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

<title>You Still Here? Sunday, January 7, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You Still Here? Sunday, January 7, 2024

 If this doesn't make you look forward to the next Olympics, nothing will...

Leo Wolfson

Wyoming Life

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.”

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<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.”

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<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."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"His second shot hit the opposite shoulder."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The elephant staggered another 20 yards before collapsing."}]

For Bonander, it underscored something many Americans don't often see: in parts of Africa, hunting is also wildlife management. Dangerous animals, crop raiders and aging bulls are sometimes removed under government authority to protect both people and habitat.

[{"type":"text","text":"Nothing went to waste."}]

Villagers butchered the elephant where it fell, carrying the meat home to feed their families.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Accidental Giraffe "}]

By then, Bonander had hunted hippos, rhinoceroses, lions, elephants and more antelope species than he can easily count.

[{"type":"text","text":"One animal never interested him much."}]

The giraffe towering over his living room today wasn't his idea, he says, but his brother's.

"Mean old giraffes," as Bonander describes them, can become a problem too. As they age, dominant bulls sometimes attack and kill younger males competing for mates, making them candidates for wildlife management hunts.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He talked me into it.\" "}]

The brothers stood shoulder to shoulder, counted to three and squeezed the triggers together.

[{"type":"text","text":"Later, they discovered their bullets had landed barely an inch apart."}]

Now the giraffe's head is neatly mounted in his house. Its feet, meanwhile, hold up an end table.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"High Elevation "}]

Bonander has stalked lions through tall African grass, fully aware "they can hunt you back."

He has also hunted hippos and crocodiles, animals responsible for thousands of human deaths across Africa each year and capable of turning a quiet riverbank into chaos in an instant.

[{"type":"text","text":"He's stood within yards of elephants."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"But the closest he ever came to dying wasn't because of an animal."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"It was because there wasn't enough air."}]

While pursuing Marco Polo sheep in Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains, Bonander climbed above 17,000 feet, where every breath felt thinner than the last.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It just about killed me,\" he said with a laugh."}]

Hours of climbing over loose rock left him exhausted. Every step demanded more effort. Every breath came harder.

[{"type":"text","text":"Coming back down proved worse."}]

At one point, he collapsed beside the trail, struggling to breathe as his guides urged him to keep moving.

Eventually, he reached camp carrying one of the world's most coveted mountain sheep — and a newfound respect for high altitude.

[{"type":"text","text":"Ask him what he remembers most, though, and he'll tell you: The view. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Jagged mountains stretched to the horizon, untouched and impossibly wild."}]

The hunter later celebrated with a glass of Scotch around the campfire, replaying the day's adventure beneath a sky crowded with unfamiliar stars.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Before It's Too Late"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Bonander knows he has lived an uncommon life."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He also knows time is catching up."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"More friends are gone than he'd like to admit."}]

His knees and shoulders have been replaced. His body carries the miles of mountains climbed, rivers crossed and continents explored.

[{"type":"text","text":"Still, he swims four mornings a week."}]

He still reads, still plans the next trip, and wonders what adventures will come next. 

"You better live life because you don't know when it's going to end," he said. "I've made a lot of money in my business, and I've been able to go enjoy life and do trips and do things. But I went and done it. I know lots of people got money, but they don't do anything. I don't understand it."

[{"type":"text","text":"At 74, Bonander isn't slowing down."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Australia is next."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then another trip to South Africa."}]

Back home in Casper, there will eventually be another story to tell — and with any luck — another trophy. 

Rick Bonander IMG 6250 copy 7 25 26

<title>Casper Hunter Has Chased Lions, Rhinos, Elephants & Crocodiles Around The World | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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.

Casper Hunter Has Chased Lions, Rhinos, Elephants & Crocodiles Around The World

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

Renée Jean

Time was when ding-dong ditching — the 2 a.m. knock and dash — was seen as an annoying, mostly harmless prank. But in an era of doorbell cameras, social media and jumpy homeowners, that has been changing. 

A Lander teenager learned the hard way that such pranks come with real-world consequences — including a public real-world apology to the community. 

, told Cowboy State Daily it was a case of giving in to peer pressure. 

“My friends had been, like, begging me to sneak out for a week,” the teen said. “And last time, I got into a lot of trouble, so I was just kind of trying to stay out of that. But they kept begging me to go out, so I finally just said, ‘Yes.’”

Kirk figured she would get her friends off her back by just going out briefly with them. But she hadn’t reckoned on the amount of peer pressure she was about to face.

“They kind of jokingly blocked my way home,” she said. “They were grabbing my shirt and trying to keep me from going back to my house.”

Tired and sore from playing Five vs. Five earlier that night, Eden made a decision that was about to have public consequences.

She went on the porch of the nearest home and touched the door. When that didn’t satisfy her friends, she went back to finish the job. She hesitated for a moment, however, and then dogs in the home woke up and began barking.

“I didn’t even knock or ring the doorbell,” Kirk said. “I was looking for a dumb loophole.” 

But now that the dogs were barking and there were no loopholes to be had. 

"Mountain Men" star Josh Kirk wan't going to let his teen daughter get away with ding-dong ditching homes in Lander, so he made her own up to her actions and issue a public apology. “Even though it was peer pressure, that’s not an excuse,” she said.

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