Tragedy Brings a Small Town Together in ‘The Cokeville Miracle’

Sandra Miska

The true story of a small ranching community that was turned upside when the town’s young children were threatened with violence will be told in the faith-based film “The Cokeville Miracle.”

Elementary schools should be a haven for students, not a place where violent criminals put children in harm’s way.  Unfortunately, this is what happened 29 years ago in Cokeville, Wyoming, a town of only 500 people, when a couple walked into a school with guns and a homemade bomb.

In the film and in real life, madman David Young (Nathan Stevens) and his wife (Caitlin E.J. Meyer), called Penny in the film, forced 136 pupils and 18 adults into a classroom and proceeded to hold them hostage for two hours.  The Youngs demanded $200 million for the lives of the innocent.  The bomb accidentally went off, and what happened next was proof to many that miracles do happen.

The film is not so much about the hostage situation as it is about the aftermath.  It is up to Sheriff Ron Hartley (Jason Wade), whose own children were among the hostages, to take eyewitness accounts in the aftermath, as each survivor has a story to tell.  What Hartley hears astounds him and roots out his inner skeptic.

“The Cokeville Miracle” was directed by T.C. Christensen, a native of Utah and former missionary.  He previously directed a number of faith-based films, including “17 Miracles.”

The dramatization of the Cokeville incident is already proving to be therapeutic to a number of survivors, including Lori Nate Conger, who was 11 at the time.  Conger had a chance to view “The Cokeville Miracle” earlier this year at the LDS Film Festival in Orem, Utah.

“I firmly believe this is a story that needs to be told,” Conger told the Desert News.

“The Cokeville Miracle” opens in select theaters June 5.