Daily Darwin

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Wednesday, December 21, 2022 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Gee, what ever could go wrong?

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, December 21, 2022

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

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

A 28-year-old Australian man has been found dead near Grand Teton National Park.

Teton County Search and Rescue (TCSAR) recovered the body of the unidentified man  Wednesday morning. He was found in an area known as The Wigwams on the west slope of the Tetons.

According to TCSAR, the man is believed to have died from a fall from “a steep, high-altitude ridgeline” that separates Grand Teton National Park and the Jedediah Smith Wilderness.

“TCSAR sends its sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased and wishes to express its gratitude to the partnering federal agencies who assisted in the investigation,” the agency said in a statement.

Cowboy State Daily could not reach TCSAR or Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr by the time of publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Difficult Search"}]

According to the information released by TCSAR, the Australian man was attempting a thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail, a 3,028-mile route that stretches across the Rockies from Alberta, Canada, to Chihuahua, Mexico.

The victim started from Canada and headed south, keeping his family informed of his progress via a Garmin satellite device.

By July 19, he reached Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park and sent a message with his intended route through the Tetons and into the Wind River Basin. 

The last communication the family received was a check-in from his device without coordinates or a message. Along with a video he sent via Facebook, his family placed him somewhere in Grand Teton National Park.

After four days without any updates, the victim’s family contacted Grand Teton officials July 27.

Using the Garmin device, it was determined that the July 23 check-in had been sent near The Wigwams in Teton County, near but outside the western boundary of then park.

At this point, TCSAR took over the search and rescue operation. A short-haul team was assembled to reach The Wigwams via helicopter Wednesday morning.

The victim’s body was found below a ridge south of North Wigwam Peak. He was located from the air because of his bright orange backpack.

The body was recovered and transported to the Teton County Coroner’s Office.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Tough Trail"}]

Hiking the entire Continental Divide Trail can take between two and seven months.

Thru-hikers attempt to do it continuously, from start to end, in one attempt. They only stop to sleep or resupply in communities along the route.

Marty Lee of Socorro, New Mexico, was hiking the Wyoming section of the Continental Divide Trail when he was 69 years old. 

 how thru-hikers regularly powered past him.

“Out in the Great Divide Basin, I was making 22-23 miles a day, but thru-hikers were blowing by me," he said in July 2023.

Lee was section hiking, taking multiple years to complete the Continental Divide Trail. By July 23, he’d finished the stretches in New Mexico and Colorado, and was hoping to finish the Wyoming and Idaho sections that summer.

 of the Appalachian Trail in 2024. He was averaging 18 to 22 miles every day, and it was an ordeal.

“In the first four months I wasn't sick, I didn't twist my ankle and had no major injuries, but I ended up pushing myself to the finish,” he said. “It was like running a marathon, and on your very last corner, you crash into the drinks table, and you end up having to crawl across the finish line.”

He reached the end of the trail, Mount Katahdin in Maine, on Oct. 6, 2024. It had taken him five months to get there.

“When I made my way up to Katahdin and saw the sign, it was kind of strange,” he said. “It was a total non-event. It was like, ‘There's the sign, let's go get my pictures and get off the mountain.’ I think I was just so ready to be done.”

According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

, only 1 in 4 people who attempt a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail actually finish it. No similar statistics exist for the Continental Divide Trail.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More, More, More"}]

TCSAR has been busy in 2026. Its volunteers respond to every call, but at the cost of significant impacts on personnel and resources.

Of the 4,990 search and rescue missions in Wyoming between 2009 and 2026, 1,205 were

. Lincoln County was a distant second with 583 missions during the same period.

TCSAR can recover some of its costs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which allows it to obtain grants and donations. Other funds are available, but they’re distributed to SAR teams throughout the state via the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security.

TCSAR’s call numbers jumped in 2021 and have stayed relatively high since. The 64 calls between Dec.1, 2024, and May 31, 2025, used to be as many as the agency got in an entire year.

That correlates with the steady growth of the outdoor recreation industry, which s

. That likely means more calls, more expenses, and more asked of volunteers going forward.

TCSAR hasn’t released the name of the Australian man who died in the Tetons, but statistics say that 72% of their calls are for males.

Demographically, 16- to 30-year-olds accounted for 33% of the rescues, followed by 31-to 45-year-olds, with 29%.

Nevertheless, TCSAR’s all-volunteer force will always mobilize as quickly as they can. No matter where or what, the job gets done.

“Rescues come in all shapes and sizes,” TCSAR Chief Advisor Cody Lockhart told Cowboy State Daily in July 2025. “We’re there to give you a hand without judgment.”

Teton County Search and Rescue

<title>Australian Man Dies Near Grand Teton While Hiking Continental Divide Trail | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Teton County Search and Rescue recovered the body of an unidentified Australian man in the Teton Range on Wednesday. The man, who was attempting a thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail, is believed to have died from a fall off a ridgeline.

Australian Man Dies Near Grand Teton While Hiking Continental Divide Trail

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming-based U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner says a former sheriff’s deputy threatened him. The former deputy denies it adamantly.

They both provided screenshots potentially supporting their claims. The Torrington Police Department says it's investigating.

Rasner dispatched a statement and later conducted a phone interview Wednesday, alleging that 

former Goshen County sheriff’s deputy Aaron Mose – who parted ways with the department in 2024 – called him at 8:21 a.m. Sunday.

The statement Rasner’s attorney Bill Fix reportedly sent to law enforcement Wednesday morning alleges that Mose said, “Listen, we ran your ass outta Goshen County last week, and if you ever come back through here again, you better watch your back.”

Mose in a Wednesday phone interview adamantly denied making any such statement. He sent Cowboy State Daily what appears to be a screenshot of his phone carrier’s call log, showing no calls made between 10:35 p.m. Saturday and 1:35 p.m. Sunday.

Rasner’s team sent its own screenshot of what appears to be his phone’s call log, with unrelated phone calls blurred, showing an incoming call from Mose’s number at 8:21 a.m. on an unspecified day.

Cowboy State Daily ran both images through a free AI content detector, isgen.ai.

The site registered Mose’s screenshot as 100% human content. It registered the call log shot from Rasner’s team as 89% human and “likely original” – a score that could be less than perfect due to the privacy blurs on the other phone numbers.

[{"type":"text","text":"The stakes might be high."}]

A person who makes a false report to law enforcement can be charged with false reporting, and a person who lies to law enforcement in an investigation can be charged with interference, both misdemeanors punishable by jail time.

But, Torrington Police Chief Matt Johnson emphasized in a Wednesday interview, people shouldn’t be charged with either of those crimes unless they “knowingly” provided a false report or lied about evidence.

“There’s a fair number of boxes that would need to be checked for those things to move forward,” said Johnson. “It’s a mistake to automatically assume that because something turns out to later be inaccurate, a person will be charged. There’s an intent element.”

Another curveball is the rise of phone “spoofing,” in which bad actors hijack others’ numbers to masquerade as them. The scam is so prevalent the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has established a 

[{"type":"text","text":"“From a technology standpoint that is possible,” said Johnson."}]

He declined to give insight into the investigation, which he said is in its early stages.

Rasner told Cowboy State Daily he doesn’t know Mose personally, but the man has commented on his Facebook posts at least 31 times, and tends to be “hostile and aggressive.”

The Rasner team sent screenshots showing the beginnings of Mose's comments.

Rasner attended a Republican Party event in Goshen County in recent days, and the candidate said he thought it went well.

This isn’t the first time Rasner has raised concerns about alleged threats on the campaign trail. His political Facebook page posted an audio clip July 6 of a man saying he’d “be watching out for (Rasner) down in the Snowies,” and “You might wanna check your brakes.”

Rasner said he or his team report all threats to county sheriffs. Fix confirmed Wednesday he originally sent the report about Mose to Goshen County Sheriff Kory Fleenor. But it was referred to the police department, Johnson confirmed.

Rasner originally thought Mose was still a deputy and found the alleged threat “disturbing” in that light, he said.

“We’re not going to be deterred though,” said Rasner. “We’re going to keep fighting.”

Rasner said he keeps a security team. To the question of whether he’s packing a firearm, Rasner said, “Always.”

Mose said he serves the campaign of one of Rasner’s eight GOP opponents, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, as a volunteer, as well as the campaign of gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien.

He voiced surprise at hearing Rasner’s claims Wednesday via his Cowboy State Daily interview.

Mose said he went to the police station to address the situation. He also sent the outlet what appears to be his phone carrier’s call log.

He said he doesn’t have Rasner’s phone number, but he did make a recent social media comment to the effect of “I’m glad Goshen County chased you out.”

He also said he saw Rasner at the Republican event, and Rasner tried getting his attention.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I just politely walked off,” said Mose."}]

Mose referenced the numerous negative comments Rasner has made about Gray this campaign, as well as an inflammatory claim Rasner made about Gray’s campaign manager.

Rasner has attacked Gray with nicknames such as “China Chuck Gray” and lobbed negative ads and social media posts at him for months.

“I’ve been defending (team Gray) saying, ‘This is crap. This is not true,’” said Mose. “Making these comments is absurd.”

Mose said Rasner’s campaign attacks indicate he’s “down in the polls.”

“It seems kind of odd, how he’s first been attacking (Gray’s campaign manager) and now he’s coming after me,” said Mose.

Rasner and Gray face seven more opponents in the race to the GOP nomination for U.S. House. 

Those are philanthropist Steve Friess, state Senate President Bo Biteman, former superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, former legislator Keith Goodenough, singer/actor Richard Dodson, military veterans Kevin Christensen and David Giralt.

[{"type":"text","text":"The primary election is set for Aug. 18. "}]

Rasner and Aaron Mose 7 29 26

<title>Rasner Files Police Report Accusing Chuck Gray Supporter Of Threatening Him | Cowboy State Daily</title>

U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner's attorney filed a police report Wednesday on a Chuck Gray supporter and former sheriff's deputy for allegedly threatening Rasner. The former deputy denies making a threat. Torrington police are investigating.

Rasner Files Police Report Accusing Chuck Gray Supporter Of Threatening Him

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

Wolf advocates are offering a $10,000 reward for the the identity of any hunter shooting a member of a famed Yellowstone National Park wolf pack that recently denned outside of the park in Wyoming. 

Social-media influencer Jonas Black of Austin, Texas, told Cowboy State Daily during a telephone interview Wednesday that posting the reward is necessary to protect the Mollie’s Pack, particularly 12-year-old Wolf 1090 F. 

Those wolves have spent most of their lives in Yellowstone and aren’t afraid of people, so there’s no way it could be a “fair-chase” hunt, Black said. 

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Angi Bruce denounced the move in a text message Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily. 

Wyoming, Montana and Idaho have laws keeping wolf hunters’ identities confidential to shield them from doxing, harassment and stalking.

“Putting an animal before the welfare of a person is outrageous,” Bruce said. “This is the exact reason our legislators put this statute in place – to prevent harassment of our hunters.”

 that he and others are offering the reward if any of the Mollie’s wolves are shot during the season, set to begin Sept. 15. 

“Anybody harvests one of these wolves during Wyoming’s wolf season and somebody snitches? That snitch gets ten grand cash,” Black wrote.

During the interview, Black said the intent is specifically to protect the Mollie’s, not to undermine the states’ statutes protecting wolf hunters’ identities. 

The Mollie’s this summer denned and are raising pups on the Shoshone National Forest. 

During its 30-plus year history, the pack has spent nearly all of its time inside Yellowstone, where hunting is forbidden. 

So, the wolves are essentially like “zoo-type animals” insofar as having little fear of humans, Black said. 

Black said he isn’t anti-hunting and supports fair-chase hunting, when animals are actively trying to evade humans.

“I’m not going to interfere or try to interfere with state laws. But with this pack, it’s like shooting a dog. Man, it’s unreal,” Black said. 

‘I’m Going To Burn Your House Down’

Wyoming Statute § 23-1-304(d)(vi) protects the anonymity of wolf hunters. Under the statute, Game and Fish may not release any private or confidential information regarding legal wolf harvests, and that information is not a matter of public record. 

Montana and Idaho also have statutes that keep wolf hunters’ identities confidential. 

That wouldn’t stop private individuals from revealing that information to other private parties, though. 

Those statutes are there for good reason, said Randy Newberg, a prominent outdoorsman and hunting content creator from Bozeman, Montana.

Newberg featured a successful wolf hunt in an episode on his 

He told Cowboy State Daily the blowback was vicious. 

“People from all over the world were emailing me with crazy stuff. ‘I’m going to burn your house down. I’m going to kill your dogs.’ Wow,” he said. 

Newberg noted that as a prominent figure in the hunting world, “I live in a fishbowl,” and so he expected the pushback. 

But rank-and-file hunters should be spared that sort of harassment if they shoot any of the Mollie’s, Newberg said. 

“If their information got out there, I can assure you, that person is going to undergo a level of threat and intimidation that’s completely out of line,” he said. 

Black said the possibility of facing worldwide condemnation should deter anyone from even trying to hunt the Mollie’s. 

It could be similar to the global shame heaped upon the American hunter who went to Africa and killed the beloved “Cecil the Lion,” he said.  

And that’s the point of offering the reward he said. 

Black is a dog trainer who became an outspoken wolf advocate in the wake of the capture, torture and killing of a wolf by Daniel resident Cody Roberts in February 2024. 

Black has stated that his efforts, along with Wolf and Wildlife Advocates president Kim Bean and others, were instrumental in a felony animal cruelty charge being brought against Roberts, to which he pleaded guilty.  

In April, a judge sentenced Roberts to a possible 18- to 24-month prison term if he fails probation.

Black said that with the Mollie’s his beef isn’t with Game and Fish.

“This has nothing to do with Game and Fish,” he said. "I think Game and Fish is doing a great job with the Mollie’s.”  

Wolf & Wildlife Advocates’ Bean said Game and Fish, along with a rancher in the pack’s denning area, have been trying to coax the pack back into the park.

Game and Fish has kept the Mollie’s location confidential. 

However, some people have discovered the pack’s location and posted it on social media, “putting a bull's-eye on the pack,” Bean said. 

Black said some of those who have revealed the pack’s alleged location are supposedly wolf advocates. 

Publicizing the pack’s location is f***ing stupid,” he said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Fair Game’"}]

Montana outdoorsman and retired game warden Jeff Darrah told Cowboy State Daily he supports the statutes shielding wolf hunters’ identities. 

“There is a concerted effort by some of these eco-terrorists to find those hunters,” said Darrah, executive director of Montana Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife.

He acknowledged that emotions can run high when it comes to famous Yellowstone wolves such as the Mollie’s Pack. 

But when they pass outside the park’s boundaries “they become not a park wolf anymore but a Wyoming wolf. And they’re fair game,” he said. 

To mitigate the loss of Yellowstone wolves, Montana reduced the hunting quota to three wolves in each of the two hunt districts immediately north of the park, Darrah said.

“At one time, the quota there was up around 20 wolves,” he said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Asshats’"}]

Newberg said it’s “very disturbing to me” that advocates are trying to work their way around state laws meant to protect the anonymity of people engaged in a legal activity. 

“How do we pick and choose?” he said of which legal activities should be protected. 

Newberg added that trying to expose hunters who might happen to shoot Mollie’s wolves could undermine the advocates’ cause. 

Bean said she, Black and others have hardened their stance only because of the hardened anti-wolf stance against the Mollie’s. 

There have been “hundreds” of people bragging about deliberately trying to find and kill the pack, she said. 

“They’re threatening to kill the pack, and we’re threatening to expose them,”  Bean said. “This isn’t about anonymity, this is about a bunch of asshats out there” threatening the Mollie’s Pack. 

Geriatric old wolf 1090 3 1 10 26

<title>Advocates Offer $10,000 Bounty To Name Hunters Who Kill Famed Yellowstone Wolves | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A social media influencer and others are offering a $10,000 bounty for the identities of hunters who shoot members of Yellowstone National Park's famed Mollie’s wolf pack this fall. Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce calls the bounty “outrageous.”

Advocates Offer $10,000 Bounty To Name Hunters Who Kill Famed Yellowstone Wolves

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

The good news is nobody vandalized the Persian Gulf War Memorial in Rock Springs. The bad news is that it had fallen into disrepair enough that a whole side of engraved names crumbled.

“The silver lining in this is it brings out so much good in our community,” said Mayor Max Mickelson about a flood of people asking how they can help fix the memorial since the damage was announced by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department on Tuesday.

“However, it should never have been allowed to reach a point where it is that vulnerable,” the mayor added.

The memorial, which has been in Veterans Park on the east side of Rock Springs for “at least 20 years,” has been a frequent target of vandalism in the past, the mayor said.

That’s why the first reaction was to assume vandalism when it was discovered that the whole right panel of names on the three-panel monument had fallen off.

“That particular (monument) has a history of being vandalized, so some of that damage and decay had come from that,” Mickelson said.

It was revealed that a child, not vandals, had accidentally triggered the collapse after the child’s mother contacted the Rock Springs Police Department to set the record straight.

“Following our initial community release (citing vandalism), a local mother contacted our department to report that her young child was involved,” the RPD says in a report on the incident.

“The mother was attending a sporting event at the park when her younger child returned to her covered in dust,” the report says. “At the time, she was unaware that anything had been damaged.

“The child was trying to read the names when a section of old, deteriorating mortar failed, causing the stone tiles to pull free and fall. We can confirm that this incident was not an act of intentional, criminal vandalism or malicious destruction.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"All Memorials To Be Examined"}]

That’s also good news for city residents who expressed outrage that military veterans could potentially be targeted by vandals, and then disappointment that the memorial had gotten to a state that it could crumble.

When Yellowstone Tile owner Steve Elwood learned about the damage to the memorial, he offered to donate his time to assess the damage and help get it fixed.

“No. 1, I love our country and I honor our troops and fully support them,” he said. “It’s a shame what happened to that wall.”

He also said he feels a sense of duty to his father, who worked to build a memorial wall in San Diego, where they used to live.

“I also want to honor my father, who recently passed away, and my father loved our troops more than anyone,” said Elwood, adding that other family members are veterans. “I want to do my part for our country. I didn’t get the opportunity to fight in a war. I want to do my part.”

He said that while he’s glad the damage wasn’t deliberate, he wants to make sure it’s restored in a way that it’ll last a lot longer.

“I was so glad to hear it was not vandalism. I was worried it was some little Communist teenager making a statement,” Elwood said. “It just broke my heart to see the names of the veterans crumble like that.”

Gilbert Pacheco Jr. is one of the names on the Persian Gulf War Memorial in Rock Springs.

“My name is on the memorial while serving on board the USS Princeton (CG 59), and I find this very sad,” he said in a response to the city’s initial report.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What’s Next?"}]

Now that the condition of the memorial has been brought to light, Mickelson said the city is already assessing the damage, and also will do an assessment of the condition of all the city's memorials.

“Now that we’ve reached a conclusion with how that damage happened, we’re working on how to assess all the memorials we have,” he said. “The intention is to not just reproduce what was there, but to do something that honors those men and women.

“I was very distraught when that was brought to my attention yesterday morning.”

If there’s a silver lining to the story, Elwood said it’s the child’s mother.

“By coming forward to say, ‘Hey, that was my kid,’ she’s showing accountability, which there isn’t much of these days,” he said. “Integrity is lost in today’s age. It was truly a great thing what she did.

“If not, we would all still be sitting here thinking it was vandalism.”

Rock springs Persian Gulf memorial 7 29 26

<title>Good News: Rock Springs Vets Memorial Not Vandalized. Bad News: It Crumbled Anyway | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The good news is nobody vandalized the Persian Gulf War Memorial in Rock Springs. The bad news is that it crumbled anyway. "It should never have been allowed to reach a point where it is that vulnerable,” the mayor said.

Good News: Rock Springs Vets Memorial Not Vandalized. Bad News: It Crumbled Anyway

The copy of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary released this week shows the former White House COVID advisor fixating over the press, mentioning Wyoming's low vaccinations rates and praising former Rep. U.S. Liz Cheney for what Fauci called her courage in opposing the president. 

U.S. Sen Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, released the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director’s diary over the weekend in anticipation of a Wednesday hearing.

Fauci alternated fluidly between documenting death tolls and the “hot and heavy” coverage with which the press swarmed him. He documented his media features, interviews and appearances almost daily for months.

“The Fauci cult continues,” wrote Fauci in reference to August media reports.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming features in the diary twice."}]

An April 10, 2020, entry documents calls with governors seeking Fauci’s guidance and to air their concern about the devastating economic fallout: “17 million jobs lost within the past 4 weeks.”

Even the massive infusion of federal relief dollars couldn’t spare the states, and some red-state governors urged counsel on how to get their people back to work safely, the entry says.

In the more than 1,100 pages of Dr. Anthony Fauci's diary released over the weekend, he mentioned Wyoming’s low COVID vaccination rates, his admiration of Liz Cheney and his conversations with Dick Cheney. He appeared fixated on the "hot and heavy" press.

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, December 21, 2022

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