It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, July 1st. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Presented by Cheyenne Frontier Days - starting July 19th, from sun-up to sun-down - there’s something for everyone! Check it out at C-F-D RODEO DOT COM!
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It’s been nearly five years since Chance Englebert vanished during a holiday visit to see his in-laws in Nebraska. As his family gets ready to mark the unhappy anniversary, new leads have emerged that may help shed light on the Moorcroft man’s disappearance.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher has been following this story for the last five years. She said the new leads are the result of a private investigator becoming involved in the case.
“Many of these investigators, such as RD investigations, they're former law enforcement. And they get involved for free, volunteer, because they care passionately about the missing people. And they’ve formed strong relationships with the family members also, as they’re working behind the scenes. And in this case, this is the first time - I've been covering the story for five years since Chance disappeared - This is the first time that I've seen any kind of leads unveiled. So I think it's promising.”
Englebert, then 25, was last seen on surveillance video walking down a residential street in Gering, Nebraska, the evening of July 6, 2019. The new lead, however, places him at a convenience store in the neighboring city of Scottsbluff, about 2 miles from where he was last picked up on camera.
Read the full story HERE.
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The trout fishing at 9-Mile Lake west of Laramie, exclusive to the Alco Rod and Gun Club, has a stellar reputation. The club has a lot invested in the quantity of its trophy-sized fish, so when the quality of angling started to wane, it was a real concern.
Turns out the culprits were birds - but not just any bird, according to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz, who spoke to club president Mark Rozman.
“They finally figured out, he found a study in Idaho that established a clear connection between the number of pelicans in an area and the number of fish - and so put two and two together and figured out the pelicans are gobbling up all our fish out here… through US Fish and Wildlife Service, they had to procure special permits to be able to go out with shotguns and ideally just blast away at the pelicans and scare them, although they do have to actually shoot some now and again… just get them out, get them away, cut down on their numbers. ”
The thought of shooting pelicans might not sit well with everyone, but Rozman said it isn’t a free-for-all killing spree, and they won’t take any shots they think won’t be a slam-dunk for quick, humane kill.
Read the full story HERE.
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Social media giant Meta Platform Inc. needs Laramie County officials to come to an agreement on future power needs for the massive data enterprise center it plans to build in southern Wyoming.
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is going to need enormous amounts of power to keep the data center running. Energy reporter Pat Maio spoke to Gunnar Malm, vice chairman of the Laramie County Board of Commissioners, about the holdup.
“He's confident that all will be worked out with Enbridge, which is building the big solar farm down in South Cheyenne as well. It's about an 800 megawatt farm. It's the largest in Wyoming, about $1.2B investment. So we got billions of dollars coming to South Cheyenne.”
The Meta project is expected to be officially announced to the public next week, although Cowboy State Daily confirmed and reported on the plans in early May.
Read the full story HERE.
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In the world of steam engines, Big Boy 4014 is a rock star, and it got a rock star welcome on Sunday.
At 132 feet long and weighing in at 1.2 million pounds, the Big Boy locomotives were among the largest ever made in America, and Big Boy 4014 is the largest that’s still running. Hundreds of people lined up in downtown Laramie for the first whistlestop on its 2024 summer tour - including Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson.
“It was insane, all right. The only thing that would have been bigger than the Big Boy coming into Laramie would be is if the Beatles got off.”
But Greg isn’t just a fan of the old steam locomotive - he’s got the railroad in his blood.
“My grandfather was a career railroad man. He was one of the last telegrapher on the railroad, which means he did the telegraph, he would send telegraphs. And actually one of the last ones who actually sent Morse code up and down the lines.”
After running from Cheyenne to Laramie on Sunday morning, Big Boy 2024 chugged on to Rawlins. Monday morning it headed for Rock Springs, making a whistlestop from in Wamsutter. Then it’ll be on to Evanston before crossing into Utah, Nevada and California. Big Boy will swing back into Rock Springs on July 23rd.
Read the full story HERE.
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Many readers were repulsed when we introduced them to Huitlacoche, also known as “corn smut,” two weeks ago. So Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean asked Wyoming celebrity chef Petrina Peart to prepare it - and she proved looks can be deceiving.
“It looks like a slimy mess on an ear of corn. It's literally a fungus growing out of every kernel of corn, it looks like this alien spiky science experiment in your refrigerator type of thing. Most of the people who saw our first article on that were like, I'm not eating that. That's gross. So we decided to give it to Chef Petrina Peart for a taste test… She cooked that stuff up. She put a big heaping generous portion on top of each steak, took it to the diners. We watched them devour these steaks. They were so good. They were like, oh my god, this is so good.”
Huitlacoche is common in Mexico, where the rainy season makes it an almost inevitable infection in fields of corn. In the last 10 years, chefs in many countries have discovered this culinary treasure.
Read the full story HERE.
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Tricky Riggle was a kind of cowboy showman in the vein of Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill Cody. A low-rent version of those famed Western legends, Riggle bounced from town to town on the rodeo circuit, until he settled in Wheatland in the 1940s.
In early spring of 1953, tiny Wheatland was rocked by a double-homicide. On March 28, Riggle held a smoking gun in the doorframe of a local café as his fiancée and a local ranch hand who paid her too much attention both hit the floor dead. Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols dug into the sordid tale of Tricky Riggle.
“Tricky Riggle was a sideshow rodeo, kind of novelty act guy. He threw knives at his lovely assistant, and eventually would shoot her. But it had nothing to do with the show. It was a lover's tryst. He thought he had an agreement to be married. And it ended up being a double homicide in Wheatland, Wyoming, which is a tiny little town.”
You can read Jake’s full story at cowboystatedaily.com - while you’re there, check out the rest of the news, written by the talented reporters at Wyoming’s only statewide newspaper - and get your free digital subscription to our daily newsletter! You can also watch this newscast every day by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
