She tied the string around her wrist. Were you portrayed in the movie at all? Mark Junge: Where at? David Young entered the school with his wife transporting a large gasoline-filled device that appeared to be a bomb. This anxiety continued until all my children reached second grade and then a weight lifted. We know he built two of 'em. Go to school and learn how to do it." In mid-April, I spoke to a peer group about my experiences at Columbine. Read 40 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. 1 of 7. As I got closer to it I could tell it was a body, and of course, you just start thinking about what took place. Contact us at editor@wyohistory.org for information on levels and types of available sponsorships. Rich Haskell: And fourteen and a half great-grandchildren. Too many of 'em to try to remember their birthdays. TC is one of my heroes. They feel that it was a positive experience for them. When the bomb was triggered a miracle took place guardian angels saving the lives of the innocent. This did, in fact, happen in Wyoming! Mark Junge: Why do you think that God chose Cokeville to save? Mark Junge: You also mention in your written article in Witness to Miracles [See Note] , the book, that you found a briefcase and you had to open it remotely? Recording and transcription by Wyoming State Archives. Number one, that's where he worked. The couple corralled a large group of students and teachers into a single classroom. Tensions were running high, and many in the tiny classroom began to pray. No, this is something that people need to know about. I do think the key is talking about it often and early. And you could see that she had been burning by just looking at her out on the front lawn. Sue Castaneda: Which is the son who is also running for sheriff? It was within the first few weeks that the Hartley boy was explaining his witness. This week, Michael Marshall joins us for an atheist review of The Cokeville Miracle; a movie that will try to sell the bombing of an elementary school as a miracle, even though the only miraculous thing is that we managed to find jokes to tell about it. Welcome to /r/latterdaysaints, a sub for members and friends of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (formerly known as Mormons). In the meantime, David and Doris Young gathered children, teachers, staff and visitors in the elementary school into one central location. If I deleted an entire phrase, I have inserted ellipses . Even lead investigator Ron Hartleys son pointed to an image of his grandmother as the angel whod protected him in the fire. Casper Chapter, Wyoming Archaeological Society, June Frison chapter, Wyoming Archeological Society. Part of HuffPost Impact. What is sacred to some, is smeared by others - even after we hear eye-witness accounts of miracles. In the days and weeks immediately after this event, most accounts focused on the horrors of the day. Yeah. I was a little bit nervous, of course. Mark Junge: That's a mighty powerful gun! The only two fatalities were David and Doris Young. Jessica Clark, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of history and political science at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, Wyo. I said, "What on earth happened there?" Over the course of time he did various things to get our input from script readings early on, to being there on set, etc. However, most had been sitting near the windows and doors, so teachers and staff began shoving students out of the room. . By Liz Carlston, Contributor Author, Traveler and Culture Observer I received a telephone call from my dispatcher informing me that an incident had taken place up in Cokeville and they were requesting me to drive to Cokeville for assistance. She's an avid genealogist, so maybe get involved with that, and maybe go on a mission for the church. "God can heal even the deepest of wounds and the most difficult sorrows. Okay? Yeah, we didn't get a lot of sleep. On that Friday afternoon in their quiet, rural town, a deranged couple entered the communitys elementary school, took those inside hostage and detonated a bomb in a first grade classroom. It was not a teacher, but her ancestor. A Project of the Wyoming Historical Society. Jessica Clark, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of history and political science at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, Wyo. I mean, what it was supposed to do? What stands out in your mind the most, looking back? Go to their hands and knees and crawl out. He had tried this deviceand they were designed tothat it would be a delayed explosion. The connection that my brain was making with my kids being in first grade and what happened to me in first grade was hard to control. I did see the lighting had changed in the room, and it was right in the same timeline as everyone else's witness. Thank you for sharing your witness that God is real and that He knows about tiny wounds in mortal souls that need a balm of healing. When I looked up to see if David had heard me (which he had, and scowled down at me) I noticed that the florescent white light overhead was not white, but a yellow hazy light. Mark Junge: EOD. Cokeville Miracle Marking 25 Years.. I don't know. Mark Junge: So it would have gone upward, but would it have killed the kids? While he was writing his philosophy, Zero Equals Infinity, Doris took part-time jobs including housekeeping and waitressing to support their meager lifestyle. So timelines and characters may be switched up, but the overall spirit of it and the facts are laid out true to witness testimonies. Then when I became a deputy, Sheriff Stark says, "You know, we're going to start finding a bunch of old explosives, dynamite and things. There are a select number of people that would do this, so thank you. What is the LDS population of the town and how big was your school? Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources, Repanshek, Kurt J. Rich Haskell: Yep. Whenever they would come to Wyoming I would be part of their security team. The innocent and pure, often children, have an inside track to being honored in their prayers. Mark Junge: Which means you had to be doing over a hundred miles an hour! So there's doubt in your mind that there was divine intervention? The prolific writer-director-cinematographer, whose credits include 17 Miracles and Ephraim's Rescue, has a passion for faith-promoting true stories that combine tragedy with divine intervention and heartbreak with hope.His latest, The Cokeville Miracle (read my review), portrays the events of a 1986 elementary school bombing, in which multiple children . Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. Is there a news article that I could read to get a better idea of what happened? Everybody that was inside that room, they just started throwin' them out the windows, out the doors, just anyand she happened to be one they threw out the window. Survivor relives the Cokeville hostage crisis - YouTube cokeville miracle debunked. When authorities arrived, he demanded to speak to President Reagan, to whom hed sent a copy of his manifesto, and then asked for the ransom. He began composing his philosophical manifesto, Zero Equals Infinity, in which he argued for a new world order or, as he called it, A Brave New World.. A new movie is coming out on Friday called "The Cokeville Miracle" that depicts not just this terrible event, but the various miraculous stories that emerged afterward. You know something about bombs. Since then, the story has become a local legend, with several variants emerging, including tales of an angelic outline in the shrapnel. Then, several years later, Jennie Sorensen identified what she thought was a teacher who led her out of the building after the blast. There was nobody killed but the perpetrators. Cokeville Miracle Motion Picture Review On May 16th 1986 a mentally crazed man, with enough explosives to completely destroy the building and kill all of the people inside, occupied an elementary school in Cokeville, Wyoming. And the bathroom was off to the side of it because it was the kindergarten class. Survivor is my Name: Voices of the Cokeville Elementary School Bombing. Produced by Wyoming State Archives for Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources, the package includes interviews with 14 people about the events of May 16, 1986. Jennie Sorensen Johnson reported a teacher helping her flee the burning classroom, only to recognize the figure much later in life as her long-dead great-aunt. We'd all do well learning to see God's hand in our lives. To go off to the side? That your life could change just at a blink of an eye. His latest, The Cokeville Miracle (read my review), portrays the events of a 1986 elementary school bombing, in which multiple children witnessed angels protecting them. Rich Haskell: Well, I got a lot of it while I was in the Marine Corps and in the Army National Guard. Totally destroyed it! Now you are a bomb technician. One of the unique things that I noticed when I went into that room and I don't know if any of the other people have told you about it or whatever else, but when I walked into that room you could see the outline on the whiteboard of an angel. I actually hadn't thought of doing that, yet. She has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals on the history and heritage of Germans from Russia on the Northern Plains. Rich Haskell: No. I remember seeing the wide eyes on my band teacher as he collapsed with the EMTs afterward. You know this is going to sound morbid, but I always thought if the Muslims, the radical Muslims were smart, they would take their jihad to local communities because that would scare the hell out of 'em like it did in Cokeville. Any sincere petition to God is powerful. But it still sent flames all over in the room and you can see where all the flames were in that room. These are the true stories behind the hit film The Cokeville Miracle. And it burned some children. --- If you'd like to make a per episode donat Cursed by Spirits: The Strange Tale of the Winchester Mystery House, Inferno: 7 People Who Claim Theyve Been to Hell and Back, Divine Suffering: 7 People Who Claimed to Have the Stigmata. Nobody come inside this circle." Christensen Hartt Wixom (based on the book: "The Cokeville Miracle) That's my lucky miracle. Rich Haskell: It's a combustible. She is a trained rural historian who specializes in oral history, childhood history and memory studies. But I know that, well, I'll just be quite frank. And what happens if they trigger something accidently?" Blasting cap wires had been cut before detonation, a gasoline leak prevented explosive powder from setting the air on fire, and, despite a great deal of shrapnel, no one had been hit. And screaming, I can't imagine the screams that she was making. I don't know ifI just felt an emptyactually I could just see a hundred-sixty people dead! My name is Mark Junge and I'm here at the Hiltonis it the Hilton Hotel? The Hartley story didn't come out publicly until my parents (who wrote the book in the year after the bombing) began asking questions about this kind of thing. "I don't experience too many panic attacks anymore because I have learned to breathe through the anxiety and focus, but the thing that distinctively changed my PTSD is when my own children began elementary school as first graders. I've spent many, many hours and many days with the leaders of the Mormon church, with the Prophet of the Mormon church. Parentheses ( ) are used for incidental non-verbal sounds, like laughter. The Cokeville Town Hall is located at 110 Pine St. For more information, visit the website of the Cokeville Chamber of Commerce at http://www.cokevillewy.com or call (307) 459-4195. I've driven past Cokeville, Wyoming, but never knew about the madman and his wife who held an elementary school hostage in 1986. Rich Haskell: No. The Cokeville Elementary School hostage crisis occurred on Friday, May 16, 1986 in Cokeville, Wyoming, United States, when former town marshal David Young, 43, and his wife Doris Young, 47, took 96 children and 18 adults hostage at Cokeville Elementary School. Located in Lincoln County and nestled between the towns of Star Valley and Kemmerer on the Wyoming-Idaho border, Cokeville, many residents believed, was a safe place to rear children. Thus, when David and Doris Young entered the towns only elementary school with an arsenal of weapons and a gasoline bomb in a grocery cart, no one saw it coming. David planned to negotiate with then-President Ronald Reagan before setting off a bomb that would take them all to a new world where he would reign supreme. Mark Junge: Well, and it burned some of the kids. Mark Junge: Do you think David or Doris would have cut it? May 16, 1986, will never be forgotten by the residents of Cokeville, Wyo. For more information about our sponsors and the people behind WyoHistory.org, visit our About Us page: Hostage crisis at the elementary school in Cokeville, Wyo. I had just cracked a little joke with a toy tank of legos as I drove it "across the death line" or the masking tape square on the floor. Current students at Cokeville Elementary School aren't taught about the '86 bombing, but most know the general story. Rich Haskell: Absolutely! While severely injured, Miller would later recover. Director T.C. Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources, Cheyenne. Investigators found that the bomb had been perhaps miraculously broken. It was just shootin' everywhere. In the end, though, the only casualties were David and Doris Young. A Project of the Wyoming Historical Society. T.C. mayo 29, 2022 . Being kids, they were curious. Doris accidently triggered the bomb by motioning to her hostages with her arms. Mark Junge: And your great-grandkids? Based on the true story of a school taken hostage by an armed couple, who threaten to blow the place away with bombs. Rich Haskell: Yeah, I think I did. Mark Junge: This was a life-changing event. Well, with the window being open, with the ceiling tiles being able to lift up and down, I think that absorbed a lot of the explosion of the gasoline bottle. Mark Junge: Well, you've been blessed in a lot of ways. Do you ever think about that? He just said just go do it. On one hand people didn't want money to be made off of suffering, but on the other hand it felt ungrateful to not share it in the way that TC would or could. Survivors shared their stories with each other, investigators, family members, and hospital personnel. I actually have a pretty clear memory of the events that day, being 12 years old. I'm currently the Sheriff of Sweetwater County. Why? That much I know. I think you should know that it can be difficult to watch - but that it has a very rewarding outcome. ", Fresh off this experience and sensitive to the impact of talking about heavy topics, a friend looped me into a Facebook thread about a new movie coming out in June called "The Cokeville Miracle.". Flames filled the room, with Doris on fire and several children burnt by the bomb. As a society we tend to talk around or mock prayer and having faith in God. As I come to the junctionI'm sorry, I don't know what the road is that goes over to Bear Lakebut as I was passing that intersection, they did inform me that the bomb had exploded. In that moment, the Mormon community of Cokevilles trust was broken, but something far more extraordinary was about to happen. I didn't see angels in white, but I saw and listened to who I needed to. "I think all of us were hurt by what happened that day at Columbine," writes Margie Duffy. They brought with them hundreds of copies of Zero Equals Infinity, 9 handguns, 4 rifles, and a gasoline bomb in a grocery cart with a shoelace trigger attached to Davids wrist. Mark Junge: Today is the 23rd of September, 2010. Mark Junge: What's been your experiences since then? Doris took on part-time work as a housekeeper and waitress, but David became increasingly isolated. I did not have to imagine how God would move that day when I said my little prayer just hours before, I simply knew he would. To keep the kids safe, the adults had a few windows opened and made an off-limits masking tape square around the bomb. David was a diabetic. The tuna fish cans, if you can imagine, here's two tuna fish cans sittin' here like this, and a gallon jug of gasoline sittin' above it. That's what it was designed to do was to go out and be particles and that gasoline was gonna ignite it and blow it up. Investigators found that the bomb had been - perhaps miraculously - broken. My parents were so thankful we survived that we didn't spend time EVER talking about David and Doris Young or why they would do this horrible act. For me, what has impressed me about the film is not necessarily the story of Angels (which are remarkable), but that the majority of the 154 hostages chose to see God's hand in their lives that day. She is a trained rural historian who specializes in oral history, childhood history and memory studies. The heat of the summer day made the crowded room feel even smaller, and fumes from the gasoline bomb made everyone sick. In the West? Words emphasized by the speaker are italicized.~Transcribed by Russ Sherwin, Feb. 27, 2011. As reporters converged on Cokeville, another story emerged. Mark Junge: And you're sheriff in Sweetwater? Of what you would picture an angel, with the wings and, Mark Junge: Well, if I'm a skeptic, I could say, "Well, that's just the way the flames shot up.". The Cokeville hostage crisis began the afternoon of May 16, 1986, David and Doris Young took 154 children and adults hostage at the Cokeville Elementary School in tiny Cokeville, Wyo. He hadn't had anything to eat and she finally convinced him to get something to eat, and he let her be in charge of that bomb. It was unexpected and they didn't recognize this woman, but who doesn't love a surprise? I believe a presence was entering the room at about that time. CTRL + SPACE for auto-complete. Where's he running? George Moore helps his son on the boy's first day back at school, the week after the bombing. They had a circle of tape around the device itself and they said, "Do not come inside of this circle. In most cases I have deleted redundant ands, ers, uhs, buts, false starts, etc. It brings back lots of memories but it doesn't hurt because actually it was a positive experience. Guys like you have to go and search every corner. Sue Castaneda: Did you look at (unintelligible). People who had guns! So many of 'em thatI don't know. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. I mean, Columbine, it wasn't that way. On May 16, 1986, an elementary school in the tiny town of Cokeville, Wyoming, was held hostage by a married couple with a bomb. Blu-Ray. My name is Kamron Wixom, I was a 12 year old 6th grader in 1986 when a mad man took over my school (Cokeville Elementary) with a bomb and his guns. After a stand-off lasting two and a half hours, the gasoline bomb the couple had brought into the school went off prematurely, badly burning Doris Young while David Young was out of the room. The device was set up on afor lack of a better word, I call it a shopping cart. I had the chance to watch the pre-screening of the film and it was very emotional. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Reporters from all the regional news outlets were on the scene by the time of the explosion or shortly thereafter. Kameron Wixom, son of Hartt and Judene Wixom, writes a childlike faith saved us. In his contribution to the Witness to Miracles book, Kameron writes: I didnt have to see angels, hear them, or even think that their presence might be required that day. This school is being taken hostage! And I didn't know about the angel thing comin' to the kids until many days later. Rich Haskell: Well, I like to think I'm a better person because of it. Have there been any lingering psychological effects from going through something so traumatic while so young? Did you see anything? I absolutely have. Because in the bus, everything was solid in the school bus. . She was there and saved me. Thank you for doing this! By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. Davids writings reveal that he hoped life would be better for him and Cokevilles children in this imaginary place. They have a lot of first-person histories of the actual event, teachers, investigators and students. But it didn't. As time progressed, however, a different story emerged in this highly religious and largely Mormon community. I guess I should say I am only speaking as a child, the adults were probably tense the entire time! Been perhaps miraculously broken and you could see that she had been miraculously. 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