(Riverton, WY) – It was the perfect combination, but it wasn’t salt and sweet like the cartwheels and ice cream cones, it was a business, a business well ahead of its time. The Dash-In, operated by Steve and Vonda (McCoy) Jepson was a unique venue for a non-franchised, fast food restaurant.
Located on West Main in Riverton, near the present Smith’s Grocery, the Dash-In did double-duty as a popular restaurant and a concession stand for the West Drive-In Movie Theater.
After a few hours of dragging Main, taking endless left turns at the Dash-In, teenagers simply turned right to buy tickets at the West Drive-In ticket booth, then drove inside to watch the movie. They also walked back from their viewing spot to the concession’s side of the Dash-In and bought more food.
The Dash-In marked the western boundary of a route teenagers had taken for decades before turning back east into Riverton.
The food was well beyond the traditional burgers, fries, hotdogs, and onion rings offered at competing establishments.
Steve and Vonda offered steak fingers, shrimp baskets, onion rings, and the legendary Cartwheel. Cartwheels were hamburgers dipped in batter with a special sauce and deep fat fried to golden, gastronomic excellence. They were the top-selling item year-round.
Drive-Ins Arrive
In the summer of 1949, drive-in movie theaters were all the rage. A court case removed the questionable patent that Richard Hollingshead applied for when he opened the world’s first drive-in in Pennsauken, New Jersey on June 6, 1933.
His Camben Drive-In coincided with the rise of the automobile, led by Henry Ford’s Model T, but his patent kept the popular idea from spreading outside his control.
In 1948, that all changed when Hollingshead lost the patent.
The sudden surge in automobile production after World War II coincided with a jump in leisure time and an advance in movie production, including many more color films.
The summer of 1949 saw three big screens rising across Fremont County. The Diane Drive-In in Lander, the Knight Drive-In on South Federal in Riverton, and the West Drive-In near the 1949 city limits of Riverton.
George Otwell and William F. “Bill“ Chopping spent $75,000 to build a 300-car theater, equipped with the latest Motiograph Booth projection and sound equipment, and Service Theater Speakers.
It opened on July 16, 1949, to a full capacity showing, with dozens of cars turned away.
Drive-ins were big business. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, they brought in huge crowds. Competition was fierce, with mid-week specials offering discounted ticket prices and even “Dollar a Car Load” nights.
Those dollar car load nights were often the incentive for local 4H Clubs to load several dozen kids into the back of a farm truck and enjoy a movie for just a few cents.
While other businessmen shied away from bulk advertising and reduced-price sales, Chopping embraced it.
Steve’s father Paul was the connection between Chopping and Steve.
“Dad was a projectionist for Chopping at the West Drive-In,” Steve’s sister Ruth (Wickstrom) said. “He worked there as a part-time job.”
Children whose parents worked at a movie theater, especially a drive-in, were able to see every film that was shown all summer.
“We would go and watch the movies over and over again, then start picking out the flaws in the movie,” Ruth said. “My brother Dan and I would go back to find lines that shouldn’t be there or cars that weren’t made yet.”
“Those were happy years, when you get older you look back at the happy stuff,” Ruth said.
“As a teenager, I worked for the Knight Drive-In,” Vonda said. “In 1957-58 I went to St. Stephen’s then graduated from Riverton in 1959. I worked in the high school office for a couple of hours, and only had to take one English class.”
Steve was born in Douglas before his family moved to Thermopolis. He joined the US Navy serving in Navy Air before he came back to Wyoming.
In 1967, Steve and Vonda purchased the West Drive-In and the Dash-In from Paul Cory. Cory had earlier purchased the business from Chopping.
They hired Jim Dabney Sr. to manage the Dash-In.
“Steve did the theater part, my mom ran the box office, Jim managed the Dash-In and I always did the accounting,” Vonda said. “We closed in 1979 because we got divorced.”
The West screen was located where Maurices is today. The box office and Dash-In were at the Smith’s Grocery Store.
The Dash-In had car hop service on the street side of the restaurant and a concession stand on the other. In between, the cooks and wait staff were able to serve customers on both sides.
Dragging Main was a popular activity in the late 1950s, through to the 1980s. Many older residents and business owners openly resented the endless lines of teenagers driving up and down Main and Federal in Riverton. Some put up barriers so teenage drivers couldn’t turn around at their businesses. The Riverton Police Department was often inundated with complaints about loud music coming from the cars as they drove by.
Steve Jepson didn’t have a problem with that. Instead, he and Vonda paved a private lane in front of the Dash-In where drivers could pull off to the right, drive a few dozen yards, and then turn left back onto Main Street.
“When I was growing up, we just dragged Main for fun,” Vonda said. “The private drive worked out great.”
There were parking spots along the lane. After a few laps around Riverton, teenagers inevitably stopped, parked at the Dash-In, and placed an order. It was a brilliant business move.
The West Drive-In showed four different films each week. A single feature on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, another single on Wednesday and Thursday, and a double-feature each Friday and Saturday Night from Memorial Day to Labor Day every summer.
“We had carload nights where no matter how many people you had in a car, you got in for a single price,” Vonda said.
One memorable summer night, a 4H Club from Missouri Valley misread the advertisement for carload pricing and showed up in a cattle truck with 35 kids in the back. They were sorely disappointed when they had to each purchase a ticket to get into the show.
The theater brought in late-evening crowds all summer, but the Dash-In was a thriving business throughout the year.
“We bought all our meat from Clark’s Meat House,” Vonda said. “The dry goods were from Sysco. They were the only two suppliers we needed.”
The Dash-In had soft-serve ice cream, one of only a couple of fast-food restaurants in Riverton at the time.
“We opened a gallon of milk and threw it in, it wasn’t any big deal the machine did all the work,” Vonda said. “When it was done you lifted the knob, grabbed a cone, and filled it up.”
Ice cream cones, popcorn, hot dogs, hamburgers, and French fries were popular but was the cartwheel and steak fingers that brought in the customers. That was Jim Dabney’s realm.
“Jim prepared all of our cartwheels,” Vonda said. “He used a five-gallon bucket to stir up the batter, pre-cooked the hamburgers a bit, laid cheese on it, dipped it in batter, and then dropped it into the deep fat fryer. They were wonderful.”
The sentiment was shared by Jim Dabney, Jr.
“Cartwheels,” Jim said. “It was our favorite meal, we have made them here.”
After a radio career in Riverton, where he was a partner with the late Kurt Browall at KTRZ FM, Jim and his wife Lisa moved to Williamsport and then State College, Pennsylvania where he continued to work in broadcasting and athletics.
The connection between Jim Dabney, Sr., and Steve Jepson was the US Navy. Though almost a full generation apart, both had served.
“Dad took that up after he retired, then worked for Mr. Jepson,” Jim said.
Jim Dabney, Sr. was born in 1919 on a homestead outside Arvada, Colorado. He was an avid athlete, playing many high school sports and one memorable basketball game with the Harlem Globetrotters.
He married Avis Hull three months before Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941 and joined the Navy in 1942.
He served four years on the USS Harris, an attack transport ship where he was a baker first class. That’s where his restaurant cooking experience took root.
The senior Dabney was responsible for cooking for the crew of the Harris, and several thousand soldiers and Marines headed for islands in the Pacific.
He saw action at Okinawa, Saipan, Leyte Gulf, Kwajalein, Tarawa, and the Aleutians.
After his discharge in 1946, he worked in a Sheridan bakery before moving to Riverton. After a couple of jobs in town and a stint with the US Post Office, he went to work for Steve and Vonda.
Jim’s daughter Sherry (Dabney) Settlemire had fond memories of both businesses. “I miss it, I miss the Dash-In and the West Drive-In”
It was while the family was living in Sheridan that Jim discovered one of the favorite ice cream treats offered at the Dash-In.
“They made a peanut butter milkshake up there, Dad brought it to Riverton,” Sherry said. “It went over really well here.”
The cartwheels Jim made were a once-in-a-lifetime creation. “You can’t get them to taste like the originals,” Sherry said. “He did very well.”
Jim and Steve were a great combination as businessmen. “Steve was so good to my dad, he was a good guy,” Sherry said. “When they first started they made gallons of pickles, onions, ketchup, and mustard from scratch.”
Jim and Steve were both solid community supporters of youth athletics.
“We did as much as we could with baseball and softball,” Vonda said.
The Dash-In sponsored Little League and Babe Ruth baseball teams, as well as girls’ softball throughout the 1970s.
“The girls were active in sports,” Vonda said. “Volleyball and track, we had three girls, they were active in school.”
Delisa was the oldest, Alana the youngest, and Kairsten was the middle child.
“It was a good business,” Vonda said. “Our clientele were teenagers.”
The Dash-In was ahead of its time by several decades in offering home delivery.
“We had the only delivery service in town,” Vonda said. ” Steve did most of the deliveries. People called in an order, Steve delivered, it was a cash business.”
Those deliveries were made in a car with a hamburger tilted on the top.
They were a popular destination for the Wind River Reservation as well.
“We did a hefty business with Native Americans when the concession stand was open,” Vonda said.
In addition to the Dash-In, the drive-in took a lot of their time.
“Steve did all the ordering of movies,” Vonda said. “Steve and I flew down to Colorado Springs one time to preview movies.”
Riverton had top-notch air service to many locations with Frontier Air Lines in those days.
One of the longest-running films shown at the West Drive-In was American Graffiti in 1973.
In those days, private theaters had to guarantee either revenue or show time duration. American Graffiti was on the screen for a long time at the West.
“We weren’t allowed to watch American Graffiti,” Kairsten said. “I remember it was a family affair, my grandmother Lillian “Tuffy” McCoy took the tickets at the booth, almost every night. We girls often sat outside with grandma. We did a lot of word searches with grandma sitting in the ticket booth.”
Kairsten graduated from Riverton High School in 1986 but worked at the theater as a child until its closing.
“As kids, we were upstairs in the office area, you could see the movies, but a lot of times the blinds were down. We were only allowed to watch the good movies,” Kairsten said. “The car hops would come up and check on us.”
The image of car hops, with change makers on their belts running upstairs between orders to check on the owners’ children, is a unique look back to late 1960s and 1970s America.
The Dash-In had a miniature marquee at each parking spot, where customers pushed a button to order. The car hops brought that order to the driver’s window a few minutes later.
“When it closed, I was just about old enough to do a few of the concessions. I worked the soda fountain,” Kairsten said. “Growing up there, we ate a lot of cartwheels. I liked to go into the walk-in refrigerators and eat a pickle out of the five-gallon jars.”
Kairsten’s memories of the business include seeing all the burgers laid out on the frying table along with many other glimpses of times gone by.
“We did a lot of business with Clark’s Meat House, they were good family friends,” she said. “Later, Dad drove for Clark’s, doing deliveries all the way to Colorado after the Dash-In closed. The girls who worked at the theater were often our babysitters even when we were at home.”
Saturday mornings were a busy time for the girls.
“We were paid a penny for every pop tab we picked up off the field every Saturday, it was our Saturday morning job,” Kairsten said. “We got to choose two candy bars after we picked up our pull tabs.”
The aftermath of a Friday double-feature meant a lot of cleanup at the theater before Saturday’s show began. The tabs on soda cans were different in those days, they didn’t stay with the can but we’re pulled off. Many people just threw them out the window, along with other trash in their vehicles. It only got worse as the 1960s turned into the ’70s.
“The girls picked up pop tabs for their father,” Vonda said “As we hung up the speakers and picked up garbage from the theatre lot.”
Kairsten and her sisters grew up at the drive-in.
A few years before Riverton’s first Rendezvous balloon rally, a hot air balloon pilot traveling through Riverton stopped at Happy Joe’s Pizza in Riverton. The pilot asked Craig Blumenshine if he wanted to take a ride. Craig, a teenager at the time, was ecstatic and followed the crew to the West Drive-In lot. They launched from there.
Later, the crew found Vonda and her daughters.
“In the morning of a scavenger hunt, the balloon had to find a woman in her bathrobe and there we were, my mom and two sisters in our pasture in our jammies. They landed and took Mom off in the balloon. She went on the rest of the morning’s scavenger hunt, ended in a breakfast that she attended, all the while in her bathrobe,” Kairsten said.
“With both your parents running the business, that’s where we grew up too. The projection shop was where all the toys were, I loved the music before the movie started,” Kairsten said. “We always had kids sneaking in through the trees.”
Riverton was a different place for families in the 60s and 70s.
“Riverton was a safe place to grow up. I had a grandma at each end of town. We rode our bikes back and forth and to the pool,” Kairsten said. “It’s hard to remember that we just got on our bikes and rode or walked everyone.”
Steve Jepson was active in his community, serving as an EMT, a volunteer fireman, and the assistant coroner.
Steve passed away at 57 in 1998.
“When I speak of my memories and family at that time it was happy years, happy family,” Kairsten said.
Steve and Vonda built a business with a strong community connection, the type of business that is often missing in small town America today.
If you ever stopped at the Dash-In or watched a movie at the West, you can probably still taste those cartwheels and steak fingers.