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[{"type":"text","text":"Auditioning for the Harlem Globetrotters..."}]

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

<title>You Still Here? Saturday, May 13, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Auditioning for the Harlem Globetrotters

You Still Here? Saturday, May 13, 2023

 Auditioning for the Harlem Globetrotters...

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

Roadkill deer 7 5 26

<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

Wendy

Wendy Corr

Business & Tourism

Business

It’s a twist on the familiar image of a sunset over cattle on the Wyoming range, where several small growers have turned to a longer-necked, softer-footed species — alpacas.

These gentle, shy, and highly herd-oriented animals are generally friendlier with humans than their llama cousins (both species are South American members of the camelid family), and their fiber produces soft, lightweight fleece comparable to cashmere.

Many small ranchers in Wyoming are choosing to raise alpacas rather than other livestock for more than just these reasons.

“They are the easiest livestock animal we have ever dealt with, and I think we've dealt with every kind of livestock animal out here,” said Jan Sapp, who with her husband keeps a herd of 108 as Powell-based 

“They are smart,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “They are curious. It takes us about three days of 15 minutes per day to train an alpaca to be parade ready — from they've never been haltered to being able to walk in a parade.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wyoming Is Alpaca Country"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming’s climate is ideal for alpacas. "}]

The animals evolved in the mountainous terrain of the South American Andes, and their bodies are in tune with high-altitude regions and often extreme temperatures. 

Sapp said she first learned about the benefits of alpaca fleece when her husband, who is a part-time missionary, would go to Peru and bring back alpaca sweaters for her. 

“I was a special education teacher in Florida, and even though when you think of Florida you don't think cold, air conditioning is really cold,” she said. “I would wear the alpaca sweaters, and they were wonderful. They kept me warm, and I didn't get too hot.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"Sapp also learned that alpaca wool is hypoallergenic. "}]

“It does not have lanolin, and usually lanolin is what people are allergic to,” she said. “It's also about five times warmer than sheep's wool.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family Business"}]

Sapp said that when she and her husband started seriously considering moving West, their three adult sons thought that sounded like a great idea and decided to move with their folks.

“When we knew that they wanted to come West with us, I thought, ‘Well, what could we do as a family?'” she said. “So I started researching alpacas.” 

An unsolicited email promoting an alpaca growers’ seminar in Oregon piqued Sapp’s interest, and the family decided to attend just to get a feel for the industry. 

“We all said, ‘OK, we are going to go learn about Alpacas, but we are not going to buy alpacas,’” said Sapp. “We came back to Florida owning seven females and a share of a stud.”

The Sapps began researching suitable plots of land in Wyoming. On a property-search mission to the Sheridan area, they took a wrong turn on the way back from Yellowstone National Park and found themselves in Powell.

“I had brought my daughter-in-law, who'd never been West, and a stack of real estate papers,” said Sapp. “She was looking through the papers, and she says, ‘Hey, I think I see this property that's for sale.’ 

“And so we swung in, and there's like seven people in a minivan that piled out, and the lady was in the yard, and I said, ‘Is it still for sale?’ And she paused, and she said, ‘Well, yes, it is.’ And it was perfect, because we needed housing for essentially three families.”

To make an income from their alpaca adventure, the Sapps partnered with other business owners to create everything from socks and sweaters to potholders and trivets, items that the Sapps offer for sale at their 

“The socks can be worn year round, because they keep your feet warm in the winter, but then they wick moisture off your feet so they keep cooler in the summer,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mountain Business"}]

Mariann Eckendorf and her daughter, Maria, have been raising alpacas since 2005 in Parkman, a small community in the Big Horns.

They own 21 of the animals, and their focus is on the fiber — shearing, carding, spinning and weaving their own alpaca fleece products.

“We shear them ourselves, and then we card the fiber and spin and weave and crochet and do wet felting and dry felting,” she explained. “Every single hair gets sold every year as a finished, value-added product.”

Eckendorf said that she also started her alpaca business for family reasons.

“After the birth of my one and only daughter, Maria, I wanted to stay home with her,” she said. “I was a school teacher, and I wanted to stay home and raise her and not put her in day care.”  

Eckendorf said she had a couple of options at the time: either buy a fitness center in Sheridan or live off the land.

“I thought, ‘I don't want my daughter growing up in a gym,’ so I just went into alpacas and started learning about them,” said Eckendorf. “She's 21 now, so we're a women-owned business. And the alpacas are like our family.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Whole Package"}]

Eckendorf said she and her daughter process all the fiber that their alpacas provide. 

“The more you can do yourself, the more you can make,” she said. “Because you can't really sell raw fiber and make money off alpacas. By the time you feed them and vaccinate them you would go in the hole.”

, selling their merchandise all over the country.

“With the internet, I ship every day,” said Eckendorf, “and then social media has helped a ton to get people to know us.”

But Sapp pointed out that the fiber doesn’t provide all the income, especially as the animals grow older.

“As they age, their fiber coarsens, and alpacas are all about fine fiber,” said Sapp. “So rather than feeding and taking care of an animal that we can't use their fiber, their last gift is their meat. They are marketed as grass fed, natural, and antibiotic free.”

[{"type":"text","text":"And, she added, there are other benefits that alpacas provide."}]

“Their poo is amazing to grow vegetables in,” she said. “When I had a box garden, I only grew in composted alpaca poo. I did not use soil, and had beautiful, beautiful vegetables.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Grow Your Own Herd?"}]

The national Alpaca Growers Association reports that there are 1545 registered alpacas in Wyoming, and Eckendorf has some advice for anyone who wants to add to those numbers.

“They're a herd animal, so don't just get one or they'll be pretty sad,” she said. “You want to get at least three. And make sure you protect them, because they’re not like llamas — they won’t protect themselves.”

Fencing is a must, and Eckendorf also recommended livestock guardian dogs, of which she and her daughter have nine.

“We can coexist with foxes and coyotes, because we have our guardian dogs,” she said. “We’ve never had an animal killed by a predator, and we’ve never had a dog get out and kill anything.”

But Eckendorf cautioned that for anyone considering livestock guardian dogs, such as Great Pyrenees or Anatolian shepherds, they must be committed to training. 

“They're not going to just be born knowing not to kill your chickens,” she said. “Barnabas, my last rescue dog, took two and a half years until I felt he was chicken-safe.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wicked Smart"}]

Sapp pointed out that alpacas are exceptionally intelligent. She said she learned quickly that if she verbally cautions the animals about an upcoming water hazard or other obstacle, they responded. 

“If I warned the alpacas that, ‘OK, we've got water coming up, it's a strange noise, but it's going to be fine,’ they just carried on like nothing,” she said. “But if I didn't say anything and if I didn't warn them, they would totally freak out.”

[{"type":"text","text":"There’s more, said Sapp."}]

“We have a couple deaf alpacas, and a lot of the adults know some basic sign language,” she said. 

Sapp said that she and her husband would like to retire from the alpaca business, but it’s a long game.

“Their lifespan is upward of 25 years,” she said. “Our youngest two are 1 year old. Right now we have 108, but we have already downsized.”

Mariann and Maria with alpaca scarves courtesy Mariann Eckendorf 7 19 26

<title>More And More Wyoming Ranchers Are Raising Alpacas And Not Just For Their Fleece | Cowboy State Daily</title>

In Wyoming beef country, many small ranchers now raise alpacas. Their fleece is great and their poop is exceptional for growing vegetables. Plus, their temperament is unmatched. “They're the easiest livestock animal we have ever dealt with," one owner said.

More And More Wyoming Ranchers Are Raising Alpacas And Not Just For Their Fleece

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

Renée Jean

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.”

Cowboy Starship 20260716 135719 7 19 26

<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

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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