Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Cat owner installed webcam to find out how his cat kept escaping..."}]

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

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, February 24, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Cat owner installed webcam to find out how his cat kept escaping...

Daily Smile: Saturday, February 24, 2024

 Cat owner installed webcam to find out how his cat kept escaping...

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Wyoming Life

A Gillette man and his sister are trying to solve a mystery involving an American flag, Purple Heart, and two photos that fell into their possession two or three years ago but they just recently uncovered.

They want the items returned to the veteran’s family.

A weeklong effort through social media and help from a veteran’s service organization had Robert Van Kerrebrook and Brandi Billat closer to their goal as the nation prepared to celebrate its independence and freedom.

Gillette American Legion Post #42 Service Officer Amy King said Thursday once Billat shared the name of the veteran that was engraved on the back of the Purple Heart she was able to dig through records and determine he was killed in action during the Korean War in 1952.

“I don’t want to release his name until we get in contact with family,” King said. “He was at one of the positions that was defending the Punch Bowl area in eastern Korea. Being part of medical personnel, he was attached to a frontline battalion.”

Although the veteran’s name does not appear on the National Archives list of those from Wyoming killed in action during the war, King found other documents that supported that conclusion, she said.

King has reached out to relative of the veteran she had found on ancestry.com to try and determine next of kin and who the medal and photos can be returned to.

Van Kerrebrook considers the way he and his sister obtained the flag and photos as “crazy” because it must have been gathered a few years ago when he was trying to repurpose and sell things people were throwing away or putting out at the curb in Gillette.

“We thought that was a cool idea to reduce our carbon footprint and that’s how it started,” he said. “We were going all day, pretty much every day going and picking up stuff that people were saying they were just putting out on the sidewalk.”

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

They obtained boxes and bins and so many items that they rented storage containers and then started to go through them, restore or repair things if needed, photograph, and then put it on the Facebook Marketplace to sell or repurpose.

Van Kerrebrook said the effort became interrupted by circumstances in their lives and he was recently consolidating things and found the framed flag that contains the photos and medal.

They initially posted photos of the flag and associated photos on Facebook hoping to get a response. Then on the advice of others, they looked behind the Purple Heart medal and obtained the name and reached out to King.

Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Barttelbort, who once served as chief of staff Wyoming Army Guard, looked at the two photos associated with the flag and assessed they were likely from Korean War era.

One photo shows four soldiers, two with weapons, and a circle appears to have been drawn with a pen around one soldier. None of the quartet have uniforms with name tags or any kind of insignia.

The second photo shows nine soldiers, none with names sewn on their uniforms or insignia. They are standing and kneeling around a sign that reads: “Co. L AID STATION, SICK Call ONLY.”

The aid station photo appears to have two soldiers with oriental features.

Barttlelbort said the fact none of the soldiers had insignia or names could mean they were replacement uniforms when in combat.

“In some cases, it’s easier to issue new uniforms than to clean dirty, nasty ones,” he said.

The photo of the aid station shows soldiers wearing “M-51” caps with flaps for the ears that while developed in World War II were widely used in Korea, he said.

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

When the United States entered the Korean War, the military and government were not prepared and that also could be a reason for the lack of names and insignia. Barttelbort said the aid station would have represented a medical unit assigned to a battalion-level organization or higher.

“There are two Asian fellows in the photo,” Barttelbort said. “These gents could very well be KATUSA (Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army) started in 1950. These guys held a variety of jobs. They could easily have been on medical or interpreter duties. … Treatment of these augmentees was wide and varied. In some circles they lived a very privileged life (in terms of) housing, plentiful food, very different from that of the typical Korean Army soldier in a Korean unit.”

On the back of one of the photos is a message in cursive writing that says: “To Dad,” and then the word “love” or “from” “Floyd.”

King confirmed the soldier’s first name was “Floyd” and that he had been part of a medical company serving with the 25th Infantry Division. She said the fact his name was engraved on the back of the Purple Heart was another confirmation that he died in action.

The veteran came from Thornton, Wyoming, an unincorporated area between Upton and Moorcroft, she said.

King called the medal a “huge part of family history” and a memorial of the loved one who gave “the ultimate sacrifice for his country.”

“That Purple Heart is that remembrance, it is that way to pass down to future generations the history of not just that person and not just that family but the history of the United States,” she said.

Vermont-based Purple Hearts Reunited founder Zachariah Fike agrees returning Purple Hearts to next-of-kin is an important mission. He is an active duty major in the U.S. Army and has a Purple Heart for injuries sustained during a deployment to Afghanistan.

“We’ve returned over 1,000 to date, Purple Hearts specifically,” he said. “But we’ve returned over 5,000 related items … American flags, dog tags, jewelry in some cases, photos, pretty much anything that has a name on it or a related service number that can link the item to the veteran.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"WW II-Era Medal"}]

When viewing the photo of the medal, flag and photos, Fike characterized the flag as likely a World War II flag and likely a World War II-era Purple Heart based on the front of the medal. 

He said the U.S. government preparing for the invasion of Japan at the end of World War II anticipated thousands of casualties and had mass produced Purple Hearts that were then stored and later issued during the Korean War and up to the Vietnam era.

Fike encouraged people who want help returning lost, misplaced or stolen medals back to veterans and their families to contact his 

"We’re the only organization that exists that does this specifically,” he said.

Van Kerrebrook was encouraged that they were getting closer to finding the rightful heir of the medal, flag, and photos.

“I can’t imagine that someone would want this piece of history gone,” he said. “Having my dad’s flag here at the house with me, that’s all I have left of him. … Who wouldn’t want to know that their dad earned a Purple Heart, or their great-grandfather or whoever it was.”

Purple heart flag Coffin Flag 7 4 26

<title>Gillette Siblings On Mission To Return Purple Heart To Family Of Korean War Vet | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Gillette brother and sister are on a mission to find the family of a frame-encased American flag with a Purple Heart medal. They've enlisted the help of Gillette American Legion Post #42 that says the Korean War vet was attached to a frontline battalion.

Gillette Siblings On Mission To Return Purple Heart To Family Of Korean War Vet

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Former Yellowstone National Park Ranger Carl Dunrud was no stranger to danger when he came up against four boys in the wilderness of Wyoming. 

 and rode a buffalo for a Wild West show stunt before buying a dude ranch at the height of the Great Depression. 

He had paid $2.50 an acre for the former Kerwin mining claim to serve as the starting point of his pack trips into the Absaroka Range for his Double Dee Dude Ranch, and was focused on making a living, not tracking fugitives.

However, the many guests Dunrud and his wife, Vera, were expecting didn’t come. 

As they struggled to feed their family and survive the monotony, Dunrud got the urgent call from the warden at the Wyoming Industrial Institute in Worland, now called the Wyoming Boys' School, about four teen inmates on the run. 

Despite his misgivings, Dunrud agreed to help, although he knew this task might prove more dangerous that lassoing a walrus.

“I was reluctant to stop breaking sod since I had just taken the rough edge off four young horses, but the pay was quoted at the unheard-of price of a dollar an hour, and I could keep my own time,” Dunrud wrote years later in his autobiography, “85 Years of Adventure.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Boy Called Sunshine"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"It was after midnight in 1932 when the telephone rang at the Double Dee. "}]

The warden explained that four teens had escaped two days earlier, and no one had seen them since. Their tracks had just been discovered on Gooseberry Creek, about 20 miles southeast of Meeteetse.

Their leader was Sunshine, and it was his tracks that helped them identify the teens. He was wearing cowboy boots with steel plates on his heels. One heel was worn to a sharp point, so there was no mistaking who it was.

“We think they are heading across the mountain for Dubois,” the warden said. “Will you go and see if you can intercept them?”

The warden offered to send a trustee to Dunrud who was Sunshine's friend, and who the warden hoped would be a help

in apprehending Sunshine. The boys were traveling slowly, and the warden said there was no doubt they were tired and hungry.

Except, they were now armed. The boys had been tracked to Clarence Dollar's sheep wagon. They had robbed it of groceries, a .30-30 rifle and ammunition.

“Now remember, Sunshine is dangerous. He's young, but he's a pretty tough hombre,” the warden said. “The other boys are just kids.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Industrial School"}]

, the Wyoming Legislature passed a law in 1911 that established a “Reform Institution” to serve and house young male felons like Sunshine. The Wyoming Industrial Institute opened its doors in 1915 and by the time Sunshine and his boy gang were housed there, the institution was self-sustaining.

The school maintained a productive farming operation manned by inmates and was considered a model of self-sufficiency, especially during the Great Depression. The idea was that the wards, boys ages16 to 25, would learn life skills and a useful trade.

Sunshine would have been expected to help with the chores related to fattening the Hereford cattle for market, milking the dairy cows and caring for the sheep, hogs and chickens. Gardens and large fields of sugar beets were also planted and the boys were employed in a small, on-site cannery.

According to State Archives records the sale from the excess products equaled $86,700 for the 1928-1930 biennium, which is equivalent to $1.1 million today. By the time Sunshine was working in the fields, the institute was making an average of $700,000 in today’s dollars per year.

Sunshine obviously had enough of forced labor and escaped, taking with him three other boys.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Ski Patrol"}]

The snow still lay deep on the mountains between the Double Dee and Dubois, so Dunrud took along old “Agony and Torture,” the hickory skis he had used on patrol in Yellowstone.

“I had traveled almost 3,400 miles on patrol as a ranger,” Dunrud said. “I figured that I could make better time on these old skis than the boys could on foot.”

Sunshine’s trustee and friend arrived at the ranch early the next morning. Dunrud saddled two horses and they rode 12 miles to the rimrock on Chimney Creek. He then sent the trusty boy back to the ranch with the horses.

“I had a bite to eat from food I had rolled in my bedroll and stayed in the lee of the rimrock that afternoon,” Dunrud said. “I decided to stay in the same spot that night while I scouted around for tracks.”

Dunrud had reasoned that if the boys were ahead of him, he could overtake them easily because they had been on foot on short rations and had been sleeping on the cold ground for two nights. After Dunrud climbed the rim and walked around on top, he could not find any signs of the boys.

“There was nothing to do but go back to my makeshift camp and wait,” Dunrud said. “On my way back, I almost walked into the boys coming my way."

[{"type":"text","text":"Dunrud would have run “smack into them” except that their dog barked."}]

“I still hadn't seen the boys, but I heard them call the dog,” Dunrud said. “They were only 100 yards downhill from me when they started running.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Dunrud raced downhill and identified Sunshine's tracks."}]

“The boys were running down a well-worn elk trail in high gear,” Dunrud said. “It was no use trying to outrun these young boys, especially since they had a head start.”

Dunrud went back to his “spike camp,” picked up his bedroll, and climbed the rimrock again. He followed the boys' tracks until dark.

“I had been warned that they were armed and could be dangerous, so I didn't want to come upon their camp in the dark,” Dunrud said.

The next morning, Dunrud headed back to the Double Dee. He figured they would have to come within a half-mile of the ranch if they were still planning to go to Dubois.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sunshine Escapes"}]

At daybreak, Dunrud drove up the Wood River Valley toward Kirwin to a sandy place where the boys had to cross. He found no tracks there, so headed back to where he had last seen the boys' tracks.

He stopped at the sawmill to let the men know about the fugitives and discovered fresh tracks from Sunshine.

“I was only about two miles from where I had seen the boys' tracks the day before, when it began to snow hard,” Dunrud said. “It snowed intermittently for two days as I tracked the boys down Wood River.”

At one point, the boys stopped at the Paul Foster ranch and asked for matches. Once more, they had eluded Dunrud.

their escape with determination, Dunrud noted, but now they were faring badly in the snowstorm and had no food as they headed toward Cody.

“When they got to a telephone, three of the boys had been “bad men” long enough,” Dunrud said. “They called the school collect and asked them to come and get them.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Sunshine was not about to go back and left the boys behind."}]

“To the best of my knowledge, Sunshine never was apprehended nor ever was seen in these parts again,” Dunrud said. “Maybe he changed his name and became an honorable citizen, or maybe he was one of the lawless men that we read about in the newspapers or hear about on the radio.”

For a man who had captured live polar bears and rode a buffalo, it left quite an impression that Dunrud was outwitted by a boy criminal who had disappeared into the Wyoming wilderness, never to be seen again.

Sunshine 2 Carl Dunrud dude ranch 7 11 26

<title>How A Legendary Ex-Yellowstone Ranger Chased Down The Notorious 'Sunshine' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Although young, "Sunshine" was already a dangerous inmate at an institute in Worland. When hand three others escaped, a legendary former Yellowstone ranger was called to hunt Sunshine down. "He's young, but he's a pretty tough hombre,” the warden said.

How A Legendary Ex-Yellowstone Ranger Chased Down The Notorious 'Sunshine'

Daily Darwin

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Darwin no play 7 12 26

<title>Daily Darwin: Sunday, July 12, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

text text text

Daily Darwin: Sunday, July 12, 2026

[{"type":"text","text":"My dogs react to five fake cats on the stairs..."}]

Smile no play 7 12 26

<title>Daily Smile: Sunday, July 12, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

My dogs react to five fake cats on the stairs...

Daily Smile: Sunday, July 12, 2026

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

A man was seriously injured Friday evening after being thrown 8 feet into the air by an angry bull bison in Yellowstone National Park.

Mike MacLeod, a professional photographer from Bozeman, Montana, said the incident happened at the Bridge Bay Campground, south of Fishing Bridge.

MacLeod said the man was walking with his grandson when the agitated bison made them the targets of its aggression.

“I was just trying to get some dramatic footage of that bison having a fit,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s changed my idea of what to expect from these guys at this time of year, because I would not have predicted that happening.”

The National Park Service has not released any information on the incident.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bull In A China Shop"}]

MacLeod was camping in at the Bridge Bay Campground when his wife pointed out the bull bison entering the area. He grabbed his camera and started shooting from a safe distance.

“He started walking through the campground,” MacLeod said. “He was coming up to this group of kids, who were taking pictures on their cellphones from a good distance away, and then the buffalo charged these kids.”

When the bison charged, the kids safely scattered. But the bison wasn’t done yet.

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s when McLeod started filming. "}]

“I used to be a combat photographer in the Army,” he said. “I could see this thing coming.”

MacLeod said the bison kept running through the campground, while people occupants yelled and screamed at each other to alert one another to the threat. After a while, the bison found a patch of dirt to wallow in.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then, the victim appeared. He had no idea what was about to happen."}]

“They weren't even in that camping loop,” McLeod said. “They were walking along the road, quite a ways away from the bison, and it started running at them.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Closed The Distance, Up And Over"}]

The victim and his grandson were at what even the National Park Service would say was a safe distance, at least 100 yards, from the bison. They stopped for some pictures while the bison lay down and seemed to have calmed down.

“He was sitting in the dust, like bison do, with his head out towards the road,” MacLeod said. “When the bison started to get up, the grandfather's like, ‘OK, time to leave,’ and they moved off behind these trees.”

Then, a white pickup appeared. For whatever reason, that set the bison off again.

“The bison was charging the truck,” MacLeod said. “The guy in the truck saw that happening, and he just kept going. The bison (then went) to where these two were hiding in the trees.”

After expending some of its energy on a sapling, the bison tore into the trees and chased the victim and his grandson.

While the grandson escaped, his grandfather wasn’t so fortunate. The bison chased him around the trees while he tried to escape.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then, according to MacLeod, the victim got flipped."}]

“The bison hooked him with his left horn on his hip and tossed him in the air,” he said. “He made a perfect flip and landed on his side. The bison was at least 6 feet tall, and (the victim) was several feet above him.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Observer To Rescuer"}]

When the older man hit the ground, the bison stopped but didn’t run away. It stood over the man he’d just tossed, shaking his head in an obvious display of agitation.

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s when MacLeod decided he had to do something."}]

“I had to get the bison's attention,” he said. “I was really afraid he was going to gore the guy on the ground, so I stopped videotaping and ran at the bison, yelled loud, and was trying to be as big and intimidating as possible.”

Following MacLeod’s lead, a few other observers did the same and darted toward the bison. That was enough to send it running.

[{"type":"text","text":"“He really took off when he left,” MacLeod said."}]

When the bison was gone, everyone rushed toward the victim. He was in a lot of pain, particularly in his hips and the leg he landed on, but MacLeod and others couldn’t see any external injuries.

“One guy held his hand,” MacLeod said. “Another guy pulled security on the outside to make sure that bison didn't come back. A gal in a car was on the phone with 911, and another gal did a blood sweep, but we couldn’t find any blood.”

Yellowstone EMS quickly arrived and took over. MacLeod has been in touch with the victim’s grandson, who told him that his grandfather “has some pretty significant injuries and is not out of the woods yet.”

“He was really worried and wanted to see the video to make sure that it wasn't his fault,” MacLeod said. “You can tell in the video it's not his fault. You can tell from the very beginning.”

This is Yellowstone’s second human-bison incident in 2026. 

 when a 12-year-old was injured near Mud Volcano, north of Fishing Bridge.

What stuck out to MacLeod in the Friday incident was that nobody was at fault for what happened at Bridge Bay Campground. People do “stupid things” in Yellowstone all the time, but this wasn’t one of those cases.

“I didn't see anybody getting close,” he said. “People were yelling, ‘Careful, there’s a bison coming through,’ and they kept their distance. They were very respectful.”

In this incident, the bull bison was the instigator. MacLeod said it was extremely evident that the bison entered Bridge Bay with a chip on its humped shoulder.

“You can tell he was agitated, pissed off, and charging anything and everything,” he said.

The biological explanation for what happened is the annual bison rut, which runs from June to September. During that time, bull bison surge with energy and aggression as they compete for dominance and females.

MacLeod doesn’t blame anyone, especially not the victim or his grandson, for what happened.

“They were just out for an evening walk, just happened to turn around the corner, and there’s a bison,” he said.

In MacLeod’s opinion, this bull bison was looking for a fight and, for reasons known only to itself, chose those two as the targets of its aggression.

“I’ve been around bison for a while, but this was really weird,” he said. “Why did it pick those two? There were so many people around, and most of them were closer to and behind the bison. It was really weird.”

Closeup of bison launch 7 11 26

<title>Tourist Seriously Injured After Yellowstone Bison Launches Man 8 Feet In The Air | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A tourist was seriously injured Friday evening after being thrown 8 feet into the air by a bull bison in Yellowstone National Park. Professional photographer Mike Macleod filmed the incident and said the bison was "angry, agitated and charging anything and everything."

Tourist Seriously Injured After Yellowstone Bison Launches Man 8 Feet In The Air

Around Wyoming

On a recent afternoon, the Old Government Bridge 20 miles southwest of Casper stood as a landmark on the North Platte River for fishermen floating underneath.

But if those nuts, bolts and steel beams could speak, they would tell stories about the bootlegger arrested in the 1930s and teen runaways rescued on a bitter winter day in the 1940s.

Beyond decades of use that witnessed Model A Fords and little Chevy trucks to Buick Roadmasters and semis crossing its 300-foot span, the bridge resurfaced in national headlines tied to the abduction and murder of a young Montana woman.

“Lawmen recover body of woman,” The Billings Gazette reported on April 3, 1988. “The body was about a half-mile downstream from the old government bridge … evidence found on the bridge indicates that an incident took place there that may relate to the body.”

Today the bridge, accessible just south of Wyoming Highway 220 off Country Road 404, continues to serve as a place where cattle can cross above the swift North Platte. 

Spokespersons for Natrona County Road & Bridge, the Wyoming Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Land Management as well as the Bureau of Reclamation, all say they don’t own the bridge.

WYDOT spokesperson Jeff Goetz said his records show that in 1961 the then State Highway Department initiated efforts to abandon the structure and realign the highway.

“By September of that year we were working on the new route where the highway is now,” he said. “That involved the Bureau of Land Management and local landowners to get right-of-way. And then it was determined at that time that the bridge was used to move cattle.”

The department then decided to vacate the bridge but leave it standing for landowners to move their herds. Goetz said in 1967 it was officially vacated and turned over to “Miles Land and the BLM.”

A spokesperson for the BLM in Denver said the agency does not own the bridge but does administer the land.

Attempts to reach a Miles Land & Livestock Co. found online and based in Casper were not successful by publication time.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cottonseed Cake Stolen"}]

an Alcova rancher and former Natrona County commissioner, told the Casper Daily Tribune that his son been involved in an accident on the government bridge. He told the paper his son was driving a truck filled with bags of cottonseed cake and that an oncoming truck from a Sheridan brewing company collided with Miles on the bridge.

“In rounding a curve on the bridge approach, the Sheridan truck swerved past the center of the road,” the rancher reported.

While he was stranded overnight, thieves stole seven bags of cottonseed cake, Miles reported.

The bridge’s foundations trace back to 1923, when heavy rains sent water surging down the North Platte, taking out the previously sturdy wooden 1905 bridge upstream. That bridge was built to access the Pathfinder Dam area and allow for the wagons of material and men to complete its construction.

Within weeks, the State Highway Department had bids out for a replacement structure that would carry traffic between Casper, Alcova, Rawlins and beyond.

“Construction of a new steel bridge across the Platte River on the Alcova Road will be started immediately,” the Casper Daily Tribune reported on Aug. 9, 1923. “On a bid of $48,341 the contract was awarded by the state highway department to the Missouri Valley Bridge company. Natrona County is to pay $22,500, the state is taking care of the balance.”

Bridge plans called for two expansion trusses, two abutments and one pier. Its roadway was designed to be 18 feet wide.

During work on the bridge in 1924, a young Nebraska man named Alex Brown, who had just started his job the same day, fell into the river and was swept away on Saturday, May 11. His body would not be recovered until June 22. 

The current carried the body into Casper, where it was found lodged against bridge pylons.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The bridge opened later that year."}]

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

The old government bridge site also seemed to be a popular place for bootleggers to ply their trade. In March 1924, Natrona County Sheriff’s deputies took a motorboat up the river to the bridge site and arrested a bootlegger named C. W. Wambaugh, who was running a still in a cabin nearby.

In 1927, law officers found a still house just east of the bridge that had 35 gallons of whiskey. They followed wagon tracks and found a 5-gallon and three 10-gallon kegs hidden among the sagebrush, the Casper Herald reported on Feb. 17, 1927.

In 1945, on a bitterly cold March 4, two teens, Charles Adamson, 19, and Patricia Wilson, 14, were found in a “precarious condition” by a passerby headed to Rawlins. He noticed them foundering in the snow near the bridge, and stopped to pick them up.

The boy had taken off his shoes and put them on the girl, who fainted in the car. The man drove them to a Casper hospital, where they were admitted.

The Casper Daily Tribune reported the pair had told their parents they were married. The girl’s mother threatened to have the marriage annulled, which might have triggered their efforts to start walking to Rawlins.

The bridge was designed to cross the North Platte at its narrowest location. Engineers put it at an angle to the highway, requiring cars to navigate a 45-degree turn from the highway to the bridge. 

The small cars and slow speeds in the 1920s and early 1930s posed few issues. But as more modern, bigger and faster machines came off assembly lines, drivers unfamiliar with the bridge sometimes crashed or worse.

A May 20, 1948, photo on the front page of the Casper Tribune-Herald showed the body of a 23-year-old Rawlins woman lying on the bridge outside her passenger car’s door. The photo cutline stated the vehicle swerved out of control, struck an abutment, and took her life. Her husband and a passenger were hospitalized.

The Old Government Bridge spanning the North Platte 20 miles southwest of Casper is rusting, mostly abandoned and nobody claims ownership of it. But if those nuts, bolts and steel beams could speak, they would tell stories about bootleggers and murder.

Daily Smile: Saturday, February 24, 2024

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