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[{"type":"text","text":"Astonishing...."}]

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

<title>Bonus Video: Wednesday, June 19, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Astonishing....

Bonus Video: Wednesday, June 19, 2024

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

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

Entertainment

After four decades in comedy, Tim Meadows is finally doing something he’s never done before: perform in Wyoming. 

The longtime “Saturday Night Live” veteran and “Mean Girls” favorite will play a three-city run in Cheyenne, Laramie and Casper in June. The tour doubles as a fundraiser for Wyoming charities.

Known for keeping a straight face while those around him can’t with iconic SNL characters like Leon Phelps — aka The Ladies Man — and playing OJ Simpson during his famous murder trial, Meadows has been a fixture on television and in movies.

The appearances are 7 p.m. June 10 at Cheyenne Civic Center and June 11 at Gryphon Theatre in Laramie. There are two shows in Casper, June 12 and 13 at Rialto Theatre.

The four-show run came together almost by accident, a bit of booking serendipity that started with a single Casper date. 

Meadows has reached a point in his career where he’s intentionally chasing down new territory. So, an opportunity to play in Wyoming was immediately appealing.

“I’ve been telling my agent, my manager, that I want to go to states where we haven’t been,” he said. “I’ve already done Utah. I’ve still got to hit the Dakotas. 

"But I think I want to do this, and then the next thing will be going to more English-speaking countries outside of America.”

Wyoming, in other words, is a deliberate adventure by a 40-year veteran determined to remain curious and keep pushing his boundaries.

“Mainly, I love a challenge,” Meadows said with a chuckle. “I mean, I’ve been to Florida enough, you know what I’m saying?”

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

Don’t expect a “Wyoming-only” version of Meadows. That’s not his style.

“I really don’t change my show based on where I am,” he said. “My act is about me … being divorced or having kids and having kids grow up — I mean those things are universal. They’re the same for me as they are for somebody living in Wyoming.”

What does change is the moment. He’s always pulling in material from whatever’s happening in his life and on the road.

“I’ve never been to these parts of Wyoming,” he said. “So I know I’ll have some things to talk about during the shows (such as) my experiences being there.”

He also has an unspoken rule when it comes to comedy that may help explain his broad appeal across multiple generations and different cultures. 

“I try to punch up,” he said. “I don’t really like to punch down at people or issues that I feel like need help.”

That attracts crowds who tend to be, in his words, “smart and forgiving,” even in an era when comics have to worry about audiences who are “too sensitive or too angry about material.”

If the name Tim Meadows doesn’t instantly ring a bell, Cheyenne comedian and Comedy That Cares organizer Dominic Syracuse says his face and his roles will. 

“Most, 90% of people, once they see his face, go, ‘Oh my God,’” Syracuse said. “Every generation has a movie they know him from.”

For some, he’s the deadpan SNL stalwart who bridged two legendary eras — starting alongside Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, David Spade, and Mike Myers. 

He was still there when the Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler generation took over.

For others, he’s the smooth-talking star of “The Ladies Man,” based on his SNL character, or the perpetually stressed Principal Duvall in “Mean Girls.”

Younger fans, meanwhile, will know him from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Peacemaker,” “The Mandalorian” and “Grown Ups,” as well as a recent CBS workplace comedy set in a DMV, which Meadows says was one of the best jobs of his career. 

Syracuse jokes that promoting Meadows has been oddly difficult. Not because the star’s resume is thin, but because it’s too full.

“It’s trying to cram 30 years' worth of comedy gold into a 60-second promo or a single picture,” he said. “This is a really good opportunity, even if you’ve never heard of Tim Meadows, even if you’re not a fan of ''Saturday Night Live.’

“It’s just a chance to go out on a weeknight and see a great comedy show.”

How Wyoming Captured Meadows’ Attention

Although two of Meadows’ three appearances in Wyoming will be for Comedy That Cares — a series that brings top-name comedians to the state to raise money for local nonprofits — Syracuse is clear that the real credit for bringing Meadows here belongs to Eli Corrales in Casper, who first booked Meadows for the Rialto.

When Syracuse heard about that, he spotted an opening.

“We wanted to end our season with a bang,” Syracuse said. “So I reached out and we pitched them the idea of doing a couple benefit shows in Cheyenne and Laramie on their way up to Casper.”

Meadows’ team called back and said, “If it’s for charity, Tim would love to do it,” Syracuse said.

Comedy That Cares is in its first season for Wyoming and has so far raised just under $100,000 for Wyoming nonprofits, including Climb Wyoming, Meals on Wheels, and Robbie’s House. 

“This time, 100% of the show in Cheyenne goes to the Comea Shelter,” he said. “Every ticket sold helps fight homelessness in your community.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Not A Nostalgia Act"}]

Talk to Meadows, and you won’t get the sense of a man who is coasting on his greatest hits, even though some of those hits are pretty great.

After being in comedy for 40 years, he knows a lot of shortcuts, but there’s still real work that has to be done for each show to meet his standards.

“I still have to learn lines,” he said. “I still have to research my character, and I still have to read newspapers, know what’s going on in the world and write new material.”

Ask about legacy, and he won’t reach for ratings or awards either.

“I want to be known as a good father, a good friend,” he said. “I want the people who know me to know that I love them. I want people to say that I worked hard. That I was liked by a lot of very talented people who asked me to work with them, and I tried to stay out of my own way.”

He’s proud of all his work, but not any one piece in particular. 

The strange, subversive SNL sketch that became “The Ladies Man,” for example, was developed from a secret, unknown crank call. 

It was something clever that still gets shown every Valentine’s Day, and he’s proud of that. 

But he’s also proud of the recently canceled “DMV" sitcom, which was “one of the most fun things I’ve ever done.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Legendary Moment"}]

For Meadows, Wyoming is another pin on the map, another room of strangers to win over, and another chance to see if his brand of honest, personal comedy can land in a new place.

That’s how he’s been winning new fans every generation, and it’s not something he plans to ever stop doing.

“I don’t do anything else,” he said. “Like this is the only thing I’ve ever really done, so I’m just going to keep doing it until I can’t do it or don’t have the inspiration to do it, but yeah, I still enjoy it.”

For Wyoming, meanwhile, this is a feather in its cowboy hat, with a “Saturday Night Live” legend coming to play four live sets in Cheyenne, Laramie, and Casper.

Meadows has spent the last 40 years being “that guy” people will recognize instantly, delivering lines audiences quote for years.

This time, Wyoming gets to hear him do it live — and maybe raise a glass of Courvoisier with him.

Tim Meadows Visit Casper Illustration 5 31 26

<title>'Saturday Night Live' Legend Tim Meadows To Perform In Wyoming For First Time | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Tim Meadows told Cowboy State Daily he’s about to do something he’s never done in 40 years as a comedian — perform in Wyoming. Meadows, who appeared on Saturday Night Live for 10 seasons as The Ladies Man and other comedic characters, will do four live sets in June.

'Saturday Night Live' Legend Tim Meadows To Perform In Wyoming For First Time

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Around Wyoming

A corrupt Cheyenne mayor and his chief of police ran a protection racket in 1944 that extorted money from black bar owners and encouraged prostitution, leading to their own criminal convictions.  

A new book about how their criminal operation unraveled because of a sting operation is coming out soon.

While working at the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center as its associate director, now-retired Rick Ewig remembers longtime Laramie County Attorney Byron Hirst mentioning his prosecution of Cheyenne’s former mayor in 1944.

Hirst, who served as county prosecutor from 1943 to 1947, was filing his papers with the American Heritage Center around 2000 or 2001 and Ewig helped him with the project. 

The topic about the mayor came up more than once.

“I thought, that’s really kind of interesting,” Ewig said. “I thought, when I retire, I should write something on that.”

After retiring in 2016, the historian came back to the idea around the time of the pandemic and, once he started digging into the story, found that there was a “lot more to it than just corruption.”

Four years later he is coming out with his book titled “We Are In Charge Now, The Story of Corruption & Intrigue in World War II Cheyenne.” 

The 200-page history delves into the election of Ira L. Hanna and how after arriving in office, along with his police chief and two officers, they attempted to extort “protection money” from black businesses in the city.

Ewig’s research sent him into Hirst’s papers that were at the American Heritage Center and the Old West Museum in Cheyenne as well as through the daily newspapers to get the context of wartime Cheyenne in 1943 and 1944.

“It turns out that Cheyenne was segregated at that time,” Ewig said. "If you were African American, you lived on the west side and that’s where Lola West ran the Black and Tan Club (Cafe), and there was another African American bar owner, Pop Grimes.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“He ran the Porters and Waiters Club.”"}]

Hirst had kept the information he compiled for his prosecution case, although there was not a trial transcript, Ewig said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A New Mayor"}]

Hanna, who had served as the Laramie County treasurer and then was elected as the county assessor, ran for the mayoral office in 1944. 

After becoming mayor he appointed Jesse Ekdall to be his police chief.

Shortly after coming to power, he and Ekdall approached the two black club owners to sell them protection as well as encourage prostitution, gambling, and illegal liquor sales, Ewig said. 

They were told they would be protected from the Cheyenne Police Department and the military police at Fort F.E. Warren.

“Hirst had kept all those documents related to that,” Ewig said.

The “most fascinating” one he found was related to West and Grimes going to Hirst after being instructed by the mayor and police chief to “not tell anybody” about his protection offer. 

A sting operation was set up between Hirst, two federal IRS agents, and the club owners.

Hirst and the feds were able to obtain a dictaphone device and place a microphone under Pop Grimes’ desk at the Porters and Waiters Club and recorded a meeting between the two black club owners, Hannah, Ekdall, and the two officers in his department.

During the hours-long meeting, Hanna and Ekdall were recorded saying that: “This is what we are going to do. We are in charge now. You have to pay us. If you don’t pay us we are going to shut down your business,” Ewig said.

Ewig said there is no evidence showing that the mayor or police chief attempted to strong arm any white business in town. 

Due to the war and the soldiers at Fort Warren in addition to the other war-support efforts that brought workers to town, prostitution was an issue.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Money Changed Hands"}]

Newspaper trial accounts show money was paid by West and Grimes to the mayor and police and the serial numbers of the bills were recorded.

Fort Warren was putting pressure on the city to get rid of all prostitution due to issues with venereal disease among the troops that hampered training, Ewig said.

But Ewig said the mayor and new police chief were trying to “open up” the city to more prostitution and illegal money to bring in funds despite the city’s stance against it.

His research found newspaper ads from Hanna as he ran for office that promised voters “good, clean government.”

Although all he had was the old newspapers to go by, Ewig did not find any evidence of any election manipulation that may have brought Hanna to power. 

Hanna’s record of public service to that point as the county assessor appeared above board.

“I didn’t find anything that really explained why after 20 years of not any issues at all, all of a sudden, he sees an opportunity to extort money from a certain group in Cheyenne,” Ewig said. 

“In the last part of the book, I do provide answers to what other people thought, but I never found anything that explained it directly,” he said.

During the trial of the quartet, the Casper Tribune-Herald reported on May 5, 1944, that Hanna testified that the money collected were “fines” for illegal activities and were destined for the city’s park and recreation fund.

Hanna said he and Ekdall decided to make the black business owners “pay fines” if the Fort Warren military police allowed prostitution, gambling, and the sale of liquor in the businesses, the newspaper reported. 

Hanna testified he received $340 from his police chief and put it in an envelope with other funds collected and a list of “from whom for what.”

Hanna testified he was found with three $5 bills that had been paid by West on his person because he wanted to “get a $5 bill to contribute to the Red Cross.” 

He exchanged a $20 bill for four fives that were in the envelope, he said.

West’s daughter testified at the trial and said she paid $100 on two different dates to police for protection. 

One of the officers on trial told her that if she received a phone call and “told us to wash our necks, there was going to be a raid,” the newspaper said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Ewig said all four men were convicted."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sentenced And Commutation"}]

The Casper Herald-Tribune reported on May 7, 1944, that both Hanna and Ekdall were sentenced to not less than seven or more than 10 years in prison on charges of soliciting and accepting a bribe. 

The officers and E.K. Violette received a sentence of two to three years, and officer G.J. Morris a one to two years.

However, on Oct. 4, 1945, the Casper Tribune-Herald reported that both Hanna’s and Ekdall’s sentences had been commuted by a state board of pardons and they would be eligible for parole on Dec. 15, 1945, and discharged from parole on Dec. 15, 1946.

The newspaper reported the board of pardons had received more than 200 letters encouraging the commutation of their sentences. 

While in prison, both men quickly obtained trustee status with Hanna keeping the books for prisoner accounts at the prison and Ekdall serving as a caretaker for the governor’s mansion.

Ewig said his research did not corroborate something that Hirst had told him a couple of decades ago about mafia from Denver and Chicago being involved with criminal activities as well. 

He said there is a chapter devoted to one individual who may have had ties to the mafia, but he could not prove it.

The book is about more than the corruption of the mayor. 

Ewig said he tried to portray the whole atmosphere of Cheyenne during that time in the war.

“I’ve done a lot of Wyoming history, and this one was so Cheyenne specific that it was fascinating about life in World War II Cheyenne,” he said. “It’s not only the story about Ira Hanna and Lola West, I also look at what Cheyenne was like during World War II. 

"It was a boomtown, and there was a housing shortage, and all these issues come up.”

The book, Ewig’s third, is published by WordsWorth Publishing of Cody and will be available in bookstores in the next week or two, he said. It can be ordered now from 

A bonus from his research led to a friendship with Lola West’s grandson, Leon Reed of Cheyenne, Ewig said.

“He allowed me to use some of the family photographs in the book,” he said. “I’m going to sit with Mr. Reed and do and oral history with him because he would like the story of the African American community in Cheyenne to be better known, and to be explored more. So, that is going to come out of this research as well.”

Black and Tan Cafe inset 5 31 26

<title>Wyoming History: Cheyenne's Mayor, Police Chief Convicted Of Extorting Black Bar Owners | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It was 80 years ago that Cheyenne’s mayor and police chief were convicted of running a protection racket and extorting black bar owners. "You have to pay us. If you don’t pay us we are going to shut down your business,” federal agents recorded them saying.

Wyoming History: Cheyenne's Mayor, Police Chief Convicted Of Extorting Black Bar Owners

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Perched atop a rocky knoll along the Snowy Range Scenic Byway in the Medicine Bow Mountains of southern Wyoming, the Libby Flats Observation Area rises nearly 11,000 feet above sea level.

Its weathered stone wall, turret facade and steep wooden staircase lead to a platform where visitors can look out at the Snowy Range to the north and the Laramie Valley to the south.

It looks more like what’s left of the ruins of a Medieval castle than a modern attraction.

For Laramie photographer David Peel, it's been a source of fascination for much of the last half-century.

"It's like an old ancient structure," Peel said. "Your mind kind of starts making up some fancy histories about it.”

Peel said its weathered stone and isolated perch above the tree line remind him of places far from Wyoming — Ireland, old European ruins and the kinds of structures that are much older than the observatory.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Mystery Of The Tower"}]

The site is managed by the Medicine Bow National Forest and was approved in 2024 as a $5-per-vehicle day-use recreation site.

It’s also not ancient. It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s, according to F.E. Warren Air Force Base.

Aaron Voos, public affairs specialist for the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland, said U.S. Forest Service maps mark the location as an "observation point" as early as 1956 in its records.

Engineering blueprints from 1959 show plans for a parking area, footpath, restroom and the stone observation tower visitors see today, said Voos. 

The overlook typically opens with the Snowy Range Scenic Byway each spring and remains accessible through the summer and fall before winter snow closes the road.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Where The Stars Take Over"}]

Peel said he has spent countless nights at Libby Flats photographing the Milky Way, auroras, and sunrises.

The high elevation and lack of light pollution create some of the darkest skies in Wyoming for photographers.  

"Up in the Snowies, it's nearly pristine," Peel said, adding that the tower is one of his favorite places to take photos. 

On moonless nights, the Milky Way stretches across the sky with a clarity that's difficult to appreciate until you're standing beneath it, he continued. 

Illuminated by starlight, Peel says the structure resembles a watchtower guarding the edge of the continent. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'The Flats Of Libby' "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Peel has lived in Laramie for nearly 47 years."}]

He's hiked the Snowies, camped beside alpine lakes and brought his children into the mountains when they were young.

[{"type":"text","text":"The observation tower remains one of the places they always returned to."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"His children thought it looked like a castle."}]

After decades of hiking, camping and photographing the Snowies, Peel found himself writing about them too.

One of his Irish compositions, "The Flats of Libby," borrowed its name from the windswept landscape surrounding the overlook .

More than 60 years after it first appeared on Forest Service maps, and nearly a century since the CCC built it, the overlook remains one of the most recognizable stops in the Snowy Range, drawing everyone from road-trippers and hikers to photographers chasing the stars.

Libby Flats Observation Tower Pat and Chuck Blackley via Alamy 5 30 26

<title>What The Heck … Is That Medieval Castle-Looking Thing On The Snowy Range Byway? | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The observation deck that looks like a Medieval castle ruin has turned heads for decades in the Medicine Bow range. For Laramie photographer David Peel, the 11,000-foot elevation and lack of light pollution make it a great place for astrophotography.

What The Heck … Is That Medieval Castle-Looking Thing On The Snowy Range Byway?

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.

It all started in May 1976 after a quiet handshake between a young, then-unknown Spielberg and Crook County rancher Jesse Thomas Driskill. It would go on to completely reshape tourism in northeast Wyoming, though no one knew it at the time.

For the movie’s legions of fans, this anniversary will mark the making of a cult classic, which was released in 1977 by Columbia Pictures more than a year after filming its defining scenes of making first contact in Wyoming. 

For people who live and work in the shadow of Devils Tower, this 50th anniversary marks the moment just before everything changed.

Thanks to the film, Devils Tower went from a curious landmark as the nation’s first national monument to a bucket-list stop for movie lovers — and believers in extraterrestrial life — from around the world.

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

When Spielberg first showed up, though, the land around the monument’s boundary was just another hay meadow.

Since then, visitation has continued to grow. 

Devils Tower hosts upward of 100,000 visitors per month in the peak months of July and August. It has seen as many as 509,000 visitors in a single summer. 

The influx supports tens of millions in visitor spending in the surrounding communities, according to National Park Service and Wyoming Office of Tourism.

"'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' didn’t just film in Wyoming, it left a legacy behind," said Domenic Bravo, executive director of the Wyoming Office of Tourism. "Decades later, people still chase that feeling: the mystery, the landscape, the sense that something bigger exists around Devils Tower. That’s the power of cinema."

Crook County rancher Ogden Driskill, who is also a state senator, was a junior in high school at the time his family and Spielberg struck their bargain.

“They took the hay meadows at the entrance to Devils Tower and turned them into the decontamination base and the main base where the movie would be filmed,” Driskill told Cowboy State Daily. “And he swore us to secrecy at the time. 

"He was determined that the world didn’t know about Devils Tower, and he wanted to keep it that way until the film happened.”

The Driskill family agreed to keep the secret, though they were sure Spielberg was wrong about all that. Surely everyone already knew about Devils Tower.

When the film finally came out in 1977, though, Spielberg’s instincts proved to be right on the money; it was a box office smash hit,

The first sight of the tower in the movie was mind-blowing for audiences, many of whom couldn’t fathom that such an unusual geologic feature existed in America. They had to go see it for themselves.

“That basically doubled tourism visitors,” Driskill said. “The movie really elevated Devils Tower to the next level. We are truly a nationally known destination at this point.”

Dreyfuss Vs. John Wayne And Mashed Potatoes

While Driskill watched his family’s hayfield turn into both a “Decontamination Unit” and the film’s headquarters, Barbara Wilson-Sowerwine was watching Hollywood drift in and out of her parents’ country store a few miles down the road.

No one had any idea that the movie was going to be a blockbuster. 

Financial writer William Flanagan, in fact, predicted the movie would be a flop. Spielberg and George Lucas, meanwhile, decided to hedge their bets after visiting each other’s sets. 

Each was so convinced the other’s movie would do the best at the box office they pledged to share 2.5% of their movies' profits with each other.

Close Encounters star Richard Dreyfuss was just a nice guy, Wilson-Sowerwine recalled, at the time the biggest “non-star” star she’d ever met.

“Dreyfuss just liked hanging out,” she recalled.

That’s what he was doing one night when a group of regulars came in for their usual broasted chicken dinner at the little restaurant where Wilson-Sowerwine worked.

He was standing by the counter when talk turned to the movie that was being filmed nearby, prompting one rancher to snort and say, “Well, it’d be one thing if they had some real actors like John Wayne,” Wilson-Sowerwine recalled.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Dreyfuss didn’t miss the comedic beat. "}]

“He’s a character actor and he’s famous,” Wilson-Sowerwine said. “So I think he just thought it was funny. His reaction was like, ‘Well, I’m no John Wayne.’”

The funny story and the transformation of the hay meadow into a movie set, complete with a government “decontamination unit,” are the things Wilson-Sowerwine will never forget.

She’ll also never forget the mashed potatoes scene, when Roy Neary, played by Dreyfuss, uses a fork to shape his fluffy spuds into a miniature Devils Tower in front of his confused family.

Then he starts weeping and says one of the movie’s most classic lines.

“This means something,” he says, insistent despite their wild, wide-eyed looks. “This is important.”

Mashed potatoes have never been the same for her since, Wilson-Sowerwine said.

“I can’t look at a pile of mashed potatoes without wanting to make a tower,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Campground Inspiration"}]

Back when Spielberg’s crew rolled into town, there wasn’t much of a campground at all. Not like there is today.

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.

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