A bomb squad crossed South Pass on Wednesday in response to what looked like a pipe bomb along Lander’s idyllic Popo Agie River walk, marking the second time Fremont County residents have found mock explosives alongside rivers in the past three months.
After an X-ray visualizer and a disarming process involving a low-risk attack on the device from a safe distance, authorities determined that the pipe bomb appears to have been a fake, Lander Police Department Interim Chief Kelly Waugh told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday interview.
The call came into LPD at about 9:20 a.m. from the 400 block of Buena Vista, along the river walk, says a statement Waugh released. Photographs of the device show a cylinder wrapped in duct tape, with a small battery strapped to the side. It was wedged along the rocks about three feet from the water's edge, Waugh said.
Officers secured the area and restricted access to the immediate vicinity, and notified nearby people and businesses, the statement says. Authorities temporarily evacuated some areas.
Conveniently for Waugh, he was at a law enforcement conference in Lander, which the Sweetwater County Undersheriff was also attending, so he asked for help from the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad in person, Waugh said.
The squad responded, X-rayed the device and used a disarming process.
The X-ray showed there wasn’t a connecting wire or gunpowder in the device, said Waugh.
A bomb squad was called Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in response to what looked like a pipe bomb along Landers Idyllic Popo Agie River walk. The device was X-rayed and determined to be a fake pipe bomb. (Photos by Lander Police Department Interim Chief Kelly Waugh) 
A bomb squad was called Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in response to what looked like a pipe bomb along Landers Idyllic Popo Agie River walk. The device was X-rayed and determined to be a fake pipe bomb. (Photos by Lander Police Department Interim Chief Kelly Waugh) 
A bomb squad was called Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in response to what looked like a pipe bomb along Landers Idyllic Popo Agie River walk. The device was X-rayed and determined to be a fake pipe bomb. (Photos by Lander Police Department Interim Chief Kelly Waugh) 
A bomb squad was called Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in response to what looked like a pipe bomb along Landers Idyllic Popo Agie River walk. The device was X-rayed and determined to be a fake pipe bomb. (Photos by Lander Police Department Interim Chief Kelly Waugh)
Hey, Remember Last Time?
A Riverton boy found training grenades along the river in April, which he carried to his grandmother’s house, prompting his family to call the Riverton Police Department and that agency to call the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad.
Waugh said he didn’t know the identity of the caller in Lander on Wednesday morning or whether the person was a child or adult. The person placed the call and moved on, he said.
Just like with the Lander incident, the devices found in Riverton were not live.
But everyone’s caution — at least after the point at which boy brought the devices home — was appropriate, former U.S. Army armorer Joey Correnti told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
“Just (as) I said the last time they found explosives in your county,” said Correnti. “Awareness and identification (matter).”
“Every time something like this has come up in Fremont County … everybody that I’ve heard from or about has responded correctly; the citizenry, the police, whatever responding agency,” he said.
And that correct response is to “leave it the hell alone; get everybody away from it, let the proper authorities with the proper equipment handle it.”
As to the fake pipe bomb itself, Correnti said it bears a “flat edge” indicating no battery hookup, “but that could also be a decoy to make you think it’s nothing.”
Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad Deputy Joseph Porter confirmed that decoy contrivances like those are a concern, “100%”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
