You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"Dogs and cats react to robot vacuums differently...."}]

You still here 9 11 23

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

<title>You Still Here? Monday, September 11, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Dogs and cats react to robot vacuums differently....

You Still Here? Monday, September 11, 2023

 Dogs and cats react to robot vacuums differently....

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Media outlets gasped last week at the socialist movement’s success in the New York congressional 

That success headed west Tuesday, to Wyoming’s southern neighbor of Colorado.

Democratic socialist Melat Kiros, 29, defeated 15-term incumbent U.S. House Rep. Diana DeGette in Tuesday evening’s primary election.

Colorado Public Radio called the ouster “a stunning blow to the Democratic establishment in Denver and continuing a run of leftist victories in major cities.”

Former Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan, a Dvemocrat, told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that he wasn’t surprised at the move by Denver voters, but he doubted the proximity of a House socialist – if Kiros wins the general election – will affect Wyoming much.

“We have our own issues, and we’re certainly more sensitive to certain issues than others,” Sullivan said. “And it doesn’t necessarily divide us or make us closer to anybody else.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Could Deepen 'Don't Colorado My Wyoming' Sentiment"}]

Liz Brimmer, longtime Wyoming politico, agreed in general, but said having a socialist congressional neighbor could galvanize Wyoming even harder into a tendency it already has: spurning anything that looks like Colorado governance.  

“I think Wyoming uniformly and strongly feels, you know, ‘Don’t Colorado my Wyoming',” Brimmer said. “And I think if anything, it deepens that sentiment.”

Brimmer said the ouster speaks of “these times, where there’s no doubt an anti-incumbent strain.” But no one will know all the reasons, nor should presume too much, until the voter data return, she said.

The Republicans saw the anti-incumbent strain surface differently, with newcomers ousting President Donald Trump’s foes in GOP primary elections.

State Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, who is finishing off his final legislative term, voiced fascination with the election outcome.

Brown, a self-described political junkie, lives about 14 miles from the Colorado border.

He said the ouster shows Denver is increasingly dictating the rest of Colorado’s fate, and that the state is growing more polarized.

On the Republican gubernatorial primary side, The 

 a half-point lead for Victor Marx as of Wednesday.

“He’s just as crazy as a democratic socialist on the left,” said Brown.

As for DeGette’s defeat, it’s not as symptomatic as one would think, he added.

“She was running a ‘Hey, I’m the incumbent and I’ve been here 30 years’ (campaign),” he said.

That hurt her. As did a growing divide on the left over Israel’s approach to its many foes — and Congress’ funding of Israeli war and defense efforts, said Brown.

Israel was also a fulcrum in the May primary loss of libertarian-leaning incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky. But the Republican voters took the inverse approach on that one, nominating the candidate who supports funding Israeli war efforts.

Jack Speight, the GOP strategist who helped Wyoming Gov. Stan Hathaway to victory in 1966, told Cowboy State Daily Kiros’ win is alarming.

Speight was a Democrat when he graduated from the University of Wyoming law school. But the allure of capitalism and the prevailing logic of his good friends pulled him to the Republican side, he said in another interview last month.

The socialist victories of 2026 are “sad for this country. It may well affect the results of this fall, and nationwide,” he said. He called it a shift of California transplants into the Rockies, and a symptom of a growing entitlement.

[{"type":"text","text":"Colorado isn’t the only Wyoming neighbor with socialist momentum."}]

Sam Forstag, a smoke jumper endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-New York, won his primary bid for Montana’s U.S. House District 1 on June 2.

Forstag may be less favored than Kiros going into the general election: No Democrat has won that Montana House district this century.

 a “test for left-leaning politicians” who have been arguing for a populist surge in the blue party.

Melat Kiros Getty 7 1 26

<title>Win By Colorado Socialist Could Galvanize Wyoming Independence, Says Politico | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Fresh after socialist-backed candidates' success in New York's U.S. House primaries, Colorado Democrats nominated their own socialist House candidate Tuesday. Having a socialist neighbor could galvanize Wyoming's independence even more, one politico said. 

Win By Colorado Socialist Could Galvanize Wyoming Independence, Says Politico

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

A Cheyenne teen accused of firebombing the pickup of a rival for his ex-girlfriend with a Molotov cocktail built from a root beer bottle could get some serious prison time if convicted.

Court documents made publicly available Wednesday afternoon detail investigators' allegations that Seth S. Hayes, 18, threw the firebomb into another teenager's pickup after he began dating Hayes' former girlfriend.

Hayes is set for a Thursday preliminary hearing on a felony charge of third-degree arson. During his initial appearance in Laramie County Circuit Court late last week, a judge set his bond at $10,000 cash only.

An affidavit of probable cause filed in the case details how detectives spent weeks piecing together witness statements, surveillance video, social media activity and physical evidence before arresting Hayes nearly a month after the May 21 incendiary incident.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Black Rose "}]

Cheyenne Police Department investigators say the conflict that built up to the firebombing began months before the truck was set on fire.

According to the affidavit, Hayes and his girlfriend ended their relationship in January.

Police wrote that Hayes repeatedly contacted his ex-girlfriend after the breakup, leaving voicemails asking her to reconcile or insulting her when she refused.

"Seth often left things on (her) vehicle, including a pile of ashes and a black rose," the affidavit states.

Police also allege Hayes posted a video on social media showing himself and a friend burning one of her sweatshirts.

After she began dating another teenager, investigators say Hayes' attention shifted to him.

One of Hayes' coworkers told investigators Hayes had talked about wanting to "blow (his) truck up" several days before the fire.

According to the affidavit, the victim later told investigators he had heard Hayes make the same threat before his truck was destroyed.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Let It Burn' "}]

The teenager told investigators he woke around 2:30 a.m. May 21 to find his pickup engulfed in flames outside his Cheyenne home.

After speaking with officers, he said he drove past Hayes' residence "to see if his car was there."

When he arrived, he told investigators he saw a gas mask sitting on the hood of Hayes' vehicle, according to the affidavit.

Firefighters determined the blaze had been intentionally set and recovered what investigators believe was a Molotov cocktail made from a Sprecher's root beer bottle stuffed with a gasoline-soaked cloth.

Detectives traced the bottle to a Menards store, where investigators say surveillance video shows Hayes buying a four-pack of Sprecher root beer just days before the fire.

[{"type":"text","text":"Police also examined Hayes' social media activity."}]

About 25 minutes before the first 911 call reporting the blaze, investigators say Hayes posted Shaboozey's song "Let It Burn" on social media.

The affidavit states detectives combined surveillance video, witness statements, social media activity and physical evidence before concluding they had probable cause to arrest Hayes.

[{"type":"text","text":"Investigators estimated the pickup truck's value at about $10,000."}]

Hayes remains charged with third-degree arson. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday, when prosecutors must present enough evidence to show there is probable cause for the case to proceed to district court.

If convicted, he could get up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.

Cheyenne police 5 30 22

<title>Cheyenne Teen Accused Of Firebombing Truck With Molotov Cocktail After Breakup | Cowboy State Daily</title>

An 18-year-old Cheyenne man is accused of using a root beer bottle Molotov cocktail to firebomb the truck of another teen dating his ex-girlfriend. He also "often left things on (her) vehicle, including a pile of ashes and a black rose," police say.

Cheyenne Teen Accused Of Firebombing Truck With Molotov Cocktail After Breakup

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

A rancher near Choteau, Montana, caught video of six grizzlies strolling across his calving lot behind his barn late Monday, and said there were as many as seven bears on his property that night.

The next morning, rancher Neal Collins said agents from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks hazed as many as 10 grizzlies out of patches of brush across the road from his place.

Collins said no people or livestock were attacked by the bears on his place, and FWP used non-lethal “cracker” shotgun shells to scare off the bears.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A ‘Herd’ Of Grizzlies"}]

Sparky Wallace, a friend of Collins who also lives near Choteau, somewhat humorously described the group of grizzlies as a “herd.”

A group of bears is actually called a "sleuth." Or sometimes, an older term, a “sloth” is used to describe a gathering of bears. 

He told Cowboy State Daily he and some of his neighbors have had encounters with multiple bears, as the number of grizzlies out on the prairie has steadily increased.  

Chad White, a bear management specialist with Montana FWP, said the bears on Collins’ property were probably a “couple of family groups that have been hanging out in the area.”

Meaning, they were likely two related adult females such as “a mother and daughter” and their cubs, White said.

The Choteau area has been busy with bear activity this spring and summer. The bears wander from the Rocky Mountain Front onto the prairie along the Teton River, which flows past Choteau. 

The bears might be feeding on green vegetation and other natural food sources, then taking shelter in brush patches.

“It may be that he (Collins) has the natural shelter for day bedding and they were traveling around the area,” White said. 

White said the FWP bear manager responding to Collins’ call told him as many as 10 grizzlies fled once the hazing stared.

FWP personnel fired cracker shells into the brush where the bears were holed up. Cracker shells fire a small explosive charge with a delayed fuse, designed to explode in the air and ward off predators such as bears and wolves.

“The six or seven bears in the family groups ran off in one direction, and two or three more ran off in another direction,” he said.

It’s not known where the other two or three bears might have come from, White added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Alarm Barks"}]

Collins said he was first alerted to the bears’ presence Monday when one of his dogs started frantically barking at about 9:30 p.m.

“We’ve got this one dog that’s supposed to be a cow dog, but she’s really not,” he said. “She was just barking, barking, barking. She barks on occasion, but not like that.” 

He said he stepped outside to investigate and saw a “flash of a bear.”

So, he immediately went back into his house, shooing the dog inside with him.

A camera he has mounted on the backside of his barn caught video and photos of the bears.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘You Get Immune To It’"}]

Collins’ ranch is about 35 miles out on the prairie from the Rocky Mountain front.

Grizzlies are usually associated with mountain habitat. However, they were originally a Great Plains species, and were driven into the mountains as the West was settled.

Grizzlies have been growing in number and expanding their range in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho in recent decades. In Montana, they’ve been pushing ever-farther onto the prairies.

Collins said his father was in his 70s before he ever saw a grizzly anywhere near Choteau. But the bears have become a common sight of late.

When asked if having the bears around worried him, Collins said, “I suppose, but you get immune to it.”

Even so, he’s not happy about the growing number of prairie grizzlies.

“There here, even though I don’t want them here,” he said.

In Wyoming, grizzlies attacking cattle is frequently listed as the leading cause of human-bear conflict.

Collins said he hasn’t lost any livestock to bears yet.

"Even so, they sure don’t help them (the cattle) even if they don’t kill them,” he said. "They move through the cattle herd and stir them up.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bird Hunting Gets Wild"}]

North-central Montana is a bird hunter’s paradise. And in decades past, grizzlies would have been the furthest things from bird hunters’ minds.

That’s not the case any longer. In 2023, 

 between bird and whitetail deer hunters in separate incidents.

Those occurred in the vicinity of the Freezeout Lake Wildlife Management Area. It’s between Choteau and Fairfield, Montana, about 40 miles west of Great Falls.

Collins said that several years ago, a bird hunter had to shoot and kill a charging grizzly across the road from his place.

“He ended up with a scratch on his arm, because the last shot was right at the end of the gun barrel,” he said.

Wallace, a horse trainer and saddle maker, said he’s run into multiple grizzlies while bird hunting.

“I hunt ducks a lot. And even on the little prairie potholes out here, you’ve got to walk in there loaded and ready for bears,” he said.

Herd of grizzlies 2 6 30 26

<title>Holy Cow! Montana Rancher Spots 'Herd' Of 7 Grizzlies On Property | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Montana rancher Neal Collins said a camera on his barn captured a "herd" of seven grizzlies on his property Monday night. The next morning, agents from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks hazed 10 grizzlies out of brush across the road from his place.

Holy Cow! Montana Rancher Spots 'Herd' Of 7 Grizzlies On Property

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

Andrew Rossi

Public Safety

A Lincoln County man walked away from what the Wyoming Highway Patrol said could easily have been a fatal accident that sent his truck tumbling into the Snake River Canyon upstream from Alpine on Monday.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol responded to the incident at mile marker 124 on U.S. Highway 89. The call came in around 1:20 p.m.

“A Ford pickup was traveling southbound when the driver said he lost control of the vehicle,” WHP spokesman Aaron Brown told Cowboy State Daily. “He went into the opposite lane and sideswiped a car hauler.”

When the pickup cleared the car hauler, it went through the guardrail and tumbled down a steep embankment into the river. Brown said the vehicle rolled two to three times before coming to rest on its wheels, 20 feet into the Snake.

The driver walked away with minor injuries. He was treated and released from an Alpine hospital later that day.

[{"type":"text","text":"However, he didn’t escape without a citation."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“We did issue a citation for failure to maintain lane,” Brown said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wear Your Seat Belt"}]

Brown said the driver was likely wearing a seat belt when the accident occurred. That was “probably what saved his life.”

“When people roll their vehicles and they're not wearing their seat belts, their bodies are going to find a way out of that car,” he said. “You’re going to be ejected, partially or fully. Either way, your chances of survival at that point are slim to none.”

Brown couldn’t confirm if the driver was wearing his seat belt. He believes the minor injuries the driver sustained and his ability to escape the vehicle on his own can’t be explained any other way.

“That vehicle was pretty crushed,” he said. “After rolling over three times and landing in the river, the driver walks away simply because he was wearing his seat belt.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Big Kahuna"}]

The incident occurred near a notorious spot in the Snake River Canyon called the Big Kahuna, the area's largest and most famous rapid.

Clint Erickson, the captain of Star Valley Search and Rescue, said the Big Kahuna is “infamous” among local river rafting guides and search and rescue volunteers.

“As far as water features on the Snake River, it's very well-known,” 

. “A lot of people surf on the Lunch Counter rapid, so it’s a well-known water feature.”

Big Kahuna is so infamous that the U.S. Forest Service placed an automated external defibrillator (AED) at the Red Creek Trailhead, a mile downriver, to potentially save anyone injured in the rapid.

“When people fall into the Snake River (at Big Kahuna), the general flow of the river puts them in that area,” Erickson said. “The AED is there in case someone has a heart attack after falling in.”

Joyce Balls, 89, of Rigby, Idaho, died after falling into the Snake River Canyon in June 2025 in another incident near that part of the canyon. She was picnicking at the Big Kahuna Overlook when she fell 100 feet into the river.

Jay Hokanson, deputy coroner with the Lincoln County Coroner’s Office, confirmed that Balls died from “injuries sustained in the fall.”

Truck in Snake River 735908997 1696244811656670 8467685573708929046 n 6 30 26 png

<title>Man Survives After Crashing Truck Through Guardrail And Plunging Into Snake River | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Lincoln County man lost control of his truck, crashed through a guardrail, rolled several times and plunged 20 feet into the Snake River — yet walked away with minor injuries. Wyoming Highway Patrol ticketed the man for failure to maintain his lane.

Man Survives After Crashing Truck Through Guardrail And Plunging Into Snake River

Anna-Louise Jackson

Public Lands

The Going-to-the Sun Highway has such a cult-like following that some Internet detectives have spent recent weeks analyzing the live webcam of a high-altitude parking lot just to catch a glimpse.

They’re now able to put boots on the ground as this iconic highway fully opened to motorists Monday after an eight-month winter closure.

Your take on this feverish obsession probably comes down to something simple: You’ve either experienced firsthand the beauty and grandeur of this stretch of road in Montana’s Glacier National Park — or you haven’t. 

For many people, there’s no middle ground.

There are practical reasons, too, why people go gaga about the Going-to-the-Sun. As the park’s sole east-west artery, it connects the two most-visited entrances and unlocks Glacier’s sprawling interior to recreationists for a scant four months of the year or so.

And as a National Historic Landmark, the highway is a destination unto itself. A slow, winding west-to-east journey takes visitors through lush valleys before steadily ascending along sheer cliffs with sweeping views of glaciers, alpine lakes, cascading waterfalls, and occasional glimpses of wildlife until it reaches Logan Pass atop the Continental Divide and descends once again.

Ranked the third most-scenic drive in the U.S. by Tripadvisor reviewers, people tend to throw around superlatives like “stunning,” “spectacular,” or “unforgettable” to describe it.

At the highway’s opening ceremony in July 1933, Montana’s then-governor Frank H. Cooney summed it up in a way that remains apt today: “We may confidently declare that there is no highway which will give the sightseer, the lover of the grandeur of the Creator’s handiwork, more thrills, more genuine satisfaction deep down in his being than will a trip over this road.”

A trip over the Going-to-the-Sun today wouldn't be possible were it not for a group of 1920s-era visionaries who first mapped this engineering marvel.

But the modern-day road crew deserves just as much credit.

It was while listening to a presentation by the park’s road supervisor a few years ago that local filmmaker Jordan Lefler became inspired.

“I thought how cool it would be to document that plowing process,” Lefler recalled. “It’s very orchestrated.”

He enlisted the help of his brother and fellow filmmaker Logan Lefler, and the duo initially set out to document that annual ritual, only to learn their access would be limited due to safety concerns. Undeterred, they decided to take a broader purview of a road that shouldn’t exist. 

And their timing couldn’t be more perfect: One day after the Going-to-the-Sun re-opened, the brothers pulled back the curtain on their documentary film that celebrates this road. 

” will premiere on Tuesday in Kalispell, launching a summer and fall screening tour that will hit various cities across Montana and potentially some places in Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Beautiful Sweep of Road"}]

Part of what makes the road so iconic is the route itself.

Before construction began in the 1920s, engineers proposed three potential routes. One of those designs was "really hideous," Lefler said, featuring a dizzying dozen or so switchbacks, more like a utilitarian logging road.

Instead, today’s scenic highway uses the mountain’s natural topography as a guide and features only one official, albeit massive, hairpin switchback.

Dubbed “The Loop,” this switchback marks the transition into the white-knuckled portion of the drive for some people, as a low brick wall or guardrail is all that protects cars on one side of the road, while the other side hugs a sheer cliff

Born and raised in Arlee, Montana, about 115 miles south of the park on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Lefler said his love of both the outdoors and photography meant that he naturally gravitated to visiting Glacier quite frequently.

Now having spent so many hours behind the lens documenting this place he loves, he sees some aspects of the road in a new light.

“When I hit ‘The Loop’ area and see the road laid out ahead of me, I see how it blends in with the landscape,” Lefler said. “We have some people to thank for the beautiful sweep of the road we got today.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"First Impressions"}]

One of the beauties of this highway is that each journey up and down offers something new to experience even for regulars, while first-timers might feel a tinge of regret: 

 on his first visit to Glacier, and that’s saying something: His professional photography business takes him to plenty of spectacular places.

“It’s phenomenal,” the Kansas-based photographer said of his first experience driving the Going-to-the-Sun. “It’s easily one of the top roads in the United States, if not the world.”

When he arrived in 2022 to capture the fall foliage, Shannon quickly scrapped his pre-mapped itinerary because he was compelled to pull over dozens of times instead of the handful of stops he’d planned.

The vistas were perfect for his portfolio, but Shannon said it was hard to beat an opportunity to capture some close-ups of a family of black bears. He added nearly a dozen prints from that trip to a collection that celebrates destinations ranging from the Grand Tetons to the Swiss Alps.

Though aspects of Glacier remind Shannon of other places he’s photographed in the Canadian Rockies, he’s eager to return in summertime to photograph the park’s alpine wildflowers.

“There’s just so much to see, it’s really unique,” Shannon said. “I could go on and on about how beautiful that drive is.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Catch-22"}]

But the park’s growing popularity has proved problematic for locals who want to pop in for a spontaneous visit. Over the past five seasons, Glacier instituted a strict vehicle reservation system for peak visiting hours along the highway to combat the congestion that comes with 3 million annual visitors, nearly double the average seen from the 1980s through the early 2000s.

That controversial reservation system was eliminated for the 2026 season, though a three-hour parking limit at Logan Pass will be implemented this year — yet another attempt to encourage visitors to ditch their cars in lieu of other modes of transportation including free shuttles or paid tours aboard the park’s historic red jammer buses.

Still, the throng of tourists who travel along Flathead Lake each summer creates a Catch-22 for small business owners in Polson, about 70 miles south of West Glacier.

Polson’s relative proximity to the park doesn’t necessarily make a summertime visit any easier for fixtures at the town’s Friday farmers market like Wendi Arnold, co-owner of 

, and John Dalpiaz, owner of the apparel company 

Arnold isn’t sure a Glacier getaway is in the cards this year. A dwindling number of local dairy farms means that she and her husband already spend a lot of time on the road, making frequent three-hour round-trip journeys to Kalispell to fetch milk for their artisanal cheeses.

If Arnold is able to squeeze in a visit, she might opt to leave the driving to someone else by taking one of the red bus tours.

“You get to just be a passenger and focus on the majesty of it all,” Arnold said. “There’s just something about being in those glacial valleys—the vistas are spectacular.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Most Epic Experience"}]

Like Arnold, Dalpiaz isn’t sure he’ll make it to Glacier this summer.

But he’s had the good fortune of visiting the park so many times he can’t even remember his first time there — though he reckons it was before he could walk or talk — and has come to enjoy the park outside of peak season.

In fact, his “most epic” experience was a few years ago while biking the Going-to-the-Sun road with a friend before it opened to vehicle traffic, a popular springtime activity. 

The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass.

You Still Here? Monday, September 11, 2023

In case you missed it

More in You Still Here

Bonus Video 1: Thursday, July 2, 2026

Bonus Video 2: Thursday, July 2, 2026

Steve Inman: Thursday, July 2, 2026

You Still Here? Thursday, July 2, 2026

Most read