This is a story of a tragic, ironic, almost unbelievable twist of fate.
Some of you remember I wrote a series of stories, beginning in July 2017, about an illegal bridge across the Little Missouri State Scenic River west of the Killdeer Mountains, built by a fellow named Wylie Bice, a wealthy rancher with his pockets full of oil boom money.
Well, actually it was built by a small construction company from Montana owned by a fellow named Travis Caldwell. Well, actually, it was a prefabricated bridge put in place by Caldwell. It’s a pretty nice bridge, 300 feet long, three spans built of steel and sitting on huge concrete abutments. It cost, no doubt, a few million dollars.
The problem is, one end of it sits on land owned by the people of the United States and managed by our Bureau of Land Management. And neither we, nor the BLM, gave Bice permission to put a bridge on our land.
Nor did he get permission for a new road leading to it, or a water depot to store Little Missouri River water for sale to the oil industry, or to plow up virgin prairie to plant an alfalfa field, all on public land.
Well, when the BLM finally learned of it, it set about trying to figure out what to do about it. First, the BLM conducted an environmental assessment to help them figure out what its options were.
Turns out the Draft EA prepared by the engineering company and approved by the BLM said the Preferred Alternative — the recommended outcome of all this — is “to grant a 30-year right-of-way for the bridge and access road” and “require the reclamation of an unauthorized settling pond and portions of two alfalfa fields developed on public land.”
And that’s what happened, in the end. Wylie paid a $30,000 fine, took out a $100,000 bond in case of damages to public land in the future and reclaimed the land he’d used for the water depot and the alfalfa field.
But the bridge stayed.
Too bad. It should have gone way.
Because this spring the bridge needed some maintenance work, and Travis Caldwell was called back to Dunn County to do it. On June 29, a sunny, windy day in the North Dakota Bad Lands, Travis Caldwell made a misstep on the bridge, 30 feet above a rocky Little Missouri River bottom and fell to his death.
According to reports from the Dunn County sheriff and the state medical examiner, efforts were undertaken to save Caldwell. His co-worker called 911, he was alive when the sheriff’s deputy arrived. An air ambulance helicopter was called for to transport him to a medical facility, but he passed away before the helicopter arrived. The medical examiner’s report says Caldwell died from “blunt head and chest injuries” sustained in a fall of 30 feet from the bridge to the ground at 2:25 p.m. June 29, 2024. He died at 4 p.m. that day. It takes a while to get emergency help deep in the North Dakota Bad Lands.
I can’t tell you much about Travis Caldwell. He was 55 years old and lived in Shepherd, Mont., a suburb of Billings, and did some rodeoing in his younger days, maybe even recently. He owned a small construction company and did jobs like the one he did for Wylie Bice. I’ve looked at his Facebook page, but it is mostly inactive. It doesn’t show any family, but a pretty blonde girlfriend who’s also a rodeo participant.
The whole incident has been kind of secretive. There have been no news stories, and I haven’t been able to find an obituary in any Montana or North Dakota newspapers.
The Dunn County sheriff was helpful when I talked to him but very guarded. Bice is a very important man in Dunn County.
The medical examiner’s office says the autopsy on Caldwell was done by the acting state medical examiner, Dr. William Massello III, who’s filling in temporarily for the previous medical examiner who was fired this spring, so Caldwell’s body must have been taken to Bismarck.
I don’t know if there has been a funeral held or scheduled or where he might be buried. Maybe that will all come out eventually. Stories like this are usually pretty big news in local newspapers. Or used to be.
Anyway, as I said at the outset, it’d a sad, sad, story that almost defies belief. But it’s true. I’m hoping to talk to the new BLM guy in Dickinson next week. If I learn anymore, I’ll tell you.
