Cary Garmann told his wife he was going to Montana for a couple of weeks to be alone in nature. That was late August.
When she called him a week later, he was in Washington state.
“What are you doing in Spokane? You’re supposed to be in Montana,” Darlene Garmann recalled asking.
“I just kept driving,” he told her.
The North Dakota oil field worker's obituary says that when he was alive he could either be found "naked downward doggin'" or standing on a motorcycle going 80 mph — which his wife confirms is accurate.
She wasn't terribly surprised when he threw out the trip's itinerary because he was notoriously spontaneous. Only this time, Cary didn’t make it home.
Garmann, 64, of Watford City, North Dakota, died Sept. 8 at Saratoga’s Hobo Hot Springs, a place his wife said he loved and visited often.
He had been traveling alone, visiting relatives and taking in the great outdoors.
Along the way, he arranged to meet a friend from Laramie at the hot springs. He told him, "bring a filet knife," recalls Darlene, because he had a watermelon he wanted to share.
One Last Stop
Darlene wasn’t with her husband on the trip. He left wanting time to himself, she told Cowboy State Daily, drawn to nature and adventure.
“He was very much into the holistic stuff,” she said.
First he hit Montana, then Washington, and later visited an uncle and cousin in Utah.
Back home, Darlene arranged to fly in their oldest grandson for her son’s 40th birthday.
He intended to stop at the hot springs in Wyoming before making his way back. That was the last Darlene knew before authorities called to tell her he was gone.
A Utah woman named Jennifer Rust said she was there that day. She said she was returning from a Phish show in Denver when she and a friend stopped at the Hobo Hot Springs to soak.
"I was one of the bystanders performing life-saving measures," Rust posted on social media. "I assisted the Sheriff with mouth to mouth while he did chest compressions until EMS arrived. They pronounced him deceased upon arrival. We did everything we could to save him."
Cowboy State Daily has reached out to Saratoga Police Chief John Moore seeking more details about the incident.
The Saratoga Sun, citing a Saratoga Police Department release that is no longer visible, said other people noticed Garmann underwater and motionless, pulled him out and began CPR. Police continued resuscitation efforts and used a defibrillator.
Emergency medical personnel pronounced him dead at the scene.
When Darlene first learned her husband had died, she thought something had happened on the road.
“I thought it was a car accident or something,” she told Cowboy State Daily, "because of all the driving."
The Lobster Pot?
The Carbon County Visitors Council lists the hot pool’s water temperatures at 101 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit and describes the Lobster Pot at one end as 120 degrees.
Darlene said authorities had not told her which pool he was in or whether water temperature contributed to his death. The Carbon County Coroner has not responded to requests for more information.
"The facility is primarily self-service, and 'Enter at Your Own Risk' signs are posted at the entrance," said Emily Penner, Saratoga's director of public works. She said she did not know which pool Garmann died in.
Darlene told Cowboy State Daily her husband has had previous episodes where he lost consciousness in the sauna and hot water, including one that prompted her to take him to an emergency room.
"We've gone to hot springs in Pocatello, Idaho, before, and there was some of them you couldn't even get into, and he would put his legs in, and I would yell at him because grandkids were with us, and I'm like, 'No, you're not getting in!' And that's excruciating."
"But he found relaxation in the hot springs and hot water. He would play his music, and he would put on his clays and his mineral oils. I mean, he just he would sit in a bathtub for hours and pass out," said Darlene.
Legend Status
When asked to describe the larger-than-life character she had shared 32 years with, Darlene said, “He’s definitely a legend."
Was he a daredevil? “Yeah, pretty much.”
She said his whole life was basically one big adventure. He was born and raised in North Dakota but traveled all over.
"At the young age of 31, he and Darlene were married, gaining him 3 little shits to straighten out" reads his obituary.
His oil-field career brought him through Texas and Alaska before the family returned to Watford City in 1995. He worked briefly for Hanson Hot Oil Services, then spent 25 years with Petro Hunt.
“My husband and my son and my grandkids all drag raced, so we’d be at the drag racing strip a lot,” Darlene said.
Trips to see their grandson and time spent watching their children and grandchildren compete were among the memories she held closest.
“There’s a lot in 32 years of our life,” she said.
He Never Said No
Darlene met Cary in North Dakota in the 1980s while she was doing seismic work.
Their lives took them in different directions. He went to Texas, she returned to Las Vegas, and each married someone else.
About a decade later, they reconnected when he came to Nevada.
Darlene said his smile and the way he took care of things won her over.
“I mean, he was so good with my kids," she said.
Her children were 2, 4 and 6 when they got back together. They later adopted a 2-month-old daughter.
Supporting the family and working hard gave him pride, Darlene said. At home, she was the disciplinarian. Garmann was the parent the children sought when they wanted a yes.
“He was the type of dad that never said no,” she said.
Reflecting, Darlene acknowledges he died doing something that he loved.
"He loved hot water," she said
Garmann's funeral was Friday in Watford City.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
