Incident At Park Leaves Town Employee Concussed

On the morning of Wednesday, August 7th, Broadus Town employee Cass Zimmer was involved in an altercation at Cottonwood Park in Broadus, leaving Zimmer bloodied and sending him to the hospital, causing speculation to swirl around the community in the days following the incident.

In speaking with the Sheriff’s Department, their investigation uncovered further details of the altercation.

Zimmer, riding his motorcycle, came upon a group camped at the park, with tents reportedly located near the veranda, as well as two motorcycles parked under the veranda, and trash reportedly strewn through the area. Camping is not allowed at the park, and when speaking to Zimmer he told us that he will generally find one or two people or groups camping at the park each year which he finds cause to disperse.

The Sheriff’s Department investigation found that at this point in the interaction, Cass approached the group, loudly imploring them to leave. Zimmer and one of the campers then come to blows. The ensuing fight left Zimmer with little memory of the event. Cass then evidently rode his motorcycle to the courthouse, and was eventually taken to the clinic and on to the hospital in Spearfish where he was found to have a severe concussion, as well as sustaining a deep laceration to his nose and a split lip which each required stitches, along with bruising of his head and shoulder.

Sheriff Boman informed us that as of Monday, assault charges were being filed against Austin Wight of Wyoming, due to the severity of Zimmer’s injuries, which also included pooled blood suggesting he had perhaps been unconscious for a period of time, though no one present had called authorities to report the incident or provide first aid.

One point of contention noted while researching the incident is that of the park being closed off for camping. While camping is not allowed at Cottonwood Park, there is currently no signage at the park indicating a ban on camping. Multiple individuals we spoke to in the community thought that there were “No Camping” signs up at the park, and the town office stated that there had been signs in the past. Sheriff Boman indicated that he had spoken with the town about a lack of signage around a year ago.

There is currently signage showing no parking of livestock and livestock trailers, as well as signage for picking up pet waste. The only signage in the area related to camping are small blue signs along the highway, one from each direction, with a camper on the sign and an arrow facing down the street to the south of the park. These signs are ostensibly indicators for camping at the White Buffalo Campground, though there is no verbiage explicitly listed on the signs saying so.

In speaking with the town office, plans are in the works to install “No Overnight Camping” signs.

We learned that a travel camping app supposedly lists Cottonwood Park as a place to camp, but our own research found that the popular tent camping site/app, The Dyrt, as well as the RV camping site/app, Park Advisor, did not list Cottonwood Park on their list of approved camping sites.

When we spoke to Zimmer on Monday, he was recovering and in good spirits, though not yet able to return to work, as he underwent concussion recovery protocols.