Same Guys Dancing

[{"type":"text","text":"Billy Joel -- Only The Good Die Young"}]

Same guys v2 11 22 23

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

<title>Tuesday Morning Dance Party: Billy Joel -- Only The Good Die Young | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Billy Joel -- Only The Good Die Young

Tuesday Morning Dance Party: Billy Joel -- Only The Good Die Young

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

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

On summer nights just outside of Powell, headlights still crest a small rise and swing past a hand-lettered marquee leading onto a wide gravel lot. 

The families in those cars will spill out of their trucks and SUVs with lawn chairs, blankets, and sleepy kids in pajamas.

Some of the locals go so far as to bring full-size couches in their pickup beds and camp stoves to make s’mores and other snacks as the overhead sky darkens and an impossible sweep of stars begins to shine.

Then, as it has since 1949, the screen at the American Dream Drive-In will flicker to life at what is Wyoming’s last, bonafide drive-in movie theater. 

The owner, Kathleen “Pokey” Heny, didn’t set out to become the owner of this American treasure. 

She and her husband built a home across from it decades ago — when it was called the Vali Drive-In — primarily so they could see Powell’s landmark Heart Mountain from their windows. 

It just so happened that they were also right across from the drive-in as well, a place Heny remembers fondly.

“I have really good memories of going to the drive-in as a kid,” she said. “I’m one of seven children, so we’d float up in the station wagon in our jammies and pop our popcorn at home. 

"Probably only twice a summer, but I just love the memory of that.”

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

Heny and her husband cleared a line of sight to the drive-in’s big white screen from their property so they could watch movies from their garage. 

“We could sit in the garage and watch a movie across the road,” she said with a chuckle. “And now you can tune your radio into it, so if you don’t have a speaker, you could listen to it on your radio.”

Then one day in 2004, her husband returned from the lumber store with a rumor that was about to forever change Heny’s life.

“I heard the drive-in is for sale,” he told her. 

“Well, I have to buy it,” Heny recalls telling him. “I don’t want it to get knocked down. I don’t want it to become obsolete.”

Heny had no idea what she was getting herself into at the time. 

She’d never owned a business, and she didn’t know anything at all about the movie business.

“At that time, it was reel to reel,” she said. “You actually had to splice the movies and put them together.”

Her first years were also lean — heartbreakingly so.

“There was a huge learning curve. I was happy to have 10 cars a night,” she said. “We really thought we were doing something if we got 15. 

"So just trying to get it up and running, and figure out how to run the movie, order the movies, use a movie broker.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Steep Learning Curve"}]

Dusty pickups and kids in pajamas are at the core of Heny’s successful business model, which packs in as many as 150 cars a night in the summer.

While many of the nation’s remaining 370 or so drive-in movie theaters have leaned into attracting tourists, Heny has instead leaned into community.

“What we did to build it back up is just changing it to become family-friendly,” she said. “I learned that the ones who spend the money are the parents. The teens? They don’t spend as much money in the concessions, which is where you’re going to make your money. 

"You don’t make money on your ticket sales at the door, because that’s what goes to the movie industry.”

That dynamic means Heny is not showing movies with “R” or “X” ratings. It’s strictly PG-13 and on down.

She’s also learned not to shoot for the latest blockbuster right out of the gate.

“If was to show let’s say, ‘Toy Story 5,’ which is playing right now, I’d have to keep that for three weeks,” she said. “Well, three weekends in a row at the drive-in isn’t going to be successful for me.”

Eventually, she’ll bring that move in, but she’ll wait until it’s been out for a while. 

“Then I’ll get it on what they call the break,” she said. “And guess what, they’ll come back and watch it a second, sometimes a third time.”

Movie producers wouldn’t let her drive-in have such a movie anyway, she added, because she’s only open three nights a week.

“They can put it somewhere like Billings or Cheyenne and run it five times a day,” she said. “So that’s kind of how the drive-in business works.”

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

The beating heart that is keeping the American Dream alive when every other drive-in in Wyoming has died goes back to the post-war golden age of drive-in movie theaters. 

Land was still abundant and cheap, and it was newly accessible thanks to a new post-war highway system. 

The economy was booming. Moms and dads had real, disposable income that could be devoted to entertainment. And there were also lots of moms and dads — so many that their children would become known as Baby Boomers. 

These families wanted fun, family experiences, and they had cars with lots of flashy chrome to show off to their neighbors, who were also at the drive-in chasing the same thing. 

The dynamic fueled nearly 4,500 drive-in movie theaters at the height of the sector between the 1950s and 1960s.

“This was originally built in 1949 by a man who had been back East and gone to a drive-in of sorts,” Heny said about the origins of the American Dream. “It was just a big, white sheet stretched across some trees and he just watched and watched.”

The man was so enthralled with watching movies this way, he came home and built his own drive-in theater right next to his property. 

Heny still has many of the speakers from the original drive-in, and she still uses them. 

“I always tell people these are 1949 monotone, metallic-sounding speakers,” she said. “It’s not surround-sound stereo. It’s a little buzzy, but I still like to listen on the speaker.”

She also still has the original popcorn machine. 

“We gutted it and our candy is displayed inside the glass part of it,” she said. “I wanted to keep that a part of the drive-in.”

She kept the patio so people could sit and eat there if they wanted, with tiny tables. 

The drive-in has become known for its cheesy fries, but also offers burgers, hot dogs, donuts, big soft pretzels, popcorn, and ice cream sodas. 

“We still have the big marquee out front, with the letters where you have to climb up on the marquee to put the big plastic letters up,” she said. 

Over the last 22 years that she’s owned the theater, Heny's had the occasional guest suggest that she should just get rid of things like the marquee or the old-fashioned speakers. 

But there’s no way that’s ever happening.

The classic metal speaker boxes aren’t some kind of issue to be fixed The marquee is, in her opinion, a masterpiece. As are the retro Formica countertops in the concession area, which she and her sister spent hours scouring the internet to find.

“I find it funny when kids will say, ‘You know what, you should knock this down and make it more modern,’” she said. “I’m like, ‘It’s a 1949 building. It’s a very ’50s vibe, a very ’50s-diner-type vibe. It’s red, white, and blue. It’s the American dream.

“This is your dream to come to the drive-in,” she added. “Modern? No, that would take away from what it is.”

Heny doesn’t have to look too far to see that she is right. 

Her drive-in routinely has upward of 100 cars a night, often more. She’s drawing people in from all over Wyoming who want the vintage experience of a retro drive-in movie theater. 

Some of them like the experience so much, they have made her drive-in a tradition every summer.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Surviving The Digital Age"}]

Among these is Jeff Ernster of Laramie, who bills himself on Facebook as the 

. He is a fan of all drive-ins in general, and a big fan of Heny’s in particular.

Because the drive-in’s core business is local, it’s got a huge social atmosphere that draws people in.

“It’s just so much fun watching everyone,” he said. “You get to see the kids running around playing out there, and adults as well. It’s just a whole different atmosphere.”

Heny’s drive-in has faced its share of challenges surviving in the modern age. 

In 2013, it was dealt a near fatal blow when the movie industry decided it would release no more reel-to-reel films. That meant everyone had to go digital. 

“The digital projector cost me more than the entire property did when I bought the drive-in,” Heny said. “I think that’s a big reason a lot of drive-ins, which are owned by mom and pops probably in their late 70s, disappeared. 

"They were not going to be able to afford going digital, so that’s probably why they shut down their drive-ins. I’m guessing that’s a big reason a lot of them went dark.”

Heny pushed to pay that expense off as quickly as possible, and managed it in five years.

“My concern with going digital was how soon are we going to have to buy another upgrade?” she said. “But so far, knock on wood, we’re good. We’ve been using the digital for 14 years, so it’s still going strong.”

The toughest challenge, though, is one that’s playing out even now, and that’s the competition from streaming platforms. 

“The digital world, unfortunately, is happening all around us,” she said. “So that’s the hardest part. When I got 'Mario Galaxy,' for example, that was already streaming by the time I showed it. 

"But I still had a good turnout. So that’s our biggest challenge, is just getting people to come out and support instead of saying, ‘Well, I’m just gonna watch it at home.’”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Bull Can Get Real Mean"}]

Running Wyoming’s last drive-in hasn’t been without its share of odd moments. 

Like the time a huge bull with long horns escaped from a nearby pasture, ending up inside the drive-in fence. 

Heny shut the gate on the bull to keep it off the highway. Then Hany had a bright idea.

“I was going to take a picture of him,” she said. “He was laid down up front by the screen, and I wanted to take a picture of him and say, ‘It’s no bull, we’re the best drive-in in town.’”

But as she walked up to take this amusing shot, the bull decided he’d had enough of napping. 

“He jumped the fence and tore it down,” she said. “So we had a big old bull with big old long horns jump the fence and tear it down and get out of there before I could get a good picture of him.”

There was also the time vandals attacked her place, painting graphic, sexual images on the concession stand.

“They trashed the place,” she said. “And they didn’t necessarily harm me, they didn’t destroy anything. They just trashed it.”

Heny posted about it on Facebook to warn the culprits that she would be watching for them in the future. 

“People came out of the woodwork to help me,” Heny said. “People reached out to me right away, wondering what they could do. ‘What do you need?’ ‘Do you need us to come help clean things up? ‘Do you need new equipment?’”

For Heny, it just reinforced what she sees as the drive-in's biggest life lesson of all. 

“If you give, you will get it back,” she said. “If you give to your community, it will come back to you. I have kids who are now old enough to drive who came as little kids because their parents brought them to the drive-in and exposed them to it. They’re coming back and giving back to me.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Nostalgia For Sale"}]

On the surface, the American Dream Drive-In may seem like it’s selling movies, but Heny knows that’s not what she’s selling at all.

What she has to offer that streaming can’t give anyone is a gathering place; a place where community connects and reaffirms everything that’s important in life. 

Heny doesn’t try to make a killing with her theater because of that. It’s a “good hobby,” one that lets her employ about 14 young people each summer and provides a little pocket change for vacations.

She keeps the ticket prices as affordable as possible. This year, it’s $20 a carload, whether that’s a station wagon with a few church kids or a beet truck loaded with couches and a crowd of teenagers. One person in a vehicle, meanwhile, is $7. 

She lets people to bring their own food, too. S’mores, a picnic, sandwiches — whatever makes the night a party for them. 

The movie is everyone’s excuse to all come out. The real attraction is the experience. 

Kids will toss baseballs to each other in the last light before the cameras roll, and families will string blankets between tailgates, setting up chairs and firing up camp stoves.

Heny doesn’t mind this at all. It’s love and community that nourishes everyone’s soul, including her own.

Plenty of people still come in to enjoy her concessions, knowing that’s what keeps the drive-in alive. Her cheese fries are a craveable local legend, and the big “pickle on a stick” regularly sells out.

Heny is game to try just about anything to keep the old-fashioned drive-in going, as long as it’s fun. 

She gave those once-trendy, Texas-style pickle pops a try, for example, and has tried prom night movies, too. They didn’t go over as well as other activities, like Barbie booths for selfies when that particular movie came out, but the point is they looked fun. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Anything fun is worth a try."}]

American Dream Jered Bridgeman 6 20 26

<title>Wyoming’s Last Drive-In Theater, Powell’s American Dream, Open For 78th Season | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The American Dream in Powell, Wyoming’s last operating drive-in theater, has survived since 1949 as a retro experience for movie-goers. The current owner bought it in 2004 just to save it. “I didn't want it to get knocked down," Kathleen Heny said.

Wyoming’s Last Drive-In Theater, Powell’s American Dream, Open For 78th Season

Some of Wyoming’s 1860s prospectors would be rolling over in their graves if they knew just how narrowly they might have missed striking it rich in South Pass City and other 19th-century gold hotspots.

Gold was there in those arid hills. All those poor pioneers really needed to find it was a helicopter and some artificial intelligence.

Not to mention modern geological science, which has led Relevant Gold founder and CEO Rob Bergmann down a multi-billion-year-old channel called the Abitibi Belt, to what he believes is a hidden gold belt underneath Wyoming.

“We can’t promise anything,” Bergmann told Cowboy State Daily. “But we do believe that all of the data indicates there’s a lot of opportunity that has really just never been tested in Wyoming — especially along these Archean belts that were once connected to the Abitibi.”

The hypothesis that those were once connected is the geological theory that’s brought Bergmann to Wyoming. 

The Archean belts arc from the CK Gold Project in southeast Wyoming, sweep through South Pass near Lander, and continue on to Bradley Peak near Rawlins. 

All three areas once drew gold seekers when the West was still untamed, from about 1867 to 1881. Each fizzled long before living up to their hype — even at the comparatively successful Carissa Mine in 

 with a toolkit the state’s pioneer miners could scarcely have imagined.

Instead of panning streams and digging random holes in the rock to find gold veins they could mine with hand tools and dynamite, Bergmann’s crews are flying helicopters to conduct geophysical surveys over the company’s projects at South Pass and Bradley Peak. 

The surveys can see hundreds of meters beneath the surface, mapping out rock types and identifying structures that commonly travel with gold and other precious metals. 

“It’s an incredible data set that’s never existed in the state of Wyoming before,” Bergmann said. “It allowed us to see up to 400 meters below the surface of some of these rock characteristics. It doesn’t necessarily find the gold, but it helps us find the things that might be associated with the gold.”

A Wyoming state grant helped fund the airborne surveys at Bradley Peak and South Pass, creating the new, high-resolution, geophysical picture of grounds that have been prospected off and on for more than 150 years.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Big Drilling Plans"}]

This summer, Relevant Gold will stage large drilling programs at Bradley Peak and in the South Pass area, fresh off raising more than $12 million in Canadian dollars. 

The drilling is about collecting sample cores from likely areas to map out where a mine might be economically feasible.

The company will focus on two targets this summer, but there are 17 targets in all. That’s a multi-year runway of possible follow-up work if the results remain encouraging. 

High-grade ore samples have already been collected, Bergmann added — samples that also contained significant percentages of silver, copper and lead. 

“We’ve already drilled gold, found gold,” he said. “What we have to start defining is whether there’s something over, say, a million ounces. We’re really targeting larger-scale gold and critical metal opportunities.”

While the word “mining” might conjure images of vast coal pits or 

 Relevant Gold’s footprint will look different. 

“Gold can be mined a lot of different ways,” Bergmann said. “But underground mining is the most common type.”

Those tunnels will likely be much narrower than trona or coal-mining tunnels. 

The company has set up a field office in Riverton, and has been working extensively with local contractors for drill-pad construction and reclamation. Its headquarters is in Canada, and it has an operational office in Minnesota.

Under state rules and bonding requirements, all the baseball-sized drill holes must be reclaimed and reseeded within a year, which will make it difficult to tell a rig was ever there.

Right now, Bergmann has a staff of between six to 12 local workers in Wyoming, along with support from three outside geologists and a small array of local suppliers and services.

Ultimately, if a mine is realized, that could balloon to a hundred or more workers.

South Pass City Witold Skrypczak via Alamy 6 20 26

<title>How Modern Technology Is Reshaping The Search For Gold In Historic Wyoming Mines | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Helicopters, artificial intelligence, and geology are giving a modern mining company a second shot at finding gold in historic Wyoming mines. The company believes there's a hidden gold belt and technology allows them to see 400 meters below the surface.

How Modern Technology Is Reshaping The Search For Gold In Historic Wyoming Mines

Kerry Drake

Outdoors

Public Lands

On the 55th anniversary of Bill Briggs’ legendary, incredibly dangerous, and totally outrageous first ski down the face of Grand Teton this past Monday, the now-94-year-old mountaineer and musician said it was just something he had to do.

“There was a lot of uncertainty, but I felt it’s probably now or never,” Briggs said in an email to Cowboy State Daily. 

Now hard of hearing, email is the way he communicates now — except when he’s at his haunts in Jackson and Wilson every weekend where he sings and yodels.

“I thought (skiing the Grand) was sort of a last chance, and I was running a little late already,” Briggs recalled. “I thought, ‘Just do the best you can, one thing at a time. It’s all doable snow all the way, and I’m as fit as I will ever be for this lifetime.'”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Without A Hip Joint"}]

Skiing down the sheer face of a rocky and intimidating Grand Teton would have been impressive enough, but it’s even more so considering that Briggs was born without a hip joint. 

He underwent surgery at age 2 to carve out a socket, and ultimately had it fused in 1961. Ten years later on June 15, 1971, he would make his historic descent down Grand Teton.

 by Kimberly Geil said his hip was frozen in place and never quite worked properly after the fusion, but Briggs didn’t allow it to keep him from doing what he wanted.

“He has achieved athletic feats that most people with all joints functioning at 100% could never have accomplished,” she wrote. 

Briggs’ route required a free-hanging rappel down a 165-foot cliff face, which he completed with his skis on. 

Despite all the preparation and planning, he said there was plenty of unexpected twists and turns.

“Ice ripples at the bottom of the Stettner Couloir. Not enough snow for the traverse over to the Ford Couloir,” Briggs said. “Huge chockstone clear across the Stettner. Steep slot to climb out of the Stettner onto the East Face.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Then there were frozen crampon straps. "}]

“No flat place to put skis on and can’t dent the hard crust on the snow,” he explained. “Many rocky outcrops to ski around. Breaking through the hard crust and falling downhill. Big slough of snow down the East Face. Ski tails hit rock when skiing the slot. Rappelling the chockstone.”

Briggs recalled periodic bunches of snow spiriting into the Ford-Stettner route on the peak from the right, to then flow down the runnel in the middle of the couloir. 

“Cornice to ski off onto slope over to Teepee’s Pillar,” he wrote. “Entire slope sloughs as I ski across to Teepee’s. Huge frost feathers 3 feet deep to ski through down Teepee’s glacier.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"His assessment 55 years later? "}]

“Harder than I thought,” Briggs said. "Only the less than 10-foot wide, steep 60-degree slot. That’s the absolute limit of what I can ski.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Father Of Extreme Skiing"}]

What does Briggs — known as the father of extreme skiing (he prefers the term ski mountaineering) — think about the body challenges he faced with his hip disability?

“What’s possible? What’s the limit?” he replied. “The great fun of making the margin of safety more narrow.”

After completing the feat and returning to town, Briggs quickly realized that he had a problem: many people didn’t believe he did it. Where was the proof?

But when Briggs drove to the Jackson airport and saw that the tracks his skis made on the mountain were still visible, he called Jackson Hole News co-owner Virginia Huidekoper, who immediately recognized the news value and how important it was to document what her friend did.

“She knew the greatness of the achievement and told me to stay right there so we can fly up and photograph the tracks,” Briggs said.

Huidekoper flew her Cessna 182, but Briggs said she suddenly surprised him by turning control of the craft over to him, even though he had absolutely no experience as a pilot.

“She told me to put my feet on the pedals and hands on the steering wheel and don’t do anything while she took four photos of the tracks as viewed from the south,” Briggs wrote. “She dropped me off at the airport and probably picked up her paper’s chief photographer, Roger LaVake, so he could get several shots of the tracks.” 

Briggs told Cowboy State Daily that he had many other wonderful experiences as a ski mountaineer, including his time as an Exum guide. 

He also made first descents of other mountains in the Teton Range, including Middle Teton, South Teton, Mount Moran and Mount Owen.

“So many!” he exclaimed in his email. “But none as great.”

Sometimes, when the pain of mountaineering became so great, Briggs had to stop and find other work. In 1961, before his hip fusion, he tried playing folk music in New York City, where the genre was all the rage.

Briggs played once in a small, almost empty Greenwich Village coffee shop. The lack of an audience was due to the fact there was another folk singer performing at a nearby club, a fellow named Bob Dylan.

“I didn’t fit in very well at all in Greenwich Village,” Briggs said. “I was just coming out of the lowest point of this life. Bob Dylan was a great talent, but there were so many others. 

"I had musically met with Pete and Penny Seeger, Joan Baez and Judy Collins. I was very impressed with them all.”

Later, Briggs would get a chance to play with Dylan — or maybe it was Dylan who had the good fortune to play with the famed mountaineer.

It was at a wedding reception at the small Turpin Meadow Ranch 50 miles north of Jackson. Briggs recalled a few inches of snow on the ground.

Dylan came as the guest of music producer David Geffen. 

“Our bass player/photographer said Dylan might show up,” Briggs said. “He did and didn’t seem very happy to be there. Our front man, John Cooke, invited him to play with us, which cheered him up.”

Briggs said the only extra instrument his band had was a mandolin, “which Bob played very well for our three remaining sets.”

“At the end, one of the ranch hands introduced Bob to me as if I was sort of equal,” Briggs said. “Bob would have none of it.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Still Playing Music"}]

Briggs is still playing music for the summer and winter seasons each Sunday at the Stagecoach Bar in Wilson, and Monday at the Hoot. 

“Skiing the Grand was by far the best [experience] of my life,” Briggs said. “But what I enjoyed most about it all was doing each piece and having completed each one. Planning is fun, but deep enjoyment comes only with the doing.

“Often the enjoyment is unexpected and that makes it even better,” he added. “There’s a growth element wherein it’s being or been done better than ever. It doesn’t matter whether it’s music making or athletic endeavor as long as it’s better in some way.” 

Briggs has long been a proponent of Scientology, and said it’s helped shape his life in many ways.

He confided that he’s become a student of religious philosophy and “resolved to my own satisfaction practically all of the mysteries of life. One has to come by this on his own. I don’t know who else may have, or what to do with it all.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"How would Briggs like to be remembered?"}]

“I’ve been in the pursuit of happiness, and through the study and practice of religious philosophy, got there to my satisfaction,” he said. “And I’m the one responsible for that.” 

Kerry Drake can be reached at: Kerry@CowboyStateDaily.com

Bill Briggs main 6 20 26

<title>It’s Been 55 Years Since Bill Briggs Became The First To Ski Down Grand Teton | Cowboy State Daily</title>

This week marks the 55th anniversary of one of the most daring feats in Wyoming history, when Bill Briggs — the “father of extreme skiing” — became the first person to ski down the face of Grand Teton. “It was harder than I thought,” the 94-year-old recalled.

It’s Been 55 Years Since Bill Briggs Became The First To Ski Down Grand Teton

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

Clair McFarland

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Lander man faces homicide charges and up to 42 years in prison in connection with a Wednesday Riverton crash that killed two people. “I’m terribly sorry about what happened,” he said in court on Friday. “I’ve just been fighting addiction my whole life.”

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