Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Do not mess with the cat train..."}]

Smile 12 27 23

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

<title>Daily Smile: Wednesday, December 27, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Do not mess with the cat train...

Daily Smile: Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Partly sunny in Wyoming on Monday. Breezy, with afternoon chance of rain in some areas. Partly to mostly cloudy overnight. Highs in the 70s and 80s. Lows in the 40s and 50s.

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Slight chance of rain after 2 p.m., gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 55 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

Mostly sunny today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

 Mostly sunny today with a high near 83 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 55 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

 Partly sunny today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with patchy blowing dust before midnight and a low near 48.

  Partly sunny today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Cloudy overnight with a low near 52.

Partly sunny and breezy today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

Mostly cloudy and breezy today with a high near 70 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain after 5 a.m., a low near 41 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.

 Mostly cloudy today with a high near 75 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Cloudy overnight with a chance of rain after 5 a.m., a low near 43 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

  Partly sunny and breezy today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 42 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.

 Partly sunny and breezy today with a high near 69 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain after 5 a.m., a low near 42 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.

  Partly sunny today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain, a low near 41 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Partly sunny today with a high near 62 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Rain likely mainly after 5 a.m. overnight with a low near 35 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

Mostly sunny today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 56.

:  Gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Cloudy overnight with a low near 55 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

  Becoming sunny today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

  Mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 55 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 79 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 49.

:  Increasing clouds today with a high near 83 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 53.

Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, increasing clouds today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Increasing clouds overnight with a low near 59 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.

:  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 18 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 56 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

  Chance of rain after noon (some storms could be severe), otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight, a low near 60 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

  Slight chance of rain after noon (some storms could be severe), otherwise mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 83 and afternoon wind from 15-20 mph. Mostly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 53 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Slight chance of rain after 4 p.m., gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 83 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Breezy, gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a low near 52 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.

  Chance of rain mainly after 3 p.m. (some storms could be severe), otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 81 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 54.

  Slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Chance of rain after noon (some storms could be severe), otherwise mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 56 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Mostly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 53 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph.

  Mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 50 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Mostly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.

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<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Monday, June 8, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Monday, June 8, 2026

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, June 8th.  I’m Mac Watson

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Our most-read story over the weekend is a two-part series from features reporter Jen Kocher on a cold case in Rawlins from 1974. More than 50 years after four young girls vanished in what has become known as the 'Rawlins Rodeo Murders,’ the case remains unsolved. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that one name kept coming up.

“In 1974 four girls disappeared, and their ages range from 10 to 19. Two girls were local Rawlins girls, and the other two were visiting family and friends. One was visiting from South Dakota, and one was visiting from Red Lodge, Montana. There's no link between the four girls. One of the predominant suspects was a long-haul trucker named Royal Russell Long, and in my conversations with people, his name popped up a lot, and he was considered a suspect, but he wasn't the only suspect, and authorities have not released where the names of those suspects are, where they are currently within the investigation, but it is ongoing.”

Royal Russell Long was actually arrested for kidnapping two teenage girls and taking them home to his house in Evansville, and sexually assaulting them. Long ultimately served time in a Wyoming prison for kidnapping and assault, dying of a heart attack in 1993 at the age of 58. He was never officially named as a suspect in the Rawlins Rodeo Murders. 

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To clear the way for a Montana logging project, the Trump administration wants to redefine secure grizzly habitat from 2,500 acres to 1 acre. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that opponents say it will get bears killed but a retired Wyoming forester says logging is good for grizzlies.

“Some people really strongly oppose that, and say that that's just not enough protected or undisturbed habitat for bears, and also that putting roads into those areas can make it easier for people who want to illegally shoot bears to do so. But I also talked to a retired forester, and he told me that, that really, in a lot of ways, bears can thrive in areas that have been logged, because it might promote more of a rodent population, it might promote the growth of berry bushes and things that bears like to eat.”

At issue is the proposed Larabee Hat project in Powell County, Montana; between the Continental Divide headwaters of the Little Blackfoot River and Highway 12 near the town of Elliston. Over the next 15 to 20 years, the project would entail building 16.8 miles of new roads and 17,696 acres of logging.

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A woman who has made it her mission to document the last remaining pay phones in Yellowstone has bad news. The last working pay phone in the park appears to be dead. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the phone was still working last summer but when photographer Kim Bird checked it days ago, there was no dial tone.

“The last one that people knew of that was still connected anywhere was at the Norris campground, which has been closed since the pandemic, and somebody went out there recently, said they picked up the phone and didn't hear a dial tone, so that's pretty conclusive evidence that that pay phone is defunct, which makes sense because the Norris Campground itself is defunct, and the park doesn't have any - it's the park hasn't expressed any interest or desire to reopen that campground anytime soon. It's possible it may never reopen, so it makes sense that the only paid phone there would no longer be working as well.”

 in modern society, but they still had an important place in remote areas like Yellowstone. Still, nothing lasts forever.

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Counterfeit $100 bills are passing throughout Wyoming and store clerks say iodine counterfeit detector pens won't detect the fake bills. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that one store manager says “The counterfeit pens are garbage.” 

“It was printed on real money paper, they used a dot, like $1 bill, bleached it out, and then printed a 100 on top of it, and so those normal counterfeiting pins aren't going to detect that, and the way those work, they have iodine in them, and when iodine contacts with wood pulp that you know the common ordinary everyday paper is made out of, it'll fade, it'll kind of turn brown, and so if the ink stays black, it, you know, it's not common everyday wood pulp paper, right.”

According to the Federal Reserve, counterfeit paper currency costs the U.S. public and organizations between $30 million and $200 million in actual circulation at any given time. However, when taking into account the broader counterfeit goods industry (such as fake designer clothes, electronics, and pirated merchandise), the total economic loss to U.S. businesses exceeds $220 billion annually.

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

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

A Kemmerer couple is on medical leave taking care of a newborn and their 7-year-old son who has a rare genetic condition that took his eyesight. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingebeck reports that all the little boy wanted to do was go hunting this year, instead he's fighting for his life.

“There's a seven year old from Evanston that his parents noticed that he was having some issues. And they thought they were dealing with ADHD. They send them to school the next day, and they get a call that he was having a problem navigating stairs. So, their pediatrician told him to take him to the EED in our emergency department in Salt Lake City at the Children's Hospital there. They did that, and  testing showed that he had this rare genetic disease that basically, as it takes over the sheath around nerves in his brain, and his brain can't communicate with the rest of the body like it should, and so now he's in the hospital.”

Christopher Culler, 38, and wife Bailey Bowen, 30, are now on a mission that has them on family leave from their jobs at Rocky Mountain Power and praying for a boy who seemed normal and active until a little more than a year ago.

A family in Laramie County was trying to fix their well when they discovered a half-buried cannonball in their yard. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that  after being told it was non-explosive by a bomb squad, the mother decided to give it away, much to the dismay of her son.

“A lot of people think of cannonballs as being just solid objects, solid metal objects, and that's not untrue. But a lot of cannonballs during the Civil War-era did have explosives and black powder in them, and they had complex triggers that were designed to be waterproof, so in theory you could find a cannonball that was triggered to explode, and it still could explode. So, when this Laramie County family found a cannonball as they were trying to fix their well, they did what they needed to do. They contacted the Laramie County Sheriff's Office, who sent their bomb disposal team out there to evaluate it, and they ultimately determined that there was nothing explosive about it. It was just a giant metal ball in the middle of nowhere.”

Whenever there’s a suspicious and possibly explosive item discovered, law enforcement agencies don’t take any chances.  They deploy whatever and whoever’s needed to assess the situation and safely dispose of the object, whether it’s 

an unexpectedly excavated training device

“Outriding the Devil,” is the title of a Wyoming-made film that shows the brutal side of “real” rodeo. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the new film earned major praise from national outlets like Sports Illustrated. 

“This is the Angela Ganter story. Angela Ganter had a stunning career, and then she ran into a cancer diagnosis, stage-four breast cancer. The doctors told her, "Hey, we're sorry, you know, but we don't think you're going to live, much less ride in the rodeos ever again. But she didn't give up. The reason for the film's name ‘Outride the Devil,’ the kind of chemotherapy they gave her is called the Red Devil, because it's so hard on your body. She fought her way back from death's door to eventually another championship barrel race in Canada, Calgary, so you know it's a great comeback story.”

The film, directed by Raen LeVell, has enjoyed a multi-week run as the No. 1-ranked Western documentary on IMDb.

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When Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak wanted a new design for the newest SUV in the fleet, he asked a local artist to create a “Clint Eastwood High Plains Drifter” look. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that the sheriff says he’s received nothing but compliments on the new wrap. 

“The rap was designed by artist Jordan Dean. He's also the one who painted the wild horses on the city of Cheyenne's water tanks. Kozak really wanted something that was going to draw the eye. This is a recruiting vehicle, so they pulled out all the stops. They've got video games in the backseat for kids to play. They can jump in the cruiser and check out the coolest police car, in Kozak’s words, around town. Something that was really meant to get people to check it out and help recruit officers.”

The cruiser's first major public appearance in Cheyenne was Saturday during a downtown summer event, where families were able to climb inside, check out the lights and meet members of the sheriff's office.

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.

News image 6 8 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Monday, June 8, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Monday's headlines include:
* The Rawlins Rodeo Murders
* Worry That Logging OK Will Kill Grizzlies
* RIP: The Last Working Pay Phone In Yellowstone

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Monday, June 8, 2026

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

When former Fremont County coroner Ed McAuslan arrived in Riverton, Wyoming, as a young police officer in January 1973, the town was rougher than it is now.

“When I first came here, it was a little more wild,” McAuslan said. “There were bombings and just all kinds of things went on back then.”

McAuslan said that a bomb had been placed under the patrol car of Undersheriff Duel Price. The car was parked in his driveway at Price’s home when the explosion rocked the neighborhood. 

No one was hurt, but McAuslan said that it was incidents like the bombing were the on-the-job training he and other rookie cops received. 

There was no police academy in the 1970s and McAuslan learned the intricacies of his job on the streets of Riverton. 

Much of the town's crime centered around the numerous bars in Riverton. McAuslan said that just at the intersection of Third and Main streets there were three bars on the street corners.

McAuslan had gotten into law enforcement by chance. 

In 1962, he had joined the military and spent his tour of duty at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California during the early days of missiles. 

He said that the base test-fired missiles and for the next four years, he was a motion picture lab technician working with film of the missile launches, mostly to the South Pacific.

He left in 1966 and returned home to Wyoming where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Management. After graduating, McAuslan was unable to find work in his chosen field. 

“I was married with a young son to support,” McAuslan said. “There were only two openings with Wyoming Game and Fish and 75 applicants.”

The chief of Police in Glenrock encouraged him to apply for a job, and in May 1972, McAuslan was employed as a patrol officer. 

He soon transferred to Riverton and hit the streets in January 1973 as a rookie cop, acquiring knowledge as he went.

His first lessons involved learning the city laws and statutes.

“Our job was to patrol and try to keep the crime down,” McAuslan said. “We also had the responsibility of working traffic and doing accident investigations. We covered the whole aspect of it.”

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McAuslan was a patrol officer for only 10 months before being promoted into investigations. 

It was there that the rookie learned how to investigate major crimes like burglaries and homicides. He was no longer a traffic cop, but it also meant long hours since McAuslan was always on call. 

His duties increased when, in 1975, Fremont County Coroner Larry Lee asked Police Chief Dennis Horyza if McAuslan could assist with death investigations. 

It was approved. The same year, McAuslan also became an EMT and worked with the Fremont County Ambulance until 1990.

“For a long time, the coroners of the state were just funeral directors,” McAuslan said. “But things got to the point where they did more investigations.”

Lee was a funeral director and fire chief when he asked McAuslan to help him with death investigations. Their jurisdiction covered all of Fremont County and the Wind River Reservation. 

McAuslan worked in law enforcement and in the coroner’s office for the next 24 years. 

When Lee retired in 1998, McAuslan was elected to the office in Lee’s place in 1999 and retired from the Riverton Police Department. 

McAuslan became a coroner full-time and held the post until his own retirement in 2014. 

“Working with families during a death, whether it is natural, accidental or a homicide, is the most difficult part,” McAuslan said.“My job was to determine the cause and manner of death, and to assist families however I could. Having compassion is the most important thing there is.”

McAuslan said that it was crucial to remember to always have respect for the people no matter how they treat you. 

He related almost being attacked when he brought news of a husband’s death in a car crash to the victim’s wife. She reacted in a hate-filled rage and went after McAuslan. 

McAuslan said that although he was just the messenger, he knew he could become the target of the loved ones' anger and learned not to take it personally. 

That day, he was grateful he had taken a pastor with him who was able to calm the grief-stricken woman while McAuslan tactfully withdrew from her home.  

“If you can't respect the people and what's going on with them, then you need to get another profession,” McAuslan said. “You can't react to how they treat you because it is a very difficult circumstance.”

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Since McAuslan had jurisdiction over the reservation, he also had to learn to deal respectfully with two different cultures. He worked closely with several tribal members over the years, including Georgianna “Georgie” Crawford and Willie Le Clair.

One example he cited was when they were dealing with a hit-and-run homicide on the reservation and the family was not allowed to enter the scene. 

They asked McAuslan to allow a tribal elder to bless the body, and he was able to convince the FBI and Indian Police that this could be could be done without disturbing the investigation.

“I made a habit of keeping a braid of sweet grass in each vehicle,” McAuslan said. “If the family wanted something like that, we always had it with us.” 

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During McAuslan’s many years as coroner, suicide was a big issue and he became proactive in preventing them, especially with youth.

“Georgie and I spent a lot of time with the kids and we covered the entire county,” McAuslan said. 

He was working for the coroner’s office when in 1985, a rash of suicides by hanging ultimately claimed the lives of 12 young men from the Wind River Indian Reservation, while 88 others fortunately failed in their attempts. 

During this time McAuslan, Crawford and others doubled their efforts to reach the kids and stop the deaths. 

Eventually, the hangings stopped following a Tribal Ceremony, but left behind grieving families.

McAuslan said that another aspect of suicide that is not considered is how no one talked about cleaning the scene following a suicide. This was left to family or friends. 

It broke his heart as he witnessed the additional pain mothers especially were put through.

“At that time, I realized that an issue no one talked about was how messy it was when someone shoots themselves,” McAuslan said. “I was able to talk to some people and get some money to establish the fund to do cleanup so the families didn't have that responsibility.”

McAuslan said that it takes a special person to be willing to clean up a suicide scene and he finally had a young intern, Erin Ivie who took over the job. 

After proving that she had the same compassion as McAuslan, Ivie is currently the Fremont County Coroner. 

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McAuslan said that one of the hardest investigations as a coroner was when someone lost a child to SIDS. 

There is usually no explanation for the death and so rather than prevention, he and Crawford set out to give as much support to the grieving families as possible. 

In the early 2000s, their compassionate approach received national attention and they were invited to make a presentation at the National SIDS Conference in Orlando, Florida.

“We would have families who felt ostracized,” McAuslan said. “The only help we could give them was to support them as we did our investigation.”

McAuslan learned to not rush the families and to sit with them as they held their children for the last time. 

“It's not natural for a parent to lose a child,” McAuslan said. 

In dealing with so many deaths over the past decades, McAuslan said that he cannot dwell on the horrors he has witnessed but rather on the people he has helped.

“You can't focus on the deaths or you won't survive,” McAuslan said. “I still remember a few cases, like the couple who murdered their children in 1979 and the suicides in the 1980s, but for the most part, I don’t think about them.” 

In his retirement, McAuslan has turned to photography and taking classes on petroglyphs at Central Wyoming College. 

“It’s important to keep moving forward,” McAuslan said. “To focus on the good.” 

Ed Mc Auslan 2 inset Ed the retired photographer 6 7 26

<title>Wyoming People: Fremont County’s Ed McAuslan Learned To Be A Coroner On The Job | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Ed McAuslan was the longtime Fremont County coroner who learned his trade on the job as a young cop recruited into the office. A rash of 100 attempted suicides by hanging in 1985 — 12 successful — opened his eyes wide to “an issue no one talked about."

Wyoming People: Fremont County’s Ed McAuslan Learned To Be A Coroner On The Job

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

Renée Jean

Growing up, the only mushrooms retired mycologist Jack States ever really noticed were puffballs. They were great targets for kicking down the street.

But eating them? Forget about it. That was the last thing on States’ mind.

Years later as a young graduate student, he had his heart set on being a plant ecologist.

Still, mushrooms didn’t figure in his plans at all.

Then one semester he found himself enrolled in a class with internationally acclaimed mycologist and microbial ecologist, the late Dr. Martha Christensen.

“She was one of the best instructors I think they ever had at the University of Wyoming,” States told Cowboy State Daily. “And she had me do a project on isolating molds from soil, which I thought was kind of ridiculous, but I thought I would be interested in knowing what kind of molds grew on herbivore dung.”

That led to a capstone field project collecting molds from elk, moose, deer, and rabbit droppings. 

Even though he thought at the time it was “ridiculous” to sift through rabbit dung to see what would grow, he had soon found a species of mold no one had ever documented. 

It was a discovery that would attract pharmaceutical money and pull him into a lifetime of chasing fungi from Wyoming to the far corners of the world. 

Along the way, he would identify a dozen new truffle species, reshape forest management in the Southwest United States, and change how scientists think about wildlife diseases and even the Red Desert’s shifting sands.

All of it started with the “ridiculous” student project and a legendary University of Wyoming mycologist pushing him into the strange, hidden world of fungi.

The mold he’d discovered would go on to produce not only a new moth insecticide, but also lysergic acid compounds used in LSD-related research.

Aspergillus leporis, as the mold would be named, is now famous in international mycology and pharmaceutical circles. 

At the time, what it meant for States was a research assistantship under Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company that supported his entire master’s program.

“Money was scarce in those days, and I wasn’t getting any offers from any other place,” said States, who’s now known as Lander’s Mushroom Man. “So that’s what I ended up doing. I isolated and worked on that new species of mold.”

Despite discovering an internationally famous mold, States wasn’t completely abandoning his first love — plants. Fungi just gave him a different perspective on plants.

“It turns out that the fungi are the major decomposer, we call them associates for plants,” he said. “That is, they cause most of the plant diseases, rather than bacteria, which causes the most diseases in animals. 

"Because of their strong relationship to plants, I just parlayed that into plant ecology.”

The underground world of plants — the mycorrhizal partnerships between tree roots and fungi — is still a vast and understudied universe. 

Diving into that allowed States to break lots of new ground over his career, including the discovery of 12 new species of truffles.

It’s also given him what he affectionately describes as the world’s largest collection of squirrel poop.

“All that craziness out there on the highway has paid off,” he said. “And I think (new discoveries) are what makes the career of a scientist so rewarding.”

Many of States’ discoveries have involved adventures to other countries with his wife, who studies both plants and birds. 

One of the most humorous adventures, though, didn’t happen in a remote jungle. It started in an ordinary university mailroom.

“Mushrooms were so popular then — even more so than today,” States said. “And in the Southwest, people automatically assumed I knew everything there was to know about mushrooms, and I didn’t.”

That led to occasional packages of mushrooms mailed to him for identification, including a particularly malodorous specimen called stinkhorn.

“Stinkhorns, when they produce their mature spore mass, the odor is like a rotting cadaver,” States said.

The smell was so bad that a couple of people from the campus post office delivered the package to States in person — along with a request.

“Whatever is in this package, don’t ever have anybody send it to you again,” he was told. “We’ve had to fumigate our entire post office.”

States counted himself lucky that the police didn’t show up to ask why people were mailing him dead bodies.

“So, I decided to write a book to protect myself,” he said. “I thought I’d write a book so they will read that and not send me anything else like that again.”

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Stinkhorns weren’t the only mycological misadventure in States’ career.

To feed his students’ huge and curious appetite — and to attract more students to his program — States looked for creative lesson plans that would draw people in.

At first, he settled on growing some psychedelic mushrooms. He was mindful that such mushrooms were only legally problematic at maturity, so he focused his lesson plans on immature mushrooms. But someone still broke into the building to clean out his entire growth chamber.

He needed a new lesson plan after that, so he switched to fermenting root beer in class using a special, French yeast. It was a big hit, but the students loved the root beer a little too much. They drank it down to the last drop — including the yeast sediment.

“It created almost instant diarrhea,” States recalled. “We had to put warning labels on the bottles after that. Just don’t drink the whole thing. Leave the sediment in the bottom.”

States himself had to learn the hard way that mushrooms are a strange world, with dangers that are not always completely predictable.

“There’s a mushroom that grows in Ponderosa pine forests in Arizona and New Mexico associated with Aspen trees,” he said. “And it produces a mushroom with very strong garlic flavor, which sheep herders in those areas have used for decades to flavor their dishes.”

One year, that was about the only mushroom he could find, so he decided to try it for himself and see if it really did taste like garlic.

“I had heard that some people have an allergic reaction to it, sort of like poisoning,” he said. “But since it just causes gastric upset, and obeying my rules — if you eat a mushroom for the first time, don’t eat more than a teaspoonful — I tried it.”

An hour later, States was doubled over in pain and violently vomiting, forcing him to go to the emergency room — even though his wife, who had also eaten some of the mushroom, had no reaction at all.

He was given painkillers to deaden muscle contractions and kept overnight for observation.

“I was laying there and had one last vomit,” he said. “Out came just a little, tiny piece of that mushroom. Once that came out, there were no more symptoms and I felt really great.”

A project digging through rabbit poop led mycologist Jack States — aka Lander's Mushroom Man — to discover a famous mold and 12 new species of truffles. His research has changed how scientists view wildlife diseases and has reshaped forest management.

Daily Smile: Wednesday, December 27, 2023

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