Daily Darwin

With the cold weather on hold, this weekend is a perfect time to go for a relaxing bike ride...

Darwin 12 30 23

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Saturday, December 30, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Darwin: Saturday, December 30, 2023

 With the cold weather on hold, this weekend is a perfect time to go for a relaxing bike ride...

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

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

On a hot July afternoon at Frontier Park, two brothers sit side by side sharing a drink and decades of memories.

The Brewster brothers, John and Bill, are among Cheyenne Frontier Days longest-serving volunteers, starting in 1962 and 1959 — if you don’t count the years when they helped their dad, who was Indian Chairman at the time, 

“You remember dad on those Indian trips?” Bill asks with a chuckle.

“That doesn’t count,” John says, shaking his head. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“When was that? ’51 to?” Bill says."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“It was ’50 to ’52,” John replies."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Or maybe it was until 1953, Bill suggests."}]

They decide John has volunteered 64 years, while Bill has 70 years in all. That’s 134 years between them — longer than Cheyenne Frontier Days has been around.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"They laugh, as if at an inside joke. "}]

The math all done, time has a way of blurring together, the Brewster brothers told Cowboy State Daily with a laugh and a shrug. 

It’s been a time that’s full of story and family. 

“Do you remember when those cowboys from the ranch used to come by?” Bill asked John. “They were all World War I veterans. They’d come by and drink a little whiskey and smoke cigarettes in the living room, and some of them still rolled their own. You know just being around cow people is … I’ve been a cowboy all my life.“

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Me, not so much,” John interjected."}]

“That’s OK,” Bill said with a chuckle. “I’ve got a picture of you on a horse. Saw it the other day.”

It’s proof, if nothing else, that John belongs the same way Bill belongs, in Cheyenne Frontier Days' unofficial pop-up city of volunteers, doing all the unsung jobs that keep this historic event rolling smoothly along.

For all the flashy cowboys, arena lights and concerts, it’s volunteers like the Brewster brothers who have become the real soul of Cheyenne Frontier Days, and not just for the work they do. It’s the stories they carry inside their heads. 

They are a living archive of ranch hands, rodeo legends, and family moments that range from World War I cowboys to Indian trips with the likes of Princess Blue Water. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fighting Custer"}]

“I’ve got to tell the story about Dad bringing the Indians down,” John said with a chuckle.

Bill nodded his head to say, “Yes, please do,” and his eyes had a twinkle.

“Dad was Indian Sheriff, and they used to bring the Indians down in open trucks from Pine Ridge,” John said.

“They were just bobtail cattle trucks,” Bill added with a laugh.

“There were two who would ride with my father in a car,” John said. “They were Princess Blue Water, Rose Ecoffey and Joseph High Eagle. He was the last surviving combatant in the Custer massacre. He was 15 when he fought Custer.”

High Eagle would often try, in a mixture of sign language and Oglala Sioux, to tell the Brewster brothers’ dad about the fight.

“Rosie’s in the middle,” John said. “And Dad’s driving.”

“No, no,” Bill said. “I’m sitting right behind High Eagle, and she’s sitting right next to me in the back seat. And he starts in with sign language, and maybe Oglala too, talking about the Custer massacre, trying to tell my dad about it.”

Except, he claims that the Indians just had arrows, which the Brewster brothers believe to be false.

“They had rifles better than we had,” Bill said. “They had all Winchesters and we had our Henrys. We had single shots.”

The conversation at the time was making their dad uncomfortable, John recalled. 

“Dad kind of gave this look, like, ‘Really?’ ” John said with a chuckle. “And Rose said, ‘You’re safe. He likes you.’”

Ecoffey was an amazing woman, Bill added. “She was blind in one eye,” he said.

John and Bill have both personally heard her tell the story of how she came to slap the Prince of Wales. 

Blue Water was 7 years old, according to family legends, and told Queen Victoria her people would bow to no one.

“She told us they had been introduced at the court of Queen Victoria, and she said, 'I only bow to the president,’” John said. “And Edward the Eighth was standing there and he laughed.”

Ecoffey had thought he was laughing at her in that moment.

“So she slapped him, and he laughed all the harder,” John said. “And she said, ‘When we got back to the hotel, let me tell you what my father did to me!' She got into trouble for that.”

Ecoffey frequently visited the Brewster family whenever she was in town.

“She and my mother were great friends,” Bill said, wrapping one finger around another. “They were close. They’d come to the house and they’d bring a couple cartons of cigarettes and sit around the garden to smoke. They’d all be in costume.”

Bill still has a photo of Princess Blue Water sitting in the garden with other members of the tribe such as Charlie Red Cloud, Frank Afraid of Horse and Levi Sitting Hawk.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"It’s A Family Tradition"}]

Stories like that might not show up in a rodeo program, but they’re part of the living memory Cheyenne Frontier Days’ longtime volunteers have built around the event in the process of volunteering year-in, year-out.

For people like the Brewster brothers, Cheyenne Frontier Days isn’t just another event on the calendar. It’s the main event.

Pulling on a pair of cowboy boots and slapping on a cowboy hat to help run the rodeo in Cheyenne was simply what you did in the summer when you lived in Cheyenne — for generations running.

“It’s just part of life,” John said. “It’s part of summer. As far back as I remember, our mother was a member of a ranch family and our grandfather was on the Frontier Days parade in the '20s, so it’s family here, it really is.”

“Our dad rode a caisson in the arena here with the Black Horse Battery,” Bill said. “That was a wagon behind the horses and attached to that was a cannon.”

Over the years, the Brewster brothers have quietly done just about every job a volunteer can do. Bill started out driving parade wagons and later shifted to the carriage ranks, then worked around the chutes, and even recited the Cowboys’ Prayer on the last Saturday of Frontier Days.

“That’s on the final Saturday,” John said. “The rodeo stops. They read all the names of the volunteers, cowboys, anybody involved with ranching that has passed away, and then they recite the Cowboys’ Prayer, and Bill would do that.”

“I’m only the fifth guy who ever did it,” Bill added. “Well, there’ve been a couple in between. I’m not going to be doing it this year, I’ll do it again next year.”

John spent time doing the “car count” in the early 1960s, tallying up license plates by state so the announcer could tell the crowd how many people had come from which state. Then he moved into parades and contract acts, helping juggle wagons, floats, queens, VIPs and the Grand Entry. 

These days, he hammers out the entire parade lineup, and he’s the guy behind the 10-gauge blank cannon that booms to officially start the parade.

Between them, they’ve stitched together a lifetime of jobs that rarely make headlines, but are still essential to keeping the Daddy of ‘em All on track. To them, it’s just another summer in Cheyenne, but it means the world to an event that’s celebrating 130 years of rodeo. 

John and Bill Brewster 20260721 131233 7 23 26

<title>The Brewster Brothers: 134 Years Of Cheyenne Frontier Days In Two Cowboy Hats | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Cheyenne Frontier Days has 2,700 volunteers, many of them multigenerational. Among them are the Brewster brothers, who have 134 years of volunteering between them. "Our grandfather was on the Frontier Days parade in the '20s, so it’s family here.”

The Brewster Brothers: 134 Years Of Cheyenne Frontier Days In Two Cowboy Hats

Leo Wolfson

Entertainment

There are lots of rappers with grills — chrome, gold or diamond-encrusted jewelry that fit over one’s normal teeth — but it’s unlikely anybody flashes a Western grill like Wyoming native and country rap artist Ryan Charles. 

In true cowboy style, Charles has a grill made of turquoise stones, a popular marker within Western music culture and jewelry. 

For the country rapper from Buffalo, it’s a perfect representation of the hybrid persona he carries in fusing country with hip-hop into what’s known as “country rap.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Country Rapper"}]

, has seen his stock as an artist grow exponentially in recent years. He now has a social media following of a few hundred thousand and receives an average of 391,388 monthly plays on the Spotify streaming platform. 

Last December, he released his first album as a record label-signed artist, the self-titled “Jiggy Buckaroo.” 

Charles views his Jiggy Buckaroo persona almost as his alter-ego: a high-energy, Western rascal with a twang in his voice and a constant readiness for a good time.

What really makes Charles stand out is ability to blend hip-hop with country, a pioneer within the growing country rap genre. Charles blends a style of lyricism more likely to be found in a classic country song yet raps his lyrics over a more traditional hip-hop-style beat.

“That’s the fun part. Some days it feels like we’re making more of a country song and some days it feels like we’re making more of a rap song,” Charles said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Painting A Wyoming Picture"}]

To get a picture of country rap, consider some of Charles’ lyrics in his song “Duffy’s Bluff,” the title a reference to a well-known, since-closed restaurant in Buffalo. The lines are dripping with Wyoming culture and soul, and a few hunting references.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Country rappers acting like some broads"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Mind your beeswax"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Like some tree cats"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Interior camouflage"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"750 on the stones"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Snakes come with holes"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Where I put my feet at"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"Than be around y'all"}]

As much as he’s honed his stage presence over the years, Charles said he’s constantly tweaking his style and delivery to maximize his creative output.

In his song “Ten Sleep,” Jiggy Buckaroo raps about driving the scenic route between Buffalo and Ten Sleep over the Big Horn Mountains, spotting countless elk and big horn sheep along the way.

Later on in the song, still deep in his cowboy outlaw braggadocio, he raps about watching every episode of the hit TV show “Gunsmoke” while growing up. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Different Kind of Outlaw"}]

In the 1800s, Buffalo was a town of Wild West outlaws, home to the Johnson County War and not far from the notorious Hole-in-the-Wall hideout. 

Charles said there were a few people he grew up with there who didn’t understand why he started pursuing rapping and a hip-hop career, a stark contrast from the country music culture they grew up in. 

Now, those same people and their children play his music. 

[{"type":"text","text":"“It was kind of a full circle moment,” he said."}]

After high school, Charles received a formal audio engineering education in Seattle and started to lay the foundation for his music career. Upon graduating, he moved back to Wyoming to work in the oil fields, but the music bug wouldn’t stop biting.

Charles decided to follow in the footsteps of countless other aspiring country music artists by moving to Nashville to pursue his professional music career. 

He draws a comparison between his decision to move to the southern city and making a career in an industry where no script exists for becoming successful beyond “going with the flow” and taking opportunities as they come, Charles said.

Even though the city isn’t a hotbed for hip-hop, Charles said Nashville has been the perfect home base for him. 

Surrounded by an incredible amount of country music talent, Charles said it's helped him rekindle his love for the genre he had growing up and hone his own song writing pedigree. 

It’s also where he landed his first record deal.

, which aired on NBC, reaching the semifinals. 

It was there that he met and spent time with hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg, who hosted the TV show. The two built a relationship and Snoop invited Charles backstage when he came to Nashville to do a show. 

Charles has also opened for hip-hop stars Nelly and Wiz Khalifa.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wyoming True"}]

Despite moving away and experiencing a little success, Charles is still a Wyoming boy through and through, hanging a large Wyoming flag from the wall of his home recording studio in Nashville.

He’s also good friends with Wyoming country music star Ian Munsick, who he considers a personal inspiration for his gift of storytelling and style of enunciation. The two have collaborated on a number of songs, and it was Munsick who brought Charles on his first tour, the rapper serving as Munsick’s opening act.

Now when he opens for Munsick, Charles jokes the country crooner is lucky Charles doesn’t have as good a singing voice as him, or Munsick would be opening up for him. 

 for his sold-out show at the historic Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado in 2024, where the duo performed their song “Cowboy Killer.”

Charles’ turquoise grill is another nod to his country rap hybrid persona. 

Like many with a Western upbringing, Charles has long worn turquoise jewelry. When he looked into buying a grill, Charles decided he had to keep a link to his original heritage.

Charles, who also has a song called “New Boot Goofin’,” also has an affinity for cowboy boots and just launched his own company called Yalls Boots Co. 

“I’ve been wanting to do a boot company for a long time now, boots are my thing,” Charles said in a Facebook post earlier this month.

The Jiggy Buckaroo was back in town for a short Wyoming tour last week, performing in Casper before hosting a Cheyenne Frontier Days after party show at The Lincoln Theater last weekend. 

Now he’s off to Alaska for a fair and rodeo performance, followed by a personal fishing trip.

One of his favorite concert memories, he said, came last summer performing in his hometown of Buffalo. They set up a stage on a flatbed trailer outside Bond’s Brewing Co. and Jiggy Buckaroo did his thing for hundreds of screaming Wyoming fans.

“From the big things to the small things you kind of get those little moments,” Charles said. “One thing about this career, it can be tough and it can be challenging and mentally draining sometimes … those little moments, they make it worth it.”

Ryan Charles cowboy rapper Charles 3 21 25

<title>Wyoming People: Buffalo’s Ryan Charles Is Putting Country Rap On The Music Map | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Buffalo, Wyoming, native Ryan Charles — aka Jiggy Buckaroo — is putting his fusion of country-rap music on the map. He’s landed a record deal and has opened for country music star Ian Musick, as well as rap superstars Nelly and Wiz Khalifa.

Wyoming People: Buffalo’s Ryan Charles Is Putting Country Rap On The Music Map

Anna-Louise Jackson

Business & Tourism

Business

With clear skies and temperatures flirting with 90 degrees, it’s a perfect weekend to enjoy a private island on Montana’s Flathead Lake. 

The only problem is you’ll still need $72 million to snatch it off the market.

While a lot has changed in the past four years, that’s not the case for 

 for Cromwell Island, a 350-acre island that’s home to an unfinished 45,000-square-foot French-style villa described as “reminiscent of Versailles” on the west side of the lake.

As anyone who has some experience in the real estate market knows, most sellers will entertain serious offers.

Whether one of those offers will strike the fancy of this particular owner, however, is a different matter.

“I guess time will tell where we make a deal, but the asking price is $72 million and that has not changed,” said Bill McDavid, the listing agent for the property with Missoula-based Hall and Hall.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"New Neighbors"}]

One thing that has changed is that the future owners of Cromwell Island could have some jet-set neighbors in the future.

That’s because Discovery Land Co., the developers behind the swanky Jackson’s 3 Creek Ranch and the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana, have proposed a 359-unit subdivision on 1,800 acres in Lakeside, less than 20 miles as the crow flies from the island.

But that proposed development — dubbed Territory 1889, a nod to the year Montana became a state — has run into some issues.

A local judge paused the water permitting process last month and some locals are fighting the development through the nonprofit Citizens for a Better Flathead.

Still, if that development proceeds as planned, it could help move Cromwell Island off the market for its $72 million asking price.

McDavid said it’s common for some people who buy into those sorts of enclaves to eventually decide they’d like a little more space and privacy, so they start looking for property nearby while continuing to enjoy the perks of a club membership.

“I could see the same thing happening here,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Languishing On The Market"}]

Another thing that admittedly has changed in the past four years is that Montana’s once-high-flying real estate market has come back to earth somewhat, and it’s taking longer for homes to move. 

As of May, Montana homes were on the market for a median of 85 days before going under contract, according to Redfin. That’s about a month longer than it was taking to move the median listing back in 2022.

While the Cromwell Island property is admittedly an outlier in so many regards, its extended stay on the market is actually not so abnormal.

One of Wyoming’s luxury home listing, the 

 in Teton County, has been on the market for $65 million for about 700 days, or just shy of two years.

Meanwhile, it’s been almost a year since the country’s most expensive listing hit the market — a 74-acre property with a private lake in Aspen, Colorado, that’s listed for a cool $300 million.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Changes To Property"}]

Whoever does, eventually, buy Cromwell Island will be able to boast that they own the largest privately held island in freshwater.

They also can see out the vision of its prior owner, Bob Lee, a famous collector, conservationist and explorer who founded Hunting World in the 1960s and bought the island more than 40 years ago with his wife, Anne Brockinton Lee.

Nothing about the island or structures has changed in the past year since Cowboy State Daily 

The island is accessible year-round thanks to a custom-built barge and underwater agitators that ensure a less than 10-minute journey to nearby Dayton, even during periods when parts of the lake might freeze over.

In addition to the unfinished villa, there’s another structure on the island, a boat dock that can accommodate a 70-foot yacht, a shooting range, plenty of wildlife neighbors, and a front row seat to nearby Wild Horse Island, the largest island on Flathead Lake.

And in what’s thus far been a smoke-free and sunny summer, owners can enjoy what McDavid did on his most-recent visit.

“It was gorgeous,” he said. “It was a great day to be out there.”

Cromwell Island 7 25 26

<title>Maybe This Is The Year Someone Will Finally Buy $72 Million Montana Private Island | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It's been four years without a buyer for Montana’s most expensive luxury estate, a 350-acre private island with a huge unfinished 45,000-square-foot villa. The $72 million property also features a boat dock that can accommodate a 70-foot yacht.

Maybe This Is The Year Someone Will Finally Buy $72 Million Montana Private Island

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Around Wyoming

[{"type":"text","text":"Some people collect souvenirs."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Rick Bonander collected adventures."}]

The 74-year-old Casper businessman has spent a lifetime following whatever lay beyond the next ridge, whether that meant getting lost in the Montana mountains as a boy, building one of Wyoming's most successful pipe companies, or tracking elephants, lions and Marco Polo sheep across six continents.

[{"type":"text","text":"The adventures now surround him."}]

Bonander is difficult to miss. Tall and broad-shouldered with a barrel chest, bright blue eyes and a neatly trimmed white mustache, he greets visitors with an easy smile and the confidence of someone who's seen enough of the world to know that almost everything eventually becomes a good story.

He settles into a hand-carved chair as thousands of glass eyes stare back from every direction.

Outside his home's picture windows, Wyoming stretches toward the horizon.

Inside, a crocodile lounges across the stone floor on a wooden peg leg Bonander built after discovering the reptile had lost one of its own. A leopard crouches from an upper ledge. A rhinoceros stands nearby. Cape buffalo from Zimbabwe and antelope from Africa fill every corner.

[{"type":"text","text":"Elephant feet have become leather-covered stools. "}]

"My trophy room doesn't mean anything to anybody else," he said. "But to me, I could sit out here with a drink and just daydream about each and every animal and the hunt. Every one of them I can replay in my mind."

[{"type":"text","text":"For Bonander, the room isn't about what he killed."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"It's about where life took him."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Adventure Calls"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Bonander was raised to wander. "}]

Growing up in Bozeman, Montana, he spent weekends hunting, fishing and camping with his two younger brothers. He shot his first deer at 8 years old and, by 14, was hunting on his own.

One snowy afternoon, after following a wounded deer farther than he realized, he became hopelessly lost in the Montana backcountry. Darkness settled in. Panic followed.

Sit down. Think. Figure out where you are. 

He found his bearings and walked himself home, carrying a lesson that would stay with him for the rest of his life.

That same willingness to venture into the unknown has followed him since. 

After earning a construction engineering degree from Montana State University and serving as a military police dog handler at a nuclear missile site in Washington, Bonander moved to Casper.

[{"type":"text","text":"Five years later, he gambled on himself."}]

In 1982, armed with just $260 and a willingness to outwork everyone around him, he started Intermountain Pipe. Delivering casing to drilling rigs around the clock, he built what would become one of Wyoming's premier oilfield pipe companies.

His son now runs much of the business, but Bonander still comes to the office most days.

[{"type":"text","text":"Fifty years of experience, he says, is hard to replace."}]

Building a successful company satisfied the engineer in him, but it never quieted the explorer.

For years, he devoured books about Africa before finally deciding to take "just one" safari.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I thought I'd get it out of my system,\" he said."}]

Instead, he was planning the next trip before the airplane carrying him home had even landed. He returned to Africa more than 30 times. 

Over three decades, Bonander has hunted in countries stretching from Zimbabwe and Botswana to Tajikistan, Australia, Argentina, Scotland, Croatia and New Zealand.

[{"type":"text","text":"What keeps drawing him back?"}]

"The adventure," he said. "Getting to see new people, new places, new things."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Killer Elephant "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Bonander never planned to hunt an elephant."}]

In 2002, he traveled to Zimbabwe hoping to pursue Cape buffalo and plains game when camp received word that a villager had been killed by a rogue bull elephant.

Years earlier, someone had tried to kill the animal with an AK-47. Instead, the bullets shattered its shoulder, destroyed much of its trunk and left it crippled. The elephant survived, but according to Bonander, it had become dangerously aggressive.

"It was missing a foot and a half of its trunk, and it was mean," Bonander said. "He wanted to kill people."

Zimbabwe wildlife officials asked whether Bonander wanted to help remove the elephant.

Trackers followed fresh prints through thick brush until they found the bull drinking from a sandy riverbed. Carrying a borrowed century-old .470 Nitro Express double rifle, Bonander eased to within about 35 yards.

[{"type":"text","text":"His first shot struck the elephant's shoulder."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The bull spun."}]

Casper's Rick Bonander went to Africa once "to get it out of his system." Thirty-two trips later, the 74-year-old has tracked lions, hunted a man-killing elephant, took on a three-legged crocodile, and filled his home with memories from six continents.

Daily Darwin: Saturday, December 30, 2023

In case you missed it

More in Daily Darwin

Daily Darwin: Sunday, July 26, 2026

Daily Darwin: Saturday, July 25, 2026

Daily Darwin: Friday, July 24, 2026

Daily Darwin: Thursday, July 23, 2026

Most read