One More For The Road

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

<title>One More For The Road: Thursday, January 12, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Best friends...

One More For The Road: Thursday, January 12, 2023

Kerry Drake

Outdoors

Wildlife

Collisions between cars and wildlife are notoriously bad for all involved, though sometimes lucky drivers walk away without a scratch and animals may receive a glancing blow that surprises them but doesn’t make them roadkill.

[{"type":"text","text":"But how probable is it that a driver in Wyoming will hit a wild animal?"}]

The Wyoming Game & Fish Department said annually there are about 7,600 vehicle collisions with big game, resulting in wildlife and personal injury costs.

 data estimates that the odds of Wyoming motorists having an animal collision are 1 in 82. That makes the state the ninth highest at-risk state in the nation. 

For the record, the list is topped by West Virginia, with odds of 1 in 40. The safest state is Nevada, with a probability of 1 in 966. Nationally, the average is 1 in 139.

Cowboy State Daily talked to some Wyoming motorists who have crashed into wildlife (or vice versa, depending on one’s perspective). 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Beware Other Traffic"}]

Michael McDill of Casper had a harrowing experience that involved a big buck deer and another driver who wasn’t paying attention to the scene.

McDill was westbound on the the city's Outer Drive, just past College Drive and before the Yessness Pond turnaround.

“The buck deer came charging up the right side incline so fast in front of me that I hit my brakes and laid on the horn,” he recalled. “I think it was running away from a dog.”

McDill said the deer jumped away from his truck but he clipped him in the rear anyway.

“He spun around in the middle of the road, and just about the time I got stopped, I was slammed into by a truck coming up behind me,” McDill said. “The other driver was watching the deer and did not realize I had stopped.”

What happened next is not included in the odds listed in State Farm’s study, which didn’t document what happens when another vehicle is also involved in the collision.

“(The truck driver) hit me so hard that it twisted my frame, totaling my truck and demolishing the drone of the other driver’s truck,” McDill said. “Luckily nobody was hurt.”

[{"type":"text","text":"But what happened to the buck? "}]

“He got up and trotted off the road,” he recalled. “Probably had a sore rear end for a couple of days.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mother Lives, Fawn Dies"}]

Janet Cunningham said she and her husband were driving down the canyon on Highway 230 toward Laramie when a deer bounded in front of their truck.

“We barely missed her, but then her fawn was following and it ran into our right front tire,” she recalled. “It broke my heart to see the mother turn at the edge of the forest and look back for her baby.”

The couple stopped, as did the person behind them. 

“The guy pulled the fawn off the road and told us it was dead,” Cunningham said. “We were thankful that it wasn’t just hurt badly and suffering.”

But it was nerve-rattling for the Cunninghams. 

“I cried most of the way to Laramie,” she said.

Even if someone hasn’t experienced staring directly into the eyes of a moose they’re about to hit, it’s easy to understand their terror at what would happen next.

“We were on our way to see a (University of Wyoming) Cowboys game,” Jill Van Overbeke told Cowboy State Daily. “It was after dark in our trusty Toyota Highlander.

“We walked away but the moose didn’t.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Turn Of The Wheel"}]

“We were on our way to see a (University of Wyoming) Cowboys game,” Jill VanOverbeke told Cowboy State Daily. “It was after dark in our trusty Toyota Highlander.”

She remembered the moose just appeared in front of them.

 “I was driving about 78 mph,” VanOverbeke said. “I turned the wheel a tiny bit and hit her head. The impact point was the driver’s side windshield and she was killed instantly.”

The animal dropped onto the middle of the interstate and was hit by many more cars, with several launching into the air. 

“We ended up on the side of the road with the windshield smashed into a million pieces,” she said.

In addition to the moose, VanOverbeke’s diamond in her wedding ring was a casualty; she said it popped out.

“My son, maybe 10 or 11, was asleep in the back seat,” she said. “He sat up screaming his head off. My husband and I were OK, just stunned. I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn’t turned that wheel — it probably would have landed in our laps.”

To make matters worse, VanOverbeke said they missed the game.

Here’s an example of someone doing a good deed only to be at the wrong place at the wrong time:

Melissa Connely was at her home in Casper when she got a call from her sister, whose car broke down in Medicine Bow. On the way to pick her up, Connely came to Bates Hole, where she knew from experience there were a lot of deer, so she slowed down.

“Sure enough, around the bend, a herd was standing and there was no way to avoid them. I slammed on the brakes and hit a doe,” she recalled.

Connely said the damage was a caved grill and a busted headlight. The deer flipped over the hood and took out the side mirror before leaving the scene of the accident.

She said her two young girls and sister, who were traveling with her, were shaken. 

“I didn’t know what to say to calm the girls,” Connely said, so she made up a story.

“I told them that mommy coyote would take the deer to feed her puppies,” she said. “That seemed to help.”

She worried about what would happen if she hit another deer and broke the second headlight. 

“I was so sad (thinking) if the deer was killed,” Connely said. “It took years for me to drive at night again, and I still think of it every time I drive that stretch of road. I will never lose that sad memory.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Close Call"}]

In the case of Chesie Lee of Riverton, it was the animal that struck her — a gray area because State Farm does not list the odds of an animal colliding with a vehicle as opposed to vice versa.

Lee was driving on Wyoming Highway 135, on her way to Riverton from Laramie.

“I saw an antelope on the left side of the road that was beginning to cross the road in front of me,” she remembers. “I pulled over and came to a complete stop. I braced myself as it knocked my sideview mirror across the road when it made a 180-degree turn, avoiding collision with my car door. I don’t know if it was injured.”

Lee wasn’t able to reattach the mirror but otherwise came through the incident unscathed. That paled, she said, “to the shock of seeing it headed right toward me.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Deer Most Often Hit"}]

In its study, State Farm noted the industry processed 1.7 million claims involving animal collections nationally from July 2024 to June 2025. That’s about a 100,000 drop from the previous year.

About 1.1 million of the claims involved hitting deer. Autumn is the peak season for such accidents. 

As Cowboy State Daily has previously reported, the end of daylight savings time is 

, and the number of deer getting hit on America’s highways jumps by 16% the week after clocks are moved back an hour and leaves more people 

Wyoming Game and Fish Department spokeswoman Amanda Fry said wildlife crossings, which are projects funded by her department, the Wyoming Department of Transportation, and wildlife and community groups, significantly lower the number of vehicle-wildlife collisions.

“Those are incredibly effective,” Fry said of wildlife crossings. “Underpasses and overpasses, coupled with wildlife-proof fencing, can reduce crashes by 80 to 90% and allow wildlife to cross roads and get to their seasonal ranges.”

Proper fencing and additional gates can help wildlife cross roads more quickly and avoid conflicts with traffic, she added, and reducing vegetation on the side of roads can make wildlife more visible to drivers.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Roadkill Can Be Taken"}]

But what if you have a collision and a big-game animal is dead? Is it legal to take roadkill?

It is under Wyoming law, but there are requirements and restrictions.

You need approval from Wyoming Game and Fish before collecting roadkill deer, elk, pronghorn, moose, wild bison or wild turkey from vehicle collisions. You can request approval on an incident-by-incident basis through the 511 WYO ROADS mobile app.

But collecting roadkill wildlife can be dangerous. Game and Fish urges motorists to avoid collecting roadkill if traffic is on the highway. The entire animal must be taken and the inedible portions must be properly disposed of in an approved landfill.

You can’t collect roadkill within construction areas or national parks in Wyoming.

Parking off the road is required, and you must turn on your vehicle’s emergency flashers. Field dressing is not allowed on the roadway.

Kerry Drake can be reached at: Kerry@CowboyStateDaily.com

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<title>Drivers On Wyoming’s Remote Roads Hit A Lot Of Wildlife, And Deer Most Of All | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Deer are by far the most hit animal on Wyoming's highways, but elk, pronghorn and moose are on also on the list. A report from State Farm says the odds of Wyoming motorists having an animal collision are 1 in 82, the 9th highest at-risk state in the nation. 

Drivers On Wyoming’s Remote Roads Hit A Lot Of Wildlife, And Deer Most Of All

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

Andrew Rossi

Wyoming Life

spotted again, roaming the Bighorn Mountains.

Many people enjoying Independence Day weekend saw the fuzzy green bipedal cryptid wandering through forests and along popular hiking trails near Burgess Junction. Just as soon as it reappeared, it disappeared.

[{"type":"text","text":"Where did the Swamp Moose go? Back to Cheyenne with his family."}]

The Swamp Moose is actually Bridger Knox, 9, who was enjoying the annual family vacation to the Bighorns. Bridger and his father, Steve, decided to resurrect the monster for another year because they had so much fun last year.

“How could we not? The post went viral, and Bridger loved and had so much fun with it, so we did two days of shenanigans with the Swamp Moose,” Steve Knox told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rise Of The Swamp Moose"}]

The Swamp Moose was a spontaneous idea that spawned from a green ghillie suit the Knox Family brought with them during their annual camping trip in the Bighorns in 2025.

“We’ve been camping at that same area for two weeks around the Fourth of July for 30-plus years,” Knox said. “My sister-in-law and her kids wanted to scare her husband near the river with the ghillie suit, and we wondered what the tour buses (on U.S. Highway 14) would do if they saw someone walking around in a ghillie suit.”

The Swamp Moose first emerged from the Pine Island Group Campground. The shed moose antler, found by Bridger, was the extra ingredient that made it that much more fun.

As soon as the Swamp Moose was spotted, it was turning heads and stopping cars.

“Cars coming down the highway were noticing Bridger and slamming on their brakes,” Knox said. “We could see their faces in their vehicles, wondering what in the world they were looking at.”

When Knox shared photos and videos on social media, the Swamp Moose went viral. After last year’s outing, a newspaper in New York called Knox to share the story.

[{"type":"text","text":"With all that attention, the Swamp Moose’s return was inevitable."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Revenge Of The Swamp Moose"}]

When the Knox Family returned to the Bighorns in 2026, the Swamp Moose came with them. Bridger donned the same green ghillie suit with a slightly smaller antler.

“The other one was too big and made his arms tired, so we used a different one,” Knox said.

This year, the Knox family camped near Porcupine Falls, west of Burgess Junction and farther from the highway than the Pine Island Group Campground.

That reduced the potential visibility of the Swamp Moose’s mysterious return, but that didn’t dissuade Bridger. He got ghillied up and began to roam around Porcupine Falls.

“He walked up and down the road a little bit, right there by our campground, and stood by the sign,” Knox said. “Porcupine Falls is a much less trafficked area, so he couldn't get that tour bus exposure, but it was still super awesome.”

Still, Bridger had higher aspirations for the Swamp Moose. When a perfect opportunity suddenly presented itself, he fully grabbed the Swamp Moose by the antler.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Swamp Moose Strikes Back"}]

Steve and Bridger were hiking up to Porcupine Falls. That’s when they encountered more than 40 people heading for the same destination.

This was the moment Bridger had been waiting for. He and his father sped past the church group to reach Porcupine Falls before they did.

When the group arrived at the picturesque falls, they were under the watchful eyes of the elusive Swamp Moose.

“Bridger wanted to go stand up on top of the rock and let everybody see him from a different view,” Knox said. “He and I hiked to the top of the hill, he changed into his outfit and emerged from the rocks.”

The Swamp Moose silently moved through the large hiking group. Reactions were mixed.

“Some ignored him, others laughed and pointed, and some took pictures,” Knox said. “It was pretty funny.”

That wasn’t enough for one hiker, a man from Sheridan who knew the lore of the Swamp Moose. That’s when Knox said his son had “his 15 minutes of fame.”

“The Sheridan gentlemen asked if the Swamp Moose talked,” he said. “I said, ‘Of course,’ and we sat and chatted with his family for a little while. One of the gals remembered his story from last year, and Bridger thought that was pretty cool.”

The coup de grâce of the Porcupine Falls sighting was an utterly baffled couple from Mississippi.

“They saw us walking with Porcupine Falls with the antler, which they were curious about, but when they saw Bridger in the suit, they didn't know what the heck was going on.”

After an eventful and entertaining day, the Swamp Moose spent the evening being chased around the campsite.

“The camp host thought it was pretty clever,” Knox said. "We had a good time, and it was pretty funny.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Return Of The Swamp Moose"}]

The Knox family has returned to Cheyenne, which means the Swamp Moose has disappeared once again. The cryptid likely won’t re-emerge until Bridger gets back to the Bighorns.

“It’s become part of our long-standing family tradition, but only there,” Knox said. “The ghillie suit was put away when we got home last year and didn't come out again until this year.”

What Knox finds intriguing is how much of an impact their spontaneous prank has had on the area. He was informed that the story of the Swamp Moose has been enshrined near the spot where it was first sighted.

“The Cowboy State Daily story from last year was printed and hung in a display case at the Burgess Junction Visitor Center,” he said. “Someone sent us a photo of it last summer, and every time somebody stops in, they tell us it’s still there.”

Knox credits the strange success of the Swamp Moose to his son’s “great sense of humor.” As long as Bridger wants to walk through the wilderness in a ghillie suit with a moose antler over his head, Knox expects to continue sharing the story of the celebrity Swamp Moose.

“I'd imagine you'll see the Swamp Moose back for the next couple of years, at least,” he said.

Swamp moose IMG 9496 7 11 26

<title>9-Year-Old Wyoming Boy Dresses Up As A 'Swamp Moose' Just To Confuse Tourists | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A 9-year-old boy from Cheyenne dressed up in a ghillie suit with a lone moose antler sticking out of his head for the sole purpose of confusing hikers near Porcupine Falls in the Bighorn Mountains. He is proud to report it worked.

9-Year-Old Wyoming Boy Dresses Up As A 'Swamp Moose' Just To Confuse Tourists

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

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

Twelve miles shy of the Teton County line on a 40-acre slice of Fremont County with five mountain springs and a creek, Dubois resident Gary Engman is building a 9,000-square-foot, off-grid mansion from reclaimed antique wood that he’s calling the Cowboy Starship.

The property, which has just listed with luxury real estate brokerage Engel and Volkers for $7.95 million, is surrounded by the Absaroka and Wind River mountain ranges. Construction is expected to finish sometime in August.

Real estate broker Jo Gathercole said the home has already had a number of international callers expressing interest, and it’s not even finished yet. 

“It’s got solar, it has diesel generators,” she said. “If you wanted internet, you’d put in a Starlink. It’s completely off-grid luxury.”

Off-grid cabins are not unheard of, especially in Wyoming, Gathercole added. But an off-grid mansion?

“It’s unusual. When I first saw it, it was kind of stunning to think he was doing this. He’s more than a builder. I think of him as an artist,” she said about what Engman’s building. "He’s actually creating art with this home, which makes it very unique in my mind.”

Why Pay $40 Million To Be In Teton County?

Engman has chosen his canvas for the home with care. 

“This is just a spectacular location,” he told Cowboy State Daily, gesturing toward Ramshorn Mountain. “And I think the house looks like a starship that’s landed on top of a Wyoming mountain.”

It’s not the first luxury home Engman, a former seafood magnate, has built, and isn’t likely to be the last. 

Engman is betting he can expand the luxury market to this slice of Fremont County with homes priced more favorably when compared to ultra-wealthy Jackson Hole.

Based on his research, Engman believes this is the first large-scale, ultra-luxury spec home built in Fremont County. 

The home, Engman said, is comparable to some of the $40 million homes sold in Teton County. 

“One of the houses I’m involved with in Jackson is going on the market for $40 million, and it’s the same size as this,” Engman said. “It’s on 15 acres, and not as nice a lot as this 40 acres. 

"To me, that house is very nice, but not as nice as this one.”

He gestured toward the corner of a fence line about 1,000 feet from the house and said he’d seen a grizzly bear momma with two cubs eating grass there while he was having lunch Wednesday. 

He’s also seen elk, deer, and antelope browsing through the property's surrounding pastures.

“I have more wildlife on my ranch than there is in Yellowstone,” he said with a chuckle. “This is going to, I know this will sell quickly. 

"When you look at all the traffic and congestion in Jackson now, and you can buy, for under $10 million, a 40-acre property with a 9,000-square-foot house an hour from the Jackson airport or 20 minutes from the Dubois airport, where you can land any private jet and you save $30 million?”

In his mind, that $30 million covers a private jet and then some, making his property a much more logical deal for those who want to be in or near Jackson Hole. 

His company located in Dubois also supplied the reclaimed, antique lumber that 

 near Saratoga used to built The Farm, Engman said. 

Restoration Lumber Co. produces 2 million to 3 million board feet of reclaimed antique lumber annually and employs 30-40 people.

For the Cowboy Starship, he’s using redwood planks sourced from Napa Valley’s enormous wine vats for the deck, giving their surface a patina of old purples and reddish brown. 

Overhead, vintage 1910 heavy trusses salvaged from Bumble Bee’s salmon cannery in Washington span the ceilings, tying the mansion to a working waterfront that no longer exists. 

“Everything here has a story, a history,” he said. “It has provenance.”

Not only do they tell a story, they are massively strong. They’ll hold a snow load up to 200 pounds per square foot, Engman said.

The front door, a massive dark brown, is made from old-growth redwood planks transported to the Sea of Cortez more than 150 years ago. They were salvaged from an Indonesian shipwreck.

The double doors to either side are salvaged Yosemite Pine cut to build booming mine towns in California and date to around 1860.

Gold mines, saw mills, cannery operations — Engman only buys wood from places he is sure can’t be saved or that have no historical value. 

Dismantling is done surgically, cataloguing each beam, which will later be custom cut to size for its new home.

Inside the Cowboy Starship, he’s bringing special reclaimed items for the interior, including an ornate bar from the old Wyoming bar in Lander, built in 1890. He sees that as a particular centerpiece with its ornately carved wood and mirrored face. 

Beyond the bar are picture windows framed with more antique wood, which in turn frame up Ramshorn Mountain like art in a museum. To get to the breathtaking view, Engman wants people to know they’re not just crossing a room. They’re crossing centuries of history.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"For The Love Of History"}]

Engman’s obsession with history tracks back to an old saw mill he bought to reclaim its wood after he decided to pivot from a business selling log cabin kits to buyers in Japan.

“It had a lot of spirit to it,” Engman said. “Something about the spirit of that 150-year-old wood somehow got into my psyche. A lot of these saw mills and salmon canneries were all going out of business. So these huge buildings, built in the 1800s, became available. 

“I started buying any of them that I could. I’ve bought enough buildings and antique wood to probably build 1,000 homes of this size.”

Still, he has a code about which buildings he will buy for salvage.

“If a structure can be saved and has any historical value, I will not take it down,” he said. “I very much believe in living history. For instance, if somebody came to me and said, ‘I’ve got this big barn in North Dakota, will you purchase it or I’ll give it to you if y ou take it down?’ I’ve never taken down a barn because I feel that would be destroying our heritage.”

If they still wanted to sell or give it away, he’d work with the owner to put together an organization to raise money to save the barn rather than destroy it. 

“I’ve done that probably a dozen times,” he said. “There’ll be a big barn or something that really can be saved, I’ll donate all the material to save it.”

It’s important for future generations to see the past in full living color, Engman said.

“To see and understand what the pioneers and the Native American people went through, just to survive in this country,” he said. “You destroy all the beautiful antique structures and replace them with trailer parks, what is an 18-year-old going to learn from that?”

Engman’s obsession with history doesn’t stop at salvaged timbers. He sits on the board for Fremont County’s museum foundation. 

Once the Cowboy Starship is complete, he plans to host a party there as a fundraiser where he expects to raise around $100,000 by donating a weeklong charter on his 110-foot super yacht. He’s also considering a historical display of recent artifacts he found while traveling through Arizona.

It’s also important to Engman to build new structures that can become one-of-a-kind legacies, like the Cowboy Starship near Dubois.

That one is actually the second of the “starships.” The first was a 20,000-square-foot mansion Sun Valley at a ski resort in Idaho.

Sun Valley, Engman said, is “probably the most popular ski resort in the United States,” and offers a different kind of setting. There’s world-class skiing, a celebrity cachet, and a market that’s used to ultra-luxury builds. 

The success of that project helped set the template for what he’s now doing in Fremont County, but this time he’s betting on something a little different than a crowded ski town.

“That was my last house,” Engman said. “It took me a year and half to finish that one. And then I bought the ranch here (near Dubois) with the idea of building a spec house. 

“I don’t need to sell it. Maybe I won’t sell it,” he added, staring down at the corner where the grizzly momma played with her cubs the day before. 

Then he flashed a smile and said, “But I probably will, and then I’ll just build another one.”

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<title>Inside The ‘Cowboy Starship,’ A $7.95 Million Off-Grid Mansion In Remote Wyoming | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Dubois man is betting a remote 9,000-square-foot, $7.95 million off-grid mansion made from reclaimed wood can lure Jackson Hole-level buyers across the Teton County line to Fremont County. “I have more wildlife on my ranch than Yellowstone,” he said.

Inside The ‘Cowboy Starship,’ A $7.95 Million Off-Grid Mansion In Remote Wyoming

Public Lands

The moment a hiker or biker walks into the Atlantic City Mercantile on a hot July summer day, Carl Freeman can instantly tell which ones are coming in from Wyoming’s Red Desert on the Continental Divide Trail.

“They are so happy to be here,” Freeman told Cowboy State Daily. “There’s no water out there. No trees for a hundred miles.”

Ice cream is a popular choice for the hikers and mountainbikers coming in from the Red Desert. But they’re also buying lots of high-protein, high-calorie foodlike burgers and fries to fuel up for the next leg of the trail. And copious amounts of their favorite fluids.

“It’s put Atlantic City on the map in that community,” Freeman said of those who travel the trail. “We’ve become known. They’ve told us that it’s within their community. 

“Apparently, they have some type of apps that they all communicate with.”

On that app, he’s been told there are dozens of reviews advising fellow hikers and bikers, “You’ve got to stop for a burger at the Merc.”

The traffic from that rave review is hit and miss, Freeman said. 

But every bit helps a small restaurant located in a community that has roughly 60 people in it. 

“We’re also in a book of 1,000 places to see before you die,” Freeman added with a chuckle. “It’s a good customer base. They come through and they’re looking for a lot of fish, a lot of chicken, a lot of liquid. They tank up and then they’re gone.”

Trail Towns Are Lifelines For Hikers, Bikers

Atlantic City isn’t the only community along the trail’s 510 miles through Wyoming that’s getting a big boost from Continental Divide hikers and bikers. 

Farther south, trail towns like Encampment, Riverside, and Rawlins have quietly become lifelines for hikers and mountain bike riders — aka bikepackers — moving along the Continental Divide Trail and the parallel Great Divide bike route.

Long distance hikers will typically spend $8,000 to $9,000 over the course of a through-hike, Wyoming Pathways Executive Director Mike Kusiek told Cowboy State Daily. 

From burgers and ice cream in Atlantic City to showers in Lander to Thai food in Rawlins, hikers on the Continental Divide Trail are giving small Wyoming towns a big economic boost. “It’s put Atlantic City on the map,” said one local business owner.

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