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[{"type":"text","text":"As a young girl, Debbie Rude wondered if she had imagined it."}]

Growing up in a tiny rental house on Walnut Street in Rock Springs during the 1950s, some of her earliest memories are of standing at the fence line beside her family’s yard and staring up at what looked to her like something pulled from the pages of a storybook.

The building towering beside her family’s modest home was Schlacter Castle — a hulking stone fortress with rounded turrets, battlemented towers and thick, gray masonry that seems better suited for Germany's Rhine Valley than the windswept coal country of southwest Wyoming.

Its heavy arches and castle walls rise above the hillside with a dreamlike absurdity, as though a medieval stronghold had somehow wandered into Rock Springs and decided to stay.

The fence separating the properties made it feel, Rude said, “as though I lived in two separate worlds.”

On her side sat a hard-packed dirt yard scattered with toys and lined with a clothesline fluttering with work shirts and bedsheets in the Wyoming wind. 

Beyond it rose another world entirely — emerald grass trimmed neat beneath the shadow of stone turrets, flower beds bursting with color around a castle that seemed impossibly elegant against the coal-dust grit of Rock Springs.

“I’d dream of going inside and of living in that castle, like a real princess,” Rude said.

More than a century after German immigrant John Schlacter finished building the castle in 1914, the strange stone fortress still clings to the hillside above Rock Springs, keeping a medieval eye on the city below while generations drift through its halls and the city changes around it.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Castle In Coal Country"}]

Nobody seems entirely sure why Schlacter decided to build a literal castle on a hill overlooking Rock Springs.

That mystery is part of what has kept the building embedded in local imagination for generations.

Born in Germany on Feb. 23, 1866, Schlacter came to the United States in 1886 and eventually married Viola Van Kaiser in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1890. 

The couple raised several children before moving West, first to Diamondville in 1899 and later to Rock Springs in 1907.

By then, Schlacter had already established himself as a master stonecutter.

Historical accounts credit him with helping build the Carnegie libraries in Rock Springs and Green River, along with foundations, homes and churches throughout southwest Wyoming.

With their grand stone facades, towering arched windows and stately symmetry, the libraries Schlacter helped build carried an almost cathedral-like permanence onto the Wyoming frontier — monuments to knowledge and ambition rising from dusty mining roads.

He also built portions of the local Episcopal Church, stone foundations on D Street and C Street, and homes across the city alongside fellow stoneworkers.

According to local historian Helene B. Novotny’s self-published history “The Days After Abraham Lincoln 1943-1949,” Schlacter once bid unsuccessfully on the stately Taliaferro home on Cedar Street.

One local theory suggests Schlacter responded by buying property across from it on Walnut Street and building an even grander stone residence to prove “what an excellent stonecutter he was.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Tall and imposing on the hill, it certainly accomplished that."}]

Construction on the castle began in 1909 and took roughly five years to complete. 

The stone reportedly came from the same local quarry used to build the old Rock Springs City Hall, now home to the Rock Springs Historical Museum, though the quarry itself has since been lost to time.

Schlacter hauled much of the stone himself using two horses and a wagon, according to the Rock Springs Historical Museum.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'My Baba Had To Pull Me Along'"}]

Rude only lived beside the castle until age 5, but the building left a permanent imprint on her memory.

Her family’s roots run deep in Rock Springs’ immigrant coal-mining community. Her father, Pete Mirich, attended Rock Springs High School before leaving to fight in World War II. 

Her grandfather, Sam Mirich, came from Montenegro and worked in the coal mines while helping raise seven children.

Like many immigrant families in Rock Springs at the time, they lived modestly.

[{"type":"text","text":"That made the castle next door feel even more surreal."}]

“My Montenegrin Baba would often take me for walks to the town cemetery to visit my grandpa’s grave, and she would always have to tug on my hand to get me moving when we walked past the castle,” Rude said.

Part of the fascination, she believes, came from the mystery surrounding the place.

“I don’t ever recall seeing a person go in or out of the house,” she said. “That may actually have made it easier for me to create my own fantasies about it.”

Her parents sometimes had to call her inside because she spent so much time staring at the building.

“Others would laugh and say it was just a little girl’s flight of fancy,” she said. “In fact, there was a period of time when I wondered, myself, if I had simply imagined it was there. 

"After all, how could there be a real castle in Rock Springs, Wyoming?”

Friends and neighbors later described the Schlacters as intensely private people, which only deepened the mystery surrounding the looming stone home.

Two of Schlacter’s daughters eventually lived in the castle, including Olga Schlacter, who remained unmarried and reportedly lived there longer than anyone else in the family while working at Parker Brothers Drug Store in Rock Springs.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Soldiers, Ghost Stories And Survival"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The castle’s history only grew stranger with time."}]

According to local historical accounts, Schlacter opened the building during World War I to soldiers in the area, allowing it to be used as temporary barracks and providing room and board to military personnel.

[{"type":"text","text":"Local stories also suggest tragedy followed the family. "}]

One account claims Schlacter and his wife returned to Germany grief-stricken after the reported death of an older son shortly after World War I, leaving much of the remaining family behind in Wyoming.

After World War II, the castle was eventually sold to the Greek family. Residents who visited the home during that era remembered wandering staircases and cavernous interiors. 

One former piano student reportedly joked she spent more time staring at the staircase and wondering how horses could ever climb it than practicing music.

Later, the castle sat vacant for years — boarded up, dark and looming over Walnut Street.

[{"type":"text","text":"That was when the ghost stories began."}]

For generations of Rock Springs kids, the abandoned stone fortress became the kind of place people dared each other to approach.

Eventually, the Hamm family purchased the building and converted it into apartments. During renovations, portions of the original structure were altered, including removal of the attic roof and modifications to the turrets. Large picture windows were also added overlooking the city below.

Those renovations ultimately prevented the building from qualifying for the National Register of Historic Places.

[{"type":"text","text":"Still, the castle survives."}]

More than 112 years after its stone walls first rose above Rock Springs, the fortress remains perched on the hillside — weathered by Wyoming winters, softened by time and stubbornly standing watch over the city below.

Today, Rude still makes a point to drive past it whenever she passes through town.

“No trip through town is complete without driving past the castle and the tiny little house that still sits in its shadow,” she said.

Schlacter Castle Screenshot 2026 06 06 at 10 23 32 AM 6 6 26

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Why The Heck … Is There A Castle In The Middle Of Rock Springs, Wyoming? | Cowboy State Daily</title>

No one knows why German immigrant and master stonemason John Schlacter built a castle overlooking Rock Springs more than a century ago. He spent five years building it by hand, hauling locally quarried stone by horse and wagon before finishing it in 1914.

Why The Heck … Is There A Castle In The Middle Of Rock Springs, Wyoming?

Most sheriff cruisers are designed to blend into a fleet, but the newest cruiser in the Laramie County Sheriff's Office fleet was designed to do the exact opposite.

It not only stands out, “it looks pretty badass,” said Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak.

Covered in Western artwork featuring a cowboy on horseback racing forward with purpose on a white background, the new Dodge Durango LCSO SUV is pure Wyoming.

That it turns heads is exactly what Kozak said he was going for in commissioning the look of the department's new recruiting rig.

It squats low and mean with a wild-eyed horse charging across its sides, mane whipping viciously in the Cowboy State wind. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Clint Eastwood-Inspired Cruiser"}]

When it came time to create the design, Kozak called on Cheyenne mural artist Jordan Dean, whose giant wild horse mural transformed the city's towering water tanks north of town.

Dean has become one of the state's most recognizable mural artists, painting everything from large public art installations to massive water tower projects that require boom lifts, projectors and specialized industrial paint.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kozak had a simple request for Dean."}]

"I wanted a high plains drifter, Clint Eastwood kind of cowboy hard charge-in graphic,” the sheriff said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Dean delivered."}]

The result is a rolling Western mural that has already been drawing attention from residents and fellow law enforcement officers.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kozak said he keeps hearing, \"That is the coolest car we've ever seen.\""}]

The cruiser's first major public appearance in Cheyenne was Saturday during a downtown summer event, where families were able to climb inside, check out the lights and meet members of the sheriff's office.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyatt Earp On Wheels"}]

Dean said his relationship with the sheriff's office began years ago when Kozak called looking for an artist to paint murals inside the Laramie County Detention Center. 

When he was done with that, he told the sheriff, "I would love to take a crack at your vehicles. I've always just thought it would be the coolest thing to design a law enforcement vehicle." 

The artist said early discussions centered on creating something inspired by a Wyatt Earp-style lawman — part frontier sheriff, part larger-than-life Western character. 

"I wanted something that had action, had motion to it," Dean said. "I wanted the horse and rider to fit in the space but kind of take up the whole width of the car.

 "It's the Laramie County Sheriff's Office," he continued. “So, the Western theme just fit, and I love that style." 

If the art causes people to stop and take a second look at the local hero's, Dean says he's done his job. 

[{"type":"text","text":"More Than A Cool Paint Job"}]

As eye-catching as the vehicle is, the sheriff's office didn't build it simply to show off.

The cruiser is assigned to Cpl. Heather Wilson in the agency's hiring unit and is intended to function as a rolling recruiting tool.

"The whole motivation was for people to ask, 'Hey, what's with this car?'" Kozak said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Once the conversation starts, deputies can begin talking about careers."}]

The vehicle is packed with recruiting features, including a pull-out television screen that can play hiring videos during public events.

The sheriff's office will soon hook up a PlayStation loaded with a pursuit-driving game so kids can climb into the back and try it out.

"It's just a vehicle to attract attention and spark up a conversation," Kozak said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lights, Sirens, Western Swagger"}]

The cruiser also comes loaded with what Kozak described as an almost absurd amount of emergency lighting.

Then there are the novelty features. Push the right buttons and the vehicle can play the famous “Bad Boys” theme from the television show "Cops."

[{"type":"text","text":"It can also blast the national anthem."}]

The sheriff's office has only had the vehicle about a week, but it's already been getting attention beyond Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kozak said Wilson recently drove it to a leadership training in Colorado."}]

"All the Denver law enforcement officers that went to this leadership training just thought it was the best car ever that they've seen," he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"The attention is exactly what the sheriff hoped for."}]

Like many agencies nationwide, Laramie County is constantly recruiting new employees as veteran deputies retire or move on.

Kozak said the agency employs about 240 people and generally maintains around a 10% vacancy rate, leaving roughly 10 to 15 positions open at any given time.

His hope is that a cruiser people can't stop staring at might help start conversations that eventually fill those openings.

In the meantime, it might simply be the most “badass” law enforcement vehicle in Wyoming.

Or at least the most likely one to make somebody stop, point and say, "Now 

New Sheriffs cruiser 710020639 1299237672391254 5317509438597465883 n copy 6 6 26

<title>Wyoming Sheriff Orders "Clint Eastwood High Plains Drifter" Look For New Cruiser | Cowboy State Daily</title>

When Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak wanted a new design for the newest SUV in the fleet, he asked a local artist to create a "Clint Eastwood High Plains Drifter" look. "It looks pretty badass," Kozak said, noting he's received many compliments.

Wyoming Sheriff Orders "Clint Eastwood High Plains Drifter" Look For New Cruiser

Christopher Culler looked forward to son Raydon Bowen wearing the matching King’s Camo outfit and boots he got the boy for Christmas as they set out on their annual spring bear hunt.

Instead, the 7-year-old Canyon Elementary School student in Kemmerer spent hunting season in the hospital following a diagnosis of an extremely rare genetic condition. 

The disorder has left him without vision and fighting for life in Salt Lake City’s Primary Children’s Hospital.

“He is obsessed with bear hunting with me,” Culler said. “We have a good time usually. It’s more about crushing some Mountain Dew and snacking then it is hunting.”

Culler, 38, and wife Bailey Bowen, 30, now are now on a mission that has them on family leave from their jobs at PacifiCorp/Rocky Mountain Power and praying for a boy who seemed normal and active until a little more than a year ago.

At first, Raydon’s condition didn’t seem that serious. He started struggling in school, had trouble focusing, and was having emotional outbursts. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"His parents suspected ADHD. "}]

But at the start of the year, his behavior problems became worse and they went to the pediatrician looking for medication help. Nothing seemed to work.

As Easter arrived, Raydon was acting abnormally and the family wondered if it was his medication.

“On Easter Sunday we were at an Easter egg hunt, and all the kids were getting ready and they are doing a countdown,” Culler said. “Everybody runs out and starts picking up eggs, and Raydon just kind of walked out there passed 20 eggs and just kind of looked around and wasn’t excited.”

Culler said the first grader was instead tripping and stumbling. 

He and his wife were unsure what was going on, but sent him to school the next day. They got a call from the school that he was having problems going up and down the stairs.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Trip To Utah"}]

They called their pediatrician from work, who told them to take him to the local emergency room. Then she called them back and told them to take him Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.

Culler with Bowen, then 38-weeks pregnant, headed for Utah. 

At the hospital they were told Raydon would have to stay overnight for more tests. The next day an MRI scan showed areas of his brain that were white that were not supposed to be white.

Doctors told them Raydon had adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a rare genetic disorder that attacks the membrane that protects nerve cells in the brain and spinal chord. 

The condition keeps the brain from communicating properly with other parts of the body, which was the reason for Raydon’s stumbling and other issues.

Raydon also was recently diagnosed with Addison’s disease that typically accompanies ALD and means he has a cortisol deficiency that will need to be medicated for the rest of his life. 

Culler said it’s “frustrating” that they were chasing ADHD and has since found out that many other parents go down the same road because there was no newborn screening for the genetic disorder in their state.

“I’m like, ‘Why hasn’t anything changed? Why aren’t people screening for this?'” Culler said. “When Raydon was born, Wyoming didn’t do newborn screening for ALD, and a lot of states didn’t. 

"Now there’s a few holdout states that still don’t, but most places do, and Wyoming does now.”

Once the couple learned the diagnosis, doctors also told them that there is no cure, but a bone-marrow transplant can freeze the destruction where it is at. 

Raydon stayed in the hospital a week for more tests, and then the family came home as the hunt for a bone marrow donor began.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"New Baby"}]

The family stayed in Kemmerer about three weeks. Bowen decided she needed to bring the baby into the world to prepare for Raydon’s next hospital stay. 

Their son Porter arrived through an induced birth on April 21.

Meanwhile, Raydon’s eyesight got worse as he rode his bike, but still he seemed to be enjoying time to play and try and be normal again.

Culler and Bowen have a blended marriage, and he used the time to prepare his 17-year-old daughter for the reality of he and Bowen having to go back to Salt Lake City. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Grandparents stepped up to help."}]

They kept in close contact with doctors and Primary Children’s Hospital as Raydon’s speech and vision were getting worse. 

They then received word from their doctor that instead of a bone marrow transplant, Raydon would get an infusion of stem cells from umbilical cord blood.

The family went back to the hospital on May 4, and Raydon received nine days of chemotherapy to destroy his immune system. Then the stem cells were transplanted into his bone marrow.

Friday marked the 22nd day after the infusion. 

His dad said Raydon spends his days laying in his hospital bed, unable to see or speak.

“It’s really hard to watch,” Culler said. "He’s to the point where it's kind of hard for him to do anything.

"There’s so much pain involved with doing that to a young body and agitation and anxiety that is astronomical.”

Culler said sometimes Raydon will try and feel for his mom’s ring or feel for his beard. Sometimes he reaches for a hand to kiss it.

“That’s kind of how we know that he’s still there,” he said.

Doctors and parents are waiting for “engraftment,” the process when donor stem cells start making new blood components. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"In Raydon’s case it may take 30 days."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hospital Living"}]

For now, Culler watches their newborn baby at the hospital’s Ronald McDonald House every night while Bowen stays with Raydon. 

They switch places during the day, and the past month is a blur.

Culler said he thinks about the future and possibility of needing a new home to handle a son who cannot see or may have other physical limitations. 

He said his wife and Braydon’s grandparents are living in the moment and trying to make sure everything “is OK now.”

 that has been started on their behalf and for fundraisers such as a hunting and fishing expo that is doing a 50-50 raffle for them, sales of T-shirts that say “Raydon Strong,” and a Utah-based company called Rise and Shed that is doing a fundraiser to help the family with their medical bills.

Culler said he has never been a person who has asked others for help.

“But we’re looking down this road, and we don’t know how long it’s going to be,” he said. 

Culler’s mind goes to when he will return to work, the needs ahead, and more.

Raydon’s elementary school classmates have sent him cards and letters. Culler hopes that one day soon they will be able to read them to him.

Doctors have told the parents that the stem cells may be able to bring back some of the function that Raydon has lost. Time will tell.

Culler said his wife “just wants her boy back” and regrets the times she didn’t make the extra effort to read him that one more story that he was asking for or going to his room to play with him when Raydon asked.

Culler thinks back to the hunting trips, and how he was planning to teach him things this year. 

For Raydon, the trips are mostly about the Mountain Dew that he could only get on special occasions.

“I told him we can have Mountain Dew when we’re in the mountains, when we’re hunting, or when we’re doing ‘dude’ stuff,” Culler said. “He says, ‘Come on, we’re mountain dudes, we gotta drink Mountain Dew.’ That was our thing.”

Raydon Bowen Mix Collage 06 Jun 2026 07 09 AM 6478 6 6 26

<title>Rare Genetic Condition Took Kemmerer 7-Year-Old's Eyesight, Threatens His Life | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Kemmerer couple is on medical leave taking care of a newborn and their 7-year-old son who has a rare genetic condition that took his eyesight. All the little boy wanted to do was go hunting this year, instead he's fighting for his life.

Rare Genetic Condition Took Kemmerer 7-Year-Old's Eyesight, Threatens His Life

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

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

CHEYENNE — Patricia Miller was helping another customer when a smooth-talking gentleman came in and quickly grabbed some crystals that he said were a gift for his mom. 

“He was trying to small talk with me about how wonderful of a person he was, because he’s getting them for her,” Miller told Cowboy State Daily. “And he’s going to print out information about each one of them, and all this other stuff.”

Miller thought that was sweet and said so, but what happened next was anything but sweet.

“He handed me this $100 bill, and I could feel that something was different,” she said. “And I was looking at it, and I’m like, ‘Well, maybe it’s old?'”

That prompted the man to helpfully add that the bill was from 1996.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"That’s when things clicked for Miller."}]

“Like, who knows what year the bill is that you’re handing a cashier?” she said. “So that’s what really triggered my mind to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is counterfeit.’”

Not wanting to falsely accuse the man — or ignite a confrontation — Miller took a different tack. 

“I said to him, ‘I”m sorry, but I don’t have change for this. You’re going to have to maybe get change and come back. Do you have anything smaller?’" Miller said. “And he said, ‘No, I’ll go to Bomgaars and get change.’”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The man never returned for his items. "}]

Later, looking at the store’s video surveillance, Miller saw the man had several recognizable bags with him. When she visited those other stores, it confirmed her suspicion that the $100 bill had been fake. 

The same man with the same story and multiple copies of the same $100 bill, all sharing the same serial number, had hit all of the stores.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Same Serial Number All Over Town"}]

Miller’s social media post about the experience drew jeers from some skeptical online commenters who accused her of overreacting. 

She posted the bill so others would know what was happening, to prevent anyone from getting duped.

A manager at a discount store on South Greeley Highway in Cheyenne, who asked that her store not be named for corporate reasons, confirmed she’d encountered both the same man and the same $100 bill as Miller. 

The man came to the store on South Greeley between the hours of 3:30 and 4 p.m., she said, trying to buy some baby wipes and a gallon jug of water with the $100 — a classic, small-purchase, big-change tactic.

The cashier felt something was off with the bill, but couldn’t identify what. She used a traditional counterfeit detector pen. If the iodine ink, which reacts with starches in standard, wood-pulp paper, remains black, that’s supposed to indicate that a bill is real. 

But the manager has learned a different trick to identify counterfeits lately. 

“I swabbed it with rubbing alcohol, and the ink smudged,” she said. “So I told him it was fake and we were not going to accept it.”

When the cashier told the man the bill was fake, he said, “Keep it,” and walked out, by then visibly trying to hide his face from the camera.

Counterfeit $100 bills are getting passed throughout Wyoming and store clerks say iodine counterfeit detector pens won't detect the fake bills. “The counterfeit pens are garbage,” said one store manager

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