The western shores of Bear Lake are dotted with small towns
that swell with tourists every summer. The eastern side is comparatively barren
to the state line. But just past the Wyoming border is a hamlet with 500 residents.
Minerva Teichert, the LDS artist who created ethereal paintings of scenes from
the scriptures, raised her family there. Cokeville was known locally as the “Sheep
Capital of the World,” but most of the planet never knew it existed until May
16, 1986. That day a former town marshal and his wife brought guns and a homemade
bomb to Cokeville Elementary and held 136 children hostage. When the
bomb went off it should have taken nearly everyone with it. Several people
suffered burns, but the only fatalities were the two hostage takers. Many of
the children reported seeing “other people” that day. Several described a
beautiful woman who directed them to the windows. I sometimes imagine she
looked something like this:
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