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<title>Daily Smile: Tuesday, April 16, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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Daily Smile: Tuesday, April 16, 2024

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Julie Mankin

Wyoming Life

Entertainment

 annual “Daddy of ’em All” Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo that began Friday looks far different to some usual contestants.

Even the cowboy who could “still make Cheyenne” in George Strait’s 1996 country hit might not be aiming his truck “toward that Wyoming line” today.

That’s because entries at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo will be down by about 70%.

Morning slack competition, which drew hundreds of athletes in each timed event and made Cheyenne the world’s largest pro rodeo, has been eliminated.

Slack is for overflow competitors for events that draw dozens more entries than spots in the main performances. Slack usually happens early mornings or late nights, typically for timed events.

This week, just 72 of the sport’s winningest contestants (and champions of nine rodeos as far away as Oregon and Arizona) were invited to enter each event.

Before this year’s rodeo, it wasn’t unusual to see 200 or more contestants in timed slack event rounds.

The change was announced last winter as a way to help ease horse-trailer-parking congestion and create a more manageable schedule for the event’s thousands of volunteers.

Also announced was the Frontier Days Committee’s purse increase, bringing total prize money at the 10-day rodeo to $960,000.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Breaking Point"}]

Still, area barrel racer Kate Spaur Devore recently went viral with a simple social media post: “Goodbye to the Daddy.”

“Cheyenne closed the door on many of the very contestants who helped build its reputation as the ‘Daddy of ’em All,’” Devore said.

CFD is typically the third-richest rodeo in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s regular season, behind Houston and San Antonio.

Because rodeo is a pay-to-play sport, accessibility to Cheyenne’s fat paychecks was known to provide the confidence and capital to launch a newcomer’s career, if not save a veteran’s entire season.

Cheyenne Frontier Days CEO Tom Hirsig said he understands eliminating slack competition is a huge change for the 130-year-old rodeo, but the world’s largest outdoor rodeo had simply outgrown its ability to handle the hundreds of slack riders.

“People are upset they’re not able to come,” he said. “But we simply have no room for those big rigs anymore.”

He also mentioned that rodeos have to absorb stock charges without help from contestants. The cost of fresh cattle today is sky-high and can’t be recaptured.

It’s a price that’s multiplied for every additional bovine chased down Cheyenne’s long arena.

Devore referenced the same sandy arena’s starring role in Garth Brooks’ 1995 hit song “The Beaches of Cheyenne” when she wrote, “So many dreamed of dancing on that stage. We came in droves, paid our entry fees, and took our chances.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Every year seemed to produce another Cinderella story.”"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"From Slack To Hall Of Fame"}]

Ote Berry, for instance, was 22 in July 1985 and about to go to work in a hay field when he won the bulldogging event in Cheyenne, which propelled the South Dakota native into his first National Finals Rodeo and a Hall-of-Fame career as one of the greatest of all time.

Eliminating the slack competitions at CFD is a fundamental change for the historic rodeo, many competitors say.

“Honestly, there is no more Daddy of ’em All,” said veteran barrel racer Kelly Yates, whose late father was a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) director for eight years.

Yates turned pro at age 13 and has made as many competitive runs in Cheyenne as any contestant.

Along with her brother and father, both Hall-of-Fame ropers, she’s competed at the NFR.

But lately, she only competes at the finals of the PRCA’s Mountain States Circuit, which includes Cheyenne Frontier Days.

This year, Yates earned a coveted berth into Frontier Days via her 2025 circuit earnings. But she said it “won’t do her any good.”

Now that Cheyenne’s entries are so limited, its paychecks aren’t counted toward circuit standings, but only world standings.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sudden Death"}]

The limit on entries comes seven years after another major shift was made to CFD’s competition format that had some athletes changing the famed rodeo’s nickname to “The Stepdaddy.”

Traditionally, each of 12 rodeo athletes advanced to Cheyenne’s lucrative finals based on his or her two combined scores or times.

In 2019, the rodeo switched to sudden-death tournament brackets as a way to make changing weather conditions fairer for contestants and make results easier for spectators to follow.

[{"type":"text","text":"Its popularity has been questionable."}]

Contestants now make Cheyenne’s finals based on money earned, with the losers able to take a mulligan and advance via the Wild Card Round. That means cowboys can make Cheyenne’s esteemed short round despite an earlier no-score or no-time.

Yates said she and her family members noticed fewer spectators in the grandstands when they competed last year. This year, there will be a lot fewer contestants.

Finally, the new format makes it impossible for athletes to trade at Cheyenne when they have scheduling conflicts at the simultaneous California Rodeo Salinas.

Thus, some pros are skipping Cheyenne for Salinas, which still accepts hundreds of competitors and offers a traditional competition format at Big Week.

“There’s no Daddy,” Yates said. “There’s just a Cheyenne rodeo, limited.”

Julie Mankin can be reached at: jm@outwestmedia.net

Cheyenne Frontier Cowboy Lifestyle Network 7 18 26

<title>Some Riders Say Cheyenne Frontier Days Isn't The Same After Eliminating Slack | Cowboy State Daily</title>

For the first time in more than a century, Cheyenne Frontier Days won’t have slack competition, which is for overflow competitors. Although some are saddened by the move, the rodeo says it has outgrown its ability to handle the hundreds of extra riders.

Some Riders Say Cheyenne Frontier Days Isn't The Same After Eliminating Slack

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Around Wyoming

Douglas photographer Mark Panasuk enjoys transforming a dark scene into something beautiful.

He’s always on the lookout for another interesting setting, and when he found an abandoned stone ranch house north of Lost Springs, Wyoming, he knew he had something special.

Unlike the famous line from poet Dylan Thomas, he portrayed the property as going “gentle into that good night.”

Digging into its history, Panasuk became even more enamored with capturing the stone walls and grounds with the Milky Way above it because it once was home to one of the most successful Back ranchers in the West — Jim Edwards.

“It was kind of a unique house in that it was big house, two story, out in the prairie here in eastern Wyoming,” Panasuk said. “It had several buildings … and he was really inventive because he put in that water tower.”

The tower was built with an opening that appeared to allow a space for a fire that would keep the water from freezing in the winter. 

The house had a bathroom with toilet, shower, and the property also featured a stone garage.

There is evidence of several other outbuildings that once were around it. Several accounts of the property state that Edwards was the first in the area to have indoor bathroom facilities.

Panasuk got permission from the current landowner to photograph the house and grounds, and the result shows the Milky Way like an arch above it framing the property.

He said he put a light inside the house, which has lost its windows, because he thought it made a better piece of art. 

Creating the final image required a combination of 35 photos and three-minute exposures to fully reveal the Milky Way.

He used a computer program to stitch the digital images together to make it one.

Panasuk said he spoke with some of the ranchers around the property and learned that a father or grandfather knew Edwards, who made a name for himself well beyond Wyoming.

Turns out that Edwards is a featured name at the Homestead National Historic Park in Beatrice, Nebraska, and Ebony Magazine once profiled him in its March 1949 issue that had Billy Eckstein on the cover. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Magazine Profile"}]

The profile was titled “The Last Days of Jim Edwards” and characterized him as a “legend” in Wyoming and a name that would remembered well beyond his death.

A history of Edwards written for the Black Past website says he was “one of the most successful African American homesteaders in the state of Wyoming.”

And “Pages From Converse County’s Past” compiled in the 1980s revealed that he was commonly known as “(N-word) Jim.”

But that word did not stop Edwards from becoming a successful rancher and business man. His coming and goings had fairly frequent mentions in the social columns of the local rural newspapers.

The Black Past account of Edwards' life says that he was born on Feb. 14, 1874, and arrived in Wyoming in 1900 with his father and a group of Italian miners responding to newspaper ads about work in a Lusk coal mine.

The miners drove Edwards out, and he walked to Lusk and found work on the Wilson Brother’s Running Water Ranch. 

Over the next 14 years, he rose to the rank of foreman and was a good sheepman, cowboy and horse trainer.

In his final years at the ranch, a dispute with the Wilson brothers led to a lawsuit that Edwards won in 1923, giving him $3,000 in back wages plus interest. The Wyoming Supreme Court increased it to $4,000.

The Lusk Free Lance on Nov. 1, 1923, reported that the dispute had been over an accounting of his share of sheep as well as his wages.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"1913 Homestead"}]

Meanwhile in 1913, the Wilsons helped him homestead acreage on Harney Creek. 

Edwards recruited other blacks to homestead on land around him, and he eventually bought their properties.

"Converse County's Past" states that Edwards married Lethel Dawson in 1914 in Denver, and that her parents cooked on a river boat on the Mississippi River

When her father contracted tuberculosis, they moved to Denver for his health.

A story looking back on Lost Springs in the Casper Star-Tribune on April 6, 1974, reports that Lethel’s father was a full-blooded Indian and her mother black. 

After her marriage to Edwards, she traveled to Denver from time to time to sing on radio stations.

The Lusk Standard newspaper on Sept. 12, 1919, reported that “Mrs. Jim Edwards” had just become the “happy” owner of a new piano.

“Now, we’ll have some jazz,” the editor wrote.

In the Ebony Magazine story a few years after his wife’s death, Edwards was still in charge of his 14,000-acre Sixteen-Bar-One Ranch. 

He had named it the Sixteen-Bar-One because it represented the ratio of white ranchers to black ones.

Edwards told the reporter that when he first arrived in Wyoming and then later set up his homestead, gunplay with neighboring ranchers and would-be outlaws was not uncommon. He was tested.

“No man will ever run Jim Edwards off of his land,” Edwards told the magazine. “Let ’em know right away that you’re going to fight for what you own. Just because a man’s colored is no reason for people to think he’s a coward.”

That philosophy likely was part of the reason for a story in the Niobrara County News on Dec. 3, 1914, when Edwards still served as herder for the Wilson Brothers and had a “mix-up” with a herder from another ranch over their bands of sheep.

Edwards had the man arrested, but later “dismissed the case and paid all the costs.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sheep ‘Straying’"}]

Another mention of Edwards in the Lusk Herald a year earlier had him complaining that he had a lot of trouble with sheep “straying away.”

The Ebony account said that at one time, Edwards had 20,000 acres of land with oil rights, and during his normal operations had more than 1,000 head of cattle, 9,000 sheep, 200 horses, 5,000 chickens and 500 hogs.

He told the reporter that what he considered most important in his success was a “clean mind and a few years ago a pistol.”

“I didn’t have to use my pistol much, but then you don’t have to when you make your decision to stand at the outset,” he added.

Edwards built the stone house himself, helped pay for the construction of the Congregational Church in Lusk — where his wife sang in the choir — and told the reporter that Lethel had been “the guiding influence in my life.”

And it turned out that ranching was not his only interest and business success. 

A feature story in the Casper Tribune-Herald on July 16, 1945, profiled a restaurant co-owned by Mary Simms, a black woman, and Edwards that specialized in Southern fried chicken.

“In spite of rationing which has made it difficult to obtain the steaks to fill demand, the restaurant has kept abreast of the demands for the excellent fried chicken which has been its specialty,” the newspaper reported. “With the generous helping of chicken, French fries, a vegetable, dessert and the special golden brown succulent biscuits are served.”

Edwards’ love Lethel died of leukemia in 1945, according to the Converse County history, and he sold his ranch that contained 18 sections to four buyers in 1950.

The Scottsbluff Star-Herald on Jan. 7, 1951, recounted Edwards’ death at age 76.

“A Scottsbluff man died from suffocation Saturday night after water boiled away in a pot in which chicken was being cooked filling a basement room with smoke,” the newspaper reported. “The dead man was James E. Edwards, age unknown, who rented a room at 801 East Eighth Street.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"He is buried in Scottsbluff."}]

Panasuk said he was happy to get a photo of the once prosperous ranch while it still stands.

“The sad part about it is that probably about in 10 years it’s all going to be gone,” he said.

Edwards Ranch 7 18 26

<title>Douglas Photographer Captures Historic Black Rancher’s Homestead Under Milky Way | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Douglas photographer found an old ranch building that caught his eye for a night shot. He found out it was once owned by one of most prosperous black ranchers in the West. “No man will ever run Jim Edwards off of his land,” the rancher once told a reporter.

Douglas Photographer Captures Historic Black Rancher’s Homestead Under Milky Way

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You still 7 18 26

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Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Second-quarter campaign finance reports for Wyoming’s GOP primary House race are in, and four candidates have loaned themselves more than $1 million each.

Steve Friess has amassed the largest war chest with $2.5 million, which includes a $2 million self-loan. Reid Rasner is second, loaning himself $1.7 million out of $2 million, while two others, Secretary of State Chuck Gray and Teton-County-based attorney Frank Chapman, also hit above the $1 million mark with self-funding. 

Those four will face off against six other Republican contenders for the GOP nomination in Wyoming's Aug. 18 primary election in the hopes of winning the state's lone U.S. House race soon being vacated by Rep. Harriet Hageman. 

Friess has “invested $2 million of his own money in the effort,” as his Wednesday statement describes the self-loan. 

That puts Friess’s principal campaign committee Friess For Wyoming at nearly $2.2 million after another $92,361 in other contributions and $81,136 in transfers from other authorized committees.  

While U.S. Federal Election Commission reports for the second quarter surfaced this week, Friess’s financial lead is more notable because he declared his run later than most candidates in April.

Recognizable names appear in Friess’s donations receipts, such as National Museum of Military Vehicles founder Dan Starks and major 

The joint fundraising committee Friess Wyoming Victory Fund also raises money for the Friess campaign and has logged $363,626 in receipts, all from individuals.

Those include conservative media giant Tucker Carlson, Turning Point USA board member Doug DeGroote, and Friess’s mother Lynne.

Friess’s principal committee has $606,907 cash on hand — the most of any candidate.

[{"type":"text","text":"He’s spent about $1.49 million so far."}]

Friess's spokesman Tim Edson noted that within the past three months, Friess has outraised all opponents combined. 

"Republicans are rallying around Steve because they want a political outsider and businessman who can't be bought," wrote Edson in a Friday text message. "With a month to go, Steve has the money and the momentum — he's now tied for the lead and poised to overtake Chuck Gray and win this race." 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Next Up, Reid"}]

For total receipts, Rasner is second at nearly $2.044 million for his primary committee, Reid Rasner for Wyoming.   

That includes a nearly $1.71 million self-loan and $328,762 in other contributions.

Rasner’s committee’s ending cash on hand is $81,017.78, and he’s spent nearly $2 million.

His campaign did not return a Thursday text message request for comment by publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Chuck Gray"}]

Gray’s committee Citizens for Chuck Gray has logged $1,378,842 in receipts, including $230,936 in contributions and a $1.147 million self-loan.

[{"type":"text","text":"He’s spent about $852,365 so far."}]

Gray’s individual receipts show giving by Drake Hill, who is a Cheyenne-based attorney and husband to former Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill; Gray’s father Jan Charles Gray; and Gore-Tex heiress Susan Gore, among others.

Gray told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday text message that his campaign is “in the lead, is gaining momentum and remains in a strong financial position.”

“Thank you to the people of Wyoming for your support,” wrote Gray, who said he has a proven track record of advancing Wyoming values “and will continue that work as a member of Congress.”

He added a critique that surfaces in many of his public statements against the media and an undefined group of “insiders.”

“That track record is why our campaign is in the lead, and it’s why the leftwing media and the insiders continue to attack me,” wrote Gray.

The PAC Protecting Wyoming Values dispatches mailers regularly in Gray’s favor. Its receipts total $657,009, all contributions from Gray’s father.

Gray’s committee’s cash on hand nearly rivals Friess’, at $526,476.60.

To Matt Micheli, a longtime politico and former chair of the Wyoming Republican Party, Gray’s name recognition and Friess’s momentum are honing the race.

Micheli donated money to another contender, Senate President Bo Biteman, but has since endorsed Friess.

“Listen, money matters in elections, and you need to have enough money to get your message out to voters,” Micheli said Thursday. “We’re at the point now people are starting to pay attention.”

Micheli added, “Right now, I see it as a two-person race. I think it really comes down to Steve Friess or Chuck Gray. They’re the two candidates right now that have a chance of winning this race.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Chapman"}]

Chapman told Cowboy State Daily he believes his campaign is doing “very well finance-wise in the race.”

“You’ve got four main, you know, candidates that have gone out and raised money or contributed money to make themselves viable in responsible campaigns,” said Chapman, listing himself among Friess, Gray and Rasner.

His main campaign committee Chapman for Congress lists just over $1.09 million in receipts with $31,622.89 in contributions and a $1.06 million self-loan.

Chapman’s cash on hand notation tallies $495,161.33 — the third most after Friess and Gray. He’s spent at least $596,462.50 from his principal committee, says the FEC.

Chapman noted that independent political action committees (PACs) may also play a huge role in the race.

 has dropped $2.5 million into the super-PAC Fighting For Wyoming, which has 

 “a conservative rancher ready to fight with President Trump for the people of Wyoming.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Chapman said strategy is also important."}]

“When you’re running a campaign, a responsible candidate will buy the last three weeks (of TV ads) three months out,” said Chapman, adding that his campaign did that for prominent Wyoming TV channels. He also spoke of going to forums and gaining momentum in the field.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"David Giralt"}]

The other six candidates in this 10-way primary election are Biteman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, military veterans David Giralt and Kevin Christensen, former lawmaker Keith Goodenough and Richard Dodson.

Giralt has raised at least $184,529.88, including one $64,691.48 self-loan, and spent $31,449, the FEC says.

[{"type":"text","text":"He narrowly outpaced Balow for that fifth-place earner slot."}]

He said he’s honored to have donations and support from members of Congress, but more humbled when he’s out door-knocking and a Wyomingite “decides to wrap a contribution check for $50 in an envelope and send us on our way with it.”

“As someone who’s new to politics I’m very proud of the work, the momentum we’ve been able to build,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Giralt said he was out knocking doors during his Friday phone interview."}]

“As someone starting on this journey as a bit of an outsider I’m just very humbled to out-fundraise people who’ve been in the political realm for years or even decades, for some,” he said, adding that people’s giving is more touching since he started out his campaign as “a long shot.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Jillian Balow"}]

Balow’s primary campaign committee Jillian Balow for Wyoming has raised $166.451.09 as of the July FEC filing deadline. That includes $41,449 in individual contributions and $125,000 of her own money.

The FEC shows her at $124,051 cash on hand and $42,399.75 in expenses as of the July report cutoff.

“I’m incredibly proud of the groundswell of support that is providing my campaign with the critical resources I need to connect with undecided voters,” said Balow in a Thursday text message. “I’m the only candidate in the House race with Wyoming roots, a conservative record as a leader, and the tenacity to fight hard and win for Wyoming.”

Balow added, “Slick television ads and endless family wealth will not win this race. Shoe leather and grit will.”

Both Balow and Biteman have garnered donations from multiple former state lawmakers.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bo Biteman"}]

Biteman promised this year that he would not declare for higher office at least until the legislative session was over, saying he wanted to focus on leading the Senate rather than campaigning. 

As a result, he declared his run later than Rasner and Gray, but still a few days earlier than Friess.

He’s raised $94,342.45 as of his second-quarter FEC report, nearly all donations from individuals.

The FEC lists his cash on hand at $20,407.69 and his expenditures at nearly $74,000.

“We also have a number of outstanding donor commitments that were made after the close of the reporting period or have not yet been received, so this report doesn’t reflect all the support behind our campaign,” said Biteman in a Thursday text message.

He said his campaign has been disciplined with its spending out of respect for the donors who “expect us to be good stewards of every dollar.”

“I’d rather be known for running an efficient campaign than an expensive one,” Biteman said. “Every dollar we save today is another dollar we can invest in reaching voters when it matters most. 

"Campaigns aren’t built to accumulate cash — they’re built to communicate with voters and earn support, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Biteman said many donors are watching to see how the crowded primary contest develops before making larger commitments, but said his campaign is budling support across Wyoming, adding volunteers and meeting with voters every day.

“I feel very good about where this campaign is headed because we have the experience, the record, and the grassroots support to win,” he said.

At a Wednesday morning coffee gathering in Riverton, Biteman had quipped at the incongruity of some candidates spending more than $2 million to win a nearly $180,000 a year job.

“That was simply to say that public service should be about serving the people, not building a career in politics,” said Biteman.

He said he prefers to deliver his message in person, “not through a $125,000 mailer or a late night Roku ad buy, as most Wyomingites don’t want to believe that this election can be outright bought or that the voters can be enticed by shiny objects over proven, consistent and effective leadership.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Kevin Christensen"}]

The Christensen campaign has raised $13,258.21. That’s $10,258.21 in contributions and $3,000 of Christensen’s money.

Second-quarter campaign finance reports for Wyoming’s GOP primary House race are in. Steve Friess has amassed the most with $2.5 million, which includes a $2 million self-loan. Reid Rasner is second, loaning himself $1.7 million out of $2 million.

Daily Smile: Tuesday, April 16, 2024

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