You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I was just on my way to a lecture...\""}]

You still here 5 28 24

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

<title>You Still Here? Tuesday, May 28, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

"I was just on my way to a lecture..."

You Still Here? Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

A 28-year-old Australian man has been found dead near Grand Teton National Park.

Teton County Search and Rescue (TCSAR) recovered the body of the unidentified man  Wednesday morning. He was found in an area known as The Wigwams on the west slope of the Tetons.

According to TCSAR, the man is believed to have died from a fall from “a steep, high-altitude ridgeline” that separates Grand Teton National Park and the Jedediah Smith Wilderness.

“TCSAR sends its sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased and wishes to express its gratitude to the partnering federal agencies who assisted in the investigation,” the agency said in a statement.

Cowboy State Daily could not reach TCSAR or Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr by the time of publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Difficult Search"}]

According to the information released by TCSAR, the Australian man was attempting a thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail, a 3,028-mile route that stretches across the Rockies from Alberta, Canada, to Chihuahua, Mexico.

The victim started from Canada and headed south, keeping his family informed of his progress via a Garmin satellite device.

By July 19, he reached Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park and sent a message with his intended route through the Tetons and into the Wind River Basin. 

The last communication the family received was a check-in from his device without coordinates or a message. Along with a video he sent via Facebook, his family placed him somewhere in Grand Teton National Park.

After four days without any updates, the victim’s family contacted Grand Teton officials July 27.

Using the Garmin device, it was determined that the July 23 check-in had been sent near The Wigwams in Teton County, near but outside the western boundary of then park.

At this point, TCSAR took over the search and rescue operation. A short-haul team was assembled to reach The Wigwams via helicopter Wednesday morning.

The victim’s body was found below a ridge south of North Wigwam Peak. He was located from the air because of his bright orange backpack.

The body was recovered and transported to the Teton County Coroner’s Office.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Tough Trail"}]

Hiking the entire Continental Divide Trail can take between two and seven months.

Thru-hikers attempt to do it continuously, from start to end, in one attempt. They only stop to sleep or resupply in communities along the route.

Marty Lee of Socorro, New Mexico, was hiking the Wyoming section of the Continental Divide Trail when he was 69 years old. 

 how thru-hikers regularly powered past him.

“Out in the Great Divide Basin, I was making 22-23 miles a day, but thru-hikers were blowing by me," he said in July 2023.

Lee was section hiking, taking multiple years to complete the Continental Divide Trail. By July 23, he’d finished the stretches in New Mexico and Colorado, and was hoping to finish the Wyoming and Idaho sections that summer.

 of the Appalachian Trail in 2024. He was averaging 18 to 22 miles every day, and it was an ordeal.

“In the first four months I wasn't sick, I didn't twist my ankle and had no major injuries, but I ended up pushing myself to the finish,” he said. “It was like running a marathon, and on your very last corner, you crash into the drinks table, and you end up having to crawl across the finish line.”

He reached the end of the trail, Mount Katahdin in Maine, on Oct. 6, 2024. It had taken him five months to get there.

“When I made my way up to Katahdin and saw the sign, it was kind of strange,” he said. “It was a total non-event. It was like, ‘There's the sign, let's go get my pictures and get off the mountain.’ I think I was just so ready to be done.”

According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

, only 1 in 4 people who attempt a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail actually finish it. No similar statistics exist for the Continental Divide Trail.

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

TCSAR has been busy in 2026. Its volunteers respond to every call, but at the cost of significant impacts on personnel and resources.

Of the 4,990 search and rescue missions in Wyoming between 2009 and 2026, 1,205 were

. Lincoln County was a distant second with 583 missions during the same period.

TCSAR can recover some of its costs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which allows it to obtain grants and donations. Other funds are available, but they’re distributed to SAR teams throughout the state via the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security.

TCSAR’s call numbers jumped in 2021 and have stayed relatively high since. The 64 calls between Dec.1, 2024, and May 31, 2025, used to be as many as the agency got in an entire year.

That correlates with the steady growth of the outdoor recreation industry, which s

. That likely means more calls, more expenses, and more asked of volunteers going forward.

TCSAR hasn’t released the name of the Australian man who died in the Tetons, but statistics say that 72% of their calls are for males.

Demographically, 16- to 30-year-olds accounted for 33% of the rescues, followed by 31-to 45-year-olds, with 29%.

Nevertheless, TCSAR’s all-volunteer force will always mobilize as quickly as they can. No matter where or what, the job gets done.

“Rescues come in all shapes and sizes,” TCSAR Chief Advisor Cody Lockhart told Cowboy State Daily in July 2025. “We’re there to give you a hand without judgment.”

Teton County Search and Rescue

<title>Australian Man Dies Near Grand Teton While Hiking Continental Divide Trail | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Teton County Search and Rescue recovered the body of an unidentified Australian man in the Teton Range on Wednesday. The man, who was attempting a thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail, is believed to have died from a fall off a ridgeline.

Australian Man Dies Near Grand Teton While Hiking Continental Divide Trail

Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"Must be a family discount in the concussion ward…."}]

Darwin no play 7 30 26

<title>Daily Darwin: Thursday, July 30, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Must be a family discount in the concussion ward….

Daily Darwin: Thursday, July 30, 2026

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

Wolf advocates are offering a $10,000 reward for the the identity of any hunter shooting a member of a famed Yellowstone National Park wolf pack that recently denned outside of the park in Wyoming. 

Social-media influencer Jonas Black of Austin, Texas, told Cowboy State Daily during a telephone interview Wednesday that posting the reward is necessary to protect the Mollie’s Pack, particularly 12-year-old Wolf 1090 F. 

Those wolves have spent most of their lives in Yellowstone and aren’t afraid of people, so there’s no way it could be a “fair-chase” hunt, Black said. 

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Angi Bruce denounced the move in a text message Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily. 

Wyoming, Montana and Idaho have laws keeping wolf hunters’ identities confidential to shield them from doxing, harassment and stalking.

“Putting an animal before the welfare of a person is outrageous,” Bruce said. “This is the exact reason our legislators put this statute in place – to prevent harassment of our hunters.”

 that he and others are offering the reward if any of the Mollie’s wolves are shot during the season, set to begin Sept. 15. 

“Anybody harvests one of these wolves during Wyoming’s wolf season and somebody snitches? That snitch gets ten grand cash,” Black wrote.

During the interview, Black said the intent is specifically to protect the Mollie’s, not to undermine the states’ statutes protecting wolf hunters’ identities. 

The Mollie’s this summer denned and are raising pups on the Shoshone National Forest. 

During its 30-plus year history, the pack has spent nearly all of its time inside Yellowstone, where hunting is forbidden. 

So, the wolves are essentially like “zoo-type animals” insofar as having little fear of humans, Black said. 

Black said he isn’t anti-hunting and supports fair-chase hunting, when animals are actively trying to evade humans.

“I’m not going to interfere or try to interfere with state laws. But with this pack, it’s like shooting a dog. Man, it’s unreal,” Black said. 

‘I’m Going To Burn Your House Down’

Wyoming Statute § 23-1-304(d)(vi) protects the anonymity of wolf hunters. Under the statute, Game and Fish may not release any private or confidential information regarding legal wolf harvests, and that information is not a matter of public record. 

Montana and Idaho also have statutes that keep wolf hunters’ identities confidential. 

That wouldn’t stop private individuals from revealing that information to other private parties, though. 

Those statutes are there for good reason, said Randy Newberg, a prominent outdoorsman and hunting content creator from Bozeman, Montana.

Newberg featured a successful wolf hunt in an episode on his 

He told Cowboy State Daily the blowback was vicious. 

“People from all over the world were emailing me with crazy stuff. ‘I’m going to burn your house down. I’m going to kill your dogs.’ Wow,” he said. 

Newberg noted that as a prominent figure in the hunting world, “I live in a fishbowl,” and so he expected the pushback. 

But rank-and-file hunters should be spared that sort of harassment if they shoot any of the Mollie’s, Newberg said. 

“If their information got out there, I can assure you, that person is going to undergo a level of threat and intimidation that’s completely out of line,” he said. 

Black said the possibility of facing worldwide condemnation should deter anyone from even trying to hunt the Mollie’s. 

It could be similar to the global shame heaped upon the American hunter who went to Africa and killed the beloved “Cecil the Lion,” he said.  

And that’s the point of offering the reward he said. 

Black is a dog trainer who became an outspoken wolf advocate in the wake of the capture, torture and killing of a wolf by Daniel resident Cody Roberts in February 2024. 

Black has stated that his efforts, along with Wolf and Wildlife Advocates president Kim Bean and others, were instrumental in a felony animal cruelty charge being brought against Roberts, to which he pleaded guilty.  

In April, a judge sentenced Roberts to a possible 18- to 24-month prison term if he fails probation.

Black said that with the Mollie’s his beef isn’t with Game and Fish.

“This has nothing to do with Game and Fish,” he said. "I think Game and Fish is doing a great job with the Mollie’s.”  

Wolf & Wildlife Advocates’ Bean said Game and Fish, along with a rancher in the pack’s denning area, have been trying to coax the pack back into the park.

Game and Fish has kept the Mollie’s location confidential. 

However, some people have discovered the pack’s location and posted it on social media, “putting a bull's-eye on the pack,” Bean said. 

Black said some of those who have revealed the pack’s alleged location are supposedly wolf advocates. 

Publicizing the pack’s location is f***ing stupid,” he said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Fair Game’"}]

Montana outdoorsman and retired game warden Jeff Darrah told Cowboy State Daily he supports the statutes shielding wolf hunters’ identities. 

“There is a concerted effort by some of these eco-terrorists to find those hunters,” said Darrah, executive director of Montana Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife.

He acknowledged that emotions can run high when it comes to famous Yellowstone wolves such as the Mollie’s Pack. 

But when they pass outside the park’s boundaries “they become not a park wolf anymore but a Wyoming wolf. And they’re fair game,” he said. 

To mitigate the loss of Yellowstone wolves, Montana reduced the hunting quota to three wolves in each of the two hunt districts immediately north of the park, Darrah said.

“At one time, the quota there was up around 20 wolves,” he said. 

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

Newberg said it’s “very disturbing to me” that advocates are trying to work their way around state laws meant to protect the anonymity of people engaged in a legal activity. 

“How do we pick and choose?” he said of which legal activities should be protected. 

Newberg added that trying to expose hunters who might happen to shoot Mollie’s wolves could undermine the advocates’ cause. 

Bean said she, Black and others have hardened their stance only because of the hardened anti-wolf stance against the Mollie’s. 

There have been “hundreds” of people bragging about deliberately trying to find and kill the pack, she said. 

“They’re threatening to kill the pack, and we’re threatening to expose them,”  Bean said. “This isn’t about anonymity, this is about a bunch of asshats out there” threatening the Mollie’s Pack. 

Geriatric old wolf 1090 3 1 10 26

<title>Advocates Offer $10,000 Bounty To Name Hunters Who Kill Famed Yellowstone Wolves | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A social media influencer and others are offering a $10,000 bounty for the identities of hunters who shoot members of Yellowstone National Park's famed Mollie’s wolf pack this fall. Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce calls the bounty “outrageous.”

Advocates Offer $10,000 Bounty To Name Hunters Who Kill Famed Yellowstone Wolves

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Public Safety

A Utah man who died after collapsing inside the Lincoln County Detention Center after his arrest at southwest Wyoming's Oyster Ridge Music Festival is being remembered by lifelong friends as someone whose struggles with addiction never eclipsed the generosity that defined him.

Tyson J. Alvares, 38, of Smithfield, Utah, died July 25 after collapsing while being booked into the Lincoln County jail, less than an hour after he was arrested by the Kemmerer Police Department at the festival.

According to a Lincoln County Sheriff's Office press release, Alvares was arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance, breach of peace and disorderly conduct after officers encountered him at the festival. Authorities said Alvares admitted using a controlled substance and was behaving erratically, prompting officers to have him evaluated by emergency medical technicians before transporting him to jail.

The sheriff's office said EMTs cleared Alvares for booking. He arrived at the detention center at about 9:30 p.m. and collapsed in a holding cell around 10:20 p.m. while being booked. Detention officers began lifesaving efforts after noticing he was no longer breathing, but he could not be revived, the sheriff’s office said.

Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson told Cowboy State Daily there was no use of force involving Alvares at the detention center. He said any additional information would be released as part of DCI's ongoing investigation.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'He Was Always There'"}]

Stacie Lynn Izatt said she has known Alvares since childhood. Their families grew up together in Utah, and she said he was the kind of friend people knew they could depend on.

"If you needed something, if you needed help, if your bike broke or anything that way, all the way up to that, he was there," she said. "You could call him at any point."

While Izatt worked nights at a gas station, Alvares would sometimes stop by. If customers made her uncomfortable, he wouldn't leave until he knew she was safe.

"There would be creepy guys that would come in," she recalled. "He would stick around until they left ... or walk me to my car if I needed to."

She summed him up in one sentence: "He would literally give you the shirt off his back."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'He Fought Like Hell' "}]

Since Alvares' death, Izatt said she has struggled to read online comments from people who knew nothing about him beyond the circumstances of his arrest.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"All they see is the drug use,\" she said."}]

She doesn't deny that addiction became part of Alvares' life. He attended rehabilitation, experienced periods of sobriety and relapse, and repeatedly tried to regain his footing, she said.

"He fought like hell," she said. "He would do good. He would do bad. It was hard to watch."

But she hopes people understand that addiction is not the totality of a person's life.

"Just because he was an addict, he didn't deserve to die," Izatt said. "If people saw him outside of that label, they would want to be his friend."

[{"type":"text","text":"Recovery, she said, is rarely a straight path."}]

"They're still human. They're still people. They're still somebody's child. They're somebody's brother," she said. "Don't define them by that."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family Facing More Heartbreak"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Alvares' death has compounded years of tragedy for his family."}]

Izatt said Alvares' older brother died of cancer about five years ago. More recently, a cousin was killed in an ATV rollover. 

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They're a tight-knit family,\" she said. \"They're just good people.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Now, Izatt said, Alvares' mother is mourning another son."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"His mama is burying her last boy,” she said."}]

Watching strangers celebrate his death or dismiss his life because of addiction has only deepened the pain for those who loved him.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's cruel,\" Izatt said. \"People don't know him.\""}]

In the days since Alvares' death, family members have shared a 

 seeking donations to help his mother cover funeral expenses.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Questions Remain"}]

Authorities have not released a cause or manner of death, and DCI has not disclosed what occurred between Alvares' arrival at the jail and his collapse roughly 50 minutes later.

Sheriff Johnson confirmed Alvares underwent an EMT evaluation before being transported to the jail but declined further comment while DCI's investigation remains active.

Cowboy State Daily sought comment from the Kemmerer Police Department regarding Alvares' arrest and requested information from the Lincoln County Coroner's Office regarding his cause and manner of death, but neither agency responded before publication.

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<title>Friend Says Man Who Died In Wyoming Jail After Music Festival Arrest Was More Than His Addiction | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Utah man who died after collapsing inside a Lincoln County jail following his arrest at southwest Wyoming's Oyster Ridge Music Festival is being remembered by friends as someone whose struggles with addiction never eclipsed the generosity that defined him.

Friend Says Man Who Died In Wyoming Jail After Music Festival Arrest Was More Than His Addiction

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

The copy of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary released this week shows the former White House COVID advisor fixating over the press, mentioning Wyoming's low vaccinations rates and praising former Rep. U.S. Liz Cheney for what Fauci called her courage in opposing the president. 

U.S. Sen Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, released the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director’s diary over the weekend in anticipation of a Wednesday hearing.

Fauci alternated fluidly between documenting death tolls and the “hot and heavy” coverage with which the press swarmed him. He documented his media features, interviews and appearances almost daily for months.

“The Fauci cult continues,” wrote Fauci in reference to August media reports.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming features in the diary twice."}]

An April 10, 2020, entry documents calls with governors seeking Fauci’s guidance and to air their concern about the devastating economic fallout: “17 million jobs lost within the past 4 weeks.”

Even the massive infusion of federal relief dollars couldn’t spare the states, and some red-state governors urged counsel on how to get their people back to work safely, the entry says.

“Call with Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming – same discussion,” wrote Fauci. “What advice and counsel of returning to normal.”

“All these Governors are calling me because of my credibility and reputation to run their plans by me and ask for my opinion and help … message back to (the task force and president,” the director added.

A July 4, 2021, entry says Wyoming and other states had COVID surges due to lower vaccination rates. 

Former U.S. House Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, appear multiple times in the diary.

Republicans and conservative news commentators started “blasting” Fauci for his shutdown policies on about May 13, 2020. So did Paul, in a May 12 Senate hearing.

[{"type":"text","text":"Julia Roberts mooned over Fauci that same week, the diary says."}]

“Dick Cheney called me to thank me for what I was doing and to say that he fully supported me,” wrote Fauci. “I acknowledged and thanked him and his daughter Liz for sticking up for me after the Senate Hearing yesterday.”

The former vice president was “muted in his criticism of Trump,” Fauci continued. “But he did agree that Trump was living in an alternative universe.”

Fauci wrote three days later that he told Vice President Mike Pence of how Cheney had called him into the White House 19 years prior to discuss the anthrax attacks.

[{"type":"text","text":"On Aug. 4, 2021, Dick Cheney called again, the diary says."}]

Cheney had had a heart transplant years prior and was on an immunosuppressive regimen, wrote Fauci.

“It is likely that his immune response two (sic) the vaccine is suboptimal.”

Cheney’s cardiologist recommended the former vice president call Fauci, the diary says.

“I made it very clear to Cheney that I strongly recommended he get the third boost of the mRNA since he is highly susceptible to getting infected if he comes into contact with an infected person,” Fauci wrote.

He added that they discussed “the courage of his daughter Liz Cheney and sticking up against the far right Republicans who want to whitewash the January 6th insurrection.”

Fauci voiced his appreciation “that she has been sticking up for me,” says the entry.

[{"type":"text","text":"What Wyoming's Pendley Remembers"}]

The diary also stunned a former Trump department head, who contrasted Fauci’s apparent fixation with media attention with the “traumatic” efforts others undertook to address COVID19.

William Perry Pendley, a Wyomingite who then led Trump’s U.S. Bureau of Land Management, criticized Fauci in a Monday post to X and a Tuesday interview with Cowboy State Daily.

“What struck me, and struck a lot of people on X, was just the contrast,” Pendley told Cowboy State Daily, “That while he’s getting over his celebrity status, hundreds of people at the Department of Interior are taking this very, very seriously, and regarding it as something from the White House saying this is a life-and-death matter. This is a national crisis.”

Pendley said with preparation, duration and follow-up directives, the meetings consumed two to three hours of each day. Interior leadership worried about the health of the roughly 70,000 employees under their umbrella, he said.

“While Fauci basked in the media's attention, I ran Trump's BLM & was on daily Zoom calls with Interior's number two official with scores of others,” wrote Pendley on X. “Untold hours by hundreds of employees were needed to prepare for & follow up on those needlessly traumatic meetings. Shame on him.”

Fauci’s diary also features his numerous concerns about deaths and sickness.

But first, Fauci opined in a Feb. 8, 2020, phone call that the virus was “acting like a bad influenza” and showed a case fatality rate of 0.2%-0.3%, his diary says.

The messaging was, “You’ve got to devote all your energy and skills to addressing this,” added Pendley in his interview.

[{"type":"text","text":"The ‘Hot And Heavy’ Press"}]

Entanglements and preoccupations with “press” that permeate nearly every entry.

“Press still hot and heavy about me,” says an April 7, 2020 entry. “Multiple stories per day directly or indirectly involving me.”

In the more than 1,100 pages of Dr. Anthony Fauci's diary released over the weekend, he mentioned Wyoming’s low COVID vaccination rates, his admiration of Liz Cheney and his conversations with Dick Cheney. He appeared fixated on the "hot and heavy" press.

You Still Here? Tuesday, May 28, 2024

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