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

<title>You Still Here? Saturday, June 8, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You Still Here? Saturday, June 8, 2024

 What happens when you drop a 1,000 degree fireball into a glass of chocolate milk....

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

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

The first time Farmstead Cider went after old apples in Jackson Hole, it was just for the flavor. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"It soon became about the bears. "}]

Every fall as apples drop and ferment in the backyards and ghost orchards of Jackson Hole, grizzlies and black bears do what comes naturally. They follow their noses straight into trouble — calorie-rich fruits that taste oh-so-good when you’re a bear desperate to fatten up for winter. 

The first harvest, though, was all about the homesick wives, Farmstead Cider’s co-owner Orion Bellorado said. They had grown up on the East Coast, where apple harvests are a big deal. 

“We started harvesting the apples in our neighborhood off of peoples’ trees that were kind of derelict,” he said. “And they were tiny, so we pressed a bunch of juice and made some cider out of it.”

The party was great and word soon got around. 

“Someone from the county found out about it and said, ‘Hey, you should really put in for this community grant to start a business,” Bellorado recalled. “‘Because we’ve really been having issues with bears.’”

That was in 2016, and the business has been going ever since, bottling 5,000 to 7,000 gallons of native-yeast cider a year and selling it across Wyoming as well as other states such as Washington and Montana. 

In the process of climbing into backyards and abandoned orchards, Bellorado stumbled onto a bigger realization. Wyoming is curiously — if quietly — rich in apples across the state.

“They are everywhere,” he said. “I mean, Lander was called Apple Town before it was called Lander. It’s full on part of this interesting tidbit of our culture and our history that’s really been left behind.”

That history is being rediscovered thanks to a project called the Wyoming Apple Project. Through it, researchers have been cataloguing a hidden network of heritage and volunteer trees that have somehow survived a century or so of drought and neglect. Researchers say these hardy survivors might point the way to a new kind of apple economy in one of the harshest fruit-growing climates in America.

You wouldn’t know it from today’s landscape of hay bales and cattle, but Wyoming was once thick with apples. Homesteaders brought apple seeds to plant in their new homes, carving out orchards that were just as essential as a root cellar to their survival.

Apples meant sauce, butter, cider, vinegar and livestock feed. They were essential calories, but also comfort — the kind that could be stored up through a long, hard winter.

By the early 1900s, experimental orchards and private growers had tested at least 218 named apple cultivars across Wyoming, including 11 that were Wyoming-bred. 

Among the most ambitious of the early apple pioneers was an experimental fruit farm in Lander, which trialed 175 different cultivars under superintendent John Steinbrecht, who also developed 10 of the 11 Wyoming-bred cultivars. 

Not far away from Steinbrecht was Lander orchardist Ed Young, who planted a prodigious 3,000-some apple trees in 1882 — an act of faith in a place better known for blizzards than fruit blossoms.

At the time, Wyoming was held up as a national example of what’s possible on the frontier. 

“A lot of those early settlers, such as Ed Young, and their success in growing apples was used in news articles back east, to bring hope to people thinking about moving West,” University of Wyoming graduate and plant physiologist Jonathan Magby told Cowboy State Daily. “It helped show them that you can successfully inhabit this remote location of the United States.”

Wyoming’s apples at that time came from everywhere — Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Canada and even Russia. Several nurseries were involved in seeing which varieties could stand up to Wyoming’s brutal mix of cold, drought and wind, including 

At one point, at least 70 out-of-state nurseries and 20 in-state nurseries across 11 Wyoming cities were selling apple stock to Wyoming growers.

Then, slowly, the state forgot about its apples.

Wyoming’s agricultural identity shifted solidly toward cattle and general row crops. Many orchards were abandoned. Irrigation ditches shifted. Families moved away or sold off land.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Winters kept coming. "}]

And the apple trees that had been left behind continued growing. They became part of an unintended Darwinist experiment — one where only the fittest would survive. 

What’s left of the apple trees that once dotted Wyoming are now the toughest of the tough. Trees too full of Wyoming grit to give up and die.

Among the most interesting is a gnarled apple tree in Lander. Its limbs curl up to the sun like an insect on its back, and its trunk is so hollowed out, one wouldn’t be surprised to find a hobbit — or some other creature of legend — sleeping inside.

Somehow, though, this ancient tree is still alive, still leafing out, still stubbornly insisting on producing apples, despite a century or so in a place that routinely tries to freeze them to death.

Wyoming is not a state known for hardy trees. It is, after all, among the coldest and driest of states in the Lower 48. And apple trees aren’t known for being especially long-lived, either. Most never see a 100th birthday.

That makes this particular apple tree special. It’s passed a 100-year stress test, one where Wyoming wind and drought are separating the true pioneers from the pretenders.

To Magby, the Lander tree is far more than a curiosity. It’s a symbol of what Wyoming apples once were, as well as what they could be again. 

These survivors could help develop ever more hardy Wyoming stock, making apples a potential new and viable agricultural commodity. Because of that, the tree’s tissue was pulled and grafted onto new stock, so it can keep growing for another 100 years.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Like A CSI Detective"}]

Magby has been searching out all the old heritage apple trees of Wyoming using DNA finger-printing techniques more often associated with crime shows like CSI. 

So far he’s sampled 510 trees at 91 locations in 19 cities, from Lander and Sheridan to Buffalo and Casper, to figure out which trees match known cultivars and which might be lost or forgotten varieties. So far he’s found more than 150 unique genetic fingerprints that don’t match anything in old reference collections. 

Some of those varieties show up in multiple towns, suggesting they are long-lost cultivars that no longer exist anywhere else. hey are a living link to an era when Wyoming was serious apple country.

Two varieties that keep showing up, meanwhile, are Wealthy and Haralson, both bred in Minnesota. They are roughly one-third of all the identified surviving trees in his data set.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Charming History"}]

Magby doesn’t see Wyoming apples as a charming historical footnote. He believes these survivors are pointing the way to a viable agricultural commodity for the state, one that could lead to more products that are made in Wyoming, such as Farmstead Cider in Jackson Hole. Making products in Wyoming — referred to as value-added products — is a better bang for the buck. It keeps most of the economic value chain in-state.

Apple cider production makes a lot of sense in Wyoming, alongside the growing microbrewery scene, Magby said. People also just enjoy fresh produce that’s been grown in Wyoming, whether that’s an apple or other fruits.

“We take pride in anything that’s been produced in Wyoming,” Magby said. “So I’d love to see someone take a strong stance of producing and backing development of cultivars and revamping testing of grape and pear varieties and other small fruits, just to provide that diversity, not just in fresh food products, but also diversity of economies.”

Bellorado is already living that future at Farmstead Cider, thanks to bear-safety grants that helped launch a business to haul apples out of backyards and ghost orchards. 

Now, instead of attracting trouble, those apples are a useful and delicious product in a growing business. It’s more joy to the human world, all from abandoned, pioneer apple trees.

Apples Ian Mc Gregor co owner of Farmstead Cider Courtesy Photo 6 27 26

<title>Wyoming’s Ghost Apple Orchard Trees Have Been Rediscovered And Are Producing | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming was once thick with apples. In fact, it was a top apple producer. Now those forgotten apple trees are being rediscovered by small cider houses. "They're everywhere," said one cider house owner. "Lander was called Apple Town before Lander."

Wyoming’s Ghost Apple Orchard Trees Have Been Rediscovered And Are Producing

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Law Enforcement

Authorities are working to unravel the mysterious deaths of a man and woman who were found in Laramie County earlier this year within three months of one another in unrelated incidents.

The first, a woman thought to be between 30 and 50 years old, was struck by a vehicle and killed on the side of Interstate 25 outside Cheyenne in late April.

The second is an unknown man found near a commercial building on South Greeley Avenue earlier this month.

Both deaths are under investigation, pending autopsy results from the Laramie County Coroner’s Office.

The fatalities were not publicly announced by authorities, but instead entered into the National Unidentified Persons System — known as NamUs — which is the country’s only centralized database for tracking missing and unidentified persons.

Although anyone with an account can enter missing people into the database, only law enforcement and those with coroners' offices can add unidentified people.

For both, distinctive tattoos could help investigators track down who they are.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Potential Assist"}]

Two NamUs entries for Wyoming in one week are unusual, say two amateur Cheyenne-based genealogists who run a pro bono company focused on reporting missing and unidentified people.

“It definitely caught our attention,” said Ashley Kroner, who along with her twin sister, Megan McWilliams, are cofounders of Genetics Uncovered.

As usual, they made posters for both John and Jane Doe, with photos of identifying tattoos added by the coroner’s office and shared on their 

Facebook page with more than 9,000 followers

The posts reached hundreds of people, potentially including members of the John Doe’s family, who contacted Kroner and stated they recognized the tattoos.

Kroner shared their information with Laramie County Coroner Rebecca Reid, who is responsible for making the identification, per state statute.

As of Thursday, John Doe was still listed in NamUs.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mysterious Circumstances"}]

Little is known about the individuals and the circumstances under which they died.

Jane Doe was struck and killed by a vehicle at the mile marker 11 exit, potentially near the on ramp, between 8 and 9 p.m. on April 20, according to Aaron Brown, public information officer for the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

Brown said troopers rendered aid to no avail, and the woman succumbed to her injuries on the scene.

Her death remains under investigation, Brown said. He declined to share any additional details, citing an active investigation, though he added no charges are pending.

The victim is described as Caucasian with shoulder-length blonde, strawberry hair and unknown eye color. She was about 5-feet-7 and weighed 136 pounds.

She had a distinct tattoo on her right hip: A cloud with three zigzag lines beneath it, a sun emerging from the cloud’s left side and a star above the sun, and two clusters of triangles running along the far left of the lines.

Along with her clothing, a black and white duffle bag was found near her body, according to the NamUs entry.

Also citing an active investigation, Reid likewise could not provide any additional information.

John Doe was found dead June 6 at the 800 block of South Greeley Highway in Cheyenne, slumped in a kneeling position alongside a commercial building, with no cellphone or other identification.

His death remains under investigation, according to Chance Walkama, chief deputy of operations for the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office.

Walkama said his office is awaiting autopsy and toxicology results from Reid’s office. No foul play is currently suspected, but the cause and manner of death have not yet been determined.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Giving Them A Name"}]

McWilliams and Kroner said they were pleased their efforts might have helped lead to the identification of the John Doe and also credited Reid for entering both Does into the national database, where the public – and family members – can see them.  

why they started Genetics Uncovered in 2021

 with the mission of locating missing people and putting names to Jane and John Does.

Both sisters have decades of experience in genealogy. McWilliams, whose husband Scott oversees the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation’s crime lab, taught a two-day class in forensic genetic genealogy for DCI agents and assisted the agency with a 1995 cold case in Carbon County.

McWilliams was also just accepted into an investigative genetic genealogy program starting this fall. Kroner, meanwhile, holds down a full-time job while pouring whatever hours remain into tracking down unidentified people and pushing law enforcement and coroners to enter them into NamUs.

Together, the sisters spend long stretches combing through ancestry records, burial registries such as Find A Grave, and newspaper archives, assembling family trees in hopes of giving the unidentified a name.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Success Stories"}]

This is part of their nationwide initiative, “Not Forgotten,” to track down unidentified people and get them entered into NamUs.

Once in the database, not only can law enforcement cross-check for missing people, but it also allows family members to provide DNA for possible identification should remains be found.

Without this database, there’s no central repository for law enforcement and families to find these individuals, many of whom have been reported missing.

They admit it’s an ambitious undertaking, but they have since recruited six volunteers to help tackle the vast territory, which they’ve broken down into geographic areas.

Between the eight of them, they have most of the country covered, but they still need volunteers in two areas: California, which is its own region, and a southern stretch comprising Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

[{"type":"text","text":"The work is paying off, they say."}]

To date, they’ve worked with law-enforcement agencies and coroner offices around the country to enter 35 new Does into NamUs.

Of those, at least one has been identified. In January 2026, authorities in Washington state positively identified the remains of a former mayor, Clarence Edwin Asher, 

who drowned while crabbing in an Oregon bay in 2006

The twins successfully added into the database in March 2025, making that identification possible.

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

[{"type":"text","text":"There are hundreds more still to be located in Wyoming and beyond.  "}]

More than 15,000 unidentified individuals are listed the NamUs database, Kroner said, but she believes that number is much higher.

Along with the two latest entries, Wyoming has nine unidentified people listed in NamUs dating to 1977, including two of the sisters’ personal favorites, whom they’ve affectionately dubbed 

“Motel Mike” and “Pine Bluffs Pete.”

“Mike” died of an overdose in a Cheyenne motel in April 1977.  “Pete,” a transient, was hit by a train while attempting to cross tracks in 1996.

Both men remain unidentified, but at least they’ve since been listed in the database, McWilliams said.

There are likely several more. To date, the sisters have located four unidentified people in Wyoming dating to the late 1800s.

The challenge lies in determining how far back law enforcement and coroners are willing to go — at what point a case becomes too old to be worth opening. Knowing many agencies are understaffed and overworked, the sisters try to be thoughtful about which cases they bring forward.

Technically, the oldest case in NamUs is from 1915, but they’ve found even older unidentified people in Wyoming.

Their oldest case is a 35-year-old man who died near Cooper Lake in Albany County in March 1899.

A John Doe died in a Laramie railroad yard in 1908 and another was killed in a train accident in Sheridan County in 1910. A John Doe from Natrona County died in 1921.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Trains And Drownings"}]

As the sisters have learned, train deaths were common back in the day. So were drownings.

Many were transients just passing through foreign places where they met their demise – far away from family and friends, who had for whatever reasons lost track of them.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sometimes they get lucky and find accompanying news articles."}]

It’s the stories that get you, both sisters agreed. That’s where their hearts catch, in the space between life and data.

They shared a news clip about the last man killed by the train in Natrona County in 1932.

He’d been standing at the west end of the Platte River bridge outside Casper when a Chicago and North Western train out of Lander hit him, hurling him down a 10-foot embankment to his instant death.

[{"type":"text","text":"He bore no identification except a hat with the initials “J.T.M.”"}]

The train engineer told authorities he had blown the whistle repeatedly. The man never moved.

Boys swimming in the river below likewise had tried to warn him. Again, he kept walking without so much as a glance backward.  

Later, authorities concluded that he was likely deaf and never saw it coming.

Worse, those who loved him hadn’t even known he died, and still don’t because he has not yet been entered into NamUs.

It’s stories like these that make this work meaningful for the twins and compels them to continue on behalf of the missing and unidentified, 

including the two recent Does in Cheyenne.

“They don’t have a voice,” Kroner said. “I want to be that voice.”

John and Jane Doe 1 6 27 26

<title>Who Are John And Jane Doe? Twin Genealogists Hope Tattoos Can ID Cheyenne Bodies | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Twin genealogists are working to identify a John and Jane Doe found two months apart in Cheyenne earlier this year. “They don’t have a voice,” the sisters said, “but their distinctive tattoos could help investigators track down who they are.”

Who Are John And Jane Doe? Twin Genealogists Hope Tattoos Can ID Cheyenne Bodies

Dennis sun 1 25 23

Dennis Sun

Opinion

CSD Columnists

The New World screwworm (NWS) is causing trouble and costing dollars in Texas and New Mexico. As of June 25, 20 cases have been found, and I figure if there have been 20 cases found in livestock and pets, there are probably another 20 cases or more in wildlife.

Female screwworms will find an open wound on any warm-blooded animal to lay its eggs, and the larvae eat the flesh surrounding the wound. If left untreated, the animal eventually dies.

The good part about releasing sterile male flies in affected areas is female flies only mate once, and if the wild female flies mate with a sterile partner, the pest’s life cycle stops. This control method worked to many years ago during an outbreak in the U.S. and Mexico.

The potential path of the pest looks to go north and northeast from South Texas, especially along the coast from Texas to Florida.

The High Plains Region looks to be safe from NWS, unless it shows up as larvae in an infected wound on an animal.

Weather patterns and temperatures will influence the movement of the NWS. Pupae development cannot live below about 58 degrees, and the adult fly’s favorite temperature is around 81 degrees. It looks like cool nighttime temperatures will control NWS. 

Along with our temperatures, I hear rainfall and moisture will dictate to what extent the pest lives. If some do get to our region, they will soon be a dead this year with our drought.

Besides Mexico and the Central America, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is doing a heck of a job controlling the fly. We have to work closely with these countries to control NWS in our states. Other countries live with NWS, while the U.S. doesn’t want the pest at all.

The USDA currently produces sterile flies in Panama and is investing $21 million to support Mexico. Moore Air Base near Edinburg, Texas currently has a fly dispersal facility where pupae from Panama arrive and are readied for distribution. USDA is also constructing a production facility at Moore Air Base which should be operational in the fall of 2027.

As of June 17, the number of sterile flies released in Texas and New Mexico was 135,623,026 via aerial dispersal, 12,079,200 via ground dispersal and 5,238,496 via vehicular dispersal.

In Wyoming, Gov. Mark Gordon convened an ad hoc animal health panel with state veterinary and public health officials to strengthen communication and preparedness efforts surrounding NWS.

The governor said, “The goal was to expand outreach ahead of Wyoming’s peak summer travel, backcountry recreation and rodeo season.”

Gordon also said, “There are no reported cases in Wyoming. However, Texas and New Mexico are tracking instances, so it is important to keep all citizens informed, including pet owners, campers, rodeo athletes and sportsmen, in addition to our ag, ranching and wildlife communities.

I’m satisfied with the extensive outreach regarding NWS which has been outgoing to our ag, livestock and wildlife professionals.”

We applaud the governor and members of the group for being so proactive.

Dennis Sun is the publisher of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup, a weekly agriculture newspaper available online and in print.

<title>Dennis Sun: The New World Screwworm Is One Expensive Parasite | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Dennis Sun writes, "The New World screwworm is causing trouble and costing dollars in Texas and New Mexico. "Twenty cases have been found so far, and if there are 20 cases in livestock and pets, there are probably another 20 cases or more in wildlife."

Dennis Sun: The New World Screwworm Is One Expensive Parasite

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

After repeatedly getting too close to people and possible food sources, a popular young grizzly called Miracle was captured and relocated by wildlife agents in Grand Teton National Park on Thursday afternoon.

It was the necessary next step for human safety and the bear’s well-being, Grand Teton spokeswoman Emily Davis told Cowboy State Daily early Friday.

Miracle has been hanging around the Colter Bay area, where she was captured.

Earlier this month, dog handlers with Karelian bear dogs were brought in to try hazing Miracle away from crowded areas.

Fans of Miracle have assumed the bear was a female. That was confirmed when she was captured, Davis said.

The bear weighs roughly 80 pounds. She was tagged and officially designated “GB (grizzly bear) 1199,” she said.

Miracle is thought to be about 2.5 years old, and assumed to the offspring of another popular bear, Grizzly 1063.

Biologists think “it’s highly likely that she’s 1063’s offspring” but only a DNA test could affirm that, Davis said.

Miracle/Grizzly 1199 was relocated to a remote location in Grand Teton, she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"‘A Fed Bear Is A Dead Bear’"}]

“There have been no documented cases of her (Miracle/Grizzly 1199) getting a food reward” but the possibility seemed imminent, Davis said.

A bear getting food rewards, or becoming “food-conditioned,” as officials put it, is considered a critical tipping point. And it usually doesn’t end well for the bear.

“A fed bear is a dead bear” is a common saying among wildlife biologists and bear enthusiasts.

Wildlife agents recently euthanized a food-conditioned black bear in Grand Teton.

It’s suspected that food-conditioning caused the unusually bold behavior of a black bear near Golden, Colorado. That bear scratched a woman who was hiking and then 

, despite the woman continually shouting and throwing rocks and sticks at the bear.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"‘Just A Matter Of Time’"}]

Wildlife photographer Marcela Herdova is an avid fan of Miracle and has been watching her with apprehension for the past few weeks.

Herdova told Cowboy State Daily she’s seen Miracle getting close to garbage cans and other possible temptations.

The Colter Bay area has been packed with tourists, increasing the odds that something could go wrong with the bear, she added.

“I think it was just a matter of time before somebody did something, like, not properly throwing away their trash, or even directly giving her something. So, I think this (the relocation) is the best move for her,” Herdova said.

“Right now, she’s still a little bear, but she’s still growing,” Herdova added. "She won’t be such a small bear for long, and that could cause some issues.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Troubled History"}]

Miracle is thought to have beaten some steep odds to have survived this long.

She’s thought to be one of three yearling cubs with Grizzly 1063 in May 2025, and those bears were hanging around Colter Bay.

Bear enthusiasts claimed the Park Service trying to haze Grizzly 1063 and her cubs away from Colter Bay caused them to temporarily split up, leaving the cubs vulnerable to the male’s attack.

Park officials stated there was no evidence the hazing contributed to the attack.

The third cub, thought to be Miracle, briefly reunited with Grizzly 1063 but later apparently split from its mother again.

Miracle was captured and relocated in July 2025.

Bear watchers wondered if the cub could make it on its own at such a young age because grizzlies don’t typically separate from their mothers until age 2.

Miracle’s fans were thrilled when she 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"‘The First Grizzly They Got To See’"}]

With Miracle apparently having worn out her welcome at Colter Bay, it’s bittersweet to see her relocated, Herdova said.

“I do think that they (the Park Service) have expended so much effort to keep Miracle safe, and I appreciate that,” she said.

Herdova added she’s seen numerous instances of wildlife getting into trouble, because of human interference.

That included watching a black bear digging into an overflowing garbage can, which has since been removed, she said.

And she’s watched a fox “posturing” right next to people, apparently trying to get food from them.

Miracle has been the most highly visible bear this spring and early summer, Herdova said.

After repeatedly getting too close to people and food sources, a popular young grizzly nicknamed Miracle was captured and relocated by wildlife agents in Grand Teton National Park on Thursday. "It was just a matter of time," said one wildlife photographer.

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