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You still here 10 4 22 no play

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>You Still Here? Tuesday, October 4, 2022 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It's like a kitten clown car...

You Still Here?  Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Wyoming Life

Entertainment

Fifty years ago, the highlight of the Cody Stampede Parade marking America’s bicentennial celebration was a 30-foot-long .30-30 Winchester rifle, dominating a float that also carried legendary Western actor John Wayne.

[{"type":"text","text":"That rifle has been sitting atop a storefront in downtown Cody since. "}]

Everyone loves the giant Winchester, so they might have noticed when it recently suddenly disappeared from the roof where it had been prominently displayed since its trip down Sheridan Avenue decades earlier.

Like John Wayne himself, Cody’s giant Winchester rifle is coming back, better than ever, for another 50 years dominating Cody’s historic downtown.

“We're putting it back to what it was in 1976, as best we can,” said Mike Darby, owner of the Irma Hotel and the giant Winchester. “I can’t confirm or deny what we’re going to do with it, but we’re hoping to have it done by July 3.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fully Loaded"}]

It’s 1976, and the United States is starting down the barrel of its 200th anniversary. The Buffalo Bill Museum, now the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, decided to add its own ammunition to an already-loaded celebration.

July 4 was selected for the opening of the lavish Cody Firearms Museum. The addition of a massive Winchester collection, on loan from the Olin Corp., made it the world's largest firearms museum at the time.

Adding to the excitement, the museum would be dedicated by the grand marshal of that year’s Cody Stampede Parade: “The Duke” himself, John Wayne.

The Husky Oil Co., founded in Cody in 1938, decided to make its own big contribution to the festivities.

What better to celebrate the bicentennial, Wayne, and the Cody Firearms Museum than with a giant replica of one of the American West’s most iconic firearms?

Denny Shore was the head of Husky Oil’s activities committee at the time. His wife, Sue, remembers it well.

“The theme for the parade that year was ‘Celebrating Winchester: The Gun That Won the West,’” she said. “Denny decided to call the people who make parade floats and asked if they could do a giant Winchester. They said yes, so they did.”

Shore doesn’t remember what company built the humongous rifle, but she remembers when it arrived on a flatbed trailer and was parked in front of her house.

“I loved it,” she said. “I'm a gun nut, and I have a .30-30 Winchester that I always hunted with. I feel like it was my own, and we were sharing it.”

Cody resident and photographer Dewey Vanderhoff was hired by the Olin Corp. to get photos of the parade, Wayne, and the rifle.

“Katy Brown's ‘Buffalo Bill Dollies’ can-can girls danced in front of the big Winchester rifle at its public debut at the airport,” he said. “Everyone was there waiting for John Wayne's ceremonial arrival on a Boeing 727 jet with his entourage and family.”

As the Cody Stampede Parade cruised down Sheridan Avenue, the Winchester was the center of attention. If that wasn’t enough, Wayne was riding on the same float.

Most parade floats quickly disappear when they reach the end of the route, but there was a brighter future for the giant Winchester.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Everything Under The Gun'"}]

After its centerpiece moment in the parade, the giant Winchester was stored at the Husky Oil Refinery in Cody.

A few years later, Cody business owner Jack Skates opened Jack's Sports & OK Hardware at 1137 12th St. right next to the Irma. The store came with the giant Winchester on the roof, where it had ended up after leaving Husky Oil.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Their motto was ‘Everything Under The Gun,’” Shore said."}]

While the storefront changed hands multiple times in the next four decades, the rifle stayed right where it was. However, even the gun was under the gun.

Bob Carter owned one of the businesses, The Gunrunner, that occupied the space. He shared some details on the unique rooftop sculpture with 

“It was only constructed for temporary display,” he said. “Some parts were made from cardboard. It held up for many years, but eventually required renovation and replacement with more permanent materials.”

Carter added that the giant Winchester was a replica of a 1968 Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill .30-30 rifle, making all the more appropriate for Cody’s bicentennial celebration.

Any knowledgeable gun owner knows firearms need regular care and upkeep. Even with more permanent parts, 50 years of exposure on a Cody rooftop made the larger-than-life Winchester a little worse for wear.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Giant Gun Restoration"}]

In May, the giant Winchester disappeared from the rooftop of 1137 12th St. It’s now getting some much-needed refurbishment.

Darby said the rifle was acquired by the Irma Hotel when it bought the building it was sitting on in the 1990s.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It came at no extra charge,” he said."}]

Darby said the giant Winchester was in especially sorry shape going into this summer. If it was going to survive, it needed some help.

“The recent windstorms were hard on it, plus 50 years of weather damage,” he said. “It was about to fall off the building, so we got a crane to lift it up and put it on a trailer.”

The giant Winchester has since been dismantled and, essentially, rebuilt. Darby said everything that can be replaced is being replaced and reenforced.

“The barrel and the levels are made of wood, so we’re replacing what’s needed and putting better supports on the inside,” he said. “After dismantling it, we felt we could repair and improve it.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Is dismantling a 30-foot Winchester rifle anything like the real thing?"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“Not at all,” Darby said."}]

While they were working on the giant Winchester, Darby started looking at photos from the 1976 parade. He realized that there had been noticeable changes in the 50 years since its construction.

Since they had already dismantled it, Darby and his crew decided to restore it to its glory days (or “day”) in July 1976.

“The action on the gun was sort of a goldish bronze as it sat on the roof, but it was black in the photos from 1976,” he said, and there were several bands that went around the barrel to the stock that were bronze. "We're going to paint those back to their original colors, or at least as close as we can get.”

If it’s already off the roof and being refurbished, why not take it for another slow spin through town?

The Cody Stampede Parade will kick off at 9:30 a.m. on July 3, so the giant Winchester will be ready for a glorious return on the 50th anniversary of its arrival.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I can neither admit nor deny that rumor,” Darby said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Reloaded For Another Century"}]

Between June 30 and July 4, there will be a cavalcade of patriotic events and celebrations in Cody. The Cody Stampede Rodeo runs from July 1-4, and there will be three parades.

Darby encouraged patriotic parade fans to stick around for a day or two after the 250th celebration. The giant Winchester will cap off the festivities with another triumphant return.

“We’re putting right back on the building on July 5 or 6,” he said. “Hopefully, it’ll be there for the next 50 years.”

Giant Winchester Doug and Tebbie Heny Picture3

<title>What The Heck … Is That 30-Foot-Long Winchester On Top Of A Building In Cody? | Cowboy State Daily</title>

On July 4, 1976, John Wayne paraded through Cody with a 30-foot-long Winchester rifle. 50 years later, that rifle was still sitting on a rooftop next to the Irma Hotel until it was temporarily taken down but it will make its glorious return by July 4.

What The Heck … Is That 30-Foot-Long Winchester On Top Of A Building In Cody?

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Around Wyoming

A Casper man says he's being forced to part ways with his beloved Bigfoot-hunting rig at his wife's behest, blaming the vehicle's irresistible appeal to the opposite sex.

"I knew this day would come, but that doesn't make it hurt any less," Austin Griess wrote in a tongue-in-cheek Facebook post advertising his lifted 1984 AMC Eagle wagon for sale. "My wife is making me sell my lifted AMC Eagle because of all the attention it brings. 

"I only have eyes for her, yet this car seems to draw in way too many female lookers for my comfort."

Austin Griess found the 1984 AMC Eagle 4X4 Wagon on Facebook Marketplace during the dead of winter.

During the cold months he worked on it, installing a lift kit, tuning it up and making it reliable enough to serve as a daily driver. Then he said he turned it into a true “chick magnet” by added a modern stereo.

The goal was to debut the finished wagon with 150,000 original miles on it at a Memorial Day car show.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We didn't make it in time for entry,\" Griess said."}]

"The payment is due here in June," he joked. "No trophy making a payment."

After months of wrenching and modifying the Oldsmobile, he said that his wife has had enough of competing with the AMC for attention.

[{"type":"text","text":"“The wife just kind of had enough of me at that point,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"So, the Eagle is now looking for its next owner."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Finding Bigfoot"}]

Along with making whoever drives it irresistible, "This would be a perfect Bigfoot hunting rig,” said Griess, adding that his day job is in sales.

[{"type":"text","text":"The four-door Eagle is rugged, practical, and weird. "}]

"That's the ideal car to take your wife and two kids and throw all your crap in the back, go to the mountains for a picnic, and go fishing" says mechanical philosopher Ron Gordon. 

The Eagle is powered by a 4.2-liter inline-six engine shared with old Jeeps.

The original muffler is still hanging on, although Griess admits it's become a little rough around the edges.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's a little bit raspy,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Perfect For Wyoming"}]

Long before crossovers filled dealership lots, vehicles like the AMC Eagle were doing much of the same work.

Ron Gordon owned an auto shop in Big Piney for 15 years and has spent nearly 70 years around cars. When shown photos of Griess’ golden Eagle, his first reaction was blunt.

"One of the Lee brothers made it: Ug Lee or Home Lee," Gordon said with a laugh.

[{"type":"text","text":"But beneath the humor was genuine admiration."}]

"It was a pretty unique car in its day," he said. "It was the first real sport utility vehicle on the market."

[{"type":"text","text":"The Eagle debuted years before today's crossover craze."}]

It combined station wagon practicality with four-wheel-drive capability, making it particularly appealing in places where winter weather and rough roads were facts of life.

"It'd be good for anything from going fishing or to sheep ranch," Gordon said.

That versatility made vehicles like the Eagle a natural fit in the Cowboy State. 

Griess agrees, calling it "the perfect Wyoming car — great for snow, inclement weather and getting off the paved roads."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Before SUVs"}]

To understand why people get nostalgic about station wagons, Gordon said you have to remember what Wyoming life looked like decades ago.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then, a trip to town wasn't a quick errand."}]

"It was 60 miles to go buy groceries," Gordon recalled. "When you got in the car to go someplace, it was an event."

Station wagons weren't fashion statements, he added, "They were tools. They hauled groceries, hauled kids, and camping gear." 

Gordon remembers one summer when his family traveled to Idaho, where his father was working in the mountains.

The family camped, and he and his brothers slept in the back of a station wagon.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"There was a bear come in one night,\" Gordon said."}]

The animal poked holes in juice cans before dogs chased it away and up a tree. Looking back, Gordon laughs at the memory.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I guess the station wagon was a safe haven for me,” he said."}]

For families throughout the West, station wagons were simply part of life before minivans hit the scene.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Everybody that had a big family had a station wagon,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Time Machine "}]

Griess was born in 1988, but said he grew up surrounded by remnants of the decade. 

His parents were older. His uncles still wore the giant mustaches that survived long after the 1980s were over. 

"Life was simpler back then," says Griess. "If you wanted to do something, you just did it." 

[{"type":"text","text":"The AMC Eagle was meant to embody that mindset. "}]

"It just screams going out and camping with just the necessities," he said.

Music helps complete the vision. The Eagle has speakers — of course. Its soundtrack, according to Griess, has plenty of Molly Hatchet, Ted Nugent, and old-school rock.

It’s the kind of music that sounds best with the windows down and a dirt road ahead.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Let The Eagle Fly'"}]

Selling a lifted 1984 AMC Eagle won't be easy. Building it was part of the fun, said Griess, and bringing it to life was the reward. 

"It's hard to part with,” he added. "But when you have limited space, you've got to let go sometimes. Let the Eagle fly free."

Its next owner will get a lifted station wagon, a conversation starter, a piece of nostalgia, and a camper.

Or, as Gordon puts it, they'll get exactly what station wagons were always meant to be, "a helluva good car." 

AMC Eagle IMG 5493 6 20 26

<title>Casper Man Selling His 1984 AMC Eagle 'Chick Magnet' Because Wife Wants It Gone | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Casper man says his wife is making him sell his beloved Bigfoot-hunting rig — a lifted 1984 AMC Eagle wagon with 150,000 miles he says attracts too much female attention. "I knew this day would come, but that doesn't make it hurt any less,” he said.

Casper Man Selling His 1984 AMC Eagle 'Chick Magnet' Because Wife Wants It Gone

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

A few weeks ago, tourists chuckled as a young grizzly named Storm was chased off by an angry sandhill crane, but nobody was laughing Thursday when Storm devoured an elk calf alive in front of about 100 people.

The calf was alive for roughly 15 minutes as it was being eaten by the 3-year-old female, wildlife researcher John Winnie Jr. told Cowboy State Daily.

Winnie was there with students from his Yellowstone National Park wildlife ecology field class.

“We were kind of awed at watching a bear take prey," said Winnie, an associate teaching professor in the Department of Ecology at Montana State University.

“But we were shocked and surprised at a calf staying alive that long,” he added.

“There were mixed comments from the crowd,” as 

 near the shore of Yellowstone Lake, Cody resident Vince Vanata told Cowboy State Daily.

“Some people had empathy for the elk calf, and some people were thinking it was just nature taking its course,” he said.  

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Good Find For A Bear"}]

Similar to deer fawns, elk calves have little to no natural scent, Winnie said.

And for about the first two weeks of their lives, the calves can’t walk well enough to keep up with their mothers, he added.

So, their mothers will stash them in hiding places and then leave to go feed, occasionally returning to nurse the calves.

Unfortunately for the calves, that trick doesn’t always work, Winnie said. Sometimes, the mother’s lingering scent from a nursing session will be enough to tip off a bear, wolf, or coyote.

And other times, a calf might move at just the wrong moment (or, from the predator’s perspective, just the right moment).

That might have been the case with Storm on Thursday, Winnie said.

He wasn’t there when the grizzly first found that calf, but said one of his students witnessed the moment. The bear’s head suddenly snapped in the calf’s direction right before she moved in and found the helpless young elk.

That probably means Storm heard the calf rustling in the grass, or caught a glimpse of it moving, Winnie said.

Once Storm started eating, it was hard to watch, he said.

The calf cried out as it was being devoured, but no other elk heard it.

“The nearest cow elk we saw were probably out of earshot, 400 to 500 yards away,” Winnie said.

Vanata said he thinks Storm had earlier been hazed by park rangers from another location.

“I think that if the rangers hadn’t had moved the bear, it wouldn’t have been there to find that calf,” Vanata said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bears Take A Heavy Toll"}]

The elk calf’s gruesome fate was a common one, Winnie said. Elk calves suffer high mortality rates, and predation is one of the main causes.

And most of the predation comes from bears, both grizzlies and black bears, he said.

“I don’t think a lot of people grasp just how high elk calf mortality is,” Winnie said.

It’s thought that as many as 90% of cow elk are pregnant going into spring, “and most of them carry their calves to term,” he said.

So, there might be as many as 80 calves per 100 cow elk when the birthing season starts, usually in early June.

However, “by the time the first of the next year rolls around in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, we’re down to around 20 to 25 calves per 100 cows. And most of the calves that were lost were lost to predation,” Winnie said.

Wolves have the advantage of hunting in packs, so calves aren’t worth their effort, Winnie said. They tend to concentrate on adult elk.

Coyotes will take quite a few elk calves and deer fawns, but bears take the most by far.

As lone hunters, bears have slim odds of taking down adult elk, so they focus on calves during the spring.

And because they can’t count on finding the calves by scent, they’ll scour the ground hoping to find a meal, Winnie said.

He said he’s seen bears apparently “working a grid pattern” in areas where they think calves or fawns might be.

And it’s not uncommon for calves or fawns to be eaten alive, Winnie said.

“I’ve seen it twice before, both times with black bears,” he said.

When taking down larger prey, predators rely on “killing bites,” Winnie said. That’s because they can’t risk injury from an adult prey animal fighting back.

But with calves and fawns, bears can just use their “overbearing weight” to pin down the hapless prey and eat at leisure, Winnie said.

Sometimes mother deer or elk will try to distract the bears away from their young, but usually to no avail, he said.

“I saw once where a white-tailed deer got right in front of the bear, raised her tail and jumped, but the bear didn’t even notice her” as it focused on the fawn, he said.

A sandhill crane recently had better luck scaring Storm away from its young.

When Storm got too close to the crane’s nest, the bird came at the young bear, standing tall with its wings spread. That was enough to 

Storm belongs to famous Yellowstone grizzly lineage. She’s the daughter of Snow, one of the park’s most visible bears.

And Snow in turn is the daughter of Raspberry, likely Yellowstone’s most famous living grizzly.

Raspberry has been missing for about a year and is feared by many of her fans to have died.

Bear eats elk alive storm bloody 6 20 26

<title>Yellowstone Tourists Learn That Nature Can Be Brutal When Grizzly Attacks Elk Calf | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Tourists in Yellowstone got a brutal taste of reality Thursday when a grizzly went after a live elk calf and devoured it. John Winnie, an ecology professor at Montana State who was there, said most people don't "grasp just how high elk calf mortality is."

Yellowstone Tourists Learn That Nature Can Be Brutal When Grizzly Attacks Elk Calf

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

Some of Wyoming’s 1860s prospectors would be rolling over in their graves if they knew just how narrowly they might have missed striking it rich in South Pass City and other 19th-century gold hotspots.

Gold was there in those arid hills. All those poor pioneers really needed to find it was a helicopter and some artificial intelligence.

Not to mention modern geological science, which has led Relevant Gold founder and CEO Rob Bergmann down a multi-billion-year-old channel called the Abitibi Belt, to what he believes is a hidden gold belt underneath Wyoming.

“We can’t promise anything,” Bergmann told Cowboy State Daily. “But we do believe that all of the data indicates there’s a lot of opportunity that has really just never been tested in Wyoming — especially along these Archean belts that were once connected to the Abitibi.”

The hypothesis that those were once connected is the geological theory that’s brought Bergmann to Wyoming. 

The Archean belts arc from the CK Gold Project in southeast Wyoming, sweep through South Pass near Lander, and continue on to Bradley Peak near Rawlins. 

All three areas once drew gold seekers when the West was still untamed, from about 1867 to 1881. Each fizzled long before living up to their hype — even at the comparatively successful Carissa Mine in 

 with a toolkit the state’s pioneer miners could scarcely have imagined.

Instead of panning streams and digging random holes in the rock to find gold veins they could mine with hand tools and dynamite, Bergmann’s crews are flying helicopters to conduct geophysical surveys over the company’s projects at South Pass and Bradley Peak. 

The surveys can see hundreds of meters beneath the surface, mapping out rock types and identifying structures that commonly travel with gold and other precious metals. 

“It’s an incredible data set that’s never existed in the state of Wyoming before,” Bergmann said. “It allowed us to see up to 400 meters below the surface of some of these rock characteristics. It doesn’t necessarily find the gold, but it helps us find the things that might be associated with the gold.”

A Wyoming state grant helped fund the airborne surveys at Bradley Peak and South Pass, creating the new, high-resolution, geophysical picture of grounds that have been prospected off and on for more than 150 years.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Big Drilling Plans"}]

This summer, Relevant Gold will stage large drilling programs at Bradley Peak and in the South Pass area, fresh off raising more than $12 million in Canadian dollars. 

The drilling is about collecting sample cores from likely areas to map out where a mine might be economically feasible.

The company will focus on two targets this summer, but there are 17 targets in all. That’s a multi-year runway of possible follow-up work if the results remain encouraging. 

High-grade ore samples have already been collected, Bergmann added — samples that also contained significant percentages of silver, copper and lead. 

“We’ve already drilled gold, found gold,” he said. “What we have to start defining is whether there’s something over, say, a million ounces. We’re really targeting larger-scale gold and critical metal opportunities.”

While the word “mining” might conjure images of vast coal pits or 

 Relevant Gold’s footprint will look different. 

Helicopters, artificial intelligence, and geology are giving a modern mining company a second shot at finding gold in historic Wyoming mines. The company believes there's a hidden gold belt and technology allows them to see 400 meters below the surface.

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