Welcome And Today’s Lineup

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Good morning and welcome to Let's Talk Wyoming. I'm Mark Hamilton, your host, and today we'll be taking a look at our weather, of course, taking a look at some happenings around the state of Wyoming. And finally, we'll talk about a train robber that went straight. Thanks for joining us, and we hope you enjoy the pod.

Wyoming Heat Storms And Smoke

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Yes, we are in the dog days of summer. I must admit, this is having a little bit of a flashback to my childhood with our temperatures. Last week here in the northern part of Wyoming, we were up in the hundreds, 106 to 110 between here and Orland, Wyoming. And then with that, we've had some storms blow through last week in East Thermopolis. They had some flooding, about four to four and a half inches of rain. Probably five miles away. We had eleven hundredths of all we had. We'll take every little bit we can get, but it's hot, it's miserable. And again, as I not said it, it's the dog days of summer are upon us for sure. Again, I talked to my childhood growing up in the Bighorn Basin, and it was hot all the time. And of course, in those days we didn't have air conditioning or anything to soothe our souls from the heat. We just got used to the heat. But weather right now, I don't know. It's rather at that point. Now we're having some issues starting to develop with the fires that are up in Canada with that smoke coming down stateside. I I saw a warning coming from the National Weather Service about smoke coming into the area. I know back on the East Coast, how bad it is in some of the areas. A health issue. And there were 400, if I was correct, fires that were burning up in Canada. I don't know who's starting all the fires, but they seem to have that issue, liking to burn stuff up. But here we are. One thing I will tell you with this warmer weather, it slowed the fishing down a lot on the Bighorn River with all the fly shops that's had to have a little bit of an impact on their business. Yeah, there's still people going up and down and fishing, just having that opportunity, but it's gonna get to that point, of course, um, where you're gonna run into the warmer weather and such, you're gonna run into some moth is always an issue this time of year here in the bighorn, so it's a little bit hard.

Tourists On The Move And Gas

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Tourist season, a lot of tourists out. I will tell you, there's a lot of people out and traveling. But I see today that the price of gas has gone back up. Stopped in Worland at the co-op and it was at 420 where it's been down. The last gas it got or saw over the weekend was around 370. Between 360 and 375. Now it's shot back up. And I think you better be ready to Katie Bar the door. We may be not slowing down for quite a while on these prices.

Casper All Star Weekend Highlights

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We got a chance to make a trip down to Casper over the weekend. Of course, that's always quite an adventure driving from Shoshone to Casper. Went down for an all-star weekend for the Coaches Association. They have a All-Star Girls Game, Girls Basketball, Volleyball, Basketball, and Boys Basketball. That took place at Casper College. I was telling my wife how old Casper College is, an old facility. And up in one of the rafters was a award from a banner, I should say, from 1962-63 season that had a really outstanding team. So we gotta take that in. One of our family members, a great niece, was playing on the North volleyball team. They did dominate in it, won handily, had some really good players. Um, it was a good opportunity for everybody to come out and see some good high school sports here in the middle of July. We're not too far away. We're about a month away when we'll start into workouts, be into fall practices, and getting ready for football and volleyball cross-country.

Four Day School Week Questions

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Busy times coming up, and not much time for these teachers. They'll be back in school. Here in Hot Springs County, they have a four-day school week, and and I know up in basin at Riverside High School, they're going to a four-day work week, so we'll wait and see in Thermopolis. I don't know how what the results have been. I think the teachers liked it. I don't know about the parents. It's always been the issue about having somebody babysit. Um you have now, instead of having the kids go to school on Friday, now you've got to find someplace for 'em to go. So but that's what it is. Here we are, getting ready

World Cup Talk And The Crowd

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to enjoy it. One other thing, got a chance to take in World Cup. I talked about the Viking from Norway when they got down to the finals. I was really shocked. Uh Spain just really controlled France and England and Argentina was England got ahead. They kind of like the proverbial decided to hold the ball. Took him out, I think, of any aggressiveness and ended up losing to Argentina. But yesterday and extra time, Spain got a goal and won one to nothing, so they are the World Cup champion for 2026. And a lot of people were talking about this morning on social media. Game was played. New Jersey, New York, and it looked like it was hot. Of course, it was pretty smoky from the fires. But uh President Trump was there, he was down on the field afterwards awarding awards. So that always anytime uh Donald Trump shows up, it always has some controversy or people are getting a little bit triggered. So but again, congratulations to Spain as they come out victorious. I did see a comment, somebody had made some figures talking about the Super Bowl. You have a hundred and fifteen million people to watch the Super Bowl. You have a milli a million, pardon me. One bil one Easy for you to say. One and a half billion people will be watching the World Cup. A little bit more popular, the football that they play everywhere else, which we call soccer. Heading at that point, just waiting to see what happens down the road. We're waiting for fall, hoping it starts to cool down. Because this is gonna get pretty old.

Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo Season

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Just wanted to add another note about happenings here in the state of Wyoming. Of course, rodeo time is always big here in Wyoming. It's one of our main sports. It's even a high school sport. Rodeo. And so right now, the Cheyenne Frontier Days is taking place in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It's world renowned. It just started on the 17th. It'll go through the week and for 10 days, and the town of Cheyenne will become a total circus. But always a good chance if you're a brave soul to get to the Frontier Days. They usually have some good performers for the night shows that will perform. And then they have the rodeo, which is always great. And as I said, I think before, another good rodeo they always have is Cody, Wyoming. The night rodeos are renowned there. So rodeo time here in the state of Wyoming. Always, when I talk sports, I gotta remember those people in our rodeo nation.

Bill Carlyle The Gentleman Bandit

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Today in our history section, we have a story from wildhistory.org, Bill Carlyle, Gentleman Bandit by Laurie Van Pelt. The story reads like a dime novel. A white masked train robber succeeded in acquiring donations from Union Pacific passengers, and despite a massive manhunt, eluded capture. He robs again. After being caught, he escapes from prison, holds up another train, and is returned to the penitentiary. There he meets a priest who helps him repent. The robber earns parole, marries, operates a restaurant, and writes a book about his experience. But this tale is not fiction. Bill Carlyle and the great rewards offered by the Union Pacific Railroad for his capture, dead or alive, were real. He committed three robberies in 1916 and a fourth in 1919 after his escape from the Wyoming State Penitentiary. Carlisle, the youngest of five children, was born may fourth, eighteen ninety, when his father, a carpenter and a Civil War veteran, was sixty years old. His mother, twenty three years old, died nine months after Bill was born. Because their father was in ill health, the children stayed with relatives or in orphanages. Bill stayed in an orphanage in York, Pennsylvania, his mother's hometown. Following a brief circus stint in nineteen oh five, Carlisle eventually drifted to Denver, Colorado, where in late nineteen fifteen he purchased an imitation glass gun that he planned to fill with candy and send to a niece for a Christmas gift. With little money left, he tried to find work in the city to no avail. So he headed to Cheyenne, Wyoming. His luck was no better there, and he rode the rods of trains traveling west. With only a nickel in his pocket and no job prospects, he decided a train robbery would fetch him enough money to survive through spring. In addition to the toy pistol, he carried a 32 caliber handgun. You couldn't starve to death in Wyoming if you had a gun with which to shoot game, he later wrote. On February 9th, 1916, Carlisle concealed himself between two train cars and then swung onto the rear of the Portland Rose as it pulled away from the Green River Wyoming station. During the holdup, with a brakeman thought was a joke until the robber fired a shot through the top of the upper berth. Carlisle returned the porter's coins to make up for his lost tip and gave a silver dollar to a man to pay for breakfast. He bowed to a woman who tried to get his gun. No one was injured. Carlisle, whose face was hidden under a white bandana, leapt from the train about three miles from Rock Springs, Wyoming. He landed and rolled near the moving wheel so close that his glass gun shattered against the rail. The gain from the robbery was only about fifty-two dollars and thirty five cents, but news of the white mass bandit spread quickly. The crime was the first of its type in occur in nearly sixteen years. The Union Pacific Railroad offered a $1,500 reward. A posse followed the trail, and Carlisle ooted capture. He returned to Green River to buy a ticket to Wheatland, Wyoming. One of the men of the posse, Charlie Irwin, at the time, special agent for Union Pacific, who later became known for providing broncos for the Cheyenne Frontier Days, stood near the window, visiting with a ticket agent and another man. The ticket agent told Irwin that a customer was behind him. Carlisle, nervous because he recognized Irwin, pocketed his ticket and turned to leave. Irwin placed a hand on his shoulder. Carlyle looked back, praying the worst. Irwin said, You forgot your change. By early April, Carlisle was back in Cheyenne, determined to go to Alaska. He needed money, so he robbed the Overland Limited between Cheyenne and Laramie on April 4th, 1916, receiving $506.07. The UP reward increased by $5,000. Enough that even homesteaders who knew that the $6,500 reward could pay their mortgages joined the search. Law enforcement officials, overwhelmed by the number of telegrams and tips received, overlooked a legitimate message from a person who saw Carlisle in the vicinity of Cheyenne robbery. Meanwhile, Carlisle made it to Douglas, Wyoming. He joined a saloon card game, got lucky, and doubled his money. Then he traveled by train to Casper, Wyoming. Upon learning other men were landing in jail for his crime, Kyle sent a letter to the Denver Post enclosing a watch chain snatched from one of the holdups. He signed the letter, The White Masked Bandit, stating that he would rob another train somewhere west of Willaramby so the unjustly accused men could be set free. The bandit struck again on April twenty first, nineteen sixteen. He gave the train's guard the watch matching the chain which was earlier sent to the Denver newspaper. When he jumped from the train about four miles west of Walcott, Wyoming, three hundred and seventy-eight dollars and fifty cents richer, he injured his right ankle and bruised his face. Saratoga native E. W. Wallach, Sr. recalls his mother, Edna, telling him she remembered the day the transcontinental train stopped at Walcott. A very unusual circumstance. Edna taught school for a short time at Walcott when she was nineteen. She boarded at the small hotel located there. There were two regular trains at the time. The Portland Rhodes carried local passengers from Cheyenne to Rollins and to Rock Springs, and the San Francisco Limited traveled cross country westbound. The limited stopped to Walcott, so news of the robbery could be telegraphed ahead. Another posse was put together and this time it succeeded. Carlisle was caught the next day about 12 miles north of Walcott. Carbon County Sheriff Reuben Rivera of Rollins, Wyoming, took the robbery into custody. The reward was split between Rivera, who took $500, and the members of the posse. In his memoirs, Rivera said he dreaded other criminals more because Carlisle was more like a kid showing off. Passenger on the train were able to identify the bandit. On may tenth, nineteen sixteen, after a two-day jury trial, Carlisle was sentenced to life in prison. In July of nineteen nineteen, his sentence was reduced to fifty years, but Carlisle wanted out. He escaped from the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rollins in November of nineteen nineteen by hiding in a carton containing shirts made by the prisoners. On November nineteenth, nineteen nineteen, he robbed a train near Rock River, Wyoming. The passengers were mostly soldiers and sailors returning from World War I from military duty in France. Carlisle let them keep their money, saying, I would have been over there with you if they'd let me go. He collected eighty-six dollars and forty cents from the others. When a young man aimed his gun at Carlisle, the bandit knocked it away. The gun discharged, injuring Carlisle's hand. Two weeks later, he was captured in a prospector's cabin near Douglas, where he was shot in the chest. Thirty-three days later, following surgery in Douglas, Carlisle was incarcerated again. Because the Union Pacific had spent about $15,000 hunting for him in 1916, the company, this time relied on the state to conduct the search. Carlisle was in prison in Rollins for 16 more years. While there he met Reverend Gerald Schellinger, a local Catholic priest who helped the bandit go straight. Carlisle earned parole and was released on January 8th, 1936. He spent his first evening as a free man by eating dinner with his best friend, Father Schellinger. Carlisle opened a cigar shop in New Stan in Camera, Wyoming, where Schellinger was posted. While recuperating from ruptured appendix, Carlisle met Lillian Burquist, the superintendent of the local nursing home. They married on December 23rd, 1936. Abandoning the cigar store, Carlisle moved to Laramie and worked at a filling station in Laramie for about a year. In 1937, the Saratoga Sun reported Carlisle leaves Spring Camp west of Laramie, planning to open a lunchroom and filling station there. E.W. Wallach Sr. recalls eating in the second story loft of Carlisle's cafe as a college student in 1940 in Laramie. Customers paid extra to take their meals upstairs. This building, Warwick said, is located on Grand Avenue near 30th Street and it currently houses a floral shop. Kenneth Oslin of Lewistown, Montana, and his friend Otmore Gross worked briefly mopping and cleaning up Carlisle's establishment when they were at the University of Wyoming as students in 1947 to 1948. Carlisle was generous enough to tell the young man to cook themselves a meal in his absence. But after he learned that they helped themselves to the steaks in the cooler, Austin remembers the old bandit fired them. Some Carbon County residents also remember Carlisle book signings. Reform Robber Autobiography was published in 1946. He dedicated the book to his sister, his wife, and to Schellinger, a friend of the later years, who taught me that often in failure there lies great success. Carlisle sold his Laramie business in 1956 after his wife died in 1962. He moved to Coatesville, Pennsylvania, where he lived with his niece. He died of cancer on June 19th, 1964. In June of 2012, a Denver auction house sold at Ivory Johnson 32 caliber revolver, reportedly owned by Bill Carlyle and compensated after the 1990 train robbery. In the same auction lot were several items from the collection of George Carroll, who served as U.S. Marshal and Sheriff of Laramie County in the 1920s and 1930s. Items sold at the auction with the pistol include the original telegram warning trains to keep a close lookout because the number 19 had been robbed near Medicine Bow, a poster offering a $1,000 reward for the bandit, a photo of Carroll and Carlisle, signed by both and taken in the mid-1950s, and an autograph, first copy of Carlisle's autobiography. The lot sold for $10,030, including the buyer's premium. Quite an interesting story about the train robber that went straight here in the state of Wyoming.