Hiland, Wyoming, Is Not A Ghost Town — Just Ask The 10 People Living There

There is no speed limit reduction sign for travelers approaching Hiland. 

The drivers along U.S. Highway 20-26 have little reason to tap their brakes from 70 mph as they bypass the weathered and struggling buildings that were a home, a combination store, bar, post office, and little motel four-room motel that a century ago started as a family business.

But Eva Gunn, who inherited those buildings from her mom in 2022, hopes to resurrect the once noted Bright Spot store and lounge, a slice of the past in what now goes for a ghost town.

“I hope to have it open this summer,” she said. “The same as it was before, the bar and the store.”

Her mother received the properties as back wages from the Bright Spot’s previous owners, who operated it less than a decade ago, she said.

Gunn does not own the red-wooded building to the west of the little parade of white structures she said once held a dance hall. 

Natrona County records show the Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, or Rosicrucians, based in San Jose, California, holds title to it — and with walls collapsing and roof shingles missing it will likely soon join the destiny of the Temple of Karnak that the group reveres.

If the walls of these buildings could talk, there would be stories about how a farmer gave up his dairy to create the business in the 1920s, about notable robberies in later decades, and a woman who made ham sandwiches and wrote racy stories for romance magazines, garnering her invitations to appear on the TV shows “To Tell The Truth” and “Phil Donahue.”

Before that Hiland was a stop on the Chicago & North Western Railway that served Wolton more than a mile northeast and housed a community linked to a sheep operation run by former President Gerald Ford’s grandfather, along with several other businesses that brought life into central Wyoming.

Population 10

These days, the Wyoming Department of Transportation roadway sign announces Hiland’s population as 10. It is fairly accurate.

Gunn said a couple of additional people could possibly be tallied in the number. The residents, who include Gunn, live in mobile homes and houses about one-quarter mile east of the Bright Spot and south of the highway on North Hiland Road.

“I am from Casper, but I would rather be out there than in Casper for sure,” Gunn said. “Driving when I have to go to town is the only thing I don’t like.”

She said she shops in Casper rather than Riverton because it has more stores.

Also part of the community are Alfred Dunihoo, 74, his daughter, Mandy Dunihoo, 47, and Bill Miller, 69.

Alfred Dunihoo purchased his 6 acres from the late Bright Spot owner Bob Steelman 25 years ago. Steelman lived just down from him on Hiland Road and died in 2022. He operated the Bright Spot from 1974 to 2006.

Alfred Dunihoo said met Steelman while working on an oil rig that was in the area.

“We had a man camp sitting down there by the Bright Spot and that’s how I got to know Bob,” he said. “I talked to Bob and bought this place.”

Planting Trees

After buying the property he drilled a well and planted some 1,800 trees, including many blue spruce that Mandy Dunihoo waters regularly.

 The Dunihoos call life in Hiland peaceful and quiet, for the most part. 

Mandy Dunihoo said she joined her father about eight years ago after escaping a relationship that nearly cost her life.

“I moved to get away from all that,” she said. “I am not too good with towns. I’ve grown more here than I have anywhere.”

Mandy Dunihoo said she enjoys the pronghorn, deer and elk that come through and pointed to a pronghorn mother and baby on the edge of the property. She also goes into the surrounding region to hunt rocks.

A handful of years ago, during the strong winter in the region, there were challenges traveling to Casper or Riverton for supplies, but recent years have not posed any issues, she said.

There are also no issues with having enough water in the 70-foot well to water the trees. The water is “typical” Wyoming water with akaline rust, and they use it to shower, wash and sometimes drink. 

Miller, who also lives just down the road, said he has lived in Hiland for 30 years. Both he and Alfred Dunihoo remember more activity due to the Bright Spot. They said when Steelman and his wife, Carla, owned the Bright Spot people from Casper would drive out to the bar.

Musical Memories

Steelman played guitar and sometimes would host music jam sessions, or he would lead his own band. 

“They’d have biker parties there,” Miller said. “They were good, I’ll guarantee you there was no fights, no nothing.”

They would typically roast a pig as part of the proceedings.

While the Bright Spot has had a few owners over the years in addition to Steelman, original owner Robert “Dad” Smith’s daughter Betty Evenson and her husband, Maurice, ran the business from the 1930s into the 1970s.

Those were years the Bright Spot was a bus stop on the highway, and truckers would drop in for a bite to eat.

As a young woman, Betty Evenson enjoyed writing and, in addition to serving the ham sandwiches and burgers, developed a side career writing articles such as “He Gave Me Melt-In-Your-Mouth Kisses” and “At 14, I Already Had A Past” for magazines such as Real Confessions and Daring Romances.

In addition to invitations to the aforementioned TV shows, the New York Times on Aug. 7, 1973, did a feature story on her writing and role running the Bright Spot.

“Most of her stories, punched out on an ancient typewriter in her apartment behind the restaurant counter, run between 3,500 to 5,000 words for which she might earn $400,” the paper reported. “Most of her ideas come from drivers such as Buster Harnden who has stopped his bus here for 34 years.”

Betty Evenson told the reporter the drivers would talk more openly with her because they were not in their hometown.

Robberies

The Bright Spot was in the news a couple decades earlier when three gunmen barged into the store on a wintry Sunday night on Feb. 21, 1954, and made off with $200 in cash. The thieves ran out of the store as the bus from Casper to Billings pulled in at 9:07 p.m., the Casper Morning Star reported on Feb. 23, 1954.

The bus driver, the same Buster Harnden, and Maurice Evenson, with a .270 rifle, had the passengers disembark and pursued the culprits’ car with the bus.

“The bus chased the gunmen all the way to Powder River, 20 miles east of Hiland, but apparently missed the car along the road,” the newspaper reported. “Evenson called Sheriff (Louis) Cooper from Powder River and returned to Hiland in the bus.”

After Maurice Evenson died in April 1970, Betty Evenson continued to operate the Bright Spot alone until she was robbed by a masked man on April 22, 1974. The Casper Star-Tribune reported on April 24, 1974, that she had closed the store at 5:30 p.m. and a masked gunman kicked down the store’s door as she watched television in her apartment about 9:30 p.m.

The gunman forced her to open the safe and remove $300, including some postal money, then ripped the telephone from the wall and locked her into the bathroom. The postman found her the next morning and had to take hinges off the bathroom door to free her.

“Mrs. Evenson said this was the fourth holdup in 40 years that she and her late husband operated the Bright Spot,” the newspaper reported. “The last two holdups occurred in the past five months.”

Evenson sold the business and went on to write a book, “50 Years at the Bright Spot,” published in 1990, about her family’s business. It can still be ordered online.

In more recent years, the community was in the news in 2021 for a body found that was determined to be a homicide. Most recently was the highway crash involving a tanker truck that resulted in two fatalities on June 26.

However, Hiland residents emphasize the positives far outweigh the negatives as they enjoyed the afternoon sun on a recent day and watched the world go by.

“You don’t hear all the noises that you hear in town,” Mandy Dunihoo said. “We played counting the cars the last few days while they were stopping them for the highway (roadwork). We played counting the cars both ways to see how many cars would come through.”

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.