After going back to Rock Springs, Wyoming, Mark Pedri and his wife Kari moved into Mark's late grandfather's home and discovered a knife hidden in his bed. To learn more about this man who lived across the street from Mark for much of his life, he goes on a journey over 5,000 miles away from Wyoming to find out more about the things his grandfather never talked about. Mark Pedri's film Dear Sirs will air on Wyoming PBS June 6th at 7pm. You can also watch it via PBS' live stream here at that time.Please go to the Dir Sirs Webpage to learn more about screenings and other events. If you enjoyed this episode you might also like a previous episode called Vietnam in Our Family Album.

What happens when the old house you are given to live in for the summer has mice in the walls, lights that come on in the attic,  and gives you horrible, horrible nightmares.Many thanks to Scott Leon Smith for his being on the show today. If you are looking for an actor or voice actor here is Scott's website Monster Vox Productions.Scott's reading of The Burqa Cave written by Dean Petersen is available at this link on Audible.If you would like a paper or e-copy of The Burqa Cave, please go to this link.Photos Courtesy of James Campbell & The Library of Congress  -No, it is not a photo of the actual house Scott talks about.

In 1881, confessed murderer George "Big Nose" Parrott was hanged by vigilantes after he tried to escape from jail in Rawlins, Wyoming. While that was the end of George, it wasn't the end of his remains. Some of them were given to a teenaged girl, some were hidden in a barrel to be discovered in 1950 when a store was being built in Rawlins, and some of them were used to make shoes believed to have been worn by Wyoming's third governor at his inauguration in 1893.To find out more listen to this show and buy Dr. Mark E Miller's book Big Nose George His Troublesome Trail.Also please check out the great articles written by Lori Van Pelt about key events and people from this story:Big Nose George: A Grisly Frontier TaleLillian Heath: Wyoming's First Female Physician Packed a PistolJohn E Osborne and the Logjammed Politics of 1893If you'd like to see the shoes feel free to visit The Carbon County Museum in Rawlins, Wyoming.You can read the 1913 article about Governor Osborne and Columbus' remains here.Photo Courtesy of The Carbon County Museum

In 1968, my Dad, Owen Petersen, left the Bridger Valley of Wyoming for Vietnam where he served as a platoon leader in the 3rd Marine Division. After he came home, he put the photos he took into an album that collected dust with our other photos. In this interview we ask him about those pictures and what it was like to be boots on the ground in the war.Veteran Suicide and Crisis Lifeline:  988The varied sounds of bullets passing by:Marine in AfghanistanThe Basinger

Jim Moretti was born in a tiny town in Southwest Wyoming in the late forties, but as his hometown became a ghost town, he stayed in the only hotel until the mid 1980s.The icon for this episode is a picture of the actual Carter Hotel in the story.

In 1969 James Barret was in the passenger seat of a plane headed to Riverton, Wyoming when the pilot suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and couldn't fly the plane. This is James' story about what he did to survive.Links to other plane crash stories:Crash of Flight 409 near Laramie, WYBomber MountainCheck out The Wyoming State Archives Oral History Collection here.

At 7:28 AM United Airlines Flight 409 crashed in the rugged Snowy Range of southern Wyoming on October 6th 1955. It was the worst civilian air disaster to that date in America killing all 66 people on board. Volunteer mountain climbers were called in from The University of Wyoming in Laramie to help recover the remains. Why exactly the plane crashed still remains debated and we explore some of the stories of the recovery teams and victims on this episode.Please check out our other plane crash episode called Bomber Mountain.Visit The American Heritage Center's Digital Collection about the crash.Read Mel Duncan's digitized report.See video of the crash site in 1955 here.-List of the Victims the Crash of Flight 409-Mrs Clifford B AckermanThomas AckermanRobert AinsleyCapt Charles R AnstadtMrs Dorthea BeckDwight H BensonHerbert L BrawnerMrs Grace BrownDale BrownWilliam H BurginDr James A BushAirman 3/C Thomas CampbellMrs Helen CollinsHenry S DeanDr Lawrence J DevineEndlehartMrs Inez C EvansKeith F FinlayCharles GesasGerald HadleyMrs Edna F HanksRichard D HawkinsMrs Marian KirkJ Lawrence MalnarMyron ManwillJE McGarrMrs JE McGarrJohn B MerrillMrs John B MerrillLawrence MonkDale Elton NelsonRB NurreParkerAJ PlouffMrs C PoulakidasEugene ReynoldsMrs Aceodene SchowMrs Betty SeareMrs Rhea SmuthwaiteDr W Alan StewartEdward P TaylorMrs Darrel TuckerDeborah TuckerMrs Georgie WestEarl West JrStaff Sgt Lewis WoodDeloy A MontanoJohn P RiceJoseph D WinsettAlfredo G MitotesCharles L MissnerRonald E AlbrightRoger E BechtoldRaymond EnglehartRichard D CookDaniel R AlexanderArnold H BoggsWilliam R EttlemanRussell L KuglerRichard LawheadPaul C NoetzelmannWilbert N WitleyHerbert Willaims

In 2020 Libby Bushell was putting in a new sewer line on her property in Cheyenne, Wyoming when she got the shock of her life.Please stay tuned if more info from The Laramie County Coroner becomes available.

The story of a murder at Fremont Canyon Bridge in Wyoming and one man's journey to visit the scene of the crime and tell the story of what happened and how it impacted Casper and Wyoming.NOTE: This story contains accounts of suicide and sexual assault. Buy your copy of Ron Franscell's book about the murder: The Darkest Night.Ron's website: www.ronfranscell.comImportant links: Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673Parents of Murdered Children: www.pomc.org

In 2020 a light descended by Interstate 80 in southwest Wyoming. Olen House talks about what he saw and how people have related to the photos he took of it. To get your own copy of Olen's book email him at: ojhouse53@yahoo.comTo learn more about sundogs visit this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog

What is it like living in a fire watch tower in the remote parts of the mountains? We talked with Samsara Duffey about her adventures living in watch towers for 26 seasons. Photo courtesy of Samsara Duffey.Learn how to use the fire finder at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8A2KZ4WDsc

What happens when your sixth grade teacher sees a UFO?Thanks Ms E for being on the show.

A flooded funeral home...A frightening photo...Welcome back to That Doesn't Happen Every Day!

In 1939, Earl Durand went on a rampage across North Western Wyoming that came to a violent end when he  tried to rob the bank in Powell. Thanks to Jerred Metz for appearing on the show. Please check out his book "The Last Eleven Days of Earl Durand."Thanks to Mark Junge for letting me use his recording of Tipton Cox. That recording along with many other recordings pertinent to Wyoming history can be accessed free in The Wyoming State Archives Oral History Data Base. Please check them out.

What does it actually feel like to be bitten by a rattlesnake? One man describes being bitten by a rattlesnake very far from a hospital in the remoter parts of Wyoming.

We talk with someone who hiked to a remote ridge in Wyoming to learn more about the crash of B-17 Bomber during WWII.If you'd like to see a museum display about the crash here is the website for the Jim Gatchell Museum in Buffalo, WY. Photo courtesy of Sylvia Bruner.

If you knew something terrible had happened in a house, would you move into it?We talk with a man who moved his business into a house in Downtown Cheyenne where a man was murdered and buried in the basement and what happened after that.If you'd like to learn more about Alan Ross and his murder please watch the documentary, "Missing Allen."If you'd like to visit the art gallery I featured in this show, please visit the website for Deselms Fine Art & Custom Framing.If you'd like to learn more about the history of the Deselms Gallery and other spooky stuff in Cheyenne, please check out Jill Pope's "Haunted Cheyenne."

Aaron Blair worked as a corrections officer in Wyoming's only Maximum Security Prison for twenty years.  He shares what it's like to be in the middle of a Prison Riot and some of the funny and tragic things that happened while he was there.If you'd like to help corrections officers visit this link.If you'd like to watch the documentary, Echoes from the Wyoming State Penitentiary: North Facility 1981-2001.

There are about 20 one room school houses still operating in Wyoming. We interview Gene Gagliano who left New York State to teach at an isolated one room schoolhouse at the foot of The Bighorn Mountains.MORE INFO: The one room schoolhouse featured in the story was the Kearney School. The photo used for this story's icon was taken in 1908 inside the school and was lent to us courtesy of The Jim Gatchell Museum in Buffalo, WY. Thanks to Sylvia Bruner for her help. Check out Gene's books here.Please like our Facebook page here.

In this episode we hear the story of a woman seen during a fishing trip whose unsettling presence and manner has scared hunters with guns and even made one woman go to the emergency room to check if she was hallucinating.Please Visit Our Facebook Page.