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<title>You Still Here? Sunday, July 21, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You Still Here? Sunday, July 21, 2024

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Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Around Wyoming

 overnight in the Wyoming Territory with canvas tents, sectional housing and buildings on wheels. It was July 1868 and the town “bred by the devil” was ready for business.

“There are perhaps, three thousand people in and around Benton,” brothers Legh and Fred Freeman wrote in the Aug. 11, 1868, Frontier Index newspaper. “To give an idea of the on-wheels movement we will mention that the office of Wells, Fargo & Co., torn down at Laramie three days before, had its sectioned shingle roof on, and stage business resumed in it that night.”

The Frontier Index, known as the “Press on Wheels,” was also a 

 business that published its paper in these overnight towns.

“Business was so lively that we telegraphed the Laramie editor of our paper, to wheel on at once to Benton,” the Freeman brothers wrote. “We since learn that our new power press is threshing out the work there.”

Benton was an end-of-track town on the construction front of the Union Pacific Railroad, about 12 miles east of present-day Rawlins and just west of present-day Fort Fred Steele.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Baddest Reputation"}]

 the worst of these Hell’s Tent Towns, with claims that 100 men had been murdered there in its short lifetime. Their reputation as a home to “bawdy women and swindlers” was earned when visitors passed through and were shocked by what they saw.

According to historians Mary Lou Pence and Lola M. Homsher, co-authors of “The Ghost Towns of Wyoming,” one 

 that portrayed Benton’s devilishness had been a misunderstanding.

Water for this new town was one of its most valuable commodities. It had to be carted by team and tank from the North Platte River two miles away. The water hauler charged an exorbitant 

Seeing a new way to advertise, a whiskey distiller paid the hauler to paste large billboards on each side of his tank that read "Tanglefoot Whisky."

A Mormon woman soon arrived by train and was waiting for a stagecoach for the next leg of her trip to Brigham's Temple. When she saw the poster-plastered wagon and women rushing from their doors with pails in hands, Pence and Homsher said she became  indignant.

 woman said. “They're buying whisky by the bucketsful!"

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Grant & Buffalo Bill Campaign"}]

To add to Benton’s reputation, even future presidents visited the tent town. Ulyssis S. Grant arrived with Buffalo Bill Cody. The Republican candidate was said to have given a stump speech at Benton to an eclectic group of people, ranging from gentlemen to railroad laborers. 

The Freeman brothers were heavily Democratic and former Confederate soldiers so the story they ran in the Aug.11, 1868, Frontier Index was a satirical attack on Grant and Buffalo Bill.

“When Useless Slaughter Grant was at Benton the other night, Buffalo Bill mounted a dry goods box at a street corner and returned thanks to the people for the splendid ovation (that was not) given the military commander in chief,” they wrote.

The editors claimed Buffalo Bill then auctioned off an old watch to pay for Grant's expenses on his campaign in Wyoming. Otherwise, Grant would be forced to “bum” his way back to Washington, D.C.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mundane Shootings"}]

In the same paper, when the Freeman brothers shared the local gossip, usually reserved for such tidbits as who had arrived in town or who was engaging in business, the story was about the latest shootings. This time Brownsville, a construction camp not far from Benton, was the scene of several murders.   

— a criminal offense involving at least two people —

 occurred on the streets between two men employed in Creighton's telegraph outfit, the Freeman brothers reported. 

[{"type":"text","text":"As the story goes:"}]

“They had been throwing dice for a pistol, when they became dissatisfied, and the person who owned the pistol — James Williams — refused to give up the money received, which led to a difficulty in which he was shot and supposed mortally wounded. The murderer has escaped.

"A man, named John Wood, accidentally shot himself on Sunday morning while drawing his pistol to shoot a man in a gambling house. He is now in the hospital and is doing well.

"Mike Meehan was shot by a ranchman near Reynolds & Dowling's grading camp, about eight miles from Brownsville. 

"The cause of the affair was, the graders were on a strike, and passed an order amongst themselves that any ranchman who would interfere with their strike or sell liquor to drunken men, they would clean out, and after giving them warning, they still sold liquor to the men, when the graders turned out and demolished some fourteen saloons. 

"During the row, Michael Meehan was shot and instantly killed. The ranchman delivered himself up to the military authorities at Fort Steele."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rise and Fall of Benton"}]

During its short existence, 200 framed tents and portable buildings had been erected, lots sold to the highest bidder, from $800 to $1,000, and dusty streets laid out. Benton was plotted into five wards and a mayor and one alderman from each ward had been appointed.

might become a more permanent town. A forwarding house was even established to take advantage of the active business taking place.

The most prominent building was described by Pence and Homsher as an immense canvas tent lit by imported chandeliers.

“An immense plate-glass mirror behind the corner bar reflected a strange hubbub of humanity,” Pence and Homsher wrote. “Pistol-packing mamas; lace-gowned and French-heeled dancing damsels; plaid-vested and fob-twisting come-on spielers; campaign-uniformed Indian fighters; corduroyed and buckskinned freighters; bow-tied and velvet-coated dude dandies — all taking chances with fate.”

The historians claimed  more than once during his night shift an overworked barkeep would have to change into another clean white coat to be rid of spatters of beer, bullets or blood.

By September 1868, the railroad had moved on, and so did nearly everyone else. 

The depot was moved east three miles to Fort Steele and Rawlins was designated a rail terminal. Pence and Homsher said that as tents were erected in the new town of Rawlins, former Benton residents were hesitant to buy lots and be fooled again into spending money on real estate that would not last.

Benton only existed for three months before the town was dismantled and it became one of Wyoming’s most infamous ghost towns.

Benton 1 Benton A C Hull Photo 7 5 26

<title>Wyoming History: 100 Murders In 3 Months, Lawless Benton Was ‘Bred By The Devil’ | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Of the Wyoming Territory towns that arrived on wheels along the Union Pacific Railroad, none were as tawdry, bawdry and lawless as Benton, which witnessed as many as 100 murders in its three-month lifespan. Benton, it was said, was "bred by the devil."

Wyoming History: 100 Murders In 3 Months, Lawless Benton Was ‘Bred By The Devil’

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

CASPER — Thirteen years ago, James Pulver sat in a jail cell wondering whether his life was over.

At 24, he was facing federal kidnapping and domestic violence-related charges and staring at a $100,000 cash bond — an amount so far beyond his reach it may as well have been $1 million.

He remembers the clang of the steel doors, the uncertainty, and the crushing realization that he had no idea what happened next.

"You don't know anything," Pulver recalls "You don't know the process. You don't know the courts. You don't know what's coming."

Eventually, Pulver accepted a plea agreement, pleading no contest to misdemeanor domestic violence and misdemeanor theft after spending 367 days in the Fremont County Detention Center.

He still insists the most serious allegations against him weren't true, but says the experience permanently changed how he views people accused of crimes.

Today, when someone in Wyoming is arrested and their family doesn't know where to turn, there's a decent chance the phone rings on Pulver's desk.

[{"type":"text","text":"The irony isn't lost on him."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Before I was a bail bondsman,\" he said, \"I was an inmate.\""}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Bond"}]

Most people picture a bail bondsman as someone who signs paperwork, takes a fee and disappears.

Pulver, who lives in Casper, laughs at that; he said he believes his job is to guide defendants through one of the most frightening experiences of their lives.

[{"type":"text","text":"He said his sister calls him the \"bail bond doula.\""}]

His advice starts immediately. He tells his bondees: eat well, get sunlight, and stay sober. 

"You're already walking in there in shackles looking guilty," he said. "They're literally judging you."

Know your lawyer's phone number. Know your address before standing in front of a judge.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wear your nicest clothes."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Be clean-shaven."}]

Pulver tells clients they have an advantage once they're released on bond: they can prepare.

[{"type":"text","text":"Someone sitting in jail cannot."}]

"If you're out," he said, "you can do all these things that make you look better."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Freedom Business "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver's work exists because of one uniquely American business model."}]

When a judge sets bail, defendants who can't afford to post the full amount often hire a commercial bail bondsman.

Typically, the defendant pays a nonrefundable premium — about 10% of the total bond — while the bondsman guarantees the full amount to the court.

[{"type":"text","text":"For a $10,000 bond, that usually means paying around $1,000."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The fee is never returned, but the real risk belongs to the bondsman. "}]

If the defendant disappears and fails to appear in court, the bondsman is on the hook for the entire bond.

[{"type":"text","text":"That's why Pulver almost never accepts a bond without collateral."}]

[{"type":"text","text":" \"Cars. Land. I'll take your parents' house,\" he says. "}]

Pulver says the collateral often tells a bigger story than the crime itself. When parents, spouses or siblings are willing to put their own home on the line, he sees more than financial security—he sees a support system.

Some defendants, he said, don't have that luxury. Years of addiction, broken promises or repeated arrests have left them with no one left to call. That's often when he knows the odds of success are much lower.

"The family is what they need," Pulver said. "That's who's going to help them the most."

It's also why he bristles when people assume bounty hunters spend their days chasing criminals for fun.

"My job isn't to catch bad guys," he said. "My job is to get them to court."

[{"type":"text","text":"\"All this chasing and kicking down doors — that's TV.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then he smiles."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We're just trying to save our money.\""}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Waiting ..."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver's first fugitive recovery began with a 16-hour drive to Texas."}]

A veteran bounty hunter named Craig Zibell had offered to teach him the business. Their first assignment was to find a Wyoming fugitive accused of stealing his father's pickup, driving it to Denver and boarding a plane south.

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver had never tracked anyone previously."}]

By the time they reached Texas, he'd pieced together the man's whereabouts through Facebook posts and other online clues. The trail led them to an apartment complex.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then everything stopped."}]

For nearly three days, the pair sat in a truck watching a single apartment door.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"You don't move,\" Pulver said. \"You just sit there and stare.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Food stayed in the cab. Bathroom breaks were carefully timed."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Hours slipped into days."}]

Pulver learned then and there that being a bounty hunter requires a lot of patience. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The stakeout eventually paid off."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The fugitive walked outside and the arrest happened without much drama."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rolling Downhill"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Not every recovery ends quietly."}]

One fugitive had been repeatedly contacting a woman against orders.

Pulver and another recovery agent borrowed a vehicle and positioned themselves nearby, hoping the man would appear.

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver sprinted toward him."}]

Instead of surrendering, the man — whom Pulver estimates weighed around 280 pounds — turned and threw a punch.

Within seconds, the two men were tumbling down a steep hillside in the dark.

"I grabbed him by the collar," Pulver recalled. "I made sure I landed 

[{"type":"text","text":"They rolled to the bottom still fighting."}]

Pulver eventually gained control long enough for his partner to help secure the arrest.

[{"type":"text","text":"The bruises lingered for weeks."}]

He still keeps photographs on his phone showing the deep purple marks stretching across his back.

[{"type":"text","text":"His wife later said, \"James, you've got to do things smarter.\" "}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'He's Got a Gun!' "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"No bond is worth someone getting killed” Pulver says. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The most dangerous recovery he remembers wasn't one he finished himself."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"It started with a runner who crossed state lines into rural Utah."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver followed leads until local authorities became involved."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then the operation exploded into helicopters circling overhead."}]

Drones launched, and a SWAT team appeared out of nowhere.  Armored vehicles rolled into position.

Pulver found himself standing at the command post listening to radio traffic alongside law enforcement officers.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came the transmission:"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He's got a gun! He's got a gun!\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"For several agonizing minutes, no one said anything."}]

Pulver remembers staring at the radios, wondering if someone had just been killed.

[{"type":"text","text":"Finally, another voice broke through."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We got him.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The suspects were taken into custody."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Half-Million-Dollar Gamble"}]

In 2020, Pulver agreed to post a $500,000 cash-or-surety bond for Danelle Moyte, a Cheyenne second-grade teacher charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of her boyfriend, Christopher Garcia.

Prosecutors alleged that Moyte shot Garcia inside their home after an argument. She maintained that she acted in self-defense and pleaded not guilty.

[{"type":"text","text":"Writing a half-million-dollar bond wasn't simply a business decision."}]

It was a financial gamble large enough to destroy his company if it went wrong.

Pulver said he only agreed after Moyte's family came forward with what he considers the two most important ingredients for any bond: support and accountability. 

A family member pledged a fully paid-off home as collateral. The family promised to help ensure Moyte complied with every court order.

Moyte remained free while awaiting trial under strict conditions, including GPS monitoring.

[{"type":"text","text":"She found work loading UPS trucks overnight."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"To Pulver, that mattered."}]

One of the first things he tells clients after bonding them out is to find employment, establish routine and show judges they're making productive use of their freedom.

When Moyte's case finally went to trial, a 12-person jury acquitted her of all charges.

James Pulver Screenshot 2026 07 05 at 9 14 48 AM 7 5 26

<title>Wyoming Bondsman Is Part Bounty Hunter, Part Counselor — And A Former Inmate | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Casper bail bondsman has an unorthodox job that requires him to be part bounty hunter and part life counselor. And he can empathize with his clients. "Before I was a bail bondsman, I was an inmate," he said.

Wyoming Bondsman Is Part Bounty Hunter, Part Counselor — And A Former Inmate

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

Renée Jean

Energy

Jeffrey City is best known for uranium and near abandonment after the yellowcake market crashed in the 1980s. 

But things are looking up for the near-ghost town in the central desert region of Fremont County. 

And that’s not because of Wyoming’s renewed uranium rush or Visionary Metals’ new nickel project nearby. 

Jeffrey City, which has about 60 residents after boasting around 4,000 during its uranium heyday, could be poised for a brand-new industry thanks to a Canadian geologist named Jean-Pierre Jutras, who said he’s on the verge of finding significant new sources of both ornamental and gem-quality jade.

“Wyoming jade is legendary in the circles of jade carvers,” Jutras told Cowboy State Daily. “Production has been curtailed for a long time, and everything’s been looked at quite a bit and picked over, but when I looked at Wyoming as a geologist, what struck me was that there was barely any information at all on the geology.”

Jutras’ company, Jade Leader, is taking a similar tack to that of 

, which is using new geological knowledge and new technology to uncover deeper veins of gold in the South Pass area and other Wyoming locations.

“We just decided to take a hard look and see if the sources of a lot of the surface material that was collected from the '30s all the way to the '70s could be identified and if we could understand if there was any significant potential for renewed production.”

At one time, Wyoming had so much jade laying around on the surface people could walk around and pluck it straight from the sagebrush.

That supported roughly 868 tons of jade production from the 1930s to the 1970s. There was even a company devoted to jewelry production that was sending 18 tons of materials into the world annually, to Taiwan, New Zealand, Europe, and Far Eastern countries.

But as the easy jade became rarer and rarer, the state could no longer support the scale anymore. 

Wyoming’s decline happened about the same time as the Canadian jade industry was starting to rise.

How A Canadian Became A ‘Jade-aholic’

Growing up in Canada, Jutras was interested in rocks and geology from a young age. A career as a geologist only seemed logical. 

In the 1980s, he was gifted some jade from a mine he was allowed to visit, which honed his interest in this semiprecious stone formed by intense environmental conditions found deep underground. 

“I took that home and I’ve been cutting and carving jade and other gemstones ever since then, alongside my geological career,” he said. “So I kind of became a jade-aholic very quickly, very early.”

It wasn’t until he was invited to a jade-carving competition in China, though, that he realized just how interesting — and valuable — jade is.

“To me, jade was like the little souvenirs and tourist shop pieces,” he said. “Once in a while there’s a historical piece that’s really nice. So I went to this festival not knowing what to expect.”

When he arrived at the Zi Gang Bei Festival in Suzhou, he witnessed a spectacle unlike any he’d never seen.

There were 550 competing jade carvers who had brought more than 1,100 pieces for judging. 

During the three-day event, more than 90,000 visitors streamed in to admire the pieces entered in the competition, as well as to buy jade. 

“I was so impressed, first, because of the quality of the carvings that were there, valued in the millions of dollars per piece,” Jutras said. “And we saw jades of all qualities. We saw carvings from Guatemala, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, the U.S., and, of course, China. And I looked at all of this and went, ‘I’m missing something here. How did I not know about this?’”

Jutras had planned to stay for just a week, but decided instead to stay longer and keep exploring this vast new world of jade, visiting all the carving towns and all of the major markets.

“In one of the towns I visited, called Shifosi, they said they had 125,000 carvers, just in that one town alone,” he said. “It was incredible, and essentially all of the businesses in China that sell jade go there because that’s the big manufacturing center. And I mean, it was display after display, buildings the size of airplane hangars, with 2,000, 3,000 vendors in them.”

It was during this time that he learned the jade the Chinese most prized came from Wyoming. It was also the jade that had disproportionately earned gold medals during the festival.

“It’s received extremely well at the highest level, in a culture highly sophisticated in the jade arts,” Jutras said.

The Chinese have been obsessed with jade for generations.

Emperors made entire suits of jade to wear on their journey to the afterlife.

“We’re talking about 7,000 little tiles of jade all connected together with gold wires that they would clothe the dead with,” Jutras said. “So they could go into the afterlife protected with jade.”

These jade tiles were often said to be too precious to steal, he added. That’s because only nobles were allowed to own it.

“They opened up a tomb and it had a sarcophagus of jade,” Jutras said. “And the thieves had gone in and stolen everything else, including the gold wire that was connecting the jade plates. But they left the jade because you just couldn’t fence jade if you weren’t a noble.”

While most jades worldwide consist of recrystallization of a previous rock, Wyoming’s jade appears to have crystalized at greater depths within the earth, resulting in a much purer, more predictable material that takes one of the best polishes found in nephrite jade worldwide. 

That is why it’s so highly prized by the Chinese.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Finding New Jade Sources"}]

Jutras returned from his Chinese trip after a month with a mission in mind.

Conventional wisdom had it that Wyoming jade had petered out in the 1970s, but geological knowledge had evolved since that determination was made, as had the technology for finding precious gems, minerals and metals. 

“What you have to unravel is why jade was in a particular location in the first place,” he said. “Where did it come from? So you could go to a place where people have picked all the surface stuff and see if there’s a source somewhere beneath it.”

Instead of chasing more famous, rock-hounding spots like Bull Canyon, Jutras instead sought bedrock targets, which he believes could be the original sources of all that loose jade once picked up by the bucketful. These are targets he believes can support a small, but steady, jade industry over the long haul.

The work, which began in 2018, has cost Jade Leader roughly $337,000, and has included six phases of field work north of Jeffrey City, including trenching, mapping, and scientific studies. 

Results of that work have been published in the Journal of Gemology, which is the British Gemological Society’s association publication. The peer-reviewed article outlines two distinct types of jade found by Jade Leader. 

There’s the smoother, more homogenous material that’s suitable for jewelry, which he refers to as gem jade. Then there’s a rougher, more mottled stone called ornamental jade.

Once, ornamental jade was only suitable for carving little souvenirs to sell in tourist shops, but Jutras said the time is right for a new use. 

“LED technology is improving all the time,” he said. “Cutting technologies are improving all the time.”

That now allows this type of jade to be cut into thin, translucent slices that can be backlit to stunning result.

“We see a space here where the ornamental jades can be an addition to the luxury stone market,” Jutras said.

To test the theory, Jade Leader has taken a small quantity of its ornamental jade to create a few test installations and see if this idea can find footing in the luxury architecture space. 

They’ve also sold a $50,000 batch of Wyoming’s rough jade into experimental projects where designers are testing how the stone looks in thin backlit panels.

Known for uranium and then near-abandonment, Jeffrey City is getting a second look from a Canadian geologist who says new science — and evolving markets — could turn Wyoming’s deposits of jade into a new industry for the tiny almost-ghost town.

You Still Here? Sunday, July 21, 2024

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