You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"We're going to vote \"no\" on this invention...."}]

You still here 5 15 24

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

<title>You Still Here? Wednesday, May 15, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

We're going to vote "no" on this invention....

You Still Here? Wednesday, May 15, 2024

 We're going to vote "no" on this invention....

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

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

CHEYENNE — The developer behind a massive 5,600-worker man camp that was going to locate just south of Cheyenne in the High Plains Business Park has pulled back on the project, at least for now.

The company had been under contract to buy land near Orchard Valley for the Iron Guard Workforce Housing campus but has withdrawn its application and is no longer under contract for that site. 

“Due to several variables outside of our control, we are unable to finalize the conditional use permit at this time in this location,” said an emailed statement from project representative Casey Palma to Cowboy State Daily. 

Palma said the application, which had been on the Laramie County Commission’s June 16 agenda, has been removed. Residents will be notified if that changes. 

“Our hope is that putting the application on hold will save everyone time and effort, versus multiple consecutive postponements,” Palma said. “(That) will allow Iron Guard to provide a housing campus that best meets the needs of the community.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The project isn’t dead, Palma added."}]

Several other potential sites have also been under consideration, Palma indicated, “with regard to access, serviceability, and appropriate interface to surrounding neighborhoods.”

A campus to house data center workers is “desperately needed in Laramie County,” Palma added. “We look forward to bringing this campus to support Cheyenne’s economic development.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Neighborhood Outcry"}]

The postponement comes amid weeks of heated debate over the proposed man camp which, by size alone, data from the Wyoming Economic Analysis Division indicates would be 

 of the state's incorporated cities or towns.

The man camp’s future neighbors have questioned the location, fearing it would lead to increased crime and lower property values. 

“Man camps in similar locations have led to an increase in property crime, DUI’s, drug crimes and violent crimes,” Harmony Meadows resident Heather Madrid wrote in a letter to Laramie County planners. “There are many schools in this area.”

She also questioned having such a large surge in population in an area that she characterized as already “underserved and under-resourced.”

Madrid told Cowboy State Daily the project’s postponement is “great news for the surrounding communities.”

“It will probably be built somewhere else,” she said. “Hopefully, it’s not near neighborhoods that have already born the brunt of all this and are historically underserved, under-resourced, and under-represented. It shouldn’t be near any neighborhoods.”

Madrid added she understands not building a man camp would have further impact to the housing markets, but added the need for one is “reflective of rapid, unsustainable growth.”

“To be clear, I am not against the workers,” she said. “They are not to blame, whether they’re local or not. The blame lies with the public officials who have failed to plan properly and refuse to adjust unless it’s an adjustment that benefits developers and operators. They apparently can’t read the room, or don’t care to.”

Others fear such a large man camp in that location would overwhelm services in the area. South-side resident Elizabeth Marvin told Laramie County planners there’s just one grocery store on that side of town. 

“We don’t have the infrastructure to support that many more people,” she said. “We don’t have the resources.”

Maureen Clifton, meanwhile, told Laramie County planners that utilities in that area are already overwhelmed. 

Her basement has flooded with sewage twice since she moved in a few months ago, a problem she doesn’t see getting better if a 5,600-worker man camp gets built in the area.

“An 800-unit man camp is not good for any part of town,” Clifton wrote in a letter to Laramie County planners. “It’s not a coincidence that this is not proposed on the north side of town, where numerous more services exist.”

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

The Iron Guard Workforce Housing Campus has been pitched as necessary to help Laramie County and Cheyenne capture the economic benefits of major data center investments, while shielding local neighborhoods and housing markets from negative side effects.

“We need housing yesterday,” Laramie County Planning and Development Director Justin Arnold said. “I’m worried about the cashier at Safeway on South Greeley Highway when his lease comes up for rent — and then he gets priced out by someone making $100,000.”

Consolidating the thousands of out-of-town electricians, pipe fitters, equipment operators and other skilled trades that will be needed for data center projects, along with F.E. Warren Air Force Base's nuclear missile upgrade, is one way to help alleviate the pressure on existing housing stock and keep costs of living more stable for long-time residents, Iron Guard and Cheyenne officials have said.

Local real estate market data show there are fewer than 300 homes listed for sale in all of Laramie County in early June — 289 homes for a population of about 100,000. That’s well below the more usual 450 to 550 listings Cheyenne has when it’s a more balanced market. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Taking A Breath"}]

The campus would have been just outside Cheyenne city limits on the south side in an area already surrounded by industrial and data-center development. 

The area is identified in long-range transportation plans for future collector and arterial roads.

Withdrawal from the Orchard Valley site prompted a mixed reaction in social media groups like Cheyenne Community Connections on Facebook.

Some were pleased the man camp had been stopped in the proposed location, expressing hope it won't get built at all, while others pointed out that no man camp means hotels and short-term rentals will fill up just as tourism season arrives. 

Wyoming Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Dale Steenbergen told Cowboy State Daily he thinks it’s good that the developer and officials are “taking a breath” to consider “how we can do this better and people feel comfortable with it,” including how workforce housing interacts with local lodging markets and neighborhoods. 

“We’ve got a lot of these projects going,” he said. “They’re all going to require workers. So I think everybody’s just trying to figure out how to get them to fit in our communities the best.”

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<title>Developer Puts Massive 5,600-Worker Cheyenne Man Camp On Hold, Looks For New Site | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A proposed 5,600-worker man camp south of Cheyenne that would have been larger than 84 Wyoming cities and towns has been put on hold after weeks of community backlash. The developer says it's still “desperately needed” and is looking for a new site.

Developer Puts Massive 5,600-Worker Cheyenne Man Camp On Hold, Looks For New Site

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, June 12th.  I’m Mac Watson

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A Denver man was found dead near a capsized kayak on Yellowstone Lake, park officials announced Thursday. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that a former park ranger, who patrolled the lake, says certain factors make the lake dangerous year round.

“Former Yellowstone park ranger Tara Ross said that what makes this lake extremely dangerous is very cold temperatures and wild winds. Ross said the water hovers between 40 and 50 degrees, even in the summertime, so if someone does go in the water, and they're unable to self-rescue, as in get back into the kayak and out of the water. They may only have 10 minutes, generously up to 20 minutes, before rescuers will be recovering a body. Park officials say that the man recovered was from Denver, and he was 41 years old.”

According to Yellowstone National Park officials, occupants of another vessel on the lake discovered the body of Brandon Rhea on Monday floating near Rock Point on the lake's northwest shore near Bridge Bay. 

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Wyoming’s state-level property tax board told counties on Thursday that a 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property taxes is unconstitutional. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports it will also refuse to certify this year's property tax assessment figures if the cap remains.

“So, they're saying, ‘Whoa, we've got homes in sluggish market areas that are being taxed way less of a rate than homes that look exactly the same that are in faster growing areas.’ And so, according to the board, this violates the women constitutions call for equal and uniform taxation, and so they're saying, ‘Hey, if you county assessors keep allowing this 4% cap, we're gonna not certify the tax values this year,’ which would mean you couldn't collect on property taxes. Dixie Huxtable, who's the Converse County Assessor, and speaks out for the Assessors Association often said, ‘I don't think anyone's getting a tax holiday. We're gonna figure out what our legal options here are and decide what to do.’”

The board’s two-person majority — Chair Jayne Mockler and Vice-Chair Marty Hardscog — wrote in the Thursday report that the 4% increase cap for residential property taxes has arbitrary impacts across the state. 

The Clinton-era Roadless Rule on U.S. Forest Service lands will be erased if Wyoming Republicans U.S. Sen. John Barrasso and Rep. Harriet Hageman get their way. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports Rep. Harriet Hageman says, “I have been fighting the Roadless Rule since the day it was handed down.”

“The Trump administration has already been pushing for this. Now Congress has stepped in. Senator Mike Lee of Utah added an amendment to a wildfire prevention bill that Senator Barrasso was already sponsoring, and that that amendment would just nullify the roadless rule, like Trump is trying to rescind it now. Congress is essentially trying to nullify it, and Congresswoman Hagman has a mirror bill to nullify it coming out of the House, so, so basically the roadless rule is facing a double threat from both the the the administration and the legislative branch, which, if you're if you're against it and you want to see it gone, that's good news. If you want to see it preserved, that's bad news.”

The Roadless Rule has forbidden new road construction on national forests across Wyoming’s high country. It also similarly prevented new road construction on 45 million acres of national forest lands across the West, and up to 60 million acres nationwide.

A letter to Republican candidates for Park County partisan offices, has a warning for candidates. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the letter states that if a potential candidate won’t commit to back at least 80% of the state GOP platform, they won’t receive an endorsement or support from the party.

“People have been saying that the party is developing a purity test. The proponents of this questionnaire, which basically asks if you agree with each party platform playing, the proponents are saying this is not a purity test, you know, organizations have standards, and the opponents are saying it absolutely is a purity test, and it's just the organization trying to perpetuate its ideals onto the next leaders of it. But, like, Sandy Newsom said, they can't take me off the ballot, she's running for precinct committee woman there in the Park County Republican Party, just like they can't take us off the ballot, so the people in my precinct are going to be the judge of how Republican I am.”

The state GOP passed a set of new bylaws in April which requires county and state committee iterations of the party to vet candidates for office on their commitment to the platform and “demonstrated loyalty to the Party’s principles.”

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I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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The first job for Union Pacific’s new Trump-themed locomotive No. 4547 took it through Wyoming carrying the Artemis III rocket. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that nobody except railroad watchers noticed. 

“Stan Blake, who is a retired railroad guy, tells me what they're doing there is they're buffering the rail, the rocket pieces by separating them with a car that will have been loaded with inert material. So, those weren't empty, they were loaded with something, and then they are there to kind of buffer in between each of those rocket cars, and the rings around the first car, those are the size of the rocket cars, the tanks, you know, the pieces of the rocket, so that you know it's clear that I guess to make sure that the clearances are all in order. Wyoming is a particularly good state for crossing because there's plenty of Wyoming with the wide open spaces.”

In late 2027, four members of the crew for Artemis III will launch aboard an Orion spacecraft. It's a demonstration flight in a low Earth orbit that will test rendezvous and docking operations between Orion and test versions of the Human Landing System being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX.

Public backlash against a reported kill order may have saved a bison that killed a woman in Custer State Park last month. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that advocates for the Bison say he was acting within his wild nature on his home turf when he killed the 70-year-old Canadian tourist.

“The Bison who killed a 70 year old woman last month got a stay of execution this week after public backlash. People were acting on rumors that the state had planned to put this bison down or euthanize it because of the of the bison's actions with this woman and a lot of people were saying, you know, this this animal, he's it's wild and it acted, you know, appropriately given that it was really roaming on its own turf.  But the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Game Fish and Parks confirmed that they are taking custody of this bison and that the bison will live out the rest of his days on the Rosebud Reservation, which is outside of Custer State Park.”

The South Dakota Governor’s Office did not confirm whether a kill order had been placed on the bison, nor did the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department.

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Crusoe, a founding partner in the huge 2.7-gigawatt Project Jade data center near Cheyenne, quietly pulled out months ago. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that hasn’t slowed the project, which is going “full steam ahead,” according to  remaining partner Tallgrass Energy.

“Project Jade never missed a beat, they didn't pause for a minute, they just kept right on going. They're now working directly with the data center client, which it hasn't been officially announced yet, and so there's been no pause, there's no lost time, they're still on track for what they're planning to do there, and you know it's a massive, massive project. 2.7 gigawatts, that's almost three times the energy that Wyoming, as a state, uses.”

Crusoe, the company that was constructing the buildings for the massive data center, packed up its stuff and left. The exit happened quickly and quietly, without the fanfare of press releases and company statements that had preceded the project.

Canada’s favorite grizzly, called The Boss, has lived a storied life, brawling with other males and surviving getting hit by a train. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that his latest stunt was removing an electronic tracking collar that wildlife agents had just put on him.

“We've reported previously on that huge grizzly bear, 700 pound grizzly bear that lives up in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. They call him ‘The Boss.’ His latest antic is they collared him on May 13th, and he ditched that collar within a week, and I talked to a photographer that follows the boss very closely, and said, ‘Yeah, he did that in true boss fashion. That sounds like that bear.’”

The Boss is formally known to researchers as Grizzly 122. His chief rival in Banff is Grizzly 136, called Split Lip.

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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 6 12 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Friday, June 12, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Friday's headlines include:
* Kayaker Dead In Lake Yellowstone
* Custer Bison Escapes Death Penalty
* Wyo Tax Board Says Cap Is Unconstitutional

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Friday, June 12, 2026

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

counties on Thursday that a 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property taxes is unconstitutional, and the counties shouldn’t let taxpayers have that exemption.

The State Equalization Board will refuse to certify this year’s property tax assessment figures if counties keep that cap on them, the report says.

It also disproportionately insulates high-end homes, and disfavors homeowners in more sluggish market areas, the report asserts.

But the report’s main point, and conclusion from the past two years’ tax data, is that the 4% cap violates the Wyoming Constitution’s call for equal and uniform property taxes within each class of property.

The board hasn’t yet issued an order requiring Wyoming’s county assessors to rework their pending tax bills without the cap.

But it expects to do so in the coming weeks after working with counties, Mockler told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview.

“We issued this report today that says if that cap doesn’t come off, Marty and I can’t vote to certify residential property taxes. Because they’re not uniform,” said Mockler. “It’ll be followed with an order ... (and) our goal is ultimately to remove the cap.”  

Mockler noted that the board isn’t targeting the other, narrower exemptions with this report — like the 25% property tax cut passed in 2025 or the long-term homeowner exemption.

More than half of the state’s residential property tax values fall under the 4% increase cap, the report says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"But We Don’t Get A Tax Free Year"}]

This kind of push from the state board is unprecedented, Converse County Assessor Dixie Huxtable told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

But Wyomingites shouldn’t expect a tax-free year over the maneuver, she said.

“Everyone’s in agreement there will be residential property taxes for 2026,” she said. “This … is just a step in the process of getting different values the board feels is appropriate.”

The pending mandate leaves Wyoming counties somewhere between following the 4% cap requirement in state law and following another state law that tells assessors to obey the state board, she said.  

“You’re asking us to go against the law? Under the law we have to apply the 4% cap and you’re saying we can’t,” she reflected from the report.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s so bizarre it’s funny,” Huxtable added. "}]

She said she was digesting the report Thursday afternoon, and had just been to a phone meeting with the board officials, assessors, and county attorneys.

Two days earlier on Tuesday, Huxtable had just urged the Legislature’s Joint Revenue Committee to approach more changes to the state’s property tax law with caution, because assessors are always trying to keep up with the many changes lawmakers have brought in recent years.

Assessors are at the mercy of state law and are working hard to follow it, she’d said.  

Reflecting on the board’s Thursday report, Huxtable told Cowboy State Daily that assessors are now trying to gain clarification on what to do in the coming weeks.

“We’re on standby,” she said, adding that from her meeting with the board, her impression is, “They’d be tickled pink to go to court” on this issue.

Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz said Thursday that he doesn’t know of any litigation on this currently, “but if there is a challenge, we will support what the Legislature did.”

Rep. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, who has since become a state senator, was the sponsor on the main bill the board’s Thursday report derides as unconstitutional.

Crago did not return a Thursday afternoon voicemail request for comment by publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Different Homes, Different Taxes"}]

The board’s report points to inconsistencies across the Wyoming property tax structure.

People who upgrade their homes by changing the footprint of those homes lose the cap exemption to a reset that year, while people who upgrade only the interior do not, says the report.

It says some homes have had their tax bills so thoroughly capped, they’re paying less than half of the state-mandated property tax rate.

“The caps, by design, generate highly disparate tax consequences for 

It accuses the law of discriminating arbitrarily between different homeowners across Wyoming.

“The demarcation between taxpayers receiving a tax windfall, versus those who do not, serves no rational basis,” the document adds.

Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that she had voted for the 4% tax cap during the tax hikes of 2024. But she views the law as more of a short-term fix. 

"It was a tourniquet; it was a short-term fix," she said. "But if you leave the tourniquet on, you damage the body." 

Storer's home region of Teton County accounts for huge property tax revenues in Wyoming. She has tried over the years to get lawmakers to stop applying property tax breaks to people's secondary homes. 

Of the $860.2 million in exemptions the 4% cap is expected to cause this year, Teton County accounts for $507.9 million, says a Department of Revenue memo Storer sent to Cowboy State Daily. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Lawsuit That Wasn’t"}]

The board warned lawmakers before the 4% cap bill’s passage that board members believed it’s unconstitutional.

 “the die was cast,” says the report.

The board examined the residential assessment values and looked for inverted valuations, that is where higher-valued properties were assessed at lower taxable values than other, similarly situated properties.

The board during the 2025 tax calculation process had just two members, Mockler and Hardscog. They voted that year to certify the tax values, but said that those values were probably invalid. Still, they wanted to gather one more year of data to be sure, the report says.

They also planned to release a Nov. 13, 2025, order requiring assessors to stop giving the exemption.

Gov. Mark Gordon’s office asked the board not to issue that order, the report says.

In November and early December, the governor’s office and Wyoming Attorney General’s Office met with Hardscog and Mockler to talk about filing an action asking a court to judge the issue.

The governor’s office and AG’s office agreed the state board should file that court action, the report says.

The litigation was slated to be filed Jan. 20. Gordon’s office asked for multiple delays, at first to communicate the lawsuit with legislative leaders. 

When Gordon’s office asked for another delay two days later, Hardscog and Mockler said they wouldn’t certify the property tax values after the June tax calculation process, “without a working resolution of their constitutional concerns,” says the report.

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<title>Wyoming Tax Board Says 4% Cap On Property Tax Is Unconstitutional, Won't Accept It | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming’s state-level property tax board told counties on Thursday that a 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property taxes is unconstitutional and it will refuse to certify this year's property tax assessment figures if the cap remains.

Wyoming Tax Board Says 4% Cap On Property Tax Is Unconstitutional, Won't Accept It

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily political columnist, Rod Miller.

Rod Miller

Opinion

CSD Columnists

I returned to the ID ranch where I grew up. My family (the blood) joined me, as did Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken (the heat). 

Here’s what went down in a country widely considered to be the original site of the Garden of Eden.

First – why the sheriff? Alex Bakken wears the same badge that my great-grandfather, I.C. Miller wore as territorial sheriff in Carbon County. So I’ve kept an eye on Sheriff Bakken, and I’ve been impressed with how he handles himself wearing that badge. 

I’m sure my patriarch would agree, had they ever met.

I called Alex and asked if he would like to see the ranch that I.C. put together. Alex had bow-hunted in the Seminoe Mountains, but hadn’t seen the rest of the outfit, or the headquarters with the massive 140-year-old stone buildings. He is also an avid history buff and jumped at the chance.

Since my third-born son, Kirk, was visiting from the City of Angels, this would be a great opportunity to gather the clan so they could revisit the place they had spent their childhood years. My former wife, Linda joined us, and had the chance to see the ID again, where she had spent years in the solitude, wind and rattlesnakes, 40 miles from town, raising our sons. 

I owe Linda an un-repayable debt for her maternal excellence. This sojourn was an installment.

I also invited family friend and videographer extraordinaire, Mike Vanata, to join us. I owe Vanata a debt for doing several thousand bucks worth of primo video work for my 2018 run for Congress and, when the campaign ran out of money, accepting my beloved AK-47 as payment. 

Another road trip with Vanata was a side benefit to this particular journey back in time.

My second-born, Isaac had to stay back in Cheyenne to take Pippi the Wonder Dog to the vet for a canine emergency, so he missed out. But Pippi lives! 

Vic, my youngest son, served as Chief of Security for the pilgrimage through Outlaw country, and kept us safe from the brigands that, 150 years earlier, he would have led. 

The youngest Miller, grandson Dayton, came with my eldest son Tommy, to share the driving chores, peel a bronc and catch his first fish. For a 4-year-old, Dayton pulled his weight and then some. 

Rounding out the party of backtrackers were my brother, Mark, and cousin, Bill Shaffer, who grew up with me on the ID. We share indelible memories of that place that cannot be put into words.

We met at Su Casa, in Sinclair (the best Mexican food north of the Nueces River) for lunch, where Vanata proceeded to mortify everyone by ordering a chicken fried steak (but that’s a topic for a future column), and then we drove north on Memory Lane to the ID headquarters. 

Given our statewide drought, I expected to see the countryside clad in a pale beige duster, but she must have known we were coming, because she wore her prettiest green sundress. The ID looks splendid!

Inside the big stone barn, it’s always cool in summer. The heavy door still bears the carved initials of long-dead cowboys and old brands. Outside in the corral, Dayton got his first horseback ride. His mount was a sleek bay mare named Clementine. They bonded in that sacred and mysterious ritual known only to kids and horses.

Sheriff Bakken got a good look at where his predecessor lived, and he seemed to enjoy it.

Then we drove up to the base of Bradley Peak, to the high divide between the Hurt Creek and Deweese Creek drainages, so I could show my kids where I expect them to scatter my ashes at the appropriate time. 

Sure, I had planned earlier for my sons divvy up my cremains and sneak them into the pepper shakers in Taco Johns all over the Big Empty. They all said they’d do it, but the Bradley Peak plan seems a bit healthier all around.

Dayton then caught his first fish, a mini-brookie, in the same place on Hurt Creek that his dad caught his first fish. That seems symmetrical and correct to me. It’s the gold in the brown and gold of Wyoming.

Kirk, a runner, skipped fishing to run five miles back toward headquarters to frolic in the wind-shifting dunes that will, in time, bury my first home.

With these living folks I retraced my steps through the country of my ghosts. The ticks and snakes spared us out of respect. 

The youngest of my bloodline experienced his first horsey ride and first fish. The new sheriff met our old country. 

It was a good day on the backtrail. And I’m tickled to be back in the Cowboy State Daily stable!

Rod Miller can be reached at: RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com

Rod miller headshot scaled

<title>Rod Miller: Backtracking Part Two - Blood and Heat At The ID Ranch | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Rod Miller writes: "So I took my family (the blood) and Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken (the heat), to the old ranch country where I expect my kids to scatter my ashes. Here’s what went down."

Rod Miller: Backtracking Part Two - Blood and Heat At The ID Ranch

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Cheyenne railfan and sculptor Carey Moose Hosterman wasn’t planning to see a rocket train. 

He was just driving home from Home Depot with a bag of sculpting tools last week when a strange-looking locomotive rolled out of Cheyenne’s historic depot onto the main line.

He wasn’t sure at the time exactly what he was seeing, but he didn’t hesitate to hit his blinker and pull over to watch it go by.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that is a really cool-looking car or engine on that train there,’” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s got an American flag on it and it looks really different.”

Only later would he learn that No. 4547 was passing through Wyoming on June 2 on its first mission hauling the final solid rocket booster segments for NASA’s Artemis III rocket to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In late 2027, four members of the crew for Artemis III will launch aboard an Orion spacecraft. 

It's a demonstration flight in a low Earth orbit that will test rendezvous and docking operations between Orion and test versions of the Human Landing System being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX.

The Artemis IV will be the first crewed lunar landing mission of the Artemis program, scheduled for 2028.

Hosterman has spent years watching all kinds of trains roll through Cheyenne. 

He’s seen trains with tanks and armor, and wind turbine blades so long they need two flat cars just to make the curves. 

A rocket train, though, was a first, and it was rolling through Cheyenne without fanfare or warning.

The lead engine, he would later learn, was Union Pacific No. 4547, a commemorative locomotive that celebrates President Donald Trump, painted with a fluttering American flag all along its length. 

Behind it was the equally colorful No. 1616, a red locomotive that honors Abraham Lincoln for signing the Pacific Railway Act in 1862.

Then came the cars that really puzzled Hosterman — a square, yellow car surrounded by rings of white pipes, followed by a chain of white round cars alternating with square yellow ones.

“They were just these weird-looking, covered capsule-looking things,” Hosterman said. “And my wife and I have been so excited with the Big Boy train, we really pay attention to what’s going around on the tracks. 

"So we got to talking about that train, too, and wondering what was in it.”

They wouldn’t solve the mystery until the next day, when they saw a news story about segments of Artemis III being delivered to Florida. 

That’s when the strange white capsules and square yellow cars suddenly made sense.

The first job for Union Pacific’s new Trump-themed locomotive No. 4547 took it through Wyoming carrying the Artemis III rocket. Nobody except railroad watchers noticed. “They were just these weird-looking, covered capsule-looking things,” one said.

You Still Here? Wednesday, May 15, 2024

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