Couple Has Ambitious Plan To Restore Liberty Belle Lodge In Tiny Aladdin, Wyoming

Kyle Meade will never forget the time he pulled into a restaurant in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, and someone straightaway asked his girlfriend Julia Okitsu where he could buy some fentanyl.

“I mean, we had just come out of church, and we were headed to breakfast,” Meade said. “We had the boy in the back, and her side window was rolled down.”

The question floored Meade for a second. He didn’t know what to say.

“I mean, my jaw dropped and I’m like, ‘My child’s in the car here,’” he said. “What the hell are you asking me?”

It’s one of the many things that have Meade and Okitsu feeling that society at large has gone crazy of late. It’s also driven the city-weary couple from North Dakota to find a slice of small-town America where they can feel safer.

Then again, nearly anyplace else would feel like a big city compared to Aladdin, a tiny hamlet in northeast Wyoming that lists about 15 people in all.

They have an ambitious plan to restore the Liberty Belle Lodge, right next to the Aladdin General Store, and turn it into a viable business. 

If they are successful, that will double the number of businesses on Aladdin’s main drag (Wyoming Highway 24), raising it from one to two. And it will help the couple afford a new life, in what they see as a much healthier environment.

“Cities are pushing people out because they don’t feel safe,” Meade said. “Like you’re just driving to get some bubble gum or whatever, and you could get shot for no good reason.”

They aren’t the only ones. Both have friends back in their old state who want to come join them in the area, if not Aladdin itself.

Okitsu, for example, has a friend who is retired military and plans to move to Sundance to open a storage business. She’s going to start out in Aladdin first while she gets her bearings.

“My best friend wants to move here desperately,” Meade added. “He lives in Orting, Washington, which used to be considered a real small town, but now you’ve got gang activity everywhere. You know, people shooting.”

Okitsu and Meade both said that shootings seemed to happen almost nightly and that it’s fueling both paranoia, and a desire to get out — for those who can afford it.

“I see that happening a lot, or at least people want to,” Meade said. “Even if they can’t afford it.” 

Breaking The Chains

But for a devastating fire, Meade and Okitsu might not have been able to make a break for Wyoming. Like many people, they had a house payment that tied them to their jobs. 

But then a tragic fire came along and completely upended life as they knew it. 

“We lost our house in a fire, and we lost two pets,” Okitsu said. “And then, when that happened, my dad also informed me he had stage-four liver cancer and was not going to get treatment. So, it was like all at once, everything.”

Their homeowner’s insurance paid out just a fraction of what their home was worth. Not enough to rebuild.

“It was probably 40% of the total rebuild cost,” Meade said. “So, we were stuck.”

Meade was window shopping online for real estate one night and came across a Facebook post advertising a 16-bedroom home for sale.

“He’s like, what does a 16-bedroom, 16-bathroom home even look like,” Okitsu recalled.

Once they clicked on it, they saw it was really a motel, not a home. Ordinarily, it would have been worth maybe a laugh or shake of the head before scrolling on by. 

But now they needed a new start. They had a little chunk of insurance money to try and create a new and better life, and Meade could see possibility in this motel. 

“I’m originally from Wyoming, but my family was in the Fremont County, Dubois area,” Meade said. “And I’ve always wanted to buy into something over here, but the prices are just, beyond beyond.”

The motel, on the other hand, seemed reasonable, even if it was clearly in need of a lot of TLC. 

Meade took a trip to look the place over and talk to the property owner in person. He was determined to see everything wrong with this idea and talk himself out of it if there was any sign of anything sketchy.

But the possibilities didn’t fade after that. They became stronger and stronger in his mind.

A New Dream Is Born

Meade has run man camp restaurants in the Alaskan North Slope, which are set up to provide affordable places for oilfield workers to stay and sleep. 

The motel in Aladdin included a restaurant, which people have told him used to be packed every weekend in the summer. It was a true diamond in the rough.

Albeit, very, very rough at the time he and Okitsu decided to buy it.

Some of the rooms had been left wide open to the elements and the plumbing was broken in most of the rooms, regardless. 

“When we moved in and took this place over, it took us three weeks before we even had one room ready to go,” Meade said.

Google didn’t help them get their location on the map either. That left them invisible for their first Sturgis, making it difficult to get guests, even though they had busted their butts getting everything ready in time. 

Next door, Trent Tope told Cowboy State Daily he is all for a revival of the lodge and its restaurant.

“It helps us when people have a nice place to eat and to stay,” he said. “If they’re feeling good after a nice meal, what are they going to do? They’re going to come over to the bar and have a few drinks.”

Maybe even buy a few souvenirs, and then, hopefully tell a few friends about the cute and charming town of Aladdin. 

Looking Out

Tope has done a lot to help the couple when it comes to looking out. That’s been particularly helpful, given that when they first arrived, a rough crowd had been attracted to the motel, due to its condition.

“Before we came here, the county was here three or four times a week, pulling crackheads out of the rooms,” Meade said. “And there were people having domestic violence issues, too. That had gone on for years.”

Meade took a proactive approach anytime he saw anything the least bit sketchy. He would approach the individuals and talk to them, hoping that would get the word out that there were new owners, and that those new owners weren’t going to allow any more drug deals.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for word to travel. Part of that, Meade believes, is because everyone in Aladdin, however small the population might be, knows each other, and they are all looking out. 

“That’s what I love about Aladdin,” Meade said. “I can’t say enough good stuff about that. People look out for each other. I know every person. I never have to lock anything.”

The Right Amenities

The fact there’s no movie theater or entertainment feels so much less important than a wholesome environment for their family, Okitsu said. 

It’s a place where everyone knows your name.

“Knowing all your neighbors on a first-name basis, and just coming together as a town, as a community, to make something work,” Okitsu said. “It can take some guts, it can take some heart to do something like this.”

But it’s been worth it, Meade added.

“If anybody turns on Google News, it doesn’t matter what news, what you see is everybody’s mad at each other,” Meade said. “And if you listen to any of that crap, eventually you just think nobody is worth talking to and you’re scared of everything. 

“That’s not community,” he continued. “Community is what you get when you actually get out here in these small towns and start realizing almost nobody is as nutty as what they’re saying.”

Things in Aladdin aren’t perfect yet. The couple’s restaurant kitchen doesn’t work yet, and that’s a key element of their long-term plan for survival. 

But there’s a peaceful, easy feeling when Okitsu and Meade watch the sun going down each night over Aladdin.

“I don’t have to worry about my son being out here,” Meade said. “He gets his motorcycle to ride with his buddy next door, who is the same age, and they go rip around. This is just a life that you can’t provide otherwise.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.