Jimmy orr

Jimmy Orr

Legislature

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Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Native American Tribes

[{"type":"text","text":"Tribe Tells Christian Church To Leave Reservation; Church Says No "}]

Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders told a Christian pastor who said "a pipe cannot hear your prayers" to leave their reservation. The pastor said she's staying, and won't apologize for preaching from the Bible. 

The Northern Arapaho Tribe’s executive branch has asked a Christian church to leave the reservation, the tribe’s chair said Friday.

In response, Foundations for Nations pastor Sarah Lucas told Cowboy State Daily she and her family aren’t planning to leave yet. They’re looking to legal solutions to stay – and hoping for a “revival” in the meantime, Lucas said.

The church, which has operated in Fremont County for nine years, sits within the borders of the Wind River Indian Reservation, but it’s on a parcel of private, not tribal, land.

The controversy erupted eight days ago when Lucas discouraged some tribal faith practices during a church service, just as the tribe finished its Sundance ceremonies. She had said, “a pipe cannot hear your prayers,” and “we know that Jesus is enough.”

. Northern Arapaho Tribal members were furious at what they cast as an insult to their “grandfather pipe” – a revered relic associated with the Arapaho creation story.

Protests unfolded at the Riverton City Hall and at the Foundations for Nations church site in the town of Arapahoe.

“I want a public apology from them,” said Northern Arapaho Business Council Chair Keenan Groesbeck during a 

 last Tuesday. He stood in front of a yellow tape line that stretched across the church’s driveway. 

[{"type":"text","text":"He said Lucas’ message was disrespectful."}]

“If they don’t want to apologize to us, they can leave,” said Groesbeck. 

Protestors joined in a traditional chant as honks and whoops sounded from passing vehicles.

Lucas went to a meeting with tribal leaders Friday. She said the council allowed its “Four Old Men” elder group to join the meeting, and leaders discussed the importance of the pipe relic and told her to leave.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lucas described the meeting as unprofessional."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Groesbeck took to Facebook about two hours later."}]

“Just so everyone knows. We told Foundations For Nations and Sarah Lucas they got to go. We ain’t putting up with their bullshit,” says Groesbeck’s Friday post. “

Groesbeck could not be reached for comment by publication. Nor could the other council members except for Sami Dresser, who declined to comment.

The tribe’s spokesman did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

Lucas told Cowboy State Daily she won’t apologize for preaching from the Bible, though she wishes to apologize “that it came off as an attack.”

“But I am a Christian preacher. I am a pastor and I preach the full counsel of God’s word,” she said. 

Lucas said she’s not against the sun dance altogether: she supports fasting and praying as a whole concept. But she understands the ceremony also involves “the worship of the pipe,” she said, adding that’s idolatry, and irreconcilable with the teaching that “Jesus is the only way.”

She pointed to the divisive messages the Bible attributes to Jesus, and the persecution and martyrdom his followers suffered.

“You could take everything from me but you can’t take my God,” said Lucas. “I’m willing to be martyred for the faith. I’ve counted the cost.”

She voiced mild surprise at the current outrage, saying community members have maligned Jesus and biblical teaching to her for years and she hasn’t retaliated. 

Regarding the tribal community, Lucas said she loves them and wants to maintain a forgiving posture. She referenced the high suicide, poverty, and addiction rates of the reservation. And she reiterated part of the same message that sparked this clash.

“Only Jesus can turn a life around, can deliver somebody, can set somebody free,” she said, adding that she’s called to preach that and is “more concerned with eternity, than I am about earthly hate.”

Lucas said people have been “twisting” her family’s message, casting their work as a grift and slandering them. She countered, noting that she did not take a salary for the church’s first several years, and that she’s now at about $25,000 annually. Her husband has worked two jobs in the past to pay their bills, she said.

She rebutted other rumors about harms to kids in the church’s sizable kids’ program, saying “All these lies are making the kids in our program feel unsafe. And that just hurts.”

Lucas indicated her family isn’t ready to leave the reservation. She said she wants to see people’s hearts changed.

“They might be mad for now, but I believe the supernatural power of God is going to turn this around,” said Lucas. “We don’t obey man. We obey God.”

She said she and her family are working with an attorney to remain on their parcel. They’re also weathering death threats, according to multiple screenshots Lucas sent Cowboy State Daily.

The outlet reached out to the FBI late Monday and will update this story when the agency comments.

Special church events are suspended for now, but church is scheduled for each Sunday as usual, Lucas said, adding that some kids still want to come to youth group, and some parents have been asking when the church will start youth group again.

The church runs a philanthropic food pantry, which closed early last week.  

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Why Are They Trying To Save Us?’"}]

Chris Friday, a tribal member who has helped to coordinate multiple protests, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that the question of whether the Lucases and church must leave the reservation “Now (is) probably going to involve the courts.”

Friday helped organize another protest outside the church during its Sunday service, which occurred on schedule. He said church attendees were seen “carrying around guns.”

Lucas confirmed this in her own interview, as she referenced the death threats.

“There’s people protesting there all the time,” said Friday, regarding the church. “Just, what they said, man. It hurts us as Arapaho people. Makes us seem like we’re lower than them, that their way is better than ours.”

Friday defended the Arapaho prayer traditions, saying they go back generations, and non-tribal members have often tried to observe them without permission.

“Why are they interested in us so much? Why are they trying to save us? I don’t know. We don’t need any saving or anything; we didn’t ask for them,” said Friday. “They should just take the hint and leave – respectfully of course. Go back to where you were.”

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which Arapaho and other tribal leaders signed along with the U.S. government, says any “bad men among the whites” or other people who “commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians” shall be, “upon proof” handed to the federal government for arrest and punishment according to the nation’s laws. The offender shall “also reimburse the injured persons for the loss sustained,” the treaty says.

Friday referenced the clause as a potential avenue for barring the Lucases from the reservation.

[{"type":"text","text":"It’s uncertain whether the tribe would win such a case."}]

Some tribes invoked it against the federal government in litigation regarding pharmaceutical companies’ marketing and sale of opioid drugs to tribal members. That claim failed because the tribes “(failed) to allege a ‘wrong’ cognizable under the treaty,” says a Dec. 9, 2020, 

 of Federal Claims, and the opioid company hadn’t come onto the reservation to commit some wrong.

Friday noted in his interview that tribal land surrounds the Foundations for Nations private land parcel. He wondered aloud if the tribe could block the Lucases’ access, but said “I don’t know how that would really work. It would probably have to go through the court.”

[{"type":"text","text":"More From That Church Service"}]

Lucas’ full sermon was unavailable at least as of Monday. The one-minute, 38-second clip that went viral last week depicts Lucas paraphrasing from the Bible: “tear down the altars, tear down the idols.”

She spoke of “this nation” gathering in recent days, praying. The tribal members had just conducted their sun dance ceremony.

“They prayed to pipes and they prayed to the ancestors, believing this is the way for their freedom. To get free from addiction, for people to be healed … this is what this culture did this week,” said Lucas.

[{"type":"text","text":"She urged the congregation to pray."}]

“Because we know that Jesus is enough. He’s enough. It’s not Jesus-plus. It’s Jesus everything. He’s everything,” said Lucas.

She referenced people she described as tribal members who have become Christians.

“And they understand the price … when they say that publicly. The persecution that can come with them publicly,” Lucas said. “But they know that this is it. Jesus is the chain breaker. He’s the only one that we should be praying to. A pipe cannot hear your prayers.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Because Of This Dark History"}]

Christian Wassana, an enrolled Cheyenne Arapaho of Oklahoma who played Martin Kills Many on “Yellowstone," told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday interview that tribal members are still wrestling with troubling treatments by past, Christian-affiliated missions, such as the boarding schools that forbade the children from speaking their native languages.

[{"type":"text","text":"He had posted one of the original links to the video of Lucas preaching."}]

Indian boarding schools proliferated in the nation a century ago, many run by religious groups and funded with federal money.

Historical accounts tell of tribal leaders who wanted their kids to gain an education, a federal government that wanted to assimilate the kids and religious leaders who wanted to convert them.

Northern Arapaho sub-chief Sharp Nose sent his son, Little Chief, to the Carlisle boarding school in Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, hoping the boy could learn skills from the white man for surviving in the new culture.

Little Chief died in the school’s infirmary in 1883 and was buried on school grounds – a common occurrence for tribal children.

Jesuits came to the Wind River Indian Reservation and built St. Stephen’s Indian School in 1884.

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<title>Arapaho Tribe Tells Christian Church To Leave Reservation; Church Says No | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders have told a Christian church to leave the reservation after the pastor preached "a pipe cannot hear your prayers.'  The pastor said she's staying, and won't apologize for preaching that "Jesus is the only way."

Arapaho Tribe Tells Christian Church To Leave Reservation; Church Says No

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

Renée Jean

Energy

Agriculture

A massive data center and power generation complex is being proposed for 5,344 acres of ranchland northeast of Wheatland in Platte County near the Goshen County line, on property owned by the Lazy V Six Ranch.

The developer, a company called Site Layer 4, has filed an application to rezone the land from agricultural to industrial for what it describes as a $26 billion data center campus with co-located, utility-scale energy generation. The property is roughly 13 miles east of Interstate 25, in an area now used for grazing and agriculture.

Public hearings for the rezoning have been set for 7 p.m. Aug. 11 before the Platte County Planning and Zoning Commission and 10 a.m. Aug. 20 before the Platte County Commission. 

Site Layer 4 says in its application that the project would be built over multiple years and is designed to concentrate infrastructure in one unified location. 

Residents who live around the Goshen Hole Rim say that location also happens to include springs, mule deer habitat and big-sky views their families have cherished for generations. 

In its application, Site Layer 4 describes the Wheatland project as a long-term phased industrial campus that could scale with market demand. 

“Rezoning the proposed project area would allow well-planned large-scale industrial development in an appropriate location, and protect private landowner rights to use property for business and economic purposes in a manner reasonably balanced with regulatory oversight,” Site Layer 4 wrote in its application. 

Site Layer 4 also emphasizes that the project area represents less than half of 1% of the acres devoted to ranching and agriculture in Platte County.

“The project area has been selected specifically because it enables development of a unified, co-located facility, limiting potential sprawl of infrastructure and associated regional impacts,” the company added. “The project area has access to critical grid interconnection and other necessary existing infrastructure, is separated from residential uses and public spaces, and is visually buffered via topography from the community of Wheatland.”

Site Layer 4 further promises that the campus would include stormwater drainage and other environmental controls consistent with local, state and federal requirements, and would “prioritize environmental protection and effective mitigation of potential environmental impacts.”

That might sound good on paper, one of the project’s neighbors, George Gamblin conceded. But, he said, the project’s footprint falls within a dramatic and scenic portion of Goshen Hole where Platte County’s plateau drops hundreds of feet into canyons and draws before flattening out again across Goshen County.

“You can see clear into Nebraska from here,” Gamblin said. “You can look all the way across Goshen County.”

The area is a unique land feature for the area, a place where there are plants and animals that probably should not be there, and would not be there, but for a micro-climate that’s supporting what would typically need more water.

“I probably have a couple hundred acres of pine trees on my little property that are not even really supposed to be there,” He said. “I think it’s about a 12-plus precip zone, and they’re not even really supposed to be growing there. But some of these trees are probably 100-plus years old. And they contain a lot of birds and things like that, which typically don’t exist in this area out here in the plains.”

Gamblin’s family has been in the location for close to 90 years.

“I live on Goshen Hole Rim, which dissects Platte and Goshen counties,” he said. “And in places, from the rim to the bottom is anywhere from I don’t know, 400 to 600 feet that drop and what you have in those canyons, there’s a lot of varied habitat.”

Ponderosa pine, mountain mahogany and little riparian areas near the natural springs that come up in the bottom of the canyons lie within a half to three-quarters of a mile from the proposed rezoning.

“Some of the wildlife we have out there — it’s pretty amazing,” Gamblin said. “I had some professional birders come out and they got I believe over 40 species of birds in like seven or eight hours walking along the rim.”

There’s also a diversity of wildlife, including elk and mule deer, as well as occasional mountain lions — which Gamblin noted wasn’t mentioned in the wildlife portion of the application.

“There’s just any number of things that are very unique to Platte County, and especially this part of Platte County,” he said. “So I would like to see, at the very least, some kind of buffer for that kind of habitat.”

From his place, much of the proposed industrial zone would sit less than a mile and a half away, with the rezoning boundary coming to within about a half-mile of his property.

“That’s a huge tract of land that’s going to affect quite a few people,” he said. “I understand private property rights and I respect them, but that needs to work both ways in my mind. You need to respect the neighbors. There’s no reason where they can’t protect Goshen Hole Rim and still probably have everything they need down there on the lessee’s land.”

Gamblin added he’s not against the project at this point, but he does want to hear that appropriate steps will be taken to protect water, wildlife and the view.

“I would rather not see it go in at all,” he said. “But I do understand the private property issue and I understand people wanting to make more money to benefit from it, so I’m not opposed to it.”

Water and the view are the two biggest issues for Kathryn Stevens, who lives across the rim on the Chugwater Flats about 5 miles from the proposed industrial zone.

“We moved out here specifically for the wide-open space, for the landscape, for the beauty, because we wanted to be homesteaders,” she said. “We moved out here to appreciate the heritage of the land.”

The project has taken her and her family by surprise.

“I came from western Washington, where that land, which is really beautiful land, has been exploited,” she said. “And it’s so sad to see that. I just shudder to think of that happening here in an area that’s in many ways kind of untouched. I can look out my window and see for 40 miles, and I don’t know what would compel somebody to destroy that or put a huge building there. I just don’t understand that.”

The family, like their neighbors, all depend on domestic wells for water, so how much water the data center might use is her biggest concern. 

“Everybody knows we’re in a drought,” she said. “Farmers are plowing under their wheat because it’s too low to even harvest and a lot of farmers didn’t even plant this spring. We are an ag community. Water is life. If you don’t protect your water supply, you’re going to be real sorry.”

The flats have no access to municipal water, Stevens added. 

“The people who live here rely on their wells solely,” she said. “If our wells were to go dry or become intermittent, then we wouldn’t be able to live up here. Like, there’s no alternative, and you also wouldn’t be able to sell our land for anything.”

The developer’s documents say the data center will use a closed-loop system to minimize water use. Its annual water use would be comparable to that of 25 to 30 residential homes, which Platte County Economic Development Executive Director Josephine Young characterized as watering about 5 acres of hay a year.

Young said she’s fielded phone calls, emails and social media posts about the project, some of which are mixing concerns for Wheatland with stories from Georgia and Cheyenne. 

She hopes residents will zero in on the specifics of Site Layer 4’s project and judge the project on its merits. 

“I’m sure you’ve been to Wheatland plenty of times,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “There’s a lot of vacant buildings. I think something everyone can relate to is wanting a place where their kids can come back to. I have an 8-year-old little girl, and I know we don’t want to lose our small-town culture, but we also want to thrive.”

Contrary to what some social media posts have suggested, the data center would offer between 250 to 300 permanent positions, which she said is “massive” for Wheatland.

“I mean, that would be one of our largest employers,” she said. “So I guess, if I could plug one encouraging statement, it would be to judge each project on its own merit and application, versus what Google says or what a standalone data center might offer versus one with power generation, because that does change a lot.”

The project, Young added, is in its infancy right now, and its application to rezone is just the first step of many to come. The application also doesn’t mean the project is necessarily a “done deal” either.

If it does come about though, the community benefits have potential to be “transformational.”

“I think the sales tax revenue would, gosh, triple our county budget,” she said. “It would be an influx. And I keep trying to tell myself, like when Laramie River Station — Basin Electric — came in, there was a lot of contention around it and now it’s the lifeline of our county.”

Platte County Commissioner Ian Jolovich told Cowboy State Daily he’s keeping himself at arm's length from the project, at least until the rezoning formally lands before the commission.

“I make a point to let the planner do — to not insert ourselves into the deal and to let them make an unmolested decision at the planning and zoning commission level,” he said. “I do know what’s coming down the pipeline but, typically, that’s how I feel like you get to muddy, if you start digging around too early.”

Commissioners will get a “full staff briefing” in time for the meetings, and until then Jolovich plans to stay “agnostic” about the project, though he did add that he is typically “for private business.”

“There’s some good and bad in everything,” he said. “So just find the good and regulate or treat the bad.”

Water will be a big issue to Jolovich as well, he confirmed.

“I’m in agriculture so I have a different perspective on water and its uses and whatever else,” he said. “Basically, what we do is we turn water and sunlight into beef, and so, when there’s no water, you can’t make beef.”

The nearby Laramie River Station power plant already uses 18,000 gallons of water per minute, which dwarfs the data center’s projected use. 

“The water issue is almost a solved problem to me,” he said. “The biggest issue with water is what happens to the stuff that is wastewater … So I’m interested to see what wastewater treatment practices and force majeure practices are, if say, something goes wrong, act of God, and something gets out and gets into the aquifer or whatever.

"That’s more of a detriment to the existing water supply. It’s not the use of it. I think they’ve got the use dialed down.”

Like Young, Jolovich, too, worries about young people leaving Platte County in the search for better job opportunities.

“I want more productive people in Platte County,” he said. “Our people are very productive, but we’re getting older and there’s not as much opportunity for kids to stay around.”

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<title>Ranchlands Near Wheatland Eyed For $26 Billion 'Transformational' Data Center | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A company called Site Layer 4 wants to rezone 5,344 acres of ranchland near Wheatland for a data center and power plant. The project, they say, adds 300 jobs and substantial tax revenue, but neighbors worry about water, wildlife and the viewshed.

Ranchlands Near Wheatland Eyed For $26 Billion 'Transformational' Data Center

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

A Lovell woman is being charged with felony child abuse after doctors found a young child suffering from severe burns, brain hemorrhages, a possible skull fracture and numerous other injuries that medical experts concluded were consistent with physical abuse.

Richellena Alana Vinita Lorraine Rule-Monroy, born in 1999, was arrested Friday on a warrant charging her with aggravated child abuse for causing serious bodily injury to a child under her care.

She was scheduled to have an initial appearance when a judge will formally read her single charge at 1:30 p.m. Monday in Park County Circuit Court. 

The child, a boy born in 2022, was living with Rule-Monroy when the injuries came to light. The child's father was reportedly away, working out of town that week.

After the child was placed into protective custody, investigators say he later told a certified foster parent Rule-Monroy poured hot water on his ear because he was "ugly.” The burn eventually required the child to be flown to the University of Utah Burn Center for specialized treatment. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Hospital Visit Raises Alarm"}]

The investigation began July 2 when Rule-Monroy brought the child to the emergency department at Powell Valley Hospital, according to a criminal affidavit filed by Park County Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Skoric.

Rule-Monroy told investigators she accidentally splashed the child with hot water the night before while making oatmeal. She said she had removed a pan of hot water from the stove without realizing the child was standing nearby, causing the water to splash onto his left ear.

What initially appeared to be an accidental burn quickly raised red flags.

Deputies, a Department of Family Services caseworker and hospital staff noticed bruises, scrapes and other injuries covering much of the child's body that they believed could not be explained by the reported accident.

A forensic nurse documented an extensive list of injuries, including partial-thickness burns to the child's left ear, blisters, bruises and abrasions across his face, arms, legs, back and buttocks, bruising around one eye, bruising to the genital area, a skin tear near the gluteal cleft and a corneal abrasion to his left eye, according to the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","text":"Brain Bleeds, Skull Fracture"}]

As physicians looked more closely, the child's condition appeared even more serious.

A CT scan revealed possible subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhages, a scalp hematoma and what doctors described as a possible nondisplaced occipital skull fracture. The child was admitted to the hospital while physicians specializing in child abuse medicine evaluated his injuries.

"Overall I think the multitude of these findings suggest strongly that this child is likely to be a victim of physical abuse," Dr. Kelly Christensen wrote.

The physician also questioned why the child had not been brought to the hospital immediately after the burn allegedly occurred and noted bruises and abrasions in various stages of healing — findings that, noted in the affidavit, suggested the injuries did not all occur at the same time.

Prosecutors allege Rule-Monroy's explanation that the child was accidentally splashed while she was making oatmeal failed to account for the extent and variety of injuries documented by medical staff.

[{"type":"text","text":"Child's Statements"}]

The child later told law enforcement Rule-Monroy threw him down the stairs and poured hot water onto his left ear, causing him to cry.

[{"type":"text","text":"Days later, the his condition worsened."}]

On July 8, he was flown to the University of Utah Burn Center. The next day, specialists with Intermountain Children's Health's Primary Children's Hospital Safe and Healthy Families child abuse and neglect team examined him.

Those specialists concluded that the child's third-degree burns to his ear were non-accidental, documented by the affidavit.

Detectives wrote that the investigation into the child's additional injuries remains ongoing.

Aggravated child abuse is a felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.

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<title>Lovell Woman Charged With Felony For Allegedly Burning Child, Fracturing Skull | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Lovell woman is being charged with felony child abuse after doctors found a young child suffering from severe burns, brain hemorrhages, possible skull fracture and other injuries that medical experts concluded were consistent with physical abuse.

Lovell Woman Charged With Felony For Allegedly Burning Child, Fracturing Skull

Around Wyoming

Mortar rounds were once code-named “Tootsie Rolls” during the Korean War. But no one was diving for cover at the National Museum of Military Vehicles when the Tootsie Rolls started falling in Dubois alongside big, fat raindrops.

Instead, there were children clapping hands and laughing, just before a squealing sprint for a spot under the black helicopter hovering just above one of the museum’s side parking lots, letting fall what looked a bit like rain itself. 

The helicopter drop was arranged by U.S. Army veteran Gene Humphrey, who was born and raised in Burns. Humphrey worked with museum staff and a friend, helicopter owner Steve Funk, to pull it off.

Marines of a certain age were smiling in spite of themselves as the children scrambled after the candies wrapped in special red-white-and-blue paper. They remembered a time and a frozen place when those gooey caramels meant the difference between life and death.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Code Word: Tootsie Roll"}]

The year was 1950 and the location was the Chosin Reservoir, American History Project Founder and The Chosin Few President Shayne Jarosz recalled during a recent lecture series at Dubois’ National Museum of Military Vehicles. The lecture is part of ongoing activities this year that celebrate America’s 250th.

“The men were surrounded by roughly 300,000 Chinese troops,” Jarosz said. “It is minus-40 degrees. They do not have the cold-weather gear that they need, and they are being attacked in force.”

To maintain a level of secrecy about their needs, the Marines had code words for everything important. 

“If you needed something, you didn’t want to say, ‘Hey, we’re almost out of bullets, send them',” Jarosz said. “Because the Chinese were listening. So the code word for mortar rounds was Tootsie Rolls.”

One day, the radio chatter suddenly became all about Tootsie Rolls, but not all the pilots were aware of all the code words.

“We are running low on Tootsie Rolls and we need them right now,’” Jarosz said the men were screaming. “And these great pilots who are flying all these sorties have no idea what in the world is going on. But they know that these men are in a desperate fight for their life and if it’s Tootsie Rolls they want, then it’s Tootsie Rolls they’ll get.”

This version of the story has been disputed by some historians, Jarosz acknowledged. But enough veterans have told him personally about this tale that he feels comfortable repeating it.

“So, along the entire evacuation route, they dropped Tootsie Rolls, and it ended up saving the lives of these men,” Jarosz said. “They had not eaten in days.”

The sudden arrival of the candy was like manna from heaven to these men, providing something simple but vital — sugar and calories in a package small enough to slip into frozen hands and pockets. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Just Food"}]

The Tootsie Rolls did more than just feed starving Marines. 

“Their fuel tanks had been shot and would not hold any fuel,” Jarosz said. “They could chew on that Tootsie Roll and melt it. Then they could put it in a bullet hole and, at 40 degrees below zero, it would expand and seal that gas tank.”

That allowed them to fuel enough trucks to evacuate their wounded. History records 18,000 casualties during the Chosin Reservoir battle, as well as thousands more who suffered frostbite. Those numbers could have been significantly higher but for the improvised repairs the candy made possible. 

Word of the Tootsie Roll story eventually made its way back to the candy makers. Since the 1950s, the Tootsie Roll Corporation has chosen to quietly honor the Marines of Chosin, sending them more than 150 pounds of their candy to all of their annual reunions. 

“You want to see a bunch of 90-year-old men acting like they’re 5 years old,” Jarosz said with a chuckle. “It’s really wonderful. And what’s even more wonderful about this is, Tootsie Roll is a family organization, and they never forget these guys.”

The candy company still ships the treats to reunions of men sometimes called The Frozen Chosin or The Chosin Few, so named because so few survived. They are a dwindling brotherhood of men who survived a freezing gantlet.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Freak Cold Snap"}]

For the men caught up in the Chosin Reservoir Campaign, the battle quickly became less about human enemies and more a fight against the Korean winter itself.

The weather, according to veteran accounts, had been relatively mild when Americans first landed in North Korea. 

Marines and soldiers who reached the Chosin area in early November 1950 were writing family members back home, saying the weather wasn’t “too bad.”

However, a Siberian cold front swept in, precipitously changing all that. Temperatures plunged to around 40 below, with wind chills far colder. Some estimates say it was down to minus-70 — among the harshest conditions ever recorded in that part of North Korea.

The freak cold snap caught the troops without proper cold-weather gear or equipment. Many of the Marines were still dressed for the mild coastal climate they’d left behind when they received their marching orders to head to the Chosin Reservoir. 

When the Chinese launched their massive night assault at about 1 a.m., only half the Marines were on alert. The rest had their boots off, socks draped around their necks, in an attempt to dry them before the next day.

They had no time to put their boots back on. They dove into foxholes shoeless, and sometimes sockless, too.

A candy drop at the National Museum of Military Vehicles in Dubois was more than just fun for kids. It honored the "Frozen Chosin" Marines who depended on Tootsie Rolls for calories, field repairs and sheer survival on minus-40 degree days in the Korean War.

TEST TEST TEST ARticle TEST

Jimmy Orr

Executive Editor

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TEST TEST TEST ARticle TEST

Authors

Jimmy Orr

Executive Editor

More in Legislature

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