You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"Adam Sandler's impersonation of Axl Rose (and Edith Bunker)....."}]

Bonus vid 2 2 14 25

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

<title>Bonus Video 2: Friday, February 14, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Adam Sandler's impersonation of Axl Rose (and Edith Bunker).....

Bonus Video 2: Friday, February 14, 2025

 Adam Sandler's impersonation of Axl Rose (and Edith Bunker).....

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Public Safety

 for a North Carolina husband and father who disappeared in Wyoming's Snake River over the Fourth of July weekend came to an end Saturday after campers spotted his body floating in the water.

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office announced that Tory J. Raether, 55, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was recovered Saturday morning in the McCoy Creek area.

Star Valley Search & Rescue Commander Matt McMurdo said campers noticed Raether's body from the shoreline around 11:30 a.m. They paddle-boarded out to him before calling authorities.

Search-and-rescue crews, who had been back on the river Saturday morning, responded quickly and recovered Raether's body.

Raether disappeared July 4 after jumping into the river without a life jacket at Jump Rock, a popular recreation area about 3½ miles east of Alpine.

Members of his group tried unsuccessfully to rescue him after he began struggling against the swift current.

Since then, Star Valley Search & Rescue had searched the river and nearby reservoir using drones, rafts, a jet boat, jet skis and, later in the week, search dogs.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Bring Him Home'"}]

Earlier in the week, Lincoln County Sheriff M. Shane Johnson told Cowboy State Daily the mission had transitioned from a rescue operation to a recovery effort.

"The goal is to find their family member and return him to them, so they can have closure," Johnson said.

That goal remained constant as Raether's wife, Jean, daughters Grace and Melanie, close friends and other loved ones traveled to Wyoming to wait for answers.

Among them was Brad Johnson, Raether's best friend of 35 years, who had planned to help search alongside another lifelong friend and Raether's daughter's boyfriend, a rafting guide familiar with the river.

[{"type":"text","text":"Saturday afternoon, Johnson shared the news many had feared."}]

"With a heavy heart, I wanted to let everyone know that Tory has been found," he wrote to his friends. "Thank you to everyone who reached out with texts, calls, and messages during these difficult days. Your love and support have meant more to me and to Tory's family than we can express."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Deeply Loved "}]

During the search, friends described Raether as a devoted husband, father and mentor whose kindness left a lasting impression on nearly everyone he met.

"Tory wasn't just a friend to me — he was like a brother," Johnson told Cowboy State Daily. "He was one of those rare people who made life brighter simply by walking into a room."

Johnson said Raether built a successful career as an investment professional, volunteered through Kiwanis and Rotary, mentored others and was always looking for ways to help those around him.

"The world needs more people like Tory," he said. "He lived with joy, loved freely, and gave far more than he ever expected in return."

Julia Joy Raether, Tory's former sister-in-law, said she remained close to the family even after her marriage to his brother ended years ago.

"Tory was deeply loved by everyone who knew him," she told Cowboy State Daily. "He was kind, generous, adventurous, and had a quiet strength that drew people to him."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Closure "}]

She said the tragedy was especially personal because her youngest son was with Tory when they entered the river.

"My son made it out. Tory did not," she said. "Our family has been living through the uncertainty, hoping for a miracle while also coming to terms with the reality of how powerful that river is."

For a week, Raether's family watched search crews work the Snake River, holding onto hope while preparing for the worst.

Now, with his recovery complete, they can bring him home.

North carolina man 7 13 26

<title>Body Of North Carolina Man Recovered From Snake River After Weeklong Search | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The body of Tory Raether was found in the Snake River a week after leaping into the swift currents. Family and friends remember Raether as a devoted husband, father and mentor. "The world needs more people like Tory," close friend Brad Johnson said.

Body Of North Carolina Man Recovered From Snake River After Weeklong Search

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, July 10th.  I’m Mac Watson

This newscast is brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair. Wrap up your summer at the Wyoming State Fair, August 11th through the 15th in Douglas!

Rodeo, Demolition Derby, live music, entertainment and fair food await. Learn more at W-Y State Fair dot com. See you at the fair! This ad was paid for by Converse County Tourism.

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

A tourist was seriously injured Friday evening after being thrown 8 feet into the air by a bull bison in Yellowstone National Park. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that professional photographer Mike Macleod filmed the incident and said the bison was “angry, agitated and charging anything and everything.”

“The victim did nothing wrong. The narrative that's been circulating across social media is that this was another quote-unquote Touron or idiot doing something wrong in the park, and that can and does happen. But looking at the video evidence, the victim did nothing to provoke the bison. They were a safe distance away, at least in theory. This bison had been causing trouble in the Bridge Bay campground for a while before he showed up.  The victim and his grandson tried to put something between themselves and the bison when it ran towards them, and that just wasn't enough. The bison in this case was the instigator.”

MacLeod was camping 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.

Meanwhile, footage of the incident has become an international sensation with news organizations all over the U.S. and the world referencing Cowboy State Daily’s article. Reporter Andrew Rossi was the first to cover the story and to get an interview with the photographer. The video has been viewed millions of times.

A Mexican national who faces eight felonies is attempting to stay in the country after he allegedly tried to ram travelers off the road in Snake River Canyon in June of 2024. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one victim says that 46-year-old Ramon Gabriel Chavez Cruz, “deliberately crossed the centerline and targeted our vehicle.”

“His Teton County case just concluded with what they call a split sentence. He spends 180 days in jail, tries probation for three years. If he fails probation, he goes to prison for like two and a half to four and a half years. But he already has enough time served that that initial 180-day stint is eclipsed. The trooper recounted that he was basically trying to head-on collide with multiple people. Most of that happened in Lincoln County, one of the alleged victims from Lincoln County, was flabbergasted at the 180-day sentence in Teton County, but it's just not over yet. And as for the visa, his defense attorney was describing it as if he's been the victim of a crime and is working to stay in the country in relation to that somehow.”

Chavez Cruz faces potentially much harsher consequences in Lincoln County, where County Attorney Spencer Allred has filed eight counts of aggravated assault against him – one for each person he allegedly charged with his truck. 

A Gillette woman's plans for one last summer road trip with her dying daughter have been derailed by a failed transmission in their 26-year-old SUV. But Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that London Tabor says she’s not giving up hope to take this trip with her daughter.

“Her daughter has Huntington's disease, and it's quickly sapping her life, and so they plan to go to the East Coast, plan to go rock hunting in Wyoming, and to a Huntington disease event that's in Utah, and all of that was on hold because she didn't have a vehicle. So, she's trying to rent a camper that would be able to facilitate taking her daughter, who now can't do anything except sit in a seat and watch. So she was hoping that she can get this trip accomplished, and have great memories with her this summer.”

Autumn was diagnosed with the disease in 2018 at age 12, which also is the same year that her father, Justin Fender, died from the same condition at age 36. 

Green River's Bradlee Skinner was homeless, delivering pizzas, and wondering how his life had unraveled. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that now he performs before sold-out crowds with the Savannah Bananas, baseball's wildly popular entertainment phenomenon. And it all started with a selfie.

“In 2024, Bradley Skinner, he's a high school teacher at Green River, teaches theater in English, and he took a group of theater students to Salt Lake City to see the Savannah Bananas. And while they were all getting their pictures taken with the players in the parking lot before the game, Skinner heard a DJ. He knew there was a DJ nearby, and he himself is a DJ. So he went and sought out that guy and took a picture with him. And the guy noticed, and they started up a conversation about DJing. And so fast forward a year, and that DJ reached out and said, "Hey, I think you should try out. They're doing auditions because they're growing their teams. They're adding new teams, and they need a few more DJs in their back pocket. So that's really how it all got started with a selfie.”

The job has taken him from Wyoming classrooms to iconic ballparks such as Coors Field in Denver and soon Wrigley Field in Chicago, where he rubs shoulders with performers and entertainers he once showed his students as examples of creative excellence.

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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

So many dead trees are piling up on Wyoming’s remote wilderness trails, some outfitters say they should be allowed to use chainsaws to clear them rather than working for days with hand tools. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that chainsaws have been banned from those areas for 62 years.

“The Forest Service kind of created a little loophole and allowed some outfitters in this spring in Idaho, in the Frank Church wilderness, and so now some people are saying, "Hey, we need to start doing this kind of all over the West, just letting a few people get in, because we just, we can't keep ahead of this timber otherwise, because under the strict rules of wilderness, you have to go in there like the old-fashioned push-pull saws or an ax or whatever, and some people are saying that with the sheer volume, what we got there, which we're never going to get ahead of it, and of course, opponents are saying no.”

Pine beetle epidemics have torn through forests across the West, leaving dead trees everywhere. They frequently fall over on trails, or blow over in huge piles.

The Forest Service and volunteer trail associations across Wyoming 

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

A trespasser trying illegally to make a copy of rare dinosaur footprints on the “Paleo Park” Zerbst Ranch near Newcastle ended up vandalizing the site. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that owner Kristen Stauffer says she was “shell-shocked.”

“Apparently, someone trespassed onto their property, poured blue silicone into one of the tracks in the attempt to make a copy of it, and then just abandoned the scene with the silicone still in the track, now they have been able to remove most of it. But setting aside the fact that there could be permanent damage from that, it's the fact that somebody violated their trust. That if this person had asked them if they could make a copy of their dinosaur footprint, they would have been all for it.”

Setting aside the enormous scientific value of the fossil, Stauffer was “heartbroken” by the blatant disregard for her family’s history. The Zerbst Trackway was found by her father, Leonard, and has enormous personal significance to her and her family.

Laramie 9-year-old elk caller Axl Anton is set to compete against teens nearly twice his age in the world elk calling championship this month. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Axl’s already "in the top five best callers in the country, if not the best,” said a hunting industry insider.

“His dad said he took an interest in it when he was about two, called in his first bull when he was six, and he's been in several contests now. He's going to the world elk calling contest that's held at Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation's headquarters in Missoula, Montana. The kid is young enough to compete in the Peewee division, but he said he doesn't want to do that, he wants to step up and compete with the big kids, so he's going to be competing with kids that are about high school age. He already is almost considered world class at the ripe old age of nine, so just kind of a cool story”

Archery elk hunters use tube-shaped calls to imitate the grunts, screams and bugles of bull elk during the rut, or mating season. The idea is to sound as much like a bull elk as possible. So, the real bulls, thinking a challenger is in their territory, will move in to investigate.

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

And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 7 13 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Monday, July 13, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Monday's headlines include:
* Tourist Injured By Bison
* Last Trip For Mom & Dying Daughter
* Mexican National Furious Canyon Rampage

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Monday, July 13, 2026

Six years ago, this guy went viral for being the smartest guy in Yellowstone.....

Yellowstone 7 13 26

<title>Today In Yellowstone: Monday, July 13, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Today In Yellowstone: Monday, July 13, 2026

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

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

Larry Morgan was born in Superior, Wyoming, in the 1940s, the son of a coal miner. Eventually, he landed in Jackson Hole, well enough off that he could build his dream mountain home.

His friends call him “The Closer.” He’s a corporate dealmaker, high-stakes sales producer and, lately, a self-described best-selling author on Amazon with a book revealing how he made his fortune.  

Despite all that, Morgan doesn’t think of his story as a true rags-to-riches tale — though he’ll acknowledge it’s an arc that’s hard to ignore. 

“I never really saw myself as being poor, although my family was very poor,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “My father owned a tiny little cafe in Iowa, and we barely made a living. He always said, ‘We don’t make any money, but we eat good'.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Dusty Old Chevy"}]

Superior today is a semi-ghost town in Sweetwater County. His family didn’t stay there long.  

“My father was a coal miner during the war,” he said. “It was a strategic occupation.”

Two cave-ins later, though, and he was rethinking that strategy. The family packed up and moved to Charlton, Iowa, where he started a cafe. 

“I always liked to work,” Morgan said. “So, when I was probably 12,  he hired me to be the dishwasher. I had to stand on a pop crate to reach the sink and wash the dishes. But he paid me 35 cents an hour, which was the going wage for an adult.”

It didn’t take Morgan long to realize if he wanted to achieve his dream of owning a car when he turned 16, he needed a better-paying job. So, he kept washing dishes but also took a job at the nearby bowling alley. 

“I made real good money in the bowling alley,” he recalled with a chuckle. “I got paid for every line. This was back before automatic pinsetters, so you had to set each one by hand.”

At the end of the night, he could usually count on some fairly large tips, but it was a grueling schedule.

“I went to work at 5 in the morning in the cafe and worked until 8 a.m.,” he said. “Then I went to school and worked at the bowling alley until midnight.”

Before too long, Morgan had saved the $80 he needed to buy a dusty old Chevy — his first car.

Morgan loved living in Iowa. He was in a small rural town he describes as just a few blocks apart, stitched together with the wonderful smell of freshly mowed hay. 

It was a great place to grow up. It was a great place to “be from.” 

But, if he wanted to make the kind of living that would afford a life, he realized it was not a great place to “be.”

For that, he decided he needed to attend college. Which meant he needed an even better-paying job than dishwashing and tips from the bowling alley.

That led him to become what he says was probably the “world’s youngest” encyclopedia salesman.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"No, not Britannica, the top seller. "}]

It was a smaller, lesser-known company called World Book. 

“Most of the encyclopedia salesmen worked in cities,” Morgan said. “The doors are close together … but the trouble was most of those people didn’t have money or didn’t read books.”

Traditional salesman advice says that to get to a “yes” you have to listen to a lot of “nos.” But Morgan didn’t want to indiscriminately knock on doors. 

Every “no” felt too much like a bullet to his heart. He needed a better system. 

“The World Book was designed for children,” Morgan said. “So I started cruising around my little hometown, and if I saw a bunch of bicycles in the yard, I knew I had a buyer because they had kids.”

But, he realized, that wasn’t enough to ensure a yes. He also needed to make sure the family could afford an encyclopedia.

That started him looking for not just bikes but Buicks as well. A family with a Buick in the driveway had money. And a family with both a bike and a Buick had a child on which that money could be spent. 

Morgan also styled his approach so that he was practically closing the deal at the beginning of the sale rather than the end.

“I’d just walk up, knock on the door, and introduce myself,” he said. “And my opening line was, ‘Would you be interested in something that would help your children in school?’ Well, boom, what mother’s not interested in something that will help her children in school?”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Multiplier Effect"}]

Once the sale had been made, Morgan then did something else that ratcheted up his success. He would always ask the woman if she knew any other mothers who might also want their children to have the “World Book advantage.”

That usually produced a nice list of likely prospects, where he had a better than average shot at making more sales.

In no time, this thoughtfully targeted approach made him the company’s top salesman and he became, in his own words, the “richest kid in town.” 

This job didn’t just take him to college. It took him there in style. He had plenty of money to trade in his old Chevy for a shiny new Oldsmobile convertible.

He didn’t know it yet, but he’d learned everything he was ever going to need to succeed in sales beyond his wildest dreams. Later, he’d use those same principles to close multi-million-dollar deals.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"First, though, came a few wrong turns."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Learning The Wyoming Way"}]

Navigating past those wrong turns is something Wyoming helped Morgan with. 

“The most influential character in my life was my uncle, Ken Shelton,” Morgan said. “He lived in Rock Springs and was a real cowboy.”

When Morgan was 13, he ran away to Rock Springs to spend a summer and part of another year with his uncle. They’d go up to White Mountain to catch wild horses, fish and tell jokes.

Shelton was one of the best storytellers Morgan has ever known. 

“For Uncle Ken, his stories didn’t have to end up the way they actually did,” Morgan said. “But they always ended up the way they should have. And that’s the way he viewed life.”

Morgan’s favorite Uncle Ken yarn is about the time he was roping wild horses on White Mountain a bit too long. He caught a wild mustang just as the sun set, was bucked off in the dark, and ended up tangled in his own rope as a storm rolled in.

He saw a nearby cave for shelter, but what he couldn’t see inside that cave was the mountain lion living there.

“Before he manages to finally strangle the mountain lion to death it bites off three of his fingers,” Morgan said. “Now, even the casual observer is aware that my uncle has all of his fingers. But when I brought that up, he says, ‘Yes, and that’s another amazing story, but I’m trying to finish this one!’ ”

Morgan sums up the wonderful lessons he learned from his story-telling uncle in a chapter he called “Never Sell Your Saddle” in his bestselling Amazon book, “The Closer: An Inside Look at the World of High-Powered Sales, Big Money and Big Egos.” 

“The chapter ends up being a warning to people who are about to merge with a larger corporation and, for a few dollars, sell their life’s work,” he said. “They find themselves with nothing to do … In other words, don’t be quick to sell your saddle. Life’s a long, long ride.”

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

A long ride is often filled with a few wrong turns. For Morgan, his first wrong turn took him to Northeast Missouri State University in Kirksville.

“I was really captivated by academia,” Morgan said. “And I’d always wanted to be a college professor. To do that, you pretty much had to have a Ph.D.”

Knowing that, he took an extra-heavy class load, determined to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s at the same time. 

“But the Vietnam War was going on,” he said. “And I had a very low lottery number.”

This all but guaranteed he’d get drafted into the Army. So, he took control of his own destiny by pre-emptively enlisting in the Marines. 

Like many who served in Vietnam, Morgan doesn’t talk about it much. 

“We’re all still conflicted over the Vietnam War, and so am I,” Morgan said.

After the war, he returned to his education, earning his Ph.D. at St. Louis University in child psychology — a notable accomplishment in and of itself, particularly given he was the first person in his family to even graduate from high school.

But it didn’t take long for him to realize his dreams of being a professor had been something of a fantasy. He taught for a year at the University of Wyoming, and was bored.

To solve that problem, he tried an administrative position in Southern California — and that was even worse.

Somehow, in spite of his best intentions, he had not landed in the right profession at all. 

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

The solution came from a little problem known as San Diego traffic.

He was stuck in a sea of cars for 10 miles. 

So, he turned on the radio and became a captive audience as a booming voice emerged from his speakers offering him a free trip to Lake Tahoe. All he had to do was look at a recreational land development.

“Free is a powerful word,” Morgan said with a chuckle. “So I went home and called the 800 number and then my wife and I decided to take the trip. We got the free trip to Tahoe, and that was the first time in my life I ever met a professional, hard-close salesman.”

The project, Tahoe Donner, was being developed by a larger-than-life entrepreneur named Justin Dart.

“He started Rexall Drugs and Tupperware and Vanda cosmetics,” Morgan said. “It was all pretty exciting.”

The property was rustic elegance of the kind that whispered wealth and success. It was electrifying.

In the beginning, the sales pitches were all low-key. But soon, pushier salesmen took turns convincing Morgan and his wife to buy. 

“You accepted our free trip,” one of them said. “You said you could afford the price, and you agreed that if everything we told you lived up to what you saw, you would make a decision to buy before returning to San Diego. Isn’t that true?”

Morgan was reaching for his checkbook when his wife, Connie, interrupted.

“We didn’t say we’d make a decision to buy,’” she told the salesman. “We said we’d make ‘a decision.’”

The property was great, she added, but just too far away.

On the way back, one of the salesmen, named Cal Hackett, offered Morgan a new deal.

“I’ll give you $250 for every lead you give me that buys,” Morgan recalled. “I was making $1,000 a month at the college. Four leads is a thousand dollars.”

Morgan had a cushy, safe job so he wasn’t sure about taking that offer. But he was also bored.

Once home, he noticed an ad in the Sunday paper that talked about selling real estate in Lake Tahoe for $50,000 a year.

“I thought to myself, this can’t be a coincidence,” Morgan said. “This must be the project that I just visited. And $50,000 a year is a lot more than $1,000 a month.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Morgan decided to answer the ad."}]

“When I called, they said, ‘Are you interested in selling some real estate in Lake Tahoe?’” Morgan recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, actually, I’ve just been up there. I just visited a project at Tahoe Donner.”

The recruiter wondered if Morgan had purchased a lot. When Morgan said, “no,” the recruiter seemed delighted. 

“They thought that I meant I understood the project, but wouldn’t have to be talked out of my own lot,” Morgan said. “They figured I wanted to send them leads.”

“I said, ‘No, no, I don’t want to send you leads. I want to sell it myself. I want to be the guy doing what that salesman was doing,’” he said.

At first, the recruiter was interested by that idea. Until he found out Morgan didn’t have a real-estate license.

“His welcoming demeanor quickly evaporated,” Morgan said with a chuckle. “So I went off and got a real-estate license and then I started selling recreational land.”

That development has since turned into one of the largest homeowners associations in the United States, Morgan said.

“And I very quickly became the top salesman,” he added. “I was making probably six, seven grand a month and you could buy a new car for $5,000 back then. So that’s what really got me hooked.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Becoming A Ski Bum"}]

The real pivot in Morgan’s life didn’t come from a commission check, though. It came from a paperback book he picked up at random because the title intrigued him. It was called “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World,” written by Harry Browne.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Morgan came away with one main point. "}]

“Having a lot of money won’t make you free,” Morgan said. “But being free gives you the opportunity to make a lot of money.”

Within six months of reading the book, Morgan quit his job, divorced his wife, and hit the road to see the world.

“I became what I jokingly call a ski bum with money,” he said. “I skied all over the world. I traveled. I did whatever I wanted to do.”

Larry Morgan The view at Larry Morgans mountain home in Jackson Hole 7 12 26

<title>From Wyoming Coal Miner’s Son To Closer: How Larry Morgan Achieved The American Dream | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Born in a near ghost-town in Wyoming, Larry Morgan’s life is a rags to riches story that begins and ends in Wyoming. Yet he insists the real story isn’t about money so much as freedom — and he's got a best-selling book on Amazon that tells his tale.

From Wyoming Coal Miner’s Son To Closer: How Larry Morgan Achieved The American Dream

It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it’s worth more than that at the Bone Daddy Outlaw Bar and Grill in Dubois, which has undergone a dramatic transformation since it was purchased last year by Ben Barto and his wife, Sherry.

Hanging in one corner of the bar is a picture that says it all, even if few might guess at all the layers of meaning it holds for its owner.

It is a photo of motorcycle handlebars looking out at a scenic vista. The words say simply, “Life Behind Bars.”

“I was in junior high when I had my first motorcycle,” Barto told Cowboy State Daily. “And I had a neighbor with a faster motorcycle. He always used to brag about how he would outrun the cops when he was speeding.”

The brag turned out to be just that — as Barto soon discovered.

“We were riding together one time and we decided we were going to take off and see who was faster,” he said. “No sooner did we get started than there was a highway patrolman coming at us.”

The patrolman flipped his lights on, and the neighbor who loved to brag about outrunning the law meekly pulled over to the side. 

Barto, who’d never made such a claim, kept right on going.

“So the cop chased me for a while, and I couldn’t take a corner very well,” he recalled. “I had to lay the bike over and he caught up to me.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"'He Was A Friend Of Mine'"}]

Barto knew this was bad in every possible way, but he didn’t know just how bad until he got a look at the officer’s face.

“He was a friend of mine,” Barto admitted.

It was a friend who was shocked to see just who he’d been chasing.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"It grew worse as the night went on."}]

“My uncle, who also happened to be a policeman and lived right across the street from me, was at the jailhouse that night,” Barto said. “And my folks were on vacation.”

While his uncle was disappointed in Barto, he decided not to throw the youth in jail, saying he knew his dad too well. He knew what would happen to Barto when his father found out his son had been arrested.

Dubois craftsman Ben Barto owns Bone Daddy Knives, a hobby turned big business that’s now bankrolling a transformation of Dubois' Outlaw Bar and giving the once-seedy watering hole a new vibe. “This was just a dump when we bought it,” Barto said.

Bonus Video 2: Friday, February 14, 2025

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