Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Now let's all watch a panda cleaning his house..."}]

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

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, January 6, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Now let's all watch a panda cleaning his house...

Daily Smile: Saturday, January 6, 2024

 Now let's all watch a panda cleaning his house...

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Wyoming Life

In the 1960s and '70s, a big banner hung over the Greybull blacksmith shop that proclaimed "Wyoming’s Ugliest Man" worked there. 

Foreign tourists on their way to Yellowstone National Park would detour to the shop where Reuben Reifschneider would entertain them by popping out an eye and his teeth, showing exactly how he had won that title.

Reifschneider, who lived in Basin and had his shop in Greybull, won nationwide acclaim when he earned the title “Wyoming’s Ugliest Man” on Art Linkletter’s popular CBS variety show "House Party" in 1964 and 1965.  

The June 12, 1965, the Casper Morning Star reported that defending champion Reifschneider was voted “the ugliest man in Wyoming” by the audience, whose wild applause “was overwhelming.”

“It isn’t the glass eye that gets them,” Reifschneider said after his second win. “It’s my winning smile.”

Ralph N. Gillett of Greybull and Reifschneider were flown to Hollywood to appear on the Friday program to compete for the title in front of millions of viewers. 

It was a running gag and guest feature, and the colorful blacksmith earned it, according to the locals who remember Reifschneider as a gregarious storyteller.

“I remember him as a kind and patient man,” Pam Richardson told Cowboy State Daily. “He had to work at the ugly. He wasn’t handsome, but he wasn’t scary to us kids.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Costume Needed"}]

Dan Zavorka said Reuben was one of the nicest guys in the world and embraced his title. 

“I recall him telling my folks that he took out his glass eye and false teeth for the contest,” Zavorka said. “Reuben was just himself. He didn't need a costume at all.”

According to Zavorka, the other contestants competed for the title by dressing in outrageous costumes. He recalls seeing one man with a big scruffy beard pretending to be a caveman.

Earline Oset said her dad, Buck Caldwell, competed against Reifschneider in the first contest by growing a beard and pretending to be a prospector.

“My dad could never have been the ugly man,” Oset said. “He had gotten a little black and dirty from working and he crawled on a burro. It was pretty cute.”

Oset said Reifschneider deserved the title because he didn’t need a costume. He just had to take out his eye and teeth and it changed his entire appearance to a “natural ugly.”

After his second win, the June 17, 1965, Casper Morning Star said Reifschneider proudly boasted on TV, “We’ll show those bearded fellers that we baldfaces ain’t sissies!”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Baldfaced Vigilantes"}]

Reifschneider was referring to a special group to which he belonged: The “Baldfaced Vigilantes.” According to the Morning Star, the group, known as the BFV, were beardless, terrorist rebels. Their agenda was to demolish the Diamond Jubilee beard-growing promotion among Wyoming men. 

To achieve their goal, the BFV were known to kidnap and shave bearded individuals.

“Last Sunday night, bearded whiskerino Walter Johnson of Lander was waylaid on a lonely country road outside town and shaved with a cordless electric razor,” the Casper paper reported. “And to add insult to injury, the masked desperadoes who perpetrated the deed painted the letters BFV in bold, black strokes across Johnson’s cheeks and forehead.”

Reifschneider’s title of Wyoming's Ugliest Man was a huge boost to the cause of the BFV since he won against a bearded individual. 

The taunts between the groups continued for the rest of the summer and the Wind River Mountain Men joined in to defend beards in Wyoming.

“If we don’t get help, the beard-growers might just be in the minority this summer in Wyoming,” the bearded men told the newspaper.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Goofy Blacksmith"}]

Reifschneider took his title in stride and for decades would entertain both the young and old with his special talent of “ugly.”

Jeral Preis wrote on the “10 Things I remember about Greybull, Wyoming” Facebook page that his dad told him a story about Reifschneider.

“He bet dad a beer that he could bite his eyeball,” Preis wrote. “He popped his eye out and bit it. He then bet dad another beer he could bite his other eyeball, popped his teeth out and bit it. Dad told me 'never bet a man at his own game.'”

Wade Werbelow remembers Reifschneider with his big ears and bigger smile. His grandpa, Lyle Kenyon, had a shop next to Reifschneider’s, and Werbelow spent a lot of time with the men as a youngster.

“My grandpa and Reuben would go in the bowling alley on coffee breaks at 10 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon,” Werbelow said. “I can remember he'd blow out his teeth, and put his glass eye in a cup of coffee just to get a reaction from people.”

Zavorka said Reifschneider always had time to talk and he always had time for children.

“I was probably 8 years old, and he would just sit down, tell me a story, laugh, and carry on, and, and just keep on talking,” Zavorka said.  

Paul Vinzant remembered that it was Reifschneider who was responsible for Greybull’s fireworks display every Fourth of July.

“He had the fireworks stand,” Vinzant told Cowboy State Daily. “I was just a kid who bought firecrackers from him.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Storyteller"}]

Greybull Historian Tom Davis said that in his early years as a farmer, he had lots of old equipment that Reifschneider would fix up for him in his welding shop.

“Reuben loved to tell stories, and he would tell me how busy he was — then he would stop working and spend 15 or 20 minutes or more telling me stories,” Davis said. “One of his favorite stories was from World War II when he was in General Patton's 3rd Army.”

Reifschneider told Davis he was busy repairing a Jeep when his sergeant rushed over, telling the men to clean up a bit, because General Patton was there inspecting his troops. Reifschneider replied that he was too busy repairing a Jeep to mess around waiting for the General--and he crawled back under a Jeep and kept working.

Pretty soon, Davis recounted that Reifschneider noticed a pair of highly polished boots standing beside the Jeep. He heard a voice saying "Soldier! What are you doing? Why aren't you ready? Fall in for Inspection."

"I'm too (explative) busy getting this Jeep fixed so that it can go all the way to Berlin without breaking down!" Reifschneider said.

Then, according to Reifschneider, he heard the general say, "Carry on soldier. We need more men like you in this outfit."

Davis said Reifschneider continued to live in Basin, even after moving his welding shop to Greybull in 1958-59. 

In March 1977, Reifschneider died unexpectedly and both Greybull and Basin mourned the passing of Wyoming’s Ugliest Man.

Ugliest man 475496866 1051871780314198 6712966853480816328 n 8 8 26

<title>'Wyoming's Ugliest Man' Earned Title Proudly On TV By Popping Out Eye And Teeth | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Reuben Reifschneider proudly earned the title of “Wyoming’s Ugliest Man” twice by popping out a glass eye and his teeth on Art Linkletter’s “House Party” TV show in 1964 and 1965. “Reuben was just himself. He didn't need a costume at all,” said a friend.

'Wyoming's Ugliest Man' Earned Title Proudly On TV By Popping Out Eye And Teeth

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

Andrew Rossi

Food

If you find a giant puffball mushroom in Wyoming, you can slice and spice it up for a fungi feast. It's like a slice of bread, two feet across.

Tyler Sease was foraging near the Happy Jack Recreation Area near Laramie when he found the mother of all mushrooms. It was a western giant puffball about as big as two basketballs put together.

Sease could have made a great meal with that massive mushroom, but he probably needed to spice it up a bit. Puffballs cook nicely, but the flavor can leave something to be desired.

“They are edible, but I find them pretty bland,” said Jake States, a retired professor, Lander resident, and mushroom expert. “I sauté them with garlic.”

Western giant puffballs are one of the more common edible mushrooms in Wyoming. Anyone fancying a fungi feast can go out and find one – it might even be as big as Sease’s.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Western Flair"}]

Calvatia booniana, the western giant puffball, is common throughout the fields and forests of Wyoming.  According to States, the shape and size of Sease’s mushroom is enough to identify it.

“Although the puffballs in general have a rounded shape, these large ones are really unique,” he said. “The western giant puffball is irregularly shaped, whereas the eastern giant puffball is almost perfectly round.”

Based on the photo, States believed the mushroom Sease found might have been two fruiting bodies, called gastrocarps or “stomach bodies,” that grew together.

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s not uncommon for puffballs."}]

“The gastrocarps can fuse together, but on the other hand, it is characteristically irregularly rounded or blobby-shaped, and so it could be a single fruit body.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fairy Rings"}]

States said the best places to find western giant puffballs are low-elevation grasslands or subalpine meadows. He’s found they’re common in sagebrush communities, growing together in what’s called a fairy ring.  

“Fairy rings are a circle of fruiting bodies,” he said. “They’re formed by underground mycelium, the feeding vegetative bodies of the fungus, that kill off the surface vegetation and produce reproductive structures in those circles. There are quite a number of mushrooms that form these rings.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“Fairy ring” comes from European folklore."}]

Many western European traditions ascribed the circular rings of mushrooms to the dancing of fairies, pixies, elves, or witches. The Dutch believe the rings marked the spot where the Devil placed his milk churn.

While that’s been debunked by science, there is something supernaturally frustrating about giant puffballs. According to States, they defy modernity.

“We have been unable to produce large puffballs in culture,” he said. “All these mushroom cultivators would dearly love to do so, but we haven't done it yet.”

Puffballs have historically been used to dress wounds, either sliced or powdered, by cultures around the world. They contain a styptic, a substance that stops bleeding and seals injured blood vessels.

“The genus Calvasia has a chemical compound called calvacin, a natural anti-tumor mucoprotein,” said States. “They’re trying to isolate that and get into the pharmaceutical entourage.”

Many scientists would love to further explore and reap the benefits of giant puffballs, but that has yet to be accomplished in a laboratory setting. It is stated that they have mycorrhiza, which means fungus-root associations, that aren’t fully understood.

Bioprospecting is the concept of developing new chemicals, inventions, and technologies by studying the natural adaptations of flora and fauna. It’s something States knows all about.

“I discovered the mold form of a mushroom called Aspergillus laporus,” he said. “That’s the one being studied so much now for its production of natural lysergic acid diethylamine, or LSD. Who knew?”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Death Or Delicacy?"}]

Giant puffballs, including the western giant puffball, are edible. However, nobody should take a bite without dissecting it first.

Giant puffballs can look similar to poisonous earthballs. Many species of the mushroom genus Amanita, including the deadly destroying angel, don’t grow as large as puffballs but can resemble them in their immature growth stages.

States said the easiest way to determine if your two-foot-wide mushroom is edible is to carve it up, which you’d probably do anyway.

“The tissues will be perfectly white as you cut through them,” he said. “As long as that tissue is white, it's edible.”

One group of puffballs has toxic spores, but they’re easy to identify by their purple color.

A safe, savory slice of western puffball mushroom will look like a slice of white bread, except that it’s two feet across. From there, it can be served however one would like.

Regardless, nobody who finds a western giant puffball should immediately pop a piece into their mouths. It’s always best to check and cook before consuming.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Common Craving"}]

If anyone wants a taste of western giant puffball, or maybe serve one for Thanksgiving in lieu of turkey, they’re not hard to find in Wyoming. States encounters them frequently while exploring Lander.

“I'm here in Sinks Canyon, in the transition zone of the sagebrush foothills into the conifer forest, so I find them regularly every season,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"There’s another thing to be wary of when eating giant puffballs."}]

Some people have reported the mushroom as having a laxative effect. Giant puffballs aren’t closely related to Asia’s shiitake mushrooms, but the end result might have a gastrointestinal impact worthy of the name.

Giant puffballs are edible, but there are tastier fungi to forage in Wyoming. That’s why States doesn’t have them on his menu.

“It has a mushroom-type flavor, but I find them bland,” States said. “Some people like anything that tastes fungusy, but I think there are so many more mushrooms that are much better, so I don't mess with (puffballs) at all.”

Happy Jack Reservoir puffball 2 8 8 216

<title>Wyoming Man Finds Mother Of All Puffball Mushrooms At Happy Jack — And It's Edible | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Wyoming man found a giant puffball mushroom the size of two basketballs near the Happy Jack Recreation Area last week. Mushroom expert Jack States says the edible puffball is best when sautéd with garlic but cautions it could have a laxative effect.

Wyoming Man Finds Mother Of All Puffball Mushrooms At Happy Jack — And It's Edible

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wildlife

As hunting season settles over the mountains surrounding Snyder Basin in Sublette County, the moose begin drifting toward a Wyoming woman's ranch. Sometimes alone, and sometimes with calves.

[{"type":"text","text":"To Pamela Chrisman, their arrival isn't surprising."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"It's been happening for nearly 40 years."}]

"They'd come in here and hide from the hunters," Chrisman explained. "This is kind of a safe haven for all those guys."

What began with one hungry old cow moose slowly blossomed into one of Wyoming's most remarkable wildlife stories — a bond built not through training or taming, but through decades of building trust.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fish Creek Ranch "}]

Chrisman was born in Big Piney and has spent nearly her entire life ranching beneath Snyder Basin, where cattle, horses and wildlife have always been part of daily life.

[{"type":"text","text":"She was about 21 years old when she moved onto the remote ranch."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"There was no bathroom, no telephone, no running water,\" she recalled."}]

Winters meant trips to the outhouse through deep snow. Eventually, her mother helped install a well, and the two spoke each night over a CB radio.

[{"type":"text","text":"The isolation never bothered Chrisman."}]

She grew up following her father while he worked cattle and said she always felt at home outdoors.

[{"type":"text","text":"Animals had always occupied a special place in her life."}]

She remembered adopting a steer as a girl, loving her horses, dogs and cats, and riding horseback home after her school bus became stranded in the snow.

Long before the moose arrived, caring for animals was simply part of who she was.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Grandma Mouse"}]

"Sometime in the 1980s", Chrisman says an aging cow moose wandered onto the ranch and began eating hay alongside her horses.

[{"type":"text","text":"The old moose was gaunt."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"She was really, really gray,\" Chrisman recalled."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Instead of chasing the animal away, she let it eat."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"She affectionately named the old cow \"Grandma Mouse.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The name stuck, and so did the moose."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Grandma Mouse kept returning."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then she brought offspring."}]

Chrisman watched as one generation followed another. There was Merry Mouse, Miss Mouse, Baby Mouse and an old bull she simply called Old Boy. Each had its own personality.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They have different temperaments,\" she said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Building Trust"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"At first, the moose simply shared pasture with Chrisman's horses."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The horses accepted them."}]

"They'd go in and stand next to her in the corral," Chrisman said. "She could eat with them."

[{"type":"text","text":"Over time, something even more unusual happened."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The moose began trusting Chrisman herself."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"She developed a routine."}]

"I just gave them a hoop or a holler and shook the bucket," she said. "There they come."

Eventually, the relationship became close enough that Chrisman posed for photographs hugging the animals and even briefly sitting atop one especially gentle cow named Miss Mouse.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I could actually get on her,\" she said. \"They just liked me.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"She never tried turning the experience into a roadside attraction."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"In fact, she discouraged visitors."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The moose accepted her, but they remained wary of everyone else."}]

"I wouldn't let them up there," Chrisman said. "You better stand back, because they're just not really impressed about having quite a few people around."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'They Know Where To Come' "}]

To many people who spend time in Wyoming's backcountry, getting close to a moose is reason for concern, not celebration.

competing in an ultramarathon through the Wyoming wilderness, and nearly all agreed on the animal they feared most. 

[{"type":"text","text":"It wasn't bears."}]

Massive, territorial and fiercely protective of calves, moose have earned a reputation as one of Wyoming's most unpredictable wild animals.

[{"type":"text","text":"That is what makes Chrisman's story so extraordinary."}]

To outsiders, the idea that generations of wild moose would willingly return to the same ranch — and trust the same woman — might sound almost impossible.

But John Lund, regional wildlife supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Pinedale Region, said the behavior makes biological sense.

"It's not uncommon," Lund said of multiple generations returning to the same property, especially when an area provides high-quality habitat and protection from people, predators and other disturbances.

Lund said wildlife managers believe moose, much like deer and elk, likely learn seasonal locations from their mothers.

He also said big-game animals quickly learn where hunting pressure is low and return to those places year after year.

While moose hunting is much more limited than elk hunting, he believes the same principle applies.

[{"type":"text","text":"For Chrisman, that's exactly what she has witnessed."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They know where to come,\" she said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"R-E-S-P-E-C-T "}]

At one time, Chrisman estimated as many as 10 moose regularly visited the ranch.

[{"type":"text","text":"Today, about four or five still stop by."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Grandma Mouse is gone."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"So are Merry Mouse, Miss Mouse and Old Boy."}]

But each winter, Chrisman still puts out an alfalfa bale and a few pellets.

[{"type":"text","text":"She still watches the hills."}]

Descendants of those first visitors still find their way back beneath Snyder Basin.

Lund said becoming comfortable around one person "isn't unheard of," though he cautioned that moose are still wild animals. Cows can become aggressive while protecting calves, bulls often become dangerous during the fall rut, and any moose that feels cornered or threatened could attack.

[{"type":"text","text":"Chrisman agrees that respect has always been the key."}]

"They aren't as mean as people put them up to be," she said. "But you've got to respect them and give them enough room."

[{"type":"text","text":"She never tried to make the moose into pets."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"She simply offered them a place where they were safe."}]

Moose lady Pam2 8 8 26

<title>Meet The Moose Whisperer: For 40 Years, Wild Moose Return To Her Big Piney Ranch | Cowboy State Daily</title>

For nearly 40 years, generations of wild moose have returned to Fish Creek Ranch near Big Piney, Wyoming, where they trust Pamela Chrisman so much she can walk up and pet them. "This is kind of a safe haven for all those guys," she said.

Meet The Moose Whisperer: For 40 Years, Wild Moose Return To Her Big Piney Ranch

Entertainment

Every August, the highways to South Dakota begin to thunder as hordes of bikers pour into the Black Hills.

What began in 1938 with the Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club has grown into one of the most famous motorcycle gatherings in the world. 

Some have made the trip for decades. Others are rolling into the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally for the first time.

Greg Griswold remembers the first time he approached Sturgis from Gillette on Interstate 90.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Holy shit, we're going to Sturgis,\" he remembers thinking."}]

At home, he drives a truck in the oil field. His wife, Toni, works as an assistant manager at an apartment complex. Between them, they have four children and eight grandchildren.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We're very much the all-American family,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"But when they leave for Sturgis, something changes."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's an absolute getaway from everything that is life,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The New Guy"}]

Amid all that freedom are a few unwritten rules, and one false move can get you punched in the face — or worse, a full-out ass-kicking.

A 20-something-year-old stone mason from Sheridan who goes by Grout is heading to Sturgis for the first time for the 86

 annual rally, which began Friday and runs through Aug. 16.

Newly single, Grout — aka Sean Severs — said he's especially looking forward to "the party." He said this while packing up his tent for the campgrounds. 

This year, he's riding alongside a Sheridan biker known as Coach, a Sturgis veteran tasked with showing the first-timer the ropes.

For Grout, the draw is the "vibe" — meeting people, seeing new places, and being surrounded by thousands of people that share his love of chrome.

But every first-timer eventually learns there is more to Sturgis than showing up and having a good time.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Sage"}]

Bob Pruitt has spent 45 years in the saddle and has made the trip to Sturgis more than half a dozen times.

[{"type":"text","text":"They call him Pretty Bobbie."}]

The modern-day mountain man stands over 6 feet tall, and is bald and broad-shouldered, with enormous paws, a scraggly gray-and-white beard and piercing blue eyes.

[{"type":"text","text":"His voice is heavy, each word landing like a hammer on a nail."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Yet somehow, standing next to him, you feel safer."}]

With the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally kicking off this weekend, many bikers offered tips on how to avoid getting your ass kicked at the celebration. One 45-year vet says "Understand the unwritten rules before you accidentally break one."

Daily Smile: Saturday, January 6, 2024

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