One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"It was on this day that Frank vowed to never mow his lawn again..."}]

One more for 10 10 23

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

<title>One More For The Road: Tuesday, October 10, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It was on this day that Frank vowed never to mow his lawn again...

One More For The Road: Tuesday, October 10, 2023

 It was on this day that Frank vowed to never mow his lawn again...

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, June 23rd.  I’m Mac Watson

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Black Hills Energy says it’s ready for data centers that draw as much power as small states. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Vice President Wes Ashton says its large-load tariff makes cost-causers pay their full cost, even as AI demand has jumped from megawatts to gigawatts.

“The question is, how well is it going to scale when we go from megawatt to orders of magnitude greater gigawatt scale? Black Hills tells me they're very confident that this large load tariff is going to scale, they're not worried about that at all. In fact, they think that folks might see that their rates are continuing to be held back, because as these large companies are building this infrastructure there's economy of scale there, and it's resulting in less cost for regular rate payers, because these guys are paying for ginormous upgrades to the right reliability and efficiency and overall capacity of the grid that serves everyone, and so they, they only see benefits from this down the line as we continue to build this out.”

Project Jade, as just one example, will come into Wyoming with a “bring-your-own-power” mentality for an initial 2.7 gigawatts of power, which is nearly three times what industry analysts have said Wyoming uses now. 

Demand for nuclear fuel, a ban on imports from Russia and booming data center-driven electricity needs are sending uranium producers back into Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that mining association chief Travis Deti says, “We need the fuel, and the fuel starts with Wyoming uranium.

“There's a renewed interest in this mineral nationwide, and the need globally is huge, and Wyoming has a lot of uranium and a lot of exploration to be done, so companies are at work in the Powder River Basin. I talked to the CEO of a smaller company, he is from Australia, but owns American Uranium Limited, and they have an operation in Wyoming that is ongoing and expects to be producing in the next few years. Uranium is key for energy development and could also play a role in data center build out in the future.”

Nuclear energy still supplies about 20% of the nation's electricity, and the United States operates more nuclear reactors than any other country in the world, according to the U.S. Energy Information Association.

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Almost a week after a semitruck carrying millions of bees flipped over in Yellowstone National Park and destroyed hundreds of hives, bees are still swarming on trees in the area. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that one Wyoming beekeeper calls it “ a swarming mechanism.” 

“Bee trees are kind of like staging stations for bees, as they're trying to find new homes. So, when you see a tree covered with bees, it's most likely that there's a queen there, and the other bees are swarming around her, while scouts go out to find a suitable location to build a new hive. If you see those trees, beekeepers know that they can still collect that colony and relocate it to an apiary or another beehive safely, but if you stop seeing those trees, it means the bees have moved on.”

The fact that bee trees can still be seen along U.S. Highway 191 six days after the June 16 crash might indicate the bees are having trouble finding an ideal place for a new home. But it definitely means the colonies can be safely recovered.

Data from the National Weather Service revealed the last three months have been the driest spring on record for most of Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that's following one of the driest winters on record, which doesn't bode well for the summer months ahead.

“After one of the driest winters in Wyoming's recorded history, it makes sad sense that it was one of the driest springs in recorded history. Many Wyoming communities got less than half, in some places barely more than a quarter of the moisture they typically receive between March 20-first and June 20, but there could be some potential salvation on the horizon. It's been a very active weather week in Wyoming, and there could be more moisture moving in. The downside to that is if we get that moisture, it's going to most likely come in the form of thunderstorms, and with the thunder comes the lightning, and if we get a thunderstorm that doesn't produce much rain but does produce some lightning, then we're talking about a heightened risk of wildfires on a landscape that's already deep in the drought.”

Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day tells Cowboy State Daily, “March was so bad, April was not great, May was really bad in places, and June has been a bust. Those months are so critical, and they didn’t come through for us.”

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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When a bull moose wandered into Wheatland on Sunday, wildlife agents drugged it, then rolled the massive animal onto a tarp to move it into a waiting horse trailer. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that one fire-rescue responder said, “Once he woke back up, he was not too pleased.”

“The moose was getting spookily close to I-25 and a lieutenant from the Wheatland Fire and Rescue told me that they've had a lot of deer get hit in that same area, so they really don't want that moose hanging out there. So Game and Fish came in and tranquilized the moose, and they called in Wheatland Fire Rescue to assist. Then they managed to get it rolled onto a tarp, and they just had like eight or 10 guys getting a circle around the tarp, he lifted up and carried into a horse trailer, and then once it got in the horse trailer, they took it up to the Snowy Range Mountains and released it back out into the wild.”

Jeff Herb of Wheatland Fire-Rescue tells Cowboy State Daily that no one is sure where the moose came from. He speculates that the moose might have wandered out of the Laramie Range because it’s been so dry lately in those mountains.

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The Natrona County Commissioners approved an agreement to keep the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper for the next 10 years. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports the CEO of Visit Casper says the economic boost to Natrona county is huge.

“It's become a tradition. Annette Pitts with Visit Casper said that this brings about $3 million in economic impact to the Casper community. Casper College's head rodeo coach, Faith Anders, said that Casper is a great place for the CNFR because people in Central Wyoming really understand rodeo culture. In other states, there are some misconceptions about animal cruelty, whereas in Wyoming, there are ranchers, farmers, veterinarians, people who care about animals and really understand livestock production, so it's a great place to celebrate Western culture.”

The CNFR has been a fixture in Casper for more than a quarter-century, bringing hundreds of the nation's top college cowboys and cowgirls to Wyoming every June.

Terlingua, Texas, crowns the world’s chili champions, but many say their favorite contest is in Chugwater, Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that for 40 years, the Chugwater Chili Cook-off has been a Father's Day bucket-list contest for the best chili cooks on the planet.

“Many of them are former Terlingua winners. Terlingua is the competition that crowns the world's chili champion every year, and talking with some of these guys who came up here from Texas, this is a bucket list competition for them right here in Little Old Chuck Water, Wyoming. A lot of these folks who do this, who are from Wyoming, do it as a family activity. They get together kind of like families do over the holidays for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well, they get together over chili, and there's some fantastic chilis here. If you don't find something that you like at this festival, well, then you just don't like chili, because there's some really good chili at this event.”

Many contestants pair their chili fest trip with subsequent Yellowstone and Devils Tower adventures.

Mount Rushmore expects a huge turnout for the nation's 250th Independence Day celebration that will feature fireworks returning for the first time in six years. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that you’d better have a lottery ticket to get in.

“The idea of celebrating Fourth of July at Mount Rushmore for America's 250th birthday was so popular that the National Park Service had to implement a lottery system for tickets. Nearly 103,000 people vied for 4800 tickets, and the lottery closed in April. So there will be 4800 people at Mount Rushmore, and many more people who would love to be there. They are showing up all over the Black Hills and Keystone, which is the community nearest Mount Rushmore, has reported an increase of 127% in visitors over last year.”

There is also speculation that President Trump will attend this event, but the White House has not confirmed.

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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

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<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, June 23, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Tuesday's headlines include:
* Unparalleled Demand For Energy
* Millions of Bees in Yellowstone Trees
* Why Chugwater Chili Cookoff Is So Popular

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Letters to the Editor

When I was required to replace my license plate (it was in perfectly good condition) with a new one last year, I began to wonder what it cost the state to replace all plates in 2025. After asking three or four agencies in the government what that figure was, I recently got an answer. 

$5 per plate, or $1,599,980. That's a lot of change when most all plates are in good condition.  I was told this is the cost of manufacturing so, hopefully, that included design work, materials, and labor.. 

I also learned it was the law that required a change every eight years. See Motor Vehicles - 31-2-213.  It took a search of 542 pages on motor vehicle law to find this. (No wonder government is in runaway mode....no one has time to look into laws!)  

As you can see, this law costs taxpayers plenty so I asked our elected representatives the reasoning for it.  Maybe they can introduce a bill to eliminate that law. 

License plates 20240402 100307 4 6 23

<title>Letter To The Editor: License Plates Cost Too Much Money | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Dear editor: When I was required to replace my license plate (it was in perfectly good condition) with a new one last year, I began to wonder what it cost the state to replace all plates in 2025.

Letter To The Editor: License Plates Cost Too Much Money

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

Andrew Rossi

Around Wyoming

Despite an influx of moisture-laden weather in June, data from the National Weather Service (NWS) show that the last three months have remained historically dry.

For many communities, the period between March 21 and June 20 was one of the driest in recorded history.

Riverton got 1.01 inches of total precipitation between March 21 and June 20, only 28% of its historical average. That’s officially Riverton’s driest spring since 1996.

Buffalo didn’t fare much better, with 1.91 of the 6.18 inches of precipitation it usually gets. It was Buffalo’s driest spring since 1998.

With the wettest months of Wyoming’s year in the past, meteorologists are anticipating an exceptionally dry summer.

“I'm not surprised,” Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day said. “March was so bad, April was not great, May was really bad in places, and June has been a bust. Those months are so critical, and they didn’t come through for us.”

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None of Wyoming’s meteorologists were surprised the 2026 spring season was so dry. It’s comparable to confirming how a murder has been committed when the murderer has already been tried and convicted after a thorough confession.

“Weather systems have been going around the fringes of Wyoming all season,” meteorologist Joshua Rowe with the NWS office in Riverton said. “It affected every region differently, but it was dry across the board.”

The reason for the dry season was the same phenomenon that made the 2025-2026 winter season historically dry. A series of stubborn high-pressure ridges set up in the Arctic Circle, funneling cold, wet weather away from the western U.S.

“The same story is pretty much true everywhere you look,” Day said. “There’s no getting around that this has been a severe drought across Wyoming.”

However, even this bleak outlook has a brighter perspective. Both Day and Rowe noted that spring precipitation wasn’t that bad when looking at communities with older records.

For instance, Lander got 3.25 of the 6.21 inches it typically receives between March 21 and June 20. That’s only 52% of their seasonal average, but it's only the 19th driest spring since 1891.

Casper had its 17th-driest spring since 1939, receiving 2.99 of its average 4.93 inches.

“This is ranking high on the list of driest winters for many places, but we’ve been down this road before,” Day said. “We’ve had some very dry years in the past, and people don't necessarily realize how prone we are to drought.”

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If the wettest months of Wyoming’s year were a bust, that doesn’t bode well for the hotter, drier summer ahead. Drought begets drought, as Day described it.

“It's really, really hard to erase or take big chunks out of drought as you get into early summer,” he said. “It’s already a dry climate, and the drier the ground gets, the harder it is to get rain. It takes a while for anything to bust that cycle.”

, most of Wyoming is experiencing Severe or Extreme drought. That’s actually an improvement from a few months ago, but isn’t saying much.

Rowe sees the possibility of drought relief on the horizon, but not for a few more months.

“There is the potential for the upcoming monsoonal season to be active, but it's not a certainty and won’t happen until late summer and early fall,” he said. “We would need a prolonged period of that moisture, with thunderstorms and rain showers developing every day for several weeks, for most of Wyoming to see any real improvements.”

 can change the game in a big way, in either direction. Unfortunately, that won’t have any impact in the short term.

“The Climate Prediction Center is calling for slightly above-average moisture for the next three months,” Rowe said. “That could give us more monsoonal moisture as we get into late July, August, and September, but it would take quite a lot to make a significant change.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Day was aware of that outlook, but “wouldn’t put any money on it.\""}]

“I’ve seen years where active tropical storms in the eastern Pacific Ocean during an El Niño summer drift into the Rockies and create some really wet weather in July, August and September,” he said. “I don't want to give any impression that it's coming or that this would end the drought conditions, but there’s a historical precedent for it.”

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Astronomical summer started with the summer solstice at 4:24 a.m. Sunday. Meteorological summer, however, started June 1.

Either way you look at it, it’s summer in Wyoming. That’s when people must be careful about what they wish for regarding moisture.

Even if there isn’t much precipitation over Wyoming, even a small amount can be enough to generate thunderstorms in the atmosphere. And with the thunder comes the lightning.

“If we're going to get rain, it's going to be likely coming from a thunderstorm,” Day said. “But thunderstorms could also cause lightning-induced fires. If you have wind coming in behind those storms, it’s a real concern.”

Day called summer thunderstorms “Catch 22s.” They’re the best chance for moisture but come with a higher risk of turning a drought-stricken landscape into an inferno.

“Do you want it to stay dry with no lightning, or do you want to take the chance to get wet and have lightning? I don’t have an answer for that, because thunderstorms are a blessing and a curse at the same time,” he said.

Now that summer’s here, the best course of action is to assume, and behave as if, the ongoing situation isn’t going to improve.

“Drought conditions are probably not going to improve much through the rest of June and into July,” Rowe said. “It'll really all depends on the monsoon as it develops later this summer. If it really sets up favorably for us, that would be very beneficial. We’ll have to see how that plays out.”

That said, there’s been a lot of active weather in Wyoming in the latter half of June. While the odds are low, Day said it's possible for June to make a noticeable dent in Wyoming’s drought.

“Getting that tropical storm activity in the Pacific and above-average precipitation in late July would be like 4th and 25 in a football game,” he said. “If you know we're going to go for it on fourth down, you have to hope Josh Allen’s our quarterback.”

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<title>Wyoming Records Driest Spring In Decades, Forecasters Expect Exceptionally Dry Summer | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Data from the National Weather Service reveals the last three months have been the driest spring on record for most of Wyoming. That's following one of the driest winters on record. And now meteorologists say they are expecting an exceptionally dry summer.

Wyoming Records Driest Spring In Decades, Forecasters Expect Exceptionally Dry Summer

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

Renée Jean

Outdoors

Public Lands

Waterfalls shoot straight out of volcanic cliffsides, flinging themselves into canyons almost no one ever visits. 

Far from the boardwalks and pullouts, meanwhile, something that looks very much like a starfish seems to nap where no starfish should even be, sunning itself in a crystal-clear thermal pool in Yellowstone National Park. 

It’s all part of a hidden Yellowstone that most people never get to see — the Yellowstone that Bozeman filmmaker Stephen Quayle has spent five decades chasing with a camera and has finally stitched into a new film, 

“Only 5% of Yellowstone is visible by the roads or by the boardwalks around the geysers,” Quayle told Cowboy State Daily. 

Another thin, 10% slice belongs to the hardy few willing to trek for miles into grizzly bear and wolf territory. 

But from a helicopter, “the most gorgeous” waterfalls and the most intriguing geothermal pools can be seen in stunning aerial views. 

Photographing from the air takes a million-dollar camera lens, Quayle said, one that can take high-resolution images from at least 2,000 feet away. 

That’s the minimum height recommended by the FAA for flying over places like national parks. Any lower could violate federal laws if an aircraft disturbs wildlife or park visitors.

“That way we can present to people the Yellowstone that really is,” he said. “And it’s breathtakingly wonderful. It is not just a wonder of the world, it is 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Fateful Party Weekend"}]

Quayle’s relationship with Yellowstone began when he was a college student with time on his hands and weekends to burn in glorious summer road trips. 

Yellowstone was perfect for that when you’re a young man from Bozeman, Quayle said. 

“I went there because that’s where everybody used to go and party,” he admitted. “And from Bozeman, they drive down to the inner West Yellowstone, but I would take a diversion. That doesn’t mean I didn’t partake of some of the wild stuff in those days. 

"But the bottom line is that it was so close, and in those days you could go from one feature to the next and never see another car,” Quayle added.

The more he photographed Yellowstone, the more he wanted to go back. It felt like becoming lost in another world, one that seemed to rearrange itself every time he visited.

At first, Quayle stuck to closeups. Think bacterial mats, colorful mineral formations, tiny, iridescent insects — all reflecting his interest at the time in abstract art.

“Most photographers would take a leaf,” he said. “I would take the veins in the leaf.”

But over time, Quayle saw that Yellowstone was like this gigantic living creature, breathing, pulsing, moving around. 

That could never be captured with microshots of leaf veins and abstract rock patterns. 

For the real Yellowstone, Quayle realized he had to do something to widen his scope. 

On a map, Yellowstone National Park looks vast, but knowable. 

You can drive in and easily hit the biggest, most popular features — Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic, the Canyon — and drive back out with a phone full of photos and a comfortable sense that you’ve now seen Yellowstone.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"It’s a beautiful illusion. "}]

For one thing, Yellowstone is among the most dynamic landscapes on earth. Fire and water are shaping and reshaping its landscapes all the time. 

The park is also vast —  3,500 square miles — and the majority is too dangerous and too inaccessible for most people’s hiking abilities. 

“It’s a matter of practicality,” Quayle said. “Because some of these waterfalls come out of the side of a mountain and you’ve got wolves in the park and you’ve got grizzlies in the park … and the wolves are not, ‘oh they’re so cute,’ and it’s not Yogi Bear time.”

Some areas are even untouchable when it comes to horseback, Quayle added, and the park also has rules on where people can go by horseback, which helps protect fragile areas. 

Quayle himself didn’t even realize at first just how much he’d been missing. Until one day he got the idea to take a helicopter ride and look down on this creation. 

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Geyser basins became vast, veined paintings. Rivers resolved into networks tying distant waterfalls together. Thermal scars appeared in forest clearings that had no signs, no names, no crowds.

“It’s like a whole different world,” he said. “You literally wouldn’t know you were on planet Earth.”

The view from 2,000 feet is ultimately the one that captured and held Quayle’s attention the best. 

Waterfalls spilling over volcanic rocks like crystal threads of light into dark and lonely slot canyons and broad amphitheaters that had been carved by wind and water and time. 

There were blue-and-white ribbons twisting over black volcanic rock, framed by forests and meadows that melted into the mists of morning. Scenes like this often felt less like sightseeing, and more like eavesdropping on a secret earth, as if he, himself, was an alien. 

One time he saw what looked like a perfect, starfish-like form sunning itself in a crystal clear thermal pool.

“Imagine a starfish, a perfect starfish, in water that’s too hot to have any life,” he said. “How do you get that kind of design in geothermal pools?”

Quayle said he’s shared the images with researchers, who are still evaluating them.

Quayle has combined the footage taken from the air with snapshots he’s taken at Yellowstone National Park over a 50-year period, creating a feature-length film he calls “Yellowstone: Above & Below.” 

His goal with the film is to help people access even the most inaccessible places in the park, as well as raise funds to help support the park. 

Ten percent of the film’s proceeds will be donated to the park’s official nonprofit, Yellowstone Forever, to help fund conservation, education and stewardship of the park.

“Yellowstone is alive,” the film’s narrator says over sweeping aerial shots. “Every breath of steam, every shifting terrace is part of an ancient story written in stone and fire.”

Creating the film has taken Quayle a lifetime, including about four or five years worth of helicopter rides.

“We were in a helicopter for sometimes six and eight hours a day,” he said, a ride that was paid for by the hour. “I mean, it’s a lot of time in the air, but there’s no other way to see it all, to reference it.”

To capture the views, Quayle rented a gyro-stabilized camera system with a long-range lens once used for military surveillance. He also hired Hollywood cameraman Nel Boshoff to operate it.

The camera is so precise, Quayle said, it can focus on an elk 2 miles ahead and then zoom in on its eyelashes. 

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Ask Quayle why he keeps coming back to Yellowstone after 50 years, and his answer lies somewhere between science and spirit.

From above, the branching runoff channels remind him of blood vessels in a human body, and everywhere he sees beauty born from volcanic violence.

“It’s a place of wonder and warning,” he says in the film. “It is fragile, and yet holds the strength of worlds beneath its surface.”

For most visitors, Yellowstone will always mean the 5% everyone else sees — Old Faithful, the canyon, a glimpse of bison in the valley. 

The remaining 95% — Quayle’s waterfalls in hidden canyons, starfish patterns at the bottom of a boiling pool, and backcountry geysers with no signs or names — are like something from a dream, revealed by one man’s uncommon obsession. 

If the images leave viewers feeling like they’ve gotten as close to the edge of creation as they ever will from a living-room couch, that’s fine with Quayle. That feeling is everything about Yellowstone that he’s ever wanted to say.

Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com

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<title>The Yellowstone You’ll Never See: Filmmaker Spends 50 Years Capturing Its Secrets | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Most tourists see just 5% of Yellowstone from roads and boardwalks. Bozeman filmmaker Stephen Quayle has spent 50 years filming the places most never reach. “It’s like a whole different world,” he said. “You literally wouldn’t know you’re on planet Earth.”

The Yellowstone You’ll Never See: Filmmaker Spends 50 Years Capturing Its Secrets

Wyoming Life

Entertainment

Fifty years ago, the highlight of the Cody Stampede Parade marking America’s bicentennial celebration was a 30-foot-long .30-30 Winchester rifle, dominating a float that also carried legendary Western actor John Wayne.

[{"type":"text","text":"That rifle has been sitting atop a storefront in downtown Cody since. "}]

Everyone loves the giant Winchester, so they might have noticed when it recently suddenly disappeared from the roof where it had been prominently displayed since its trip down Sheridan Avenue decades earlier.

Like John Wayne himself, Cody’s giant Winchester rifle is coming back, better than ever, for another 50 years dominating Cody’s historic downtown.

“We're putting it back to what it was in 1976, as best we can,” said Mike Darby, owner of the Irma Hotel and the giant Winchester. “I can’t confirm or deny what we’re going to do with it, but we’re hoping to have it done by July 3.”

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It’s 1976, and the United States is starting down the barrel of its 200th anniversary. The Buffalo Bill Museum, now the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, decided to add its own ammunition to an already-loaded celebration.

July 4 was selected for the opening of the lavish Cody Firearms Museum. The addition of a massive Winchester collection, on loan from the Olin Corp., made it the world's largest firearms museum at the time.

Adding to the excitement, the museum would be dedicated by the grand marshal of that year’s Cody Stampede Parade: “The Duke” himself, John Wayne.

The Husky Oil Co., founded in Cody in 1938, decided to make its own big contribution to the festivities.

What better to celebrate the bicentennial, Wayne, and the Cody Firearms Museum than with a giant replica of one of the American West’s most iconic firearms?

Denny Shore was the head of Husky Oil’s activities committee at the time. His wife, Sue, remembers it well.

“The theme for the parade that year was ‘Celebrating Winchester: The Gun That Won the West,’” she said. “Denny decided to call the people who make parade floats and asked if they could do a giant Winchester. They said yes, so they did.”

Shore doesn’t remember what company built the humongous rifle, but she remembers when it arrived on a flatbed trailer and was parked in front of her house.

“I loved it,” she said. “I'm a gun nut, and I have a .30-30 Winchester that I always hunted with. I feel like it was my own, and we were sharing it.”

Cody resident and photographer Dewey Vanderhoff was hired by the Olin Corp. to get photos of the parade, Wayne, and the rifle.

“Katy Brown's ‘Buffalo Bill Dollies’ can-can girls danced in front of the big Winchester rifle at its public debut at the airport,” he said. “Everyone was there waiting for John Wayne's ceremonial arrival on a Boeing 727 jet with his entourage and family.”

As the Cody Stampede Parade cruised down Sheridan Avenue, the Winchester was the center of attention. If that wasn’t enough, Wayne was riding on the same float.

Most parade floats quickly disappear when they reach the end of the route, but there was a brighter future for the giant Winchester.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Everything Under The Gun'"}]

After its centerpiece moment in the parade, the giant Winchester was stored at the Husky Oil Refinery in Cody.

A few years later, Cody business owner Jack Skates opened Jack's Sports & OK Hardware at 1137 12th St. right next to the Irma. The store came with the giant Winchester on the roof, where it had ended up after leaving Husky Oil.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Their motto was ‘Everything Under The Gun,’” Shore said."}]

While the storefront changed hands multiple times in the next four decades, the rifle stayed right where it was. However, even the gun was under the gun.

Bob Carter owned one of the businesses, The Gunrunner, that occupied the space. He shared some details on the unique rooftop sculpture with 

“It was only constructed for temporary display,” he said. “Some parts were made from cardboard. It held up for many years, but eventually required renovation and replacement with more permanent materials.”

Carter added that the giant Winchester was a replica of a 1968 Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill .30-30 rifle, making all the more appropriate for Cody’s bicentennial celebration.

Any knowledgeable gun owner knows firearms need regular care and upkeep. Even with more permanent parts, 50 years of exposure on a Cody rooftop made the larger-than-life Winchester a little worse for wear.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Giant Gun Restoration"}]

In May, the giant Winchester disappeared from the rooftop of 1137 12th St. It’s now getting some much-needed refurbishment.

Darby said the rifle was acquired by the Irma Hotel when it bought the building it was sitting on in the 1990s.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It came at no extra charge,” he said."}]

Darby said the giant Winchester was in especially sorry shape going into this summer. If it was going to survive, it needed some help.

“The recent windstorms were hard on it, plus 50 years of weather damage,” he said. “It was about to fall off the building, so we got a crane to lift it up and put it on a trailer.”

The giant Winchester has since been dismantled and, essentially, rebuilt. Darby said everything that can be replaced is being replaced and reenforced.

“The barrel and the levels are made of wood, so we’re replacing what’s needed and putting better supports on the inside,” he said. “After dismantling it, we felt we could repair and improve it.”

On July 4, 1976, John Wayne paraded through Cody with a 30-foot-long Winchester rifle. 50 years later, that rifle was still sitting on a rooftop next to the Irma Hotel until it was temporarily taken down but it will make its glorious return by July 4.

One More For The Road: Tuesday, October 10, 2023

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