Same Guys Dancing

[{"type":"text","text":"Warren Zevon -- Werewolves Of London"}]

Same guys dancing 9 19 22

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<title>Monday Morning Dance Party: Warren Zevon -- Werewolves Of London | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Warren Zevon -- Werewolves Of London

Monday Morning Dance Party: Warren Zevon -- Werewolves Of London

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

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

Public Lands

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming’s winds are so strong, they actually move Devils Tower."}]

The nation’s first national monument has been swaying back and forth for millions of years — and it’s moving right now.

 published by the Geological Society of America has revealed that Wyoming’s iconic Devils Tower is constantly moving. 

An international team of geologists studied the massive monolith and determined that it's perpetually and ever-so-slightly swaying, twisting, and turning in the wind.

“It’s not only a static rock structure, millions of years in the making,” said Jeffrey Moore, a professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah and lead author of the new study. “It is moving on human timescales. It's constantly in motion.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Solid As A Rock"}]

Devils Tower is a giant, eroded plug of volcanic rock. It was an intrusive body of magma that cooled under the surface and was gradually exposed by millions of years of erosion.

When most people see Devils Tower, they assume it’s as solid as a rock. Moore’s research shows that it isn’t entirely true.

“It’s lively with vibrational energy,” Moore said. “You can't see it, feel it, hear it, or anything, but it's nonetheless very real. It’s happened right this very second.”

Moore and his colleagues studied Devils Tower using ambient vibration modal analysis techniques. 

It’s a way of analyzing the ambient vibrations moving through solid rock forms, identifying the mode of those vibrations, and determining the extent and nature of movement they cause.

“It’s similar to playing a note on a piano,” Moore said. “If you looked at the sound wave of that, it wouldn't look like much, but if you looked at the frequency, it would tell you quite a lot about the frequencies of what you’re hearing. That’s what we did at Devils Tower.”

To conduct the study, the team placed two sensors at the base of Devils Tower and a seismometer at its 867-foot summit.

Kathryn Vollinger, another author of the study, was tasked with climbing Devils Tower twice in two days to set up and remove the seismometer at the top.

“She hauled it up, set it there, left it overnight, and climbed up the next morning to take it down,” Moore said. “All done with a permit from the National Park Service, of course.”

The data collected by the sensors revealed a lot about the movement of Devils Tower. It’s not just a once-in-a-while phenomenon, but an everyday occurrence.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s constantly in motion,” Moore said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Twist And Turn, Back And Forth"}]

Different movements have different frequencies. By analyzing the frequencies collected by the sensors, Moore and his colleagues determined how Devils Tower moves.

“We were able to discern the three modes of vibration,” Moore said. “The first two modes are what we might call full-height swinging, as it sways in one direction and then back in the other direction.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Unnaturally tall, narrow objects do this. "}]

It’s a physical force that constantly acts on skyscrapers, forcing architects to design and use the proper materials so their hundred-story buildings can safely sway with the wind.

The third mode of vibration Moore found was a torsional mode. That means Devils Tower twists on its vertical axis, around and back, and not just back and forth.

“That’s a rather interesting one, but again, something that's relatively common for tall buildings,” Moore said.

So, on an average day, Devils Tower is swaying and twisting back and forth.

[{"type":"text","text":"And what are the forces causing that movement? Wind and seismic activity."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Moore said Wyoming’s wind was particularly impactful on Devils Tower."}]

“When it was windier, the amplitudes of movement were higher, but the frequencies were the same,” he said.

Seismic activity was a smaller factor, but one that was easily distinguished and had an impact, according to the data collected. Moore said there is enough seismic activity to keep Devils Tower moving even on the rare windless day.

“There’s enough seismic energy to keep the tower in constant motion,” he said. “On a windy day, it's going to sway stronger, but it's still in motion on a calm day. It's just very, very subtle.”

[{"type":"text","text":"In this case, the subtlety is definitely in the details."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Never Blink And You’ll Miss It"}]

If Devils Tower is constantly in motion, could it eventually twist or sway enough to partially or fully collapse? Could the nation’s first national monument send itself to hell?

Unlikely, said Moore. While the tower is constantly in motion, that motion is so minuscule that it’s barely noticeable.

“The movements are very, very small,” he said. “They’re on the order of a micrometer. That's a thousandth of a millimeter, and a millionth of a meter. It’s easily measurable on modern seismographs, but not to the human eye.

Someone could stare at the constantly moving Devils Tower all day and not see a thing. If someone pointed a time-lapse at the tower for 100 years, it would appear to remain motionless.

The difference between Devils Tower and Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, now the tallest building in the world at 2,717 feet, is that Devils Tower is solid. That’s why the swaying and twisting of skyscrapers is noticeable and much more intense.

“Tall buildings are mostly hollow steel structures, so they sway enough that people feel ill,” Moore said. “Devils Tower is solid throughout, so its movements are very small.”

It’s also important to note that while Devils Tower constantly moves, technically it isn’t moving.

While the tower itself is swaying, twisting, and turning on a daily basis, it isn’t migrating across the landscape like the Yellowstone or Hawaiian hotspots. The volcanic activity that created Devils Tower ended a long time ago and shows no signs of reawakening.  

But what about the worst-case scenario? Moore and his colleagues have that covered.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Future In Modeling"}]

As part of their research, the team created models of Devils Tower’s structural dynamics. They used their data to create predicted resonance models visualizing its constant directional movement to the extreme.

“These are very exaggerated deformation shapes,” Moore said. “They're exaggerated so you can see the motion, and how it's bending, swaying, and twisting.”

The models are a little alarming, showing a much more precarious Devils Tower leaning to-and-fro to an extent that would make anyone scared of an imminent collapse.

However, these are not predictive models. Nobody’s saying Devils Tower can or ever would reach these extremes.

The volcanic activity that created Devils Tower ended millions of years ago. 

Today, northeast Wyoming is far from any active seismic faults that could create enough force to twist the tower out of shape or cause a collapse.

Like all geologic wonders, Devils Tower will be worn down by wind, water, and erosion over a prolonged period. Its daily micrometers of swaying, twisting, and turning are not a cause of concern.

“These animations help us understand how it might move if there were a big earthquake,” Moore said. “There isn’t any sort of risk associated with these movements that I know of, and I don’t even know that there could be.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Twist And Shout"}]

Devils Tower is the latest geologic wonder that Moore has studied using ambient vibration modal analysis. He’s done similar studies on Utah’s famous rock arches and the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps.

The scientific justification for these projects is using the ambient movement of geologic landforms to determine their composition and study how their properties change over time.

“It’s called structural health monitoring,” Moore said. “What we've shown is that by placing a seismometer on top of a geologic landform for a few hours, you can derive the key structural and mechanical properties of the materials and then compare those to other materials across the world.”

Structural health monitoring can help identify the effects of cracks on famous landforms and how geologic composition may lead to future failures that could affect people.

There’s nothing to worry about at Devils Tower. According to Moore, another fact they confirmed during their research is that the monolith is “pretty monolithic.”

“In some cases, we find important impacts of cracks and other structural additions, but that’s not super prominent at Devils Tower,” he said. “Based on its rock properties, it’s pretty solid.”

Moore hopes his work will reignite interest in Devils Tower and its unique geology.

 At the very least, people who visit the iconic Wyoming landmark will know that the seemingly still, immovable object looming above them is actually constantly in motion.

“Hopefully, we’re adding a new layer to the way that people can appreciate Devils Tower,” he said. “It’s an unexpected layer of interest. The motion is very, very tiny, but it’s constantly in motion. It’s alive.”

Devils tower storm 8 7 24

<title>"It's Alive!": Scientists Say Devils Tower Is Constantly Moving | Cowboy State Daily</title>

New research published by the Geological Society of America has revealed that Devils Tower is constantly moving. An international team of geologists determined that it's perpetually and ever-so-slightly swaying, twisting, and turning in the wind.

"It's Alive!": Scientists Say Devils Tower Is Constantly Moving

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

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

CHEYENNE — In some ways, it was the ultimate Mother’s Day gift, even though the gift didn’t necessarily happen on that exact date. 

In 2019, Shareen Brendle’s mother was showing early signs of dementia.

“So I bought Bouquets Unlimited from her, because it was her only out for retirement,” Brendle told Cowboy State Daily. “And then she passed away in 2022.”

Four short years later, Brendle’s independent florist shop faces a tough reality. Her Mother’s Day sales were down 10% this year, even as she heard of a nearby store giving away free bouquets for the holiday as an in-store promotion.

It felt like a sign of the times to Brendle. She’s been helping her mom at the family’s legacy shop for 38 years, and she’s watched independent florist shops dwindle all along the way.

In 1992, there were 27,000 florist storefronts in America. By 2012, that number had dropped by almost half to 14,000. Today, they number 11,750. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Soon that will be 11,749. "}]

That’s because Brendle has made the difficult decision to close her mother’s store in June — one more independent florist succumbing to e-commerce and big-box price undercutting amid ever-tighter margins from rising fuel and other overhead costs.

“I’m broken-hearted about it,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “But think about the hundreds of chain stores that buy in bulk. They have hundreds of stores, so they can get better deals than small stores.”

Oftentimes, Brendle has even seen retail prices at big-box stores and supermarkets that are lower than her wholesale prices.  

“I just can’t do it anymore,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s just become tougher and tougher, and we’ve had to get tighter and tighter.”

Bouquets Unlimited has been part of Cheyenne’s business landscape for 44 years. Brendle’s mother opened the shop, and for decades the store has been as much about family and community as it has flowers.

“We really balanced each other out,” Brendle said, chuckling a little bit. “It was the yin and the yang. I got to see my mom every day. A lot of people don’t have that novelty. We worked together side by side.”

Her mom was the public face for the business — active in the Chamber, Kiwanis, and other local groups — while Brendle handled the less glamorous side of ownership. She did the hiring, the firing, the purchasing, and paying the bills.

“I did all the things that owners don’t want to do,” she said. 

But she also made beautiful arrangements, winning a national floral design contest with Florist Magazine in 1998. On a trip to Hawaii, a stranger even recognized her win.

“It was like my 10 seconds of fame,” Brendle said. “He’s like, ‘Hey, you’re the one who won that design contest.’ And he goes, ‘I love your work.’ My mom was so proud.”

Even though the man was not a celebrity or someone she knew, it was a neat experience that someone from so far away had recognized her work. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Shifting Shopper Habits"}]

For Brendle, the trend isn’t about people falling out of love with flowers. Demand for flowers has remained strong nationally, and she sees that locally as well.

The problem for small mom-and-pop stores like hers is how many people have shifted to online buying strategies, hoping to save a buck or two on bouquets.

Nationwide, marketshare for florist shops has shrunk about 1% year over year, dropping to about $7.9 billion, according to IBISWorld’s Florists in the US Industry Analysis. 

Meanwhile, digital rivals — online marketplaces, floral apps and the big national brands like 1-800-Flowers that live on the web — have grown roughly 9.1% annually. 

On top of that, flowers are regularly available in convenience stores and supermarkets, stacked in mass-merchandiser coolers or supermarket endcaps. 

They’re available through same-day delivery apps that promise sushi with a side of laundry detergent or anything else consumers desire.

Lowe’s giving away flower bouquets for Mother’s Day, a holiday that had typically been a top sales event for her store, felt like the last straw.

“They can take that hit because of all the things they sell,” Brendle said. “So guys will be like, ‘Oh sweet, now I don’t have to go to a flower shop.’ So that cuts us out. It’s just little things like that.”

The fact that such bouquets aren’t custom-designed and won’t last for very long doesn’t seem to matter to customers anymore, Brendle added. They’re cheap, they’re convenient, and for many people, that’s become “good enough.”

Behind those cheap, grocery-store bouquets is a global supply chain that only works on volume. 

The premade bunches now crowding U.S. supermarkets start in places like Colombia and Ecuador where labor is cheap.

Flowers are cut, sorted and assembled into ready-to-sell bouquets, then flown into U.S. hubs, moving through highly automated distribution centers, so they can be delivered in bulk to retail chains.

Because these bouquets arrive premade, retailers don’t need to staff a full floral department with trained designers. They can sell professionally arranged designs at much cheaper prices than a small florist shop like Bouquets Unlimited, which is sourcing high-quality flowers from all over the world — tulips from Holland, lilies from Canada, and hothouse beauties of all kinds from California, Idaho, Florida, Hawaii and more.

Brendle confronts the structural disadvantages in her industry every time she orders flowers from her Denver wholesaler. Her shop, even though it might order 5,000 roses every Valentine’s Day, is still a very small customer compared to the big chains who are buying tens of thousands.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Order Gatherers 'Racket'"}]

Brendle is also frustrated by so-called “order gatherers.” These are national call-center companies and websites that buy up florist-related domain names and search terms, and then impersonate local flower shops online.

“They’re not florists,” she said. “You’ve heard of Ava’s Flowers, From You Flowers, Ruth’s Roses … you look up a florist in whatever city and you’re always going to find them first because they own 99.9% of the domains, and it says they’re local and they deliver.”

But what actually happens when a customer places an order with them is much different than what a customer might imagine. 

“They charge the customer at least $20 for a fee, then turn around and give it to a florist in that city,” Brendle said. “The florist gets half the money they charge the customer, and then the customer gets mad because they’re like, ‘I paid $100 and that is not a $100 bouquet.’”

When Brendle looks up the order, she can see the order she got was actually for a $40 bouquet.

“It’s a racket,” she said. “They promise the customer is going to get something that looks exactly like the picture they see online, and 90% of those pictures are photoshopped. 

"There’s no way we could get a stem to go in that position in a vase like that. It’s utterly impossible. So it’s false promises straight across the board with these call centers.”

Despite all the headwinds, Bouquets Unlimited has never lacked for talented, loyal employees.

Many of her staff have been with her for decades, including one employee who has been working alongside Brendle for the last 30 years.

“I’ve got another employee who’s been here for like 25 years, one for 16, one for eight,” she said. “It’s just been a wonderful place to work.”

Having customers come in and tell her that theirs was “the best flower shop” has meant the world to Brendle over the years. 

It’s been a memorable ride, one that she feels has made the community better. When people can’t say it in words, they come to her store and she helps them say it with flowers.

She recalls customers moved to tears when they saw their wedding or funeral flowers for the first time, as well as the women who threw expensive bouquets into the trash immediately upon receiving them, because they were still mad about something.

Flower shops, she said, see the best and the very worst of people’s lives.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Keeping The Memories"}]

As June approaches, Brendle is focusing on gratitude for her staff, her longtime customers, and for the many stolen years working alongside her mother. 

“I’m so grateful for all of our customers and their patronage,” she said. “I’m just sad we’re letting them down. Actually, we’re not letting them down. The economy is letting them down.”

Brendle doesn’t plan to be idle with her time once the shop closes, however. She’s going to be helping her husband with his business, selling innovative exercise equipment to hospitals, therapy clinics, and home gyms. 

No matter what comes next, a big part of her life will always be measured by the stems and petals of corsages and casket sprays, birthday bouquets and apology flowers from a small Cheyenne shop that was part of shaping and celebrating a community in ways she’ll never forget.

Shareen Brendle florist 2026 bouquets unlimited 4002 5 30 26

<title>Cheyenne Florist To Close After 44 Years, Can't Compete With Online Giant Flower Stores | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Cheyenne’s Bouquets Unlimited is closing its doors after 44 years because they can't compete with the online giants. In 1992, there were 27,000 florist storefronts in America. Today, they number 11,750.  “I’m broken-hearted about it,” the owner said.

Cheyenne Florist To Close After 44 Years, Can't Compete With Online Giant Flower Stores

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Most drivers barreling down Interstate 90 in South Dakota’s near Exit 170 don’t expect to see a giant human skeleton walking a Tyrannosaurus rex on a leash.

[{"type":"text","text":"But there they do."}]

The towering roadside sculptures rise from the prairie just east of 1880 Town, an eclectic collection of buildings courtesy of a movie company’s failed venture that turned into a piece of living South Dakota history.

A massive iron skeleton of a human really is leading an iron T. rex skeleton across the South Dakota grasslands like an oversized prehistoric dog.

And the whole thing started with one man who simply wanted a dinosaur and the founder of 1880s Town, the late Clarence Hullinger.

“He always wanted to build a dinosaur,” said Scott Key, who has helped with 1880s Town operations for roughly 45 years. “When he was in his 80s he finally got around to it.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Dinosaur Dream"}]

Years earlier, when the famous T. rex fossil Sue was discovered in Montana in 1990, Hullinger wished South Dakota had a dinosaur skeleton it could claim for its own.

[{"type":"text","text":"So, he decided to build one himself."}]

His vision included a life-sized human skeleton attached to the beast by a leash.

The sculptures eventually took shape on property near 1880 Town, the sprawling roadside attraction west of Murdo filled with historic prairie buildings, antiques and Old West memorabilia.

The dinosaur itself had absolutely nothing to do with the carefully recreated frontier town.

[{"type":"text","text":"That fact mattered to some family members."}]

“My brother never wanted the dinosaur skeleton anywhere near the town,” said Tim Hullinger, who operates the American Inn in Murdo. “He said it didn’t fit.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Clarence, however, had an answer ready."}]

“My dad said the dinosaurs were there before 1880, so it fits,” Tim said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Building A Prairie T. rex"}]

Clarence assembled the skeletons using scrap iron and drawings as a guide, but there was one part of the dinosaur he planned to keep simple: the head.

Clarence’s plan was to cut the skull from flat sheet metal. Tim said he thought the dinosaur deserved something more realistic.

“He was going to cut it out flat,” Tim said. “I said, ‘No, it needs to be three-dimensional.’”

[{"type":"text","text":"So Tim volunteered to build the head himself."}]

Over about four days, he cut holes into sheet metal and hammered the steel into shape by hand before welders assembled the final structure.

Today, the dinosaur’s head still gives the sculpture much of its personality, somewhere between terrifying predator and oversized roadside mascot.

The skeleton man and his skeleton dinosaur pet seem to be heading to 1880 Town, but whether that was intentional is anyone’s best guess.

So Strange People Tried Stopping On The Interstate

The sculptures quickly became a roadside phenomenon. Drivers slowed down. Some stopped altogether.

According to both Key and Hullinger, the state eventually installed “No Parking” signs on I-90 near the sculptures because too many tourists were pulling over along the interstate shoulder to snap photos.

“The only thing we get questions about is if people can walk out there,” Key said.

[{"type":"text","text":"The answer is no."}]

The sculptures were never meant to be explored up close. The land around them is fenced, and visitors are discouraged from stopping along the interstate.

Instead, the giant skeleton and his dinosaur are intended as a drive-by curiosity — something motorists glimpse at 80 mph before wondering if they imagined it.

[{"type":"text","text":"Apparently, people remember it."}]

At one point, Tim received a photo from Italy showing someone wearing a T-shirt featuring the famous skeletons.

[{"type":"text","text":"The family had never made or sold such a shirt."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“I have no idea where the T-shirt came from,” Tim said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"How 1880 Town Began"}]

The dinosaur sculptures may steal attention from passing motorists, but the attraction they stand beside has its own unusual history.

The roots of 1880 Town date back to 1969, when Richard Hullinger —  Tim's brother — purchased 14 acres at Exit 170 near Murdo. Initially, there were no plans for a tourist attraction.

[{"type":"text","text":"A gas station came in 1972."}]

Then a movie production company arrived nearby to film an 1880s-era movie. The company built a frontier-style main street set and borrowed Indian artifacts and antiques from Clarence Hullinger.

[{"type":"text","text":"Winter weather shut the production down before filming was completed."}]

When the movie company abandoned the project, it gave the western set to the Hullinger family.

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s when 1880 Town was born."}]

Over the decades, the attraction grew into a collection of authentic prairie buildings and artifacts from the late 1800s and early 1900s, including a one-room schoolhouse, barns, shops and antique collections.

Visitors can also come face-to-face with animals commonly found in the region during the 1880s: horses, chickens, ducks — and even a camel.

Still, for many travelers speeding across South Dakota, the first thing they remember is the skeleton walking a dinosaur through the prairie grass.

[{"type":"text","text":"Honestly, that’s probably exactly what Clarence Hullinger hoped for."}]

T rex on a leash 471761113 10160610337881475 3683588698791023165 n 5 30 26

<title>Near Wyoming: The Skeleton Who Walks A Giant T-Rex On A Leash In South Dakota | Cowboy State Daily</title>

For decades, motorists speeding down Interstate 90 in west-central South Dakota have done double takes at a towering human skeleton leading a T. rex on a leash. It’s a quirky prairie creation born from one man’s lifelong dream to build his own dinosaur.

Near Wyoming: The Skeleton Who Walks A Giant T-Rex On A Leash In South Dakota

Julie Mankin

Sports

Halle Crozier isn’t able to throw a saddle on her horse, or even climb on without help. She also doesn’t have the strength to ride faster than a lope.

But the cheers for her will be deafening from fans lining the fence at this coming week’s Wyoming High School State Finals Rodeo watching the sophomore compete.

They understand her performance is not about points or paychecks. Every run is a victory for a girl healing her own heart despite a decade of physical impairment.

Like most Wyoming kids raised with ranching or rodeo roots, Halle was on horseback as a toddler.

Even in preschool she had big dreams. She wanted to compete at the National Finals Rodeo and win gold buckles someday.

“I remember my first rodeo, and I was on top of the world in my own little head,” recalled Halle. “Eventually one day, it was all gone.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Vaccines Destroyed Her Body"}]

Vaccines required by a preschool when Crozier was 5 years old set off an adverse reaction that damaged her nerves.

Halle Crozier of Buffalo is inspiring Wyoming’s high school rodeo community as she fights to recover from a vaccine reaction that destroyed her body. “I could choose to not get better, or choose to be positive and work hard to get better,” she said.

Monday Morning Dance Party: Warren Zevon -- Werewolves Of London

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