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Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

[{"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

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Harry Longabaugh, who would become the infamous Western outlaw dubbed the Sundance Kid, earned his nickname while in jail at Sundance, Wyoming. 

While serving his 18-month sentence, he also met fellow outlaw Buck Hanby in a chance meeting that kept Longabaugh in a life of crime, said Lucas Keeler, Newcastle historian and author of “The Outlaws of Red Butte.” 

Keeler said that Hanby and his gang saw in the Sundance Kid potential for ranching, and perhaps even horse rustling. 

They gave him a place to live after Longabaugh was released from jail. Unfortunately for Hanby, their partnership would not last long. 

Longabaugh left his home in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, in 1882 when he was just 14 years old, intrigued by the stories of adventure he had read about the West. 

He had plans to become a rancher and moved to Durango, Colorado, to help a distant relative break horses.  

“Longabaugh’s pursuits were ultimately short-lived,” Keeler said. “His desire for adventure and cowboy work motivated him to travel across the West, taking on ranch jobs along the way.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Kid"}]

By the time Longabaugh was about 17, he had his first brush with the law. 

He was working on the Cheyenne River in Wyoming for the Suffolk Cattle Co. in spring 1886 wrangling horses and was considered a good hand despite losing his temper when a cook called him “Longboy.” 

His co-worker, Sam W. Mather, said that all ended when the Lusk sheriff arrested Longabaugh for robbing an old man of $80.

Longabaugh escaped from the sheriff, but was subsequently fired from the ranch.

He found employment at the N Bar N Ranch in Montana and was making an honest living when the devasting winter of 1886-87 killed between 20,000 and 40,000 of the cattle belonging to the ranch. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Longabaugh, by then 19, lost his job. "}]

Keeler said accounts from both Longabaugh and witnesses say that Longabaugh was seeking another job on the range when he stole a horse, saddle and revolver while riding along Cow Creek, north of Sundance. 

Unfortunately for Longabaugh, the theft had been seen and after a prolonged manhunt, he was caught in Miles City.  

Crook County Sheriff Jim Ryan extradited Longabaugh to Sundance to stand trial for the Cow Creek thefts. 

When on a train near Duluth, Minnesota, on a long route to Sundance, Ryan left Harry handcuffed, shackled, and secured to his seat while he went to the train’s water closet (bathroom). 

Longabaugh picked the lock on the shackles and leapt off the moving train. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"He had escaped, but only for a time. "}]

He brought attention to himself because he continued to steal and was eventually recaptured in Montana. 

After successfully returning to Sundance to stand trial, he was eventually sentenced to serve his time in the Crook County jail despite his claims of innocence. 

He also had officially earned the nickname the Kid. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Von Rippon Gang"}]

The Kid had tried numerous times to break out of jail when in September 1888, new inmates were brought to Sundance; the Von Rippon gang from southern Crook County (present day Weston County) that included Frank Miller, William Brown, Jim Fisher, Arthur Von Rippon and Buck Hanby. 

According to Keeler, Von Rippon and Hanby likely recognized Harry’s charisma and willingness to break the law when necessary. 

Although details of any conversations remain unknown, it is probable that at this time Von Rippon extended an invitation to Longabaugh to come to Salt Creek once he was released from jail.

 The men had a dugout near Red Butte up Salt Creek from Tubb Town, near the present-day location of Newcastle.

The following week, Von Rippon and Frank Miller were exonerated on horse rustling charges and allowed to return to Salt Creek, but Hanby, Fisher, and Brown were taken to Nebraska to stand trial on horse theft charges.

Longabaugh was forced to serve his entire 18-month sentence and when released, temporarily tried to make a honest living in Deadwood before he headed to the homestead of his new friends. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Honest Work "}]

Keeler said that when Harry Longabaugh, now known as the Kid, was finally released from jail and finding no success in Deadwood, he was warmly received by Hanby and Von Rippon at Salt Creek.  

Keeler said this gave Longabaugh the chance to resume cowboying and horse breaking. Rustling was also on the rise in the area and Keeler said it is possible that Sundance was helping with that as well, though this was never proven. 

Outlaw Buck Hanby's past was also checkered with crime. 

Born Robert Minor, Hanby was a mere alias for Minor. Wanted on murder charges in Kansas, and horse rustling charges in Nebraska, Hanby had lived a life of eluding the law, and escaping from jail cells.

Following his September arrest in Sundance, Hanby escaped from jail in Benkelman, Nebraska, and returned to Crook County and the ranch on Salt Creek. 

His freedom was short lived, and an arrest warrant was once again issued for him. 

Crook County Undersheriff E.B. Armstrong left Sundance on a Sunday and headed to the YT Ranch, roughly 10 miles northwest of present-day Newcastle to arrest Hanby at Salt Creek. 

Deputy Jim Swisher joined him there at the ranch and they waited for Hanby and the others to return to the Von Rippon ranch from a trip they had reportedly taken to Tubb Town.

“We rode up to the dugout and as we neared the entrance the door was opened by Von Rippon carrying some dirty clothes out of the dugout,” Armstrong said. “When he saw us he tried to back into the room but I crowded past him into the room with Mr. Swisher close behind.”

Inside the dugout, Harry Longabaugh and another man named Charlie Pearson were taking a bath and picking off body lice from themselves. Hanby was sitting near the fireplace.

“As soon as Buck saw us he arose and walked quickly toward the table where his gun and scabbard lay,” Armstrong claimed. “Just as he got his hand on the gun Jim Swisher said 'hands up ,Buck,' but as he raised his gun to shoot, Mr. Swisher shot him. He fell to the floor dead.” 

Armstrong described Longabaugh and Pearson as “two other long-haired disciples, hideous in appearance, but under the long hair they were good looking young chaps.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The men were ordered out of the dugout."}]

Keeler said that the autopsy does not collaborate the story told by Armstrong, and that it results in more questions asked, than answered. 

“The bullet entered through Hanby's back,” Keeler said. “He definitely had his back turned towards Swisher, but whether or not he was reaching for a gun or just putting on his shirt is the million-dollar question.”

After the shooting, Longabaugh was called as a witness and Keeler said that the Sundance Kid was convinced that it was an unlawful shooting. 

Regardless, the coroner's jury found Jim Swisher innocent of murder.

The outcome was not a happy one for the neighbors in nearby Cambria and friends to Hanby who laid him to rest in a proper coffin and burial near his dugout. 

Longabaugh was accused of threatening to kill Swisher for the murder of Hanby and a warrant was filed for his arrest.

Harry Longabaugh became the legendary outlaw the Sundance Kid after a series of thefts and escapes landed him in the jail in Sundance, Wyoming. While serving his 18-month sentence, he met other notorious outlaws and gained his infamous nickname.