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[{"type":"text","text":"On Fridays we celebrate athleticism..."}]

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

<title>You Still Here? Friday, June 23, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

On Fridays we celebrate athleticism...

You Still Here? Friday, June 23, 2023

One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"Alcohol may have been a contributing factor....."}]

One more for 8 7 26

<title>One More For The Road: Friday, August 7, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Alcohol may have been a contributing factor.....

One More For The Road: Friday, August 7, 2026

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

In a Thursday meeting of the State Board of Land Commissioners, Secretary of State Chuck Gray nearly voted against giving Tri-State Generation and Transmission permission to use a 298-foot access road in rural central Wyoming after voicing concerns about whether the company would use the road to advance any wind, solar or data center projects. 

Tri-State is a wholesale power supplier serving eight electric cooperatives in Wyoming including High Plains Power, Carbon Power and Light and Big Horn Rural Electric Company.

Tri-State applied for a five-year, temporary-use permit for a 288-foot access road in remote Natrona County for $250 a year.

The elected officials on the State Board of Land Commissioners and the public have access to these applications at least a week before each meeting.

Gray announced at the Thursday meeting in Cheyenne that he would vote no on the permit because he didn’t know if the access road involved any data centers, wind or solar projects.

After a lively debate about supplying irrigation power to farmers, Gray reversed course and voted yes to approve the permit.

Tri-State told Cowboy State Daily after the meeting that its application isn't tied to any potential projects. 

It was for access renewal into an existing Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) substation, where Tri-State keeps equipment for operational and grid reliability purposes, "that from time to time requires routine maintenance," the company said.

That substation also abuts one of Tri-State's own substations, serving High Plains Power, the company said. 

[{"type":"text","text":"'Futile Call To Essentially Stifle Capitalism'"}]

Conversation at the Thursday meeting turned to Tri-State’s request for access via a 288-foot route.

Gray had asked administrative staff if applicants were associated with data centers, wind energy or solar projects. He told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that that “blanket” inquiry was due to his concerns that board members don’t have enough information.

Office of State Lands and Investments Director Stacia Berry said she’d reviewed the list for temporary-use permits. None appeared to be associated in any way with those projects, except for one unknown, she said.

“The only one I’d note is (the Tri-State application),” said Berry. “This is an access road. I can’t guarantee what all is associated with that access road.”

Berry said the office tried to contact Tri-State, but the company had no notice its access road application would come up as a standalone topic at the meeting.

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray asked to remove that application from the list."}]

State Auditor Krisi Racines granted his wish by moving the whole list without it.

“I’m going to vote no on this,” said Gray. “It might be fine. They (the office) reached out. They (Tri-State) didn’t respond. We don’t know.”

Gray said the board should “tighten things up here. I think it’s gotten too loose, and I’m going to be a no here.”

Gov. Mark Gordon noted that Tri-State is a significant power generator for multiple cooperatives that distribute power to Wyomingites.

Gray again said the board’s administrative office hadn’t heard back from Tri-State.

“I would just supplement that with, they’ve had about 35 minutes,” said Berry. “They didn’t anticipate needing to be present today.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Treasurer Curt Meier issued a warning."}]

“Impeding, you know, generation and power to me seems like a futile call to essentially stifle capitalism,” said Meier. “We need power in this state for economic development. Tri-State supplies power to practically every irrigator and farmer in the state.”

Meier warned of denying Tri-State access to power facilities “in this extreme drought area.”

[{"type":"text","text":"He shook his head. "}]

“I’m really grasping the utility of continuing this dialogue,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray changed course, saying he would probably vote for the access route."}]

“But I just asked a simple question: is this tied to wind or solar. And we can’t get an answer,” he said. “I just think it’s really disturbing, to me.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Meier countered."}]

“At no time I think in the last decade or even in the last 10 minutes have I heard that wind and solar is illegal,” said Meier. “And I think trying to manage our economy on political ideology instead of law is troubling to me.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Gordon said he wanted to get back on track."}]

Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder called for the vote. When the other board members voted aye, Gordon turned to Gray and asked if he was choosing to abstain from the vote.

Gray gestured and said something the livestream audio didn’t capture clearly.  

[{"type":"text","text":"“He’s voting aye,” said Gordon."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"'It Became Clearer'"}]

Gray told Cowboy State Daily in his Thursday email that he changed course because Berry indicated the project was probably not linked to wind, solar or data center projects. He also said Gordon has a tendency to hide the nature of board matters, and that's an ongoing problem. 

he lack of information provided to Board members about these proposed projects has been deeply disturbing to me," said Gray. "That is why today I just asked in a blanket fashion whether any of the dozens of proposed Temporary Use permits for road access had any nexus to a wind, solar, or data center project.

"It was very concerning to me when the Director and the Governor appeared to not even know if any of the Temporary Use permits had anything to do with wind, solar, or data centers."

He said he ultimately voted for the access permit because Berry indicated it probably wasn't connected to wind, solar, or data center projects. 

"Because it became clearer the easement had nothing to do with wind, solar, or data center with the Director’s modified comments, I decided to support it," he said. 

The board's administrative arm, the Office of State Lands and Investments, noted Thursday that board members have a week to review materials before the meetings, and are given opportunities to ask questions of OSLI personnel. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Gordon emphasized that also. "}]

, the governor added that Gray appeared unprepared and distracted by his phone in Thursday's meeting, falling short of what's expected of Wyoming elected officials. 

"Mr. Gray continues to show his inability to understand the issues before him and to work well with his colleagues," said Gordon. "The Secretary is sounding like a jackass in a tin barn."

Earlier in that meeting, the discussion turned to a 2.46-acre, 39-year easement request for which Enbridge Solar offered to pay a $56,235 one-time fee.

Gray asked the board to remove Enbridge’s application from a bigger list of easement applications by various companies.

Gordon asked the board three times if anyone would support Gray’s amendment. Silence followed.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Mr. Secretary, I’m sorry, that motion fails,” said Gordon."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Degenfelder urged thoughtfulness."}]

“I know discussion is on this Enbridge Solar, but I think we should be cognizant we’re talking about access only,” said Degenfelder. “So when we start prohibiting access, we get ourselves into trouble.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray said he’d be voting no on the easements consent list."}]

“It’s just really unfortunate we weren’t able to have a discussion on the Enbridge Solar piece separately,” said Gray. “It’s linked to the data center south of town.”

Chuck Gray Curt Meier and substation 8 6 26

<title>Gray Changes Mind On Power Station Access After Spat With Curt Meier | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After Curt Meier said of State Chuck Gray's announced vote to block Tri-State Generation's access to a power substation would “essentially stifle capitalism,” Gray changed his mind. They supply "power to practically every irrigator and farmer in the state," Meier said.

Gray Changes Mind On Power Station Access After Spat With Curt Meier

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

A Yellowstone bull bison with a gigantic abscess on its right rear quarter probably isn’t suffering much pain and will likely survive, one of the county’s top bison ranchers says.

But the recovery process is going to be good, said Ken Klemm, past president and a lifelong member of the National Bison Association.

After seeing a photo of the bison, taken early Wednesday in Yellowstone National Park’s Lamar Valley, Klemm said a gushing rupture of the abscess is imminent.

“It looks like a 5-gallon bucketful of stuff will come out of that one,” Klemm, who has managed some of the world’s largest bison ranches, told Cowboy State Daily.

The abscess probably formed around a wound, he said.

The bison rut, or mating season, is on in Yellowstone. The bull might have suffered a puncture during a fight with another bull, Klemm said.

Lauri Foster lives just outside of New York City and loves coming to Wyoming to visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Early Wednesday, she was on a wildlife-viewing drive through the Lamar Valley when she spotted the bull sporting a huge, bulbous mass near its backside.

Foster works with horses and is familiar with injuries to large animals, so she knew what she saw on the bison must be something serious.

“I thought it had to be a hematoma or an abscess,” she told Cowboy State Daily.

Foster couldn’t see any visible cuts or sores that might indicate exactly where it was wounded, she said.

To keep safe, Foster stayed in her vehicle to photograph that bull and other bison.

The bulls were raising a ruckus as they competed for mating rights.

“They were headbutting each other and chasing each other down,” Foster said.

The bull with the abscess was taking a break, though she surmised he had probably been recently wounded in a fight.

She added that despite how hideous that abscess looked, the bull didn’t seem sick or weak.

“He was walking along normally,” she said.

The rut has made bull bison extra agitated lately. In the most dramatic incident, a bison flipped and seriously injured Washington state resident Carl Isom-McDaniel, 65, in July.

Foster said at one point the bull walked up the middle of the road and stopped directly in front of her vehicle, giving her the stink-eye.

“I was thinking, ‘this is a little intimidating,’” she said.

Bull elk are known for getting into epic battles once their rut starts, usually in September.

Bison take it to another level, Klemm said.

“They’re worse than elk. If the loser doesn’t get away, the other bull will kill him,” he said.

The National Park Service has a general policy of letting nature take its course with animals’ injuries.

Klemm said the bull with the super-sized abscess has a good chance of making it.

“The infection is just raging in there,” he said. "The immune system is keeping that bison from dying, just from walking around with that much infectious material in its body.

“I suspect it will burst fairly soon and he’ll get over it. Bison have unbelievably good immune systems for things like this.” 

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<title>Bison Rancher: Yellowstone Bull With Gigantic Abscess Will Be OK Once It Gushes | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A massive abscess on a Yellowstone bull bison’s right rear quarter likely is the result of an infected wound from a rut battle. When it ruptures, “a 5-gallon bucketful of stuff” will gush out, a top bison rancher says, adding the bison should be fine.

Bison Rancher: Yellowstone Bull With Gigantic Abscess Will Be OK Once It Gushes

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Around Wyoming

Wyoming is among 27 states reporting illnesses from a recent salmonella outbreak linked to imported jalapeño peppers.

While federal health officials say there is no ongoing risk to customers who eat at Chipotle or QDOBA chain Mexican restaurants, a Wyoming health official says the outbreaks are a reminder of the tradeoffs that come with the modern food system.

"I think it is part of the cost of doing business for our industrialized society," Park County Health Officer Aaron Billin told Cowboy State Daily. "We get our foods in bulk. 

"One hundred years ago, people had small farms, grew a little bit of everything, but now people specialize just in jalapeños and sell on a massive scale. And if that food supply gets contaminated, that's a problem."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday that 345 people have been sickened by the outbreak strain of 

. Thirty-six have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.

The FDA's public case map places Wyoming in a category with five or six reported illnesses.

Chipotle and QDOBA have removed their affected products.

Although the last known illnesses began in July, the outbreak is only now drawing widespread attention after federal investigators completed weeks of patient interviews and supply-chain tracing that identified a common grower in Sinaloa, Mexico, as the likely source.

The salmonella outbreak comes as Wyoming continues to monitor another foodborne illness investigation.

 of Cyclospora, a microscopic parasite that causes prolonged watery diarrhea, stomach cramps and fatigue.

State health officials said five of those cases were associated with international travel while one remained under investigation.

Billin said foodborne outbreaks are an unfortunate reality of an interconnected food system.

"We trust that our food, either bought at the supermarket or bought at a restaurant, is safe," he said. "But we have these outbreaks every once in a while."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Tracing The Source"}]

According to the FDA, 177 of 191 people interviewed — about 93% — reported eating at a Mexican-style restaurant before becoming sick. Those restaurants included Chipotle Mexican Grill and QDOBA.

[{"type":"text","text":"Billin said outbreaks like this happen."}]

"Across the United States, we have probably half a dozen salmonella outbreaks every year," he said, noting previous outbreaks have been linked to eggs, backyard poultry, produce, pet reptiles and commercial food supplements.

While Wyoming has reported about six illnesses in the current outbreak, he said none are believed to have resulted in hospitalization.

Billin said contaminated produce can originate from several sources, including infected workers handling food after using the restroom, contaminated irrigation water or contaminated wash water used during processing.

"The more they wash it, the more contaminated it becomes," he said of the latter scenario. 

Because produce today is grown and distributed on such a large scale, a single contamination event can quickly spread across the country, he added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Restaurants Responded"}]

After learning of the outbreak, Chipotle and QDOBA removed the affected jalapeño peppers from their restaurants.

Chipotle said its ingredient traceability system allowed it to quickly identify peppers from the affected grower and replace them with jalapeños from different suppliers.

"The health and safety of our guests and employees is our highest priority," the company said in a statement. "The recalled jalapeño peppers are no longer in Chipotle restaurants. Given these actions, the CDC and FDA have said they do not consider there to be a current ongoing risk from Chipotle restaurants in this outbreak."

The FDA said QDOBA also stopped serving the affected jalapeños July 28, and Coast Citrus Distributors has agreed to recall the remaining peppers linked to the outbreak.

Wyoming has two Chipotle restaurants — in Casper and Cheyenne — and seven QDOBA locations.

Multiple attempts to reach a manager at a Wyoming Chipotle on Thursday were unsuccessful. Calls were answered by an automated AI phone assistant that directed Cowboy State Daily to the company's website.

[{"type":"text","text":"A Casper QDOBA employee also declined to comment."}]

"Unfortunately, I am not allowed to comment," the employee said. "I was told to tell anyone asking about that to go to our website."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"One Diner's Experience"}]

Although federal officials say the affected product has been removed from restaurants, one Montana woman said she became violently ill after eating at a Chipotle location this week.

Nicole Lubick of Butte, Montana, told Cowboy State Daily she ordered vegetable fajitas with fresh tomato salsa on Aug. 4.

"I went home and ate, and honestly it didn't taste right," Lubick said. "It seemed like there was a lot of fat or something on the meat. It just didn't seem that great or fresh. But stupid me, I kept eating it."

[{"type":"text","text":"She said she woke around 2 a.m. sweating before becoming violently ill."}]

"I went to the bathroom, and sure enough, I started projectile vomiting," she said. "I probably vomited for two hours."

"I have never been so sick in my life," she added. "My gut says food poisoning."

Lubick said she had long considered Chipotle one of the healthier fast-food options and frequently ate there.

"I'm definitely going to rethink my eating habits and try to eat at home and eat locally grown food," she said.

Lubick said she reported her illness to her local health department and submitted a report through Chipotle's website.

There is no indication her illness has been linked to the salmonella outbreak, but Billin said her experience reflects why even isolated reports of foodborne illness can shake public confidence in a food system that depends on products being grown, shipped and served on a massive scale.

Chipotle jalapenos 8 6 26

<title>More Explosive Diarrhea: Wyoming Hit By Salmonella From Mexican Jalapeños | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming is among 27 states that were hit by a recent salmonella outbreak traced to jalapeños served at chain Mexican restaurants. It’s just “the cost of doing business” anymore in today’s modern food system, said a Park County health officer.

More Explosive Diarrhea: Wyoming Hit By Salmonella From Mexican Jalapeños

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

Renée Jean

The wave of legacy ranches for sale in Wyoming is continuing with yet another historic ranch hitting the market for the first time.

This time, it is the 1,542-acre Quarter Circle Lazy B, owned for four generations by the Wallop family, which has ties to British nobility, as well as historic prominence in both Wyoming and American politics. 

The Quarter Circle Lazy B, listed for $24.5 million and on the market for the first time in 135 years, is tucked just under the Bighorn Mountains at the mouth of Little Goose Canyon. Its sale will mark the end of an era for one of Wyoming’s best-known legacy ranches.

Owner Paul Wallop told Cowboy State Daily he and his wife, Sandra, have decided this is the right time to start a search for the ranch’s next steward because none of the children have an interest in taking over the ranch. 

“We’re not ancient,” Paul Wallop said. “But we’re in our mid-60s, and we could easily do another 10-plus years. But in that 10 years, one health event and you’re not keeping up with it.”

Sandra Wallop told Cowboy State Daily she fears it will be more difficult to be “picky” about a successor if they wait. Now is the right time so they can be selective.

“It’s important,” she said. “We want them to have good Wyoming values, be good neighbors. I hate to say it in this fashion, but we want to kind of interview them before we sell to them.”

That doesn’t mean the couple will be “hovering” over their new neighbors, she added. 

“We’re not going to be that kind of neighbor,” Sandra said. “We deeply and passionately love this place … So we’re hoping the next family has the same attitude and perspective that we do.”

The Wallop family first began assembling its ranch in 1889, when English-born Oliver Henry Wallop bought the first piece of what would become the Quarter Circle Lazy B. 

Oliver was the third and youngest son of a titled line in Britain. He took a shine to the American West after graduating from an English university, and decided that would be how he would make his way in the world.

As the youngest son of Isaac Newton Wallop, the fifth Earl of Portsmouth in Great Britain’s Victorian era, Oliver never expected he would inherit land or title. Such young men were, at the time, known as “remittance” men, because they typically left home to make their way in the world and were given a remittance from their family. 

His father’s name, Isaac Newton, does have an indirect tie to the famous physicist of the same name. A relative of Newton’s married into the Wallop family, and many of its sons were subsequently given names to honor that heritage.

Oliver came to America soon after graduating from Oxford in 1883, first buying a ranch in Montana, where he introduced the region’s first thoroughbred horses. He then migrated south to Wyoming in 1889, establishing the Canyon Ranch, which included the Quarter Circle Lazy B.

Oliver was ultimately wrong about his chances for succession. He returned to England after his second brother died, becoming the Earl of Portsmouth in 1925. 

“He had to renounce his U.S. citizenship, and then he served in the House of Lords,” Paul Wallop said. “And I don’t know if there’s any other member of the House of Lords what has ever served in a foreign government — it’s a very unique thing.”

Polo has a long history in Sheridan County, and the Wallops are integral to that story, along with the Scottish brothers William and Malcom Moncrieffe. 

“Malcom Moncrieffe had what was called the Polo Ranch, and then William had the Quarter Circle A Ranch, which is the Brinton Museum now,” Paul Wallop said. “Quarter Circle Lazy B is the neighboring ranch to the Quarter Circle Lazy A.” 

Together, these ranches got a contract with the British cavalry for horses, shipping 20,000 to South Africa for the Boer War.

“They were selling to the U.S. cavalry as well,” Paul Wallop added. “Part of their training for all the horses was just to get them started playing polo.”

Historical records show Sheridan’s first big polo match was July 4, 1893, which played to a crowd of several thousand spectators after a warmup from a military band.

The teams featured five mostly British players on each side, listed as Beckton vs. Sheridan. 

“Polo has always been a big deal here, and it’s still a big deal,” Paul Wallop said. “And that’s partly because of my great-grandfather.”

By the end of World War I, militaries were trending toward mechanical vehicles, collapsing that industry. The remount program died away, and the ranch shifted toward cattle markets.

“My grandfather began in registered Herefords, and he did really well with that up until he passed in the spring of 1980,” Paul Wallop said. 

Some of Oliver Malcom Wallop’s herd were even shipped to Japan, Sandra added, thanks to their elite genetics. 

Japan was crossing its smaller draft cattle with western breeds until about 1910 to increase their size and make them better-suited to meat production. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Royal Guest List"}]

For all its remoteness, the Quarter Circle Lazy B has long attracted an international roster of guests, thanks in part to the family’s enduring ties to British nobility. 

While Oliver Henry Wallop returned to England to serve in the House of Lords, he maintained close ties to his family in Wyoming and his ranch was a quiet magnet for many high-profile visitors, ranging from Buffalo Bill Cody and President Theodore Roosevelt — who designated the Bighorn National Forest after his visit — to Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and, in more recent times, Princess Anne. 

Sports legend John Elway, former French President Valery Giscard D’Estaing, and American political leaders such as Vice President Dan Quayle are also among the high-profile guests.

“I mean, we’ve served tea to Princess Diana’s sister,” Sandra Wallop said. “This ranch has been host to a huge long list of princes and princesses and queens and vice presidents and senators and on and on and on.”

 a popular PBS British historical drama set at Highclere Castle, through an aunt who married the queen’s manager for thoroughbred racing, Lord Porchester.

“He became the Earl of Carnarvon and Paul’s aunt became the Countess of Carnarvon,” Sandra said. “And they owned Highclere, which Paul’s cousin now has, and is where Downton Abbey was filmed.”

The buildings on the ranch reflect its layered history. There’s the historic stone barn, constructed in the 1930s, which once served as a show barn for registered Hereford sales and which today serves as a horse barn and tack space. 

There’s the foreman’s or manager’s house, dating to around the turn of the 20th century. It has three bedrooms and two baths, and is likely the oldest building on the property. 

There’s the Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing lodge, featured in Great American Fishing Lodges, built in 1993. It’s a two-bedroom, four-bath home with a panoramic view of Little Goose Canyon and Moncrieffe Ridge.

And there’s Johnnie’s mountain cabin, a remote two-bedroom, one-bath mountain home. 

Other structures include a heated mechanics shop, a newer Morton building for horses and storing equipment, a farm shed for storage with dog kennels at the south end, a Scale House complete with a 10-ton 1965 Fairbanks Morse Scale and a 100-by-200-foot outdoor riding arena complete with lighting, advanced drainage, tack areas and wash bays.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Land, Buildings"}]

All this set in an area that boasts trophy wildlife of all kinds — moose, elk, deer, mountain lion, bear, and upland game birds. The ranch still has one of Wyoming’s original private game-bird farm licenses, and it’s also one of the first conservation easements written in the state.

The Wallop family's legacy Quarter Circle Lazy B Ranch in Sheridan County is for sale for the first time in 135 years, listing for $24.5 million. It hosted Queen Elizabeth II, supplied cavalry horses to Britain and helped build Wyoming's polo scene.

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