Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Now let's all watch a puppy play the bongos....."}]

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

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Now let's all watch a puppy play the bongos....

Daily Smile: Saturday, March 30, 2024

 Now let's all watch a puppy play the bongos.....

Joan barron headshot 4 27 24

Joan Barron

Opinion

CSD Columnists

CHEYENNE  — A couple of unusual events that occurred recently may signal a change in the outcome of the Republican Party primary election this month.

First was the illegal Republican Party central committee vote for primary candidates that chose Brent Bien as their favorite for governor over Megan Degenfelder.

Degenfelder, the current State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was endorsed twice by President Donald Trump.

That endorsement did not help her with this group of Republican Central Committee members.

While you can dismiss that limited ballot that violated current state law regulating political party involvement in the primaries, another sign of insurrection popped up in Hot Springs County.

That is where four GOP candidates are running for the state House District 28 seat being vacated by Rep. John Winter of Thermopolis.

Winter is one of the early founders of the Freedom Caucus.

His legacy will not be carried on by his successor.

The four men seeking his seat say they will not join the Freedom Caucus if they are elected, according to a story in Cowboy State Daily.

The candidates are Marshall Keller, Allen Hogg, Carlin Jones and Roland Luehne.

“I don’t believe I should be taking orders from a caucus,” said Keller, according to earlier sources. “I believe I should be listening to my constituents.”

Now you can say these are just blips - slight aberrations - that do not signify a major shrift.

Yet that shift is also occurring nationwide as Trump’s performance rate drops in the polls.

Coupled with the Freedom Caucus’s less than splendid record in the last legislative session, it is possible we are in another period of change.

Wyoming voters, in my experience, have shown a marked tendency to be independent.

So their embrace of the Freedom Caucus was a surprise.

While I  believe the new developments must be a sign of something going on that will not help the Freedom Caucus or the MAGA movement, I was not sure how significant it is.

So I called an expert,  Phil Roberts of Laramie, Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Wyoming, who specializes in  Wyoming history.

“I think it’s starting to crack,” Roberts said in a phone interview last week.

He believes there are a lot people who will not vote for the MAGA agenda again.

Voters this year have their choice between a candidate who has pledged loyalty to the President and his administration  — or to the candidate who has pledged loyalty to the people.

In all the history of Wyoming, voters have never elected a governor or other top officials who had pledged loyalty to a president, Roberts said.

In other words, a Trump endorsement could be a negative this election.

Roberts believes the Freedom Caucus has had its day and will lose seats in this election.

He also predicted that Harriet Hageman will lose her bid for a U.S. Senate seat.

Roberts said Hageman was elected to the U.S. House in an unusual year

She ran against the unpopular incumbent Liz Cheney.

The daughter of the late former vice president Dick Cheney and his author-wife, Lynne, she voted for the impeachment of Donald Trump and won the wrath of the Republican Party.

Trump endorsed Hageman, who defeated Cheney in a landslide.

Meanwhile the Cheyenne TV station last week showed a campaign ad with President Trump urging voters to elect Megan Degenfelder for governor.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Trump said she is a “patriot.”"}]

 Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net

<title>Joan Barron: Is A GOP Sea Change On The Way? | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Joan Barron writes, “Degenfelder, the current State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was endorsed twice by President Donald Trump. That endorsement did not help her with this group of Republican Central Committee members."

Joan Barron: Is A GOP Sea Change On The Way?

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

Renée Jean

Business

The cornerstone of a western fashion empire rising in Saratoga wasn’t a bright idea. It was a problem — a whole series of them, in fact, starting with a beautiful belt that wouldn’t fit.

From a 150-square-foot spare bedroom to two warehouses and a patented D-ring system, Dixie and Kirby Berger have built their company, Pure Dixie, into an international western fashion brand and a favorite at some of the largest rodeos in the nation, from Cheyenne Frontier Days to the National Finals Rodeo.

They did it not by avoiding mistakes but by stubbornly working through them, one bad belt and one busted box of inventory at a time. 

The bad belt was a beaded strip that caught Dixie’s eye during Cheyenne Frontier Days a decade ago.

It took her hours and hours to make the belt once she got it home, sewing each little bead into place one by one.  

When she was finished, though, it was too long for a traditional belt buckle. It wasn’t going to fit.

“I gave it to my husband and I said, ‘I made this and I can’t take it apart. It’s all beaded,’” she told Cowboy State Daily. “You need to make this fit me because if I put a traditional buckle on, it just doesn’t fit.’”

Her husband, an expert leatherworker, had been helping his wife make embroidered leather belts they were selling in little totes at local rodeos. So he took her project back to his workshop to see what he could figure out. 

The system he came up with was to place a metal ring on one end of the belt that he could fit into slots along the other end. That made the belt not only shorter, but more adjustable. 

That was the birth of the couple’s patented D-ring system, which has made their business, Pure Dixie, an international best-seller, as well as frequent vendors at choosy venues like the National Finals Rodeo and Cheyenne Frontier Days.

“That system completely changed how we thought of our products,” Berger said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The problems didn’t end there, though. "}]

Berger’s mom was always losing her cell phone, so one day she asked Dixie if she could make a purse for her.

“That’s how the crossbody minis came to attach to the front of the bag,” Berger said. “And so, through like a process of things that have happened in our life, the ideas kind of came full circle, almost in a moment.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Belt Everyone Wanted"}]

Long before any of that, though, the whole operation fit inside a single 150-square-foot bedroom. That solved a different problem for Dixie.

“I was a stay-at-home mom with three kids,” she said. “And I was not willing to give that up. So I set up my spare bedroom with an embroidery business, and then my husband had leather stuff upstairs with all the sewing machines.”

By day, Dixie watched her children and squeezed in embroidery orders whenever time allowed while her husband worked saddles and tack and chaps on his family’s ranch. 

At night, after their kids went to bed, the two combined their skills to make pieces, first just for each other and then for a growing list of customers. One of those first pieces was an embroidered leather belt with Wyoming’s bucking horse logo on it — a Christmas present for Dixie. 

Dixie was proud of that belt, so it went with her to lots of places — including ranch rodeos where other girls wanted to know where she’d gotten such a cool belt. 

When they learned she and her husband made it, Dixie found herself taking orders for more belts. Lots of them.

That led to the couple bringing some of their belts to ranch rodeos in totes and selling them on the spot. 

“So it wasn’t really on purpose,” Berger said with a chuckle. “It was definitely something that just came to us, and definitely something we’ve enjoyed pursuing.”

One day not long after Kirby came up with the D-ring system, the couple was showing off their belts to someone named Diana.

As Diana picked up each belt to inspect, she would sling the one she’d just looked at over one shoulder to look at another. 

The belts looked so nice draped over her shoulder it gave Dixie instant inspiration. 

She realized the belts could double as purse straps, creating a more customizable purse using the D-ring system her husband designed.

She feels those moments — the too-long belt,  her mom’s missing phone, and even a customer casually slinging belts over her shoulder — all stacked together into the core of Pure Dixie’s patented mix-and-match system. 

“That belt has become a pretty iconic piece for the business,” Dixie said. 

Over time Berger has continued to add mix-and-match ideas, including patches that snap on and off. Cowboy hats, ball caps, and crossbody-minis all have a set of four snaps for patches. Feel like a bucking horse one day, and a bow the next? No problem, there’s a patch for every mood and every occasion.

“I love the aspect where every girl kind of gets to design her piece, and so girls aren’t walking out of our booth looking the same,” Berger said.  “We have so many options that everybody gets to pick their unique style.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Two Warehouses Later"}]

Today, the business no longer fits in a tiny bedroom. The couple has built two warehouses and hired four to five full-time employees to help them scale up the business.

“We have a custom tannery that tans all of our leather,” Dixie said. “And we do have manufacturing now in Mexico that helps us, and then we do all the finish work in Saratoga.”

Learning to navigate mass manufacturing with a company in Mexico, though, was its own steep learning curve.

“So my very first box ... I spent all of my money on this box of inventory from Mexico to have my designs produced by someone just to test it and see,” she said. “So I spent all my money and every single piece came back incorrect.”

This wasn’t just a bad order. It was literally every dollar she had, tied up in a box of unusable bags. 

“I was pretty sad about it and just frustrated and pretty deflated,” she said. “And my husband said to me, ‘This is the moment where someone else gave up.’ He’s like, ‘If you can figure it out and push through it, you just went past someone who would have given up.’”

Instead of sending back the box or walking away, they hauled out every bag and fixed them one by one, leaning on the leather-working skills they’d honed since the spare-bedroom days. 

“That was probably 2016, 2017 that that happened,” she said. “So we took every single bag out. We fixed them all, since we know how to do leather work and we can fix about whatever.”

That box has rewired how Dixie thinks about every problem in her business. If she can get through it, she’s always stepping past the point where someone else would have quit.

“It’s like, if I can get through this issue, through this tariff issue, through this leather-production issue, through this logistics issue, you know, that’s where someone else gave up,” she said. “And I just don’t want to, we’ve decided we don’t want to give up. We just want to do the very best we can and keep pursuing the dream.”

For this couple, that dream looks like a world where they are building an international business together and the children are part of that effort in a tiny Wyoming town where they can remain close to family.

“We failed a lot and we did some things right,” Dixie said. “And we just kept at it. It was a step-by-step process.”

Pure Dixie 20260724 161901 8 1 26

<title>How A Saratoga Woman Built An International Western Fashion Brand From Her Bedroom | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Saratoga woman was determined to remain a stay-at-home mom, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t build an international Western fashion brand. Her business Pure Dixie started in a 150-square-foot bedroom, now takes up two warehouses and continues to grow.

How A Saratoga Woman Built An International Western Fashion Brand From Her Bedroom

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Around Wyoming

Controversy over a proposed apartment complex along the Laramie Greenbelt mirrors growing pains in communities across Wyoming.

Opponents say the 80- to 95-unit complex would disrupt vital wildlife habitat and push floodwater into the historic West Side neighborhood.

But the city claims those fears are exaggerated, and the apartments are sorely needed to mitigate Laramie’s longstanding housing shortage.

The project is proposed on 32 acres of mostly undeveloped land the city has declared "blighted."

But many residents treasure the property as a place to relax and enjoy greenery and the animals that take refuge there.

Opponents also question the use of public tax increment financing (TIF) funds for the project.

City Manager Todd Feezer told Cowboy State Daily no starting date has been set for the project, but the city would like to have the apartments built as soon as possible.

Resident Nate Martin said pushback against the project will continue.

“It’s not a question of NIMBYism. It’s a legitimate concern about the floodplain, about the river, about the Greenbelt. It’s not just, ‘Oh, I don’t want to look at the apartment complex,’” Martin told Cowboy State Daily.

People in Laramie want undisturbed green space, just like folks in any Wyoming community would, he said.

“That would apply to any open piece of land by a river in Wyoming,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"West Side Worries"}]

The West Side is one of Laramie’s oldest neighborhoods. It’s generally recognized as the residential area nestled between the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and the Laramie River.

It’s not to be confused with West Laramie, which is an essentially separate part of the city west of Interstate 80.

Because of its proximity to the river, the West Side is already susceptible to flooding, Martin said.

Plunking down an apartment complex adjacent to the Greenbelt would just make matters worse, he said.

“There are people who are paying off their mortgages who have never had to buy flood insurance before and are now on the hook for increased costs,” Martin said.

The land is “valuable floodplain storage,” said resident Ally Patrick, a civil engineer.

“Basically, the whole 32-acre property is a FEMA-designated floodplain,” she told Cowboy State Daily.

Compacting the earth there for construction, and then paving some of it for parking, would disrupt the natural floodplain, further imperiling West Side homes whenever the Laramie River jumps its banks, Patrick said.

“My main concern is removing floodplain storage. When you remove that storage, the flood goes somewhere else, and in this case, it would be into the West Side,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What About The Critters?"}]

Wildlife biologist and West Side resident Christina Sluka said the proposed construction site is essentially in the middle of an urban wildlife sanctuary.

She’s conducted studies on raccoons and said their dependence on the Greenbelt area reflects that of numerous other species.

“I’ve been using raccoons as just one example of the activity that goes on on that property,” she told Cowboy State Daily.

“Any wildlife that’s using the Greenbelt and wants to move north to south, or south to north, has to pass right through that property,” she said.

Moreover, what little development there is in the area is industrial, mostly warehouses, Sluka said.

Although it might seem counterintuitive, urban wildlife likes industrial areas because of the relatively low level of human activity, she said.

“There might be trucks going to and from the warehouses, but there aren’t pedestrians constantly passing through,” Sluka said.

Raccoons have claimed nesting sites near the warehouses, she said.

The area is also home to several species of nesting birds, bats, mule deer, white-tailed deer, skunks, beavers and mink, Sluka said.

Noise, constant human activity and “light pollution” from an apartment complex could disrupt that, she said.

The Greenbelt is also a vital pass-through route for black bears, moose and other animals that might be dispersing from or to the Snowy Range, Sluka said.

The Greenbelt “gives them a space to safely pass through” without causing human-wildlife conflicts, she said.

The undisturbed serenity of the area is also important for people, she said. Green spaces are good for physical and mental health.

“The Greenbelt is easily accessible for people who can’t just go hike 10 miles in the mountains. I’d say that is just as much of a human need as housing,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Solving the Housing Crisis"}]

Martin said building another apartment complex wouldn’t meet Laramie’s most pressing housing needs.

“Laramie needs housing, but even according to the city’s housing plans, we don’t need a big apartment complex. We need affordable single-family homes,” he said.

Feezer said Laramie needs housing of all sorts, including affordable apartments.

Studies going back to 2015 indicate a need for housing “across the board — for rentals, for single-family housing and for

Regarding flooding worries, the complex would be built far enough back from the river to reduce the risk, he said.

“Currently, our city code allows for building on a floodplain, depending upon conditions,” he said. “There are ways to make sure that safe development occurs relative to this sort of construction.” 

He added that the wildlife corridor is also close to the river channel, so it shouldn’t be disrupted by the apartment complex.

“From the city’s standpoint, that isn’t a major concern at this time,” he said.

Laramie River Greenbelt 3 7 29

<title>Neighbors Rally Against Planned 95-Unit Apartment Complex Near Laramie Greenbelt | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Opponents of a proposed 80-to-95-unit apartment complex along the Laramie Greenbelt say it will push floodwaters toward a historic neighborhood and ruin wildlife habitat. The city says "that isn't a major concern" and housing needs are urgent.

Neighbors Rally Against Planned 95-Unit Apartment Complex Near Laramie Greenbelt

Business & Tourism

Another of Wyoming’s legacy ranches is hitting the market after nearly a century of stewardship. The T Diamond Ranch comes with a front-row seat to the Black Hills, as well as history to match.

It’s tucked into Crook County just a few miles from the South Dakota border on a 433-acre spread where trout streams, 

red bluffs and Wyoming tax laws all come together for a $5 million asking price.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Deep Historic Roots"}]

Aerial photos of the property show Lower Redwater Creek meandering through, with pine-studded hills and red-rock cliffs in the background. The ranch is part of an operation that was founded by the Matthews family, who trailed into Wyoming from Texas, first settling near Gillette in 1888 then expanding outward to Sundance and Spearfish. 

In Spearfish, the family is known for the Matthews Block, which includes the Matthews Opera House, a vibrant community arts center.

T Diamond Ranch is one-fourth of a larger ranch the Matthews family owned. It includes the 1930s farmstead and dairy, along with other working ranch structures. These are not relics. They are part of what is already a working cattle ranch rated for about 50 head. 

With an existing lease in place, there’s an immediate income stream.

But it’s not just the original farmhouse and ranch structures that come with this property. There’s a 7,500-square-foot mansion as well, built In 2001.

“They spared no expense when they built it,” Hayden Outdoors listing agent Kerry Englemann told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s just a beautiful, beautiful place.” 

The home was built with entertaining in mind, so has expansive gathering spaces in addition to three bedrooms and seven full bathrooms. Large windows frame a sweeping view of the scenery, including creek bottoms below. 

The interior is finished with warm wood, high-quality appliances, and multiple fireplaces. The price competitive compared to other areas with the kind of outdoor recreation the Black Hills offer.

“This would probably be $20 million in Jackson Hole,” Englemann said. “We sold a ranch down the road there last year for $2.5 million, and it had no improvements to the property, so no residence and no working ranch headquarters.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Where The Trout Live"}]

With few neighbors nearby, and easements that protect the character of all four of the original ranches that were part of this cluster, the new owner will feel as though they’ve found a private sanctuary, he said. 

“It’s rough country, it’s Wyoming country,” Englemann said. “But when you get down to the running water, it’s just beautiful. You have those rugged red bluffs and the contrast with the green riparian area, with all the things you want to see as a country boy.”

Water is a highlight on this turnkey ranch, with substantial, long-standing water rights that support about 125 acres of riparian and irrigated hay bottom along Lower Redwater Creek. That supports one to two cuttings of grass and grass legume hay every season, he said. 

Two registered wells serve the headquarters, providing water to both residences, as well as for domestic stock use. There’s a permanent stock water pipeline easement delivering year-round stock water to the southern grazing units. 

“The highlight is the running water,” Englemann said. “The Redwater Creek — in South Dakota they call it Redwater River — is just beautiful. Those riparian areas are just lush, and there’s trout swimming.”

It’s the kind of fishing many people travel hundreds of miles to find, Englemann said. Lower Redwater Creek runs the length of the property, offering cold, clear trout water starting about 100 yards from the mansion’s backdoor. 

Hay bottoms and timbered draws create wildlife habitat too, attracting whitetail deer, mule deer, turkeys, and elk, who roam freely from the nearby Black Hills National Forest and creek corridor, as well as plenty of upland birds that work the field edges and frequent the creek, Englemann said.

The ranch is also situated to access the Black Hills in both Wyoming and South Dakota, but it comes with a much lower tax bill than its neighboring state. 

“I don’t know what the exact percentages are, but when I look at properties that are similar to my property in South Dakota, my tax bill for that property is somewhere around $7,000 to $8,000 a year,” he said. “And if you go across the border to Wyoming those taxes might be around $1,200 a year. So it’s a huge discrepancy in terms of property taxes.”

The range of outdoor recreation opportunities includes horseback riding, hiking, mountain biking and backcountry skiing. The historic mining town of Deadwood, Devils Tower, Spearfish Canyon, Black Hills National Forest — all are within a half-hour or so drive. 

Rapid City, a regional hub with medical specialists, an airport with flights to Denver and Dallas as well as seasonal routes to Chicago, Las Vegas and Orlando, is 63 miles away. 

Noncommercial recreation on the ranch is protected in perpetuity by a conservation partnership, ensuring the property’s open-space character and ranching heritage remain intact.

T Diamond Ranch 35 Aerial primary residence and grounds from above adjusted 1784821086 scaled 8 1 26

<title>T Diamond Ranch, Legacy Black Hills Spread, Hits Wyoming Market For $5 Million | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Another of Wyoming’s legacy ranches is hitting the market after nearly a century of stewardship. The T Diamond Ranch in Crook County comes with a 7,500-square-foot mansion, trout streams, scenic red bluffs, and a front-row seat to the Black Hills.

T Diamond Ranch, Legacy Black Hills Spread, Hits Wyoming Market For $5 Million

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

For nearly 60 years, Vern Palmer has been obsessed with Wyoming license plates.

The 90-year-old Big Piney man has spent decades roaming old ranches, forgotten dumping grounds and dusty corners of Sublette County looking for pieces of Wyoming history most people would walk right past.

[{"type":"text","text":"It all started with his oldest son, Jim."}]

Together, the two spent weekends crisscrossing ranches, hunting for rusted treasures hidden beneath the sagebrush. Along the way they uncovered old bottles, antique tools, barbed wire, weathered signs and hundreds of Wyoming license plates.

Today, Palmer's collection includes every Wyoming license plate from 1914 to the present, along with every Sublette County plate issued since county numbers were added in the early 1930s. He's also just four states shy of collecting one plate from all 50.

[{"type":"text","text":"But after six decades of searching, there's one he hasn't yet found."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The elusive 1913 Wyoming license plate."}]

"I do think that it's around Big Piney somewhere," Palmer said. "I found the 1914 plate pretty close to my home, but I have not found the 1913."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Family Tradition"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Jim likes to remind people that, technically, he started the collection."}]

As a boy in the late ‘60s, he began picking up old license plates in remote places of the Upper Green River Valley. Before long, his dad was just as hooked.

Summer weekends often meant disappearing into the middle of nowhere with no guarantee they'd find a thing. Palmer rarely bought license plates. Nearly every one in his collection came off the ground.

"He just liked going through old dump grounds looking for old treasures," Jim said. "Old glass ... old artifacts ... tools that you wouldn't find anymore. He just had a passion to find those things."

[{"type":"text","text":"That passion eventually spread to a third generation."}]

His grandson, Joel Florquist, remembers countless summer days wandering through the country with his grandfather.

"A lot of times we didn't find any," Florquist said. "But a lot of times we did."

For nearly 60 years, Vern Palmer has searched Wyoming ranches and forgotten dumps for old Wyoming license plates. At 90, the Big Piney mechanic has a Wyoming license plate from every year, except one. Palmer says he's not giving up his search.

Daily Smile: Saturday, March 30, 2024

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