bo Biteman, Teton County philanthropist Steve Friess, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Casper-based veteran Kevin Christensen, David Giralt, Casper businessman Reid Rasner, former legislator Keith Goodenough, Moran rancher Frank Chapman, and Richard Dodson. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Who Is Johnson?"}]

Johnson, formerly of Casper and now of Thermopolis was an Army combat medic for 21 years and was deployed to Iraq in 2003-2004. He served as a Natrona County Sheriff’s jail deputy for 13 years, and a Casper city councilman for two terms including one year as vice-mayor in 2019.

Then he went to law school and earned his J.D. He’s been a practicing attorney in Wyoming in the areas of family law and criminal defense for two years. 

He ran for state House in 2020 and for Natrona County Commission in 2022. 

On Sunday, no one challenged Johnson for the party nomination, but the vote system offered a vote for “no one” as an option. Meaning, the delegates could have chosen not to have a nominee rather than nominate Johnson. 

“We’ve got a legitimate candidate this time,” Richard Brubaker, a major-office Libertarian candidate of numerous past election cycles, told Cowboy State Daily after the meeting.

Brubaker told the convention he’s not running for office this year. His ballot presence has in the past kept the party above the required vote minimum for minor party status. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Other Votes"}]

The convention delegates also nominated three state House candidates to run under the Libertarian Party banner. Those are: 

Ryan Shollenberger for Cheyenne-based House District 11, which incumbent Republican Rep. Jacob Wasserburger is vacating in January;

Carrie Satterwhite for Cody-based House District 50 - which incumbent Republican Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams is leaving to run for Secretary of State;

and Joe Porambo for Midwest-area House District 58 - currently held by the Republican Rep. Bill Allemand. 

While the highly decisive Republican and Democratic primary election falls on Aug. 18, the general election - where the Libertarians can test their electoral favor - is set for Nov. 3. 

The party also elected Shollenberger to its executive board, and the board in turn reelected prior chair Zachary Padilla to serve as chair once again. 

Rather than adjourn, the party recessed at the end of Sunday’s convention. The convention will reconvene for its second half June 17 at 6 p.m.

Until then, the Libertarian Party has an open call for its convention delegates to nominate political candidates to run on its ticket. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Statehouse"}]

Shollenberger has a very busy campaign season ahead. 

He’s slated to face whoever wins the two-way GOP primary race between Dan McIntosh and Paul Wing, along with Democratic contender Britney Tennant. 

He told the convention he’s a longtime Libertarian originally from South Florida. He joined the Air Force in 2009, spent 12 years as an active-duty weather forecaster, traveled the world and was deployed twice: to Afghanistan and Colombia. 

He joined the Air Force Reserve for one year about five years ago, then joined the Wyoming National Guard, where he serves in Lander as a field artillery officer. 

He is a substitute teacher in the Cheyenne-based Laramie County School District No. 1, and he became a wildland firefighter as of last year. 

He promised, if elected, to uphold individual rights, pursue school choice-friendly policies, protect and expand the free market, seek health care freedom, reduce unnecessary regulation and put “trust back into the hands of the people.”

Porambo also delivered a speech, via virtual link.

He ran without success for House District 58 in 2016 and 2020 against then-Rep. Pat Sweeney, R-Casper.

Allemand holds that seat now, and has a primary challenger in Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer.

Porambo criticized both of them, casting Allemand as a bully and Boyer as tone deaf to the people’s outcry against government maneuvers that could have helped nuclear storage projects settle near Bar Nunn.

Porambo also derided the Legislature’s repeated increases in government spending. The Legislature increased spending yet again this year, he noted. 

Shawn johnson 5 31 26

<title>Libertarians Nominate Combat Medic, Attorney Shawn Johnson To Run For U.S. House | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Shawn Johnson won the Libertarian Party’s nomination for Wyoming’s U.S. House seat Sunday, after giving a speech that electrified attendees. "We’ve got a legitimate candidate this time,” said longtime leader of the Libertarian Party Richard Brubaker.

Libertarians Nominate Combat Medic, Attorney Shawn Johnson To Run For U.S. House

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

In the early 1960s, the stress of being an advertising executive in New York was taking a toll on Paul Newman’s health. 

Calling himself Paul Newman “The Original” — he’s not the Oscar-winning actor — he was on a fishing holiday in Wyoming when he told his wife Georgina (Gina) that instead of dying on the streets of New York, he was going to buy the old Carpenter Hotel in Atlantic City as their new home.

Gina wasn’t ready to give up her career and friends in the East, according to her former employee Lynn Kinter. 

Twenty years younger than Paul, Gina loved her job as executive editor of Living for Young Homemakers, a popular ladies magazine based in New York City. 

“As she described it, Gina sat in a bar in Lander for three days drinking double vodkas and asking herself, 'New York or Paul? New York or Paul?'" Kinter wrote years later for the Atlantic City Historical Society in its book  

“Atlantic City Wyoming, Voices from a Powerful Place.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Ultimately, Gina chose her husband."}]

Then for more than 30 years, their restaurant Miner’s Delight put Atlantic City on the national map with its gourmet meals, colorful proprietors and guests who came from miles around just for dinner.

It was upscale French cuisine in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming with deep Old West roots.

“One patron said it was the only place where she was willing to wear heels through cow manure to get in,” Marjane Ambler, president of the Atlantic City Historical Society, told Cowboy State Daily. 

The Carpenter Hotel Becomes Miner’s Delight

Paul and Gina had taken a fishing vacation to Wyoming in the spring of 1958, and that was when they met brother and sister Jim and Ellen Carpenter of Atlantic City. 

Paul would go fishing on the Sweetwater River with Jim while a friendship developed between Gina and Ellen. 

During the next several years the Newmans made regular trips to Atlantic City and were grieved when Ellen died in 1961.

When Ellen’s family put the 16-room Carpenter Hotel up for sale, Paul became determined it would be theirs. In 1963, the couple bought the hotel, intending to make it their private residence.

Ambler said that by 1965, they had renovated the hotel and made the pantry into a bar. Ellen had an aversion to alcohol so in deference to her, the Newmans named their new business Miner’s Delight, another name for the nearby ghost town of Hamilton City. 

According to Bob Tipton in the Atlantic Historical Society's book, he met the Newmans as a teenage employee and was impressed by their culinary skills. 

Gina wanted to expand her cooking talents and had talked Paul into taking a six-week cooking course that led to an additional four-week course in France. 

Paul attended Paris’ most famous cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu, where he took a six-week sauce course. 

To further their skills, in 1966 the couple left Atlantic City to work at the Silver King Restaurant in Park City, Utah. They learned to cook steak and lobster and opened the Miner’s Delight for dinner on June 10, 1967. 

Paul and Gina served just two guests on their grand opening night. 

“Their menu was not the normal fare for your typical Wyoming eating establishment as they served meals like crepes stuffed with crabmeat, French onion soup, coq au vin, and a parfait for dessert and coffee,” Tipton wrote.

The serving season for Miner’s Delight started the first weekend in May and was finished by early fall. 

The Newmans served dinner four or five days a week, Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday, depending on their reservations and their own schedules. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Elegance In Atlantic City"}]

Paul and Gina hosted 20 to 40 guests each night they were open and regulars knew better than to request salt and pepper or, worse yet, ketchup. 

Everything was perfectly seasoned and there was no reason to mess with this perfection, according to Gina.  

In the 1970s, Karyn Aarthun Ervin was a repeat guest for four years who would drive up the winding road with her husband and friends to the remote mining town for a night of luxury. 

She said Paul’s gin and tonics were unmatched and he only carried top-shelf liquor. 

“Gina and Paul really introduced us to elegant dining,” Ervin said. “I tasted pate for the first time — delicious — and have been trying for about 50 years to duplicate their Cuban Black Bean Soup.”

Magnus “Max” Helmers of Sweden told Cowboy State Daily that eating at the Miner’s Delight was an experience of a lifetime.

“Sitting in that room in a restaurant in a ghost town in Wyoming and being served these great meals was just unreal,” Helmers said. “Gina had class and she know how to carry herself. You were only allowed to photograph her from one side, just like Clark Gable.”

Cowboy State Daily’s columnist Bill Sniffin was a young journalist when he would take his wife, Nancy, to Miner’s Delight for special occasions. 

He said that a meal would cost an average of $50 or more for a couple, unheard of when a large steak could be purchased for $16. 

“It was pricey, but it was worth it,” Sniffin said. “You'd make that 30-mile drive up the mountain up South Pass and it was a real tradition for everybody all over Wyoming and all over the region.”

Bob Tipton wrote that Gina was often quoted saying, “If it were left up to Wyoming men, they would only eat steak.” 

The Newmans claimed their women customers drove their success as their menus were designed to please women. Once the men got a taste they became hooked.

There were a few exceptions. Atlantic City resident Craig Newman, no relation to the Newmans, recalled taking a date to the Miner’s Delight as a young man. He had made reservations and saved for their special night out. 

Craig was shocked when instead of steak, he was served chicken and cold potato soup. 

“She gave it a fancy name and said it was supposed to be cold,” Craig said. “She was quite fussy.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Go-To Place"}]

Bob Tipton's brother, Harry Tipton Jr., wrote in the Atlantic City book that he was given a front-row seat to the clientele the Newmans served after being hired for a job in 1975. 

Before the summer ended, Harry had served drinks to Gov. Ed Herschler, U.S. Sen. Cliff Hansen, Congressman Teno Roncalio, State Sen. Robert Peck, State Rep. Harry Tipton (his father) and soon-to-be U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson. 

“They all liked to have big fun,” Harry wrote. “I learned much while bartending at the Miner’s Delight, much of which I am sure my mother would have preferred I did not.”

Harry said that he was shocked when Paul told him that they had repeat customers who would fly down from as far away as Alaska just to eat at the Miner’s Delight. 

Most of these customers would then fly home after dinner. 

Part of the allure was that Paul was well-known in his social circles and knew how to entertain.

“Paul was always dressed up and would make a big show of making drinks,” Sniffin said.  “Paul and Gina were both very elegant and made you feel like a million bucks.”

Everyone was given the red-carpet treatment at Miner’s Delight regardless of their social status. 

Sally Webster, a nurse, and Dave Slovisky who was working for NOLS were married on October 9, 1976. They reserved the Miner’s Delight for their dinner and were treated to a night to remember.

“I didn't know the Newmans’ but Paul was quite effusive,” Webster said. “He greeted us like we were old family members, and he was dressed up with an ascot.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Goodbyes"}]

When Paul died in 1986, Gina upheld a pact they had made to be cremated and not embalmed. 

Since the local funeral home would not transport a body to the crematorium in Cheyenne without embalming it, Gina put Paul in the trunk of their car and drove to Cheyenne, sobbing and cursing during the 285-mile drive. 

She was stopped for speeding on the way home but only given a warning when she told the officer her husband was in the urn beside her. 

Paul’s obituary later appeared in The New York Times with a long list of his accomplishments. 

Gina ran Miner’s Delight for a number of years after Paul’s death with the help of her employees. 

Krista Guthridge wrote that Gina would always encourage her not to just talk about what she was going to do, but to do it.

In 1997, Gina fell, broke her hip and covered herself in the barroom’s plush rugs until friends found her three days later, her pooch snuggled at her side. 

After this, Gina moved to the Showboat Assisted Living facility in Lander and died the following year at the age of 78. 

The Miner’s Delight has since been closed, but the legacy of Paul and Gina Newman live on in Atlantic City and in the hearts of all who experienced their gourmet food in remote Wyoming. 

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<title>For Upscale French Cuisine, ‘Miner’s Delight’ in Atlantic City, Wyoming, Was Tops | Cowboy State Daily</title>

For 30 years, the Miner's Delight restaurant in remote Atlantic City, Wyoming, was the place to go in the Cowboy State. Started by an advertising executive from New York, the upscale French cuisine attracted diners from hundreds of miles away.

For Upscale French Cuisine, ‘Miner’s Delight’ in Atlantic City, Wyoming, Was Tops

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

BLACK HAWK, S.D. — Six years after a massive sinkhole opened in a residential neighborhood in the South Dakota Black Hills about 55 miles from the Wyoming border, homeowners are still living in financial limbo.

The 85-foot-deep sinkhole — and roughly 100 feet wide and 650 feet long — revealed a sprawling abandoned underground gypsum mine beneath the Hideaway Hills subdivision near Black Hawk, South Dakota.

In the years since, dozens of homes have sat abandoned and deteriorating while property owners wait for answers, compensation and accountability.

Their homes are essentially worthless. Many families are still making mortgage payments on houses they can’t safely live in while a lawsuit over who bears responsibility inches through the court system.

A pending South Dakota Supreme Court decision could determine whether affected residents have any path forward financially.

“We do not yet have an opinion from the Supreme Court,” said Kathy Barrow, an attorney with national law firm Fox Rothschild, who represents the homeowners in the case.

“There is no timeline, unfortunately,” she added. “It could be six months, next year sometime.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Lies Beneath Hideaway Hills"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The disaster traces back decades."}]

For more than 50 years, gypsum mining operations carved a network of underground tunnels beneath the area. ‘

In the mid-1980s, the state of South Dakota bought land there for gypsum mining activities connected to a nearby cement plant.

The state later reclaimed roughly 16 acres of mined land and reseeded it for rangeland use before selling the property to a developer in 1994. The land was eventually sold again to other developers, who built the Hideaway Hills subdivision in the early 2000s.

[{"type":"text","text":"Residents began moving into the neighborhood around 2005."}]

Just a few years later, homeowners started noticing cracks in foundations and shifting ground.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then in April 2020, the earth gave way."}]

The sinkhole opened near where resident Albert Reitz had been mowing his lawn.

Authorities initially evacuated residents from 13 homes because of concerns about ground instability.

Subsequent testing revealed the problem was far more extensive than initially believed.

Studies later determined all 153 homes in the subdivision were uninhabitable because of underground instability tied to the abandoned mine workings.

A study led by geological engineering professor Mohammad Sadeghi of Montana Technological University found additional underground tunnels beneath the subdivision and warned of continuing geologic risk. 

Researchers also raised concerns that mine workings could extend beneath Interstate 90.

[{"type":"text","text":"Meanwhile, property values collapsed."}]

“The ground is continuing to deteriorate,” Barrow told Cowboy State Daily.

She said the instability reaches far deeper than anything tied to subdivision construction.

“What the developers did was not the cause,” Barrow said. “The ground instability goes deeper than any ground the developers would have touched.”

In 2024, Hideaway Hills homeowners filed a class-action lawsuit against the state of South Dakota seeking more than $60 million in damages.

The lawsuit argues the state bears responsibility because of its mining activities and because homeowners were never informed about the risks lurking underground.

Barrow argued the land was originally intended for pasture use — not residential development — and said residents had no warning about the underground dangers.

[{"type":"text","text":"The state disputes those claims."}]

South Dakota argues it is not liable because it did not conduct underground mining operations at the site and says the mine collapse would have happened regardless of the state’s activities.

South Dakota Circuit Court Judge Eric Stawn ruled in favor of the state in September 2024, finding the state immune from tort liability claims.

Barrow argues the case was never framed as a tort claim in the first place.

A year after the circuit court ruling, victims asked the South Dakota Supreme Court to hold the state accountable. That decision is pending.

[{"type":"text","text":"Meanwhile, the subdivision remains largely frozen in time."}]

A chain link fences surrounds the sink hole. The concrete is cracked and pale with weeds growing up in the cracks. Uncut grass is brown and long.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Why Wyoming Is Different"}]

The Hideaway Hills disaster highlights a major difference between South Dakota and Wyoming when it comes to abandoned mine reclamation.

Wyoming participates in the federal Abandoned Mine Land program, an initiative designed to protect public health, safety and the environment by identifying, reclaiming and restoring lands and waters degraded by historic mining practices.

The program is funded by fees collected from every kind of coal that is produced, according to Keith Guille, outreach manager for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. 

Wyoming, a coal-producing state, maintains a state-administered Abandoned Mine Land program through its Department of Environmental Quality.  

Because South Dakota is not a coal-producing state, it does not administer such a program, according to the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Guille said Wyoming’s abandoned mine reclamation work is funded through fees collected from current coal production.

“Obviously it’s about public health and safety,” Guille said. “That’s why we do abandoned mines.”

Wyoming’s AML division routinely performs underground reclamation work by grouting abandoned mine tunnels with concrete slurry to stabilize the ground above them.

Some of those abandoned mines lie hundreds of feet beneath existing communities, Guille said.

Rock Springs is one example where underground mine reclamation has continued for years. Similar abandoned mine concerns also exist beneath parts of Gillette and the Hanna area, Guille said.

Because abandoned mines predate 1977, before modern mining regulations existed, maps are often incomplete or inaccurate, making underground reclamation especially difficult.

“It’s a moving target when you talk about underground abandoned mines,” Guille said. “It’s a long work in progress.”

Wyoming residents also have access to the Wyoming Mine Subsidence Insurance Program, which allows homeowners to purchase insurance coverage against ground collapse caused by abandoned underground mines.

South Dakota has no comparable state-administered abandoned mine land program because the federal AML system is funded through coal production fees, and South Dakota is not a coal-producing state.

For Hideaway Hills residents, that distinction has become painfully clear.

Six years after the sinkhole opened, many are still waiting to learn whether anyone will ultimately be held responsible for the ground beneath their homes giving way.

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<title>Six Years Later, Black Hills Sinkhole Victims Still Waiting For Relief | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Six years after a massive 85-foot-deep sinkhole opened in a residential neighborhood in the Black Hills, homeowners live in financial limbo. Dozens of homes have sat abandoned and deteriorating while property owners wait for answers, compensation and accountability.

Six Years Later, Black Hills Sinkhole Victims Still Waiting For Relief

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Fifty years ago, the cameras rolled on “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” beneath the soaring columns of Devils Tower.

Locals are still talking about the summer when Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi vision transformed their corner of Wyoming into a cinematic landmark.

Fifty years ago, the cameras rolled on “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” at Devils Tower after a handshake between a then-unknown Steven Spielberg and rancher Jesse Thomas Driskill. It would go on to completely reshape tourism in northeast Wyoming.

One More For The Road: Tuesday, January 30, 2024

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