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Michael P. Ramirez

Daily Cartoon

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

<title>Daily Cartoon: Sunday, May 26, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon: Sunday, May 26, 2024

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

Wyoming hunters seeking next fall’s trophy bulls and bucks can start looking now. After months of explosive growth, elk and deer antlers are about as big as they’re going to get for the year.

Good nutrition is the key. With the onset of spring, bucks and bulls must first recover the body mass they lost over the winter. Then they continue eating like hogs, pumping additional nutrients into antler growth.

In peak season, typically in early summer, antlers can grow up to an inch a day.

During the process, a fuzzy substance called “velvet” covers the antlers. It looks like its namesake, but is actually skin, dense with blood vessels and covered with short, dense fur.

As summer wanes, the velvet starts to dry, and the animals rub it off on trees and brush.

Once the velvet is rubbed off, elk emerge with a clean set of headgear, just in time for fierce, 

 associated with the rut, or mating season.

The elk rut starts in mid-September and lasts “well into October,” retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Bruce Smith told Cowboy State daily.

The deer rut usually starts in late October, peaks in November and might run into December.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cycle Starts In February"}]

Buck and bulls go through a yearly cycle of growing, shedding and then re-growing their antlers, with each set getting larger than the previous year’s.

Large bull elk start shedding their antlers as early as February, said Smith, who was the senior biologist at the National Elk Refuge near Jackson from 1982 to 2004 and now lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Smaller bulls and spikes (male elk that have only single-tine, spike antlers) might not shed theirs until April or May, he said.

With that jump-start, larger bulls might start growing antlers by April, Smith said.

However, they’re still trying to make up for the nutritional deficit coming out of winter.

Antler growth can’t really kick into high gear until late spring or early summer, when green, nutrient-rich grasses and other plants become available, Smith said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The cycle is similar for deer, he said."}]

Elk are primarily grazers (grass-eaters), while deer are browsers, relying heavily on shrubs and forbs.

After mid-July, hot dry weather settles in “like we’re having now,” Smith said.

Foliage starts to dry out and its nutritional value wanes, so antler growth slows to a stop.  

Bull elk might then seek green “riparian areas and wet meadows,” which could help boost a final antler growth spurt, Smith said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Nitrogen And Lead"}]

What all of that means is that hunters eyeballing bulls and bucks now, in mid-July, can have get a reasonable estimation of how big they’ll be during the fall hunting seasons after the velvet comes off, Smith said.

He noted that elk habits can be driven by “nitrogen and lead.” (The latter being a reference to the lead in hunter’s bullets).

"They are attracted to nitrogen, and they’re afraid of lead,” he said.

The nitrogen, or nitrates, is the primary nutrient that is easily digestible and promotes antler growth, Smith said.

Antlers might frequently be called “bone,” which is reasonably accurate, he added.

“It’s certainly more like bone than another other particular tissue or structure that you might find in the animal’s body,” Smith said.

The entire region had a mild winter and early spring, which bodes well for wildlife, and antler growth, Smith said.

He lives in Montana, which also saw significant rains recently. That also helps with antler growth.

So, Smith expects at least average antler growth in Montana bull elk this year.

It might not be so great in Wyoming, which leaned toward the dry side this spring and early summer, said avid hunter Owen Miller, who lives in northeast Wyoming.

“They (antlers) grow fast from the start of the growing stage. This time of year, it looks like they’re growing faster because each tine (point) is growing,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

 “A dry year, like this summer has been, also has an effect on them. With less green foliage around, and being dry, it has fewer nutrients,” he added.

“Both bucks and bulls can be smaller than the previous year, due to water shortages and fewer nutrients during drought,” he said.

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<title>After Growing Fast Through July, Elk And Deer Antlers About As Big As They’ll Get | Cowboy State Daily</title>

During the peak antler growing-season of spring and early summer, Wyoming bull elk and buck deer can add an inch per day to their antlers thanks to lush foliage. Now that it's the peak of summer, antler growth will grind almost to a halt.

After Growing Fast Through July, Elk And Deer Antlers About As Big As They’ll Get

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Wyoming Life

He was a collector of cars, coins, guns, clocks, rocks, friends and anything else that claimed his interest.

And if there wasn’t a garage on his property, he built one.

A year after the passing of Dale Corkill his widow, Patricia, and stepdaughter, Amanda Lake, are trying to find good homes for two of his four-wheeled possessions. 

He and Patricia closed on a house in Glenrock, sent three cars to its garage, and then he died of cancer at a Riverton hospice on May 21, 2025, a week before he was to move in.

Patricia Corkill said she did not realize how many cars her husband of 26 years owned at the time he died, but she pulled out a stack of titles she had to get transferred into her name.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"He had them stored in various garages."}]

“It took half a day at the clerk’s office to get everything switched over,” she said. “Then I had to go back. You should have seen the no-smiley faces.”

She just sold his 1941 Chevy Master Deluxe to a man from Denver. Now there just remains a 1925 Model T Opera car and a 1931 Model A Ford with a rumble seat.

“The Opera car has this shade in the back and it would also have a vase,” Patricia said. “The driver or whoever could put a flower in it.”

She said the front seat looks like a couch and noted the cars then were built for smaller people than are typical today.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Parade Car"}]

Lake said her stepdad would drive the Model T in parades in Dubois and Lander. His passenger had to pump a non-original water-filled squirt bottle with a hose attached to keep the little four-cylinder engine and radiator from overheating at the parade pace.

Patricia Corkill said when her husband bought the Model T, as well as the Model A, they were already restored. But he purchased other cars and equipment that would require his skills as a mechanic and electrical whiz.

Mostly, she believes her husband purchased the cars because he enjoyed history and old things.

The couple met at the Dave Johnston Power Plant, where Dale Corkill worked for more than 30 years as an instrument technician.

He was born in Lander and spent his high school years in Casper, graduating from Natrona County High School in the same class as the late Vice President Dick Cheney. 

“He liked him of course and Lynn also,” Patricia Corkill said. “We went to a class reunion and I got to shake hands with him. I didn’t wash my hand for a week.”

Afte Dale's retirement from PacificCorp, he spent three years working for Basin Electric.

Patricia said when she retired from the Dave Johnston Power Plant, he left the Wheatland job and they moved to a cabin he had owned for several years and spent the next 17 years in that region.

Dale knew all of the Bridger-Teton National Forest and Shoshone National Forest trails and sites of interest. He often acted as a guide for friends and others on snowmobile trips or four-wheeler excursions.

“I guess you could probably call him the original Airbnb person up on Union Pass taking care of people’s cabins and stuff for them,” Lake said. “Not everybody lives there year-round.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Skilled Mechanic"}]

Patricia Corkill said her husband was the type of guy who fixed nearly anything: Snowmobiles, four wheelers, older cars, tractors. She said he was raised in a one-bedroom house in Casper and his dad was a carpenter and mechanic.

After graduation from high school, Dale went to Casper College and graduated with a degree in electronics. Once at the Dave Johnston Power Plant in his later years he became a teacher for other operators and even after retirement would go back to put on classes, Patrica said.

Lake said he was always a man on the move working on equipment, fixing clocks, hunting rocks, or helping others.

Patricia said whenever they moved to a new home, if the property didn’t have a garage our outbuildings he built one.

The couple from 2017 to 2025 lived in Riverton and then planned to move back to Glenrock despite his illness.

“When we bought this place, he saw the garage and said ‘let’s buy it,’” Patricia said. “Before he even came into the house.”

Besides building garages, Dale loved to listen to older people tell their stories and was ready hand to help them with projects — helping one Douglas-area widow and friend with her estate after her husband died.

When the couple prepared to move from Riverton to Glenrock, it took two auctions to downsize from the all the collection of equipment, cars, rocks, clocks and other items.

They had a three-car garage, three sheds, and a big shop full of tools, cars, rocks and more.

“He was a man that loved history and enjoyed seeing it in the old gadgets,” Patricia said. “You have no idea how much stuff we had to get rid of because we were downsizing so much. It hurt him bad, but he knew that he was not able to take care of it anymore.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rock Collection"}]

Patricia Corkill said her husband’s rock collection that included polished stones as well as just rocks made more money than the first auction that included equipment, tools and household items.

She retains some of the rocks they collected as well as other unique items such as lamps used in the Glenrock coal mines, a razor sharpener, and arrowheads from all over Wyoming.

Patricia said her husband loved going to auctions.

“You could show him something and he could tell you the story behind it,” Lake said.

Mother and daughter posted the last of Dale Corkill’s wheeled collection they want to sell on social media sites a couple weeks ago.

 features wooden spoked wheels, a throttle on the column, and a battery so there's no need to twist a crank to start it — though that’s available for back up. The red-bulb hood ornament/radiator cap apparently helps the driver keep his hands from getting burned when removing the cap.

Patricia Corkill said the engine on the Model T was replaced by a previous owner, so the number does not match the original title.

 features a winged bird in flight as its combination hood ornament and radiator cap, spoked rims, spare tires with Ford covers on both sides of the car, and a metal carry rack that folds out off the back behind the rumble seat. The little four-cylinder engine boasts 4,635 miles on its odometer.

The last time both cars were fired up and driven was during a parade three years ago.

“We just want to find good homes for them,” Patricia Corkill said.

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<title>Glenrock Widow Trying To Find Homes For Husband's 1925 Model T And 1931 Model A | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Glenrock widow has stories to tell about her late husband who was a prolific collector of cars, rocks, clocks, guns, gadgets, and much more. A year after his death, she's still trying to "find good homes" for his 1925 Model T Opera car and 1931 Model A.

Glenrock Widow Trying To Find Homes For Husband's 1925 Model T And 1931 Model A

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

Renée Jean

Around Wyoming

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. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The jig was up. "}]

“They were mad I still hadn’t done it,” Eden said. “But we ran away.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The homeowner didn’t let it go."}]

Camera video from the incident soon appeared on the “Happening in Lander” Facebook page, where other residents had been posting about a rash of such incidents all over town. 

By the next morning, what had started as a teenage prank had turned into a full-blown pile-on, aimed squarely at Kirk. Not only had the victim posted pictures from the Ring Camera, but they’d gone looking for pictures from Kirk’s social media profiles, too.

“I’m old school,” Josh Kirk told Cowboy State Daily. “I don’t approve of her having TikTok. I don’t approve of her having social media. I don’t even like thinking of her having a cellphone.”

Kirk was unhappy with what Eden had done, but even more shocked by comments claiming they would have shot his daughter dead, right through the door, without even looking first. 

He let Eden know just how dangerous the game she was playing could have become. 

“We had no clue she was out,” he said. “That’s problematic. That’s how we have kidnappings and all this other crazy stuff that goes on.”

Remote wilderness — a place where no one is likely to hear someone screaming — is less than 30 minutes away, he pointed out to Eden. He also stressed just how dangerous a turn the prank could have taken if, as commenters suggested, a homeowner decided to shoot first and ask questions later. 

“She’s a minor, but I told her that because I wanted her to understand,” Josh Kirk said. “If we don’t know where she’s at, there’s no way for us to find her. Then what’s fun and games is no longer fun and games.”

Eden’s late-night escapade wasn’t an isolated case.

For months, Lander residents have been venting on the “Happening in Lander” page about late-night knocks, pounding on doors, and doorbell camera clips of kids sprinting away into the dark.

Lander Police Chief Levi Martson says it happens just about every summer.

“Schools out, right?” he told Cowboy State Daily. “So kids are out later than they should be.”

The past weekend, there was a string of ding-dong ditch incidents three nights in a row. 

“The third night, it resulted in rocks being thrown at a vehicle,” he said. “So it’s kind of escalated from ding-dong ditching to property damage. So we are seeing, for some reason, it starts out small, then they get more brazen.”

Martson sees inherent risks with the activity for everyone involved.

“A lot of people have these doorbell cameras, so they can see people at their door, and they don’t know what they’re up to,” he said. “So there is that fear which can create some need for self-defense.”

So far, no one has been shot as a result of ding-dong ditching, Martson said. 

“But certainly, something could happen by a homeowner who feels threatened,” he said. “They don’t know the difference between a juvenile playing a prank and somebody trying to break into their home.”

Such cases would be taken on a case-by-case basis, Martson said. But the key is, if there’s a shooting, even if it’s justified, there’s going to be an investigation.

“No matter what the reasoning is, it will always be investigated,” he said. “It’s illegal to discharge a firearm in Lander. So if we get a call for service and somebody’s reporting that a firearm was discharged, we’re definitely going to investigate that. 

“And if someone is seriously injured or even killed, we will not just say, ‘Oh, sorry, we can’t respond.’ That’s a critical event in our world. That’s something that requires a lot of resources, and it would be all hands on deck.”

For Eden Kirk and her family, these risks didn’t feel hypothetical any more. They were being spelled out in angry comments online.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"First A Private Apology"}]

Kirk’s own family has been among the targets of recent ding-dong ditch incidents, which further deepened his own disappointment with his daughter. 

“We got hit, probably, I would say eight to 10 times,” he said. “And one of the times, my mom was visiting from Georgia. It scared my mom half to death.”

It was ultimately that fact which opened Eden’s eyes to how her prank felt to the homeowner who had caught her and her friends in the act.

“When she mentioned that she had her 81-year-old mother there with her, it kind of just dawned on me, like I remembered how terrified my grandma was,” she said. “And I don’t think she’s one to have, like, heart failure and that, but there are definitely a lot of older people who, if they get shaken up enough, they could totally have like a heart attack or something.”

Eden realized then what she’d done wasn’t just a harmless prank at all. It could cause real distress, even terror. 

She knew she had to apologize to the woman and her family in person.

Knocking on that door by the light of day was hard. 

“Even though it was peer pressure, that’s not an excuse,” Eden said. “It was my decision. I still did it. And I don’t blame it on any of my friends either. I know they were just trying to get me to have a fun time.”

The woman ultimately accepted Eden’s apology, Kirk said, and decided not to press charges.

“We were thankful for that,” he said. “And the reason she did is because Eden’s personal apology, when Eden went to her house. She said her apology was so sincere, and she realized that Eden was just caught up in peer pressure.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Then A Public Apology"}]

Kirk and his wife, Bonnie, didn’t excuse Eden. But as they watched the anger build online — and saw commenters posting TikTok photos of their daughter and accusing her of every unsolved ding-dong ditch and act of vandalism in town 

 they decided more than a personal apology was required.

First, Bonnie pushed back on Facebook, asking that posts featuring their minor daughter be taken down and calling out what she saw as a dangerous mob mentality.

“Eden will see you at 5:30 p.m. to apologize,” she wrote on social media. “In the meantime, I ask you to please remove this post. You have, unintentionally, I hope, incited a mob mentality amongst the Lander people. You have also posted photos of a minor without parental consent … I don’t condone being awakened and startled in the night by roaming kids, but for all you quote unquote intelligent keyboard warriors of Lander, stay in your lane, go water your grass, take a swim, get off Facebook for everyone’s sake, or move to New York or California.”

She added that her own family had been targeted by whoever was doing all the ding-dong ditching as well, but said that the threat level being turned toward the community’s children was uncalled for.

The Kirks also told Eden in no uncertain terms that it was not enough to apologize to her victim personally. This apology needed to be made in public, to the entire Lander community.

For that apology, Kirk hit the record button on his phone and told his daughter to speak from her heart, without a script. 

In the video, she owned up to sneaking out, explained the peer pressure she’d felt, then apologized directly to the homeowner and the town. She also urged other kids to think about what they’re doing, and not make the same choice she had made.

“I actually didn’t realize my child was that well-spoken,” Kirk said. “She spoke her heart, and it evidently touched a lot of other people as well.”

The video has spread quickly, between the homeowner’s Facebook page and Josh’s account, it has already racked up tens of thousands of views. But this time, the comment section looks much different.

“It sent from that first post that as attacking — it was evil — to just an overwhelming outpouring of good people,” Kirk said. “There were so many people saying, ‘We forgive you. Thank you for apologizing. Thank you for being accountable.’ It was such a beautiful thing.”

For Eden, the entire episode is a hard-won lesson in how “harmless” pranks can spin out of control. And how public the fallout can be. 

“I’m getting back to painting and reading,” she said. 

Kirk, meanwhile, is taking to heart words in Eden's apology, as well as what he heard a couple of children he caught ding-dong ditching his home say.

“There’s nothing to do in Lander at night for these kids,” he said.  “I mean you can’t hunt, you can’t fish, you can’t rock climb, you can’t hike at nighttime, and these kids — they’re kids.”

Kirk hopes to get a coalition to create more wholesome opportunities for teenagers. 

“Nothing good happens after midnight,” he said. “And these children need to be made aware. But it’s also brought an awareness to me of what can I do for the community? 

"What can I do to get a coalition together to create something better for the community and give the kids something do? We need to, as a community, band together and let’s figure something out.”

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<title>Lander's 'Mountain Man' Makes Daughter Give Public Apology For Ding-Dong Ditching | Cowboy State Daily</title>

History Channel's "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.

Lander's 'Mountain Man' Makes Daughter Give Public Apology For Ding-Dong Ditching

Sports

CHEYENNE — Anita Ellis didn’t make the finals at the Daddy of ’Em All, but the fact she was competing at Cheyenne Frontier Days at all — alive and riding well enough to win brackets — may have been the biggest win of the rodeo. 

Ellis suffered a traumatic brain injury in November that nearly ended her rodeo career — and her life.

Her performance in Cheyenne, however, underscored just how far the Idaho woman, who has dreamed of barrel racing at the National Finals Rodeo since childhood, has come.

In the qualifying round at Cheyenne Frontier Days, Ellis posted a 17.26-second run, good enough for second place overall. The next day, in Performance Bracket 1, she posted a 17.87-second run, winning the bracket and earning $2,462. That also landed her a spot in the semifinals. 

Her Thursday run, which could have carried her into the finals, slipped away in a split-second miscommunication between horse and rider. 

The mistake lasted only an instant, but in barrel racing, that’s all it takes. 

It was enough to cost her a shot at the finals. 

Even so, Ellis doesn’t see the moment as a loss. She was, in that moment, reaching for a new challenge along the way in her recovery by choosing a more difficult horse to ride.

Ax, the horse she chose for the run, requires faster thinking than she could previously handle even as recent as two weeks ago.

“With Ax, I have to be in control of him a little bit more,” she said. “He takes more direction than my other horse, Rico, who will just go to his spot.”

Rico SGL was the horse she rode to win in San Antonio in February, the debut of her remarkable return to rodeo. 

“Ax is super quick on his turns,” Ellis added. “But today, he thought the banner that was beyond the third barrel was the barrel. I’m so sad he thought that, because he would have had such a nice run since he can turn so fast.”

Eight months before Cheyenne, Ellis was at a futurity with a young mare named Barbie — the colt’s first futurity. Ellis had trained the horse herself and was excited to see how she’d do.

The day of the accident, Ellis was getting ready for her run while the arena crew was dragging the ground. 

Her sister, Deena, an ER nurse, had driven over on a whim to spend the day and maybe ride later — a coincidence that may well have saved Ellis’ life.

As Ellis bent to place rubber bands on her feet, her mare tossed its head violently.

Ellis doesn’t remember exactly what happened next. 

She’s told the mare reared back with force, hitting her in the head, possibly breaking either her cheekbone or her jaw. 

“And then I was just kind of unresponsive,” Ellis said. “Like, I tried to move my arms a couple times to get ahold of her, but not really well.”

Barbie bucked three more times, nearly running over Ellis’ sister in the process.

“My sister couldn’t get her,” Ellis said. “And then the third buck, she twisted her hip and threw me basically onto my head, on the cement pavement.”

Ellis had been so stunned by the headbutt she didn’t even put her hands up to break her fall. Her forehead hit the cement full force, fracturing both sides of her skull.

As an ER nurse, her sister knew exactly what to do the moment Ellis hit the ground.

“She checked for a pulse and I had a pulse, but I wasn’t breathing,” Ellis said. “So she had to adjust me a little bit in the neck so she could open my airway.”

An ambulance rushed Ellis to the hospital, where she lay unconscious for four and a half days.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Not A Good Patient"}]

Doctors warned the family there was no way to know how much of their Anita they would get back. 

After a devastating head injury nearly ended her life, barrel racer Anita Ellis is on an inspiring comeback trail that runs through Cheyenne Frontier Days. “I don’t really get intense or worry about stuff now. It’s in God’s hands,” she said.

Daily Cartoon: Sunday, May 26, 2024

Michael P. Ramirez

Cartoonist

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