As the Cokeville Memorial Foundation calls for a national memorial in Cokeville in honor of the survivors of the 1986 bombing, the opinions of those connected to the incident differ on whether or not a memorial should be erected.

The foundation sent out a guest column to papers in the state in August that stated member Sharon Dayton had contacted the state’s national senators and representatives with a proposal for a national monument in Cokeville. The column reminded readers what happened at the event and asked that public support the effort by contacting representatives, educating themselves or by sending financial support.

Powell residents remember the event

Two Powell residents, Lenita Moore (a science teacher at Powell High School) and John Miller (a longtime choir director at Powell High School who retired in 2020), remember being in Cokeville during the bombing. Lenita’s father Rocky was a fifth grade teacher at Cokeville Elementary School at the time of the bombing, Lenita was a seventh grader. Miller was the school’s music teacher and the only hostage shot during the bombing.

On May 16, 1986, the date of what is now known as the Cokeville Miracle, David Young, who briefly served as the town’s marshal, and his wife held the elementary school hostage with a homemade bomb. Each student was ransomed at $2 million. When the bomb was accidentally detonated, only part of the device went off; somehow there were no fatalities other than the would-be assailants. 

Miller said “the gas part and the bullets went off” but the blasting caps did not. 

Lenita remembered hearing over the middle school intercom that there was a bomb threat at the elementary school. When it was announced that the elementary school was being held hostage, nobody knew what to do. This was an early case of violence in schools. 

Miller taught at the middle school and high school in the mornings. He had gone to the elementary school and planned to show his students a video of the concert they had held the night before. Except the video would not play so he began looking for the school’s tech support.

“I see her, so I go right into the room. I also saw David Young. He had a cart with the bomb,” Miller said.

He was informed that the school was being held hostage and was told to join the rest of the school in a room he remembers being roughly 30 feet by 30 feet.

When the district decided to dismiss the middle school and high school for the day, Lenita and her brother walked 2 miles outside of town to her aunt’s house. The Youngs had rented property from her parents in the past, and Lenita’s mother worried the Youngs would visit their home next.

Meanwhile, Lenita’s father, Rocky, along with the other teachers, were doing what they could to keep students safe. Rocky and the sixth grade teacher, John Mitchell, had noticed that both David and the children were becoming agitated. They came up with an idea to create space for David away from the children which he agreed to.

“So they taped it off and then they told all the kids this is the magic square we’re not gonna go inside of it. So they at least could give him some space, because he was kind of freaking out a little bit,” Lenita said.

Eventually the bomb was accidentally detonated by Young’s wife.

“My dad saved a lot of students’ lives that day. When the bomb went off, he immediately started grabbing kids and throwing them out the window. Some of them were on fire. He quickly put them out and put them out the window,” Lenita said. 

The kids, who were in shock, began to congregate at the window. Rocky yelled for them to run and when he was sure all the kids had escaped, he left the building.

Despite his efforts to keep the kids safe and get them out of the building, Rocky regretted their injuries until his death, his daughter said. 

“One of the last things that he talked about before he passed away was that he was upset that some of his students got hurt. None of them died,” Lenita said. “But he just felt like that they were his responsibility, and while they were on his watch, they got hurt.”

While Miller was on the ground to avoid the smoke, Young approached him, pulled out a .22 caliber pistol and shot Miller in the shoulder. Miller said the gun could have been placed anywhere on his body. Young also could have chosen  to use the .38 caliber handgun. 

“I feel very blessed to have not been paralyzed,” Miller said.

He looked for children and when he couldn’t see any more, he ran out the building with the students.

“It’s all surreal. It’s almost in slow motion,” Miller said. “One kid slipped, and I put him back on his feet.” 

Shortly after being shot, when school was back in session, Miller went from room to room and showed students his scar. He hoped it would show the students that he had survived and they were all OK. The bullet was not removed and stayed with Miller for a decade. It was finally taken out for an unrelated surgery. 

Lenita said Rocky had an opportunity to leave the building before the explosion when he was ordered to move desks out of the room, but refused to leave his students. “My dad is/was a true hero,” Lenita said.

Should a memorial be built?

Lenita does not agree with a national memorial dedicated to the bombing.

“Nobody died in it except for the two perpetrators, so we don’t need to memorialize anything. When David Young and his wife Doris Young were holding them hostage, he kept telling the children, ‘This is an adventure.  This is something you can tell your grandchildren about,’ even though he planned on killing them,” Lenita said. “I feel like he wanted it to be this big thing, and I feel like making a monument kind of makes it what he wanted it to be.”

Lenita clarified that the event should not be erased from history, but worried that a monument may be dangerous in a climate where mass shootings are common. 

For Miller, the community of Cokeville was and is a strong community of many faiths and one that supports the community’s youth.

“Just like Powell, [they are] wonderful people,” Miller said. 

Miller has not watched any of the movies or books based on the event.

“I want to remember my story, not how it was portrayed,” Miller said.