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<title>You Still Here? Friday, July 5, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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You Still Here? Friday, July 5, 2024

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Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Public Lands

The Bureau of Land Management is poised to round up about 1,800 mustangs from herds in central Wyoming, claiming the horses will starve if their numbers aren’t cut. 

“Without active management, herds continue to grow unchecked and can double in size every four to five years. Chronic overpopulation places both horses and rangeland resources at risk,” the BLM said Tuesday in announcing the plans for roundups in the Red Desert Complex.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The roundups are set to begin in the fall."}]

 “Saving wild horses from starvation, protecting America’s public lands,” the BLM describes the effort.

Wild-horse advocate Carol Walker told Cowboy State Daily she thinks the agency is using hyperbole to justify more roundups. 

“That’s baloney. I’m out there all the time,” Walker said. “I was out there about three weeks ago, and I didn’t see a single skinny horse.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Target Numbers"}]

Mustang management goes beyond just the horses, mule deer conservationist Bill Ames told Cowboy State Daily. 

He said he didn’t know enough about the Red Desert Complex to say how many horses should be there, but he thinks they're “overpopulated” throughout the state. 

And that can lead to competition with mule deer, pronghorn, and other wildlife, Ames said. 

“I don’t know if they compete for food so much, but they really compete for water,” said Ames, who represents the Wyoming Mule Deer Alliance. 

The roundups are planned in several horse management areas (HMAs) in the Red Desert Complex, including the Antelope Hills, Crooks Mountain, Green Mountain, Lost Creek, and Stewart Creek. 

The appropriate management level for the complex is 480 to 720 horses, meaning about 1,800 horses must be removed to “return herd sizes to sustainable levels,” according to the BLM.

The BLM also plans to use fertility control to trim Red Desert herds. 

“During gather operations, staff plan to treat around 75 to 150 mares with fertility control and release them back to the range,” the announcement said.  

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Ongoing Debate"}]

What's sustainable for the mustang population is a matter of debate. 

The BLM was given jurisdiction over mustangs under the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act. 

The agency contends that it’s managing mustang numbers according to the parameters established by the act, based on such factors as available forage for horses, conflicts with private landowners, and competition with wildlife. 

Wild-horse advocates argue that the BLM’s target numbers are a fraction of what the range can support and that the horses are scapegoats for overgrazing by sheep and cattle. 

They contend mustangs qualify as wildlife and should be respected and conserved as such. 

Others argue the horses are a feral, invasive species with no natural predators. They can damage the landscape and drive out native wildlife if their numbers go unchecked. 

After horses are rounded up, they’re sent to BLM holding facilities, such as those near Wheatland and Rock Springs. 

Many of the horses are put up for adoption, while others live out their lives in BLM facilities. 

Mustang advocates recently claimed to have evidence the BLM is also funneling some of the mustangs toward dealers who 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The BLM denies it. "}]

Nature already culled the central Wyoming mustang herds, Walker said. 

The brutal winter of 2022-2023 killed tens of thousands of pronghorn, deer, and elk in central and south-central Wyoming. 

An official tally of how many mustangs died wasn

t kept. Walker said she thinks the Red Desert Complex herds were cut by about half. 

So, it makes no sense to start a huge roundup of the herds, which are still recovering, she said. 

According to what she’s seen on the ground, the rangelands are healthy and there’s plenty of forage to go around for horses, livestock, and wildlife. 

“I see elk out there, I see pronghorn out there, and I see the little wildlife, like bunnies,” she said. 

The horses and other animals looked well-fed and healthy, she added. 

Ames said he’s concerned about mustangs leaving the HMAs. 

The BLM should round up horses that have strayed into prime mule deer and pronghorn habitat in the Pinedale area toward the south end of the Jonah Gas Field, he said.

“They’re actually in the antelope migration corridor,” he said. 

He worries that during the winter horses might drive deer and pronghorn off slopes that have been blown clear of snow and therefore vital for animals’ survival. 

“They (horses) just aren’t very good at sharing,” he said. 

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<title>BLM Says Red Desert Wild-Horse Herd Must Be Cut By 1,800 To Prevent Starvation | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Bureau of Land Management plans to round up about 1,800 mustangs in the Red Desert Complex of central Wyoming this fall, claiming that overpopulated horses are at risk for starvation. “That’s baloney," says wild-horse advocate Carol Walker.

BLM Says Red Desert Wild-Horse Herd Must Be Cut By 1,800 To Prevent Starvation

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

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Kelly Maher-Wolfensperger has just a few rules for the annual Ham and Jam party that happens in Hulett each year, when 30,000 or so bikes roll into town for a free pork sandwich and the fixings from Captain Ron’s Rodeo Bar.

“We do not mince, muddle, or blend,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “And we have no carbless and we have no Twisted Tea — so don’t ask.”

Her no-nonsense rules mean the bar doesn’t make Old Fashioneds, mojitos, or mules during the weeks of the Sturgis rally. 

“I’ve got people coming in here asking me for Chardonnay,” Wolfensperger added with a laugh. “I’m like, ‘What about this says we have wine?’ I mean, yeah, we have some really bad Cab, but this is not a wine bar.”

What she can make, besides the best Bloody Mary on the Hulett side of Sturgis, is a scene. 

“I live for chaos,” she said, spreading her arms wide to take in a classic small-town dive bar scene that is about to host hundreds of guests. “I’m born and ready for it. I’m an Aries, so, hell yeah, I’m ready for it.”

Sleep, coffee, ibuprofen and DripDrop — not necessarily in that order — are what she relies on to get her through August and the Sturgis Rally week.  

“My daughter is a dietician for a Big Ten football team and that’s what they use to keep their football players hydrated,” she said. 

With that, and 10 cute outfits complete with colorful boots, she’s ready — and rarin' — to go.

Wolfensperger and the town spend months preparing for the Ham and Jam.

“I think you start planning next year like the day it’s going on,” Tom Coronato told Cowboy State Daily. He is a co-owner of the Ponderosa Cafe. “I’m already planning for how I do it differently next year, because it’s not a one-day event. I mean Ham and Jam is one day, but if you prepare for one day you get one day. So we prepare for 21 days, because that’s when business is up in the Black Hills.”

The community works together on the broader logistics of drawing thousands of bikers. That includes a row of porta potties, as well as road crew and traffic crews, who keep the bikers going in the right direction and ensure cars aren’t driving into the middle of the Ham and Jam. 

“The mayor and the town council will do the budgets in advance, in anticipation of how many porta potties they need,” Coronato said. “What kind of staff they need, how many extra security people they need, like for police presence and stuff like that. The rest is just a wing and a prayer that you have good weather and good attendance.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Things aren’t always smooth. "}]

“It’s a nightmare,” Brianna Gose told Cowboy State Daily with a chuckle and a sigh. “As usual. It’s just a lot of work, but I’ve got great employees.”

Gose said she will start cleaning out the beer garden at Captain Ron’s Rodeo Bar at least a month ahead of time.

“It’s just a lot of running to get ready and going places, picking up all the supplies,” she said. “We had to go to three stores to find beans this year. Sam’s Club didn’t have any big cans of beans this time.”

The bar, which started the Ham and Jam 37 or so years ago, will spend thousands on its signature, free pork sandwich with picnic sides.

Rain might fall, but nothing seems to keep people from coming back, year after year, to experience this scene in the Black Hills of Wyoming. 

Hugs were the order of the day up and down the street as Ham and Jam regulars bump into one another again during Wyoming Wednesday.

Their excitement, their reunions, feed into an already festive, party atmosphere. 

Royce Griebler, for example, has been coming to the Ham and Jam since the late '80s and remembers when it was a bit woolier. 

“It was pretty wild with the drag racing and a lot of other stuff,” he said. “I mean, it was fun. Probably more dangerous, but back then you were young and you didn’t care about the danger.”

In the beginning, Griebler rode with his brother.

“He doesn’t ride anymore, but my son and some other friends do,” he said. “I’m out here to go ride.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Topless Steer Riding "}]

Frank Lamb also remembers when things were a bit wilder.

“At the time it was called No Panties Wednesday,” he said with a chuckle. “That was in 2003. They were just changing over to Ham and Jam.”

In those days, a PRCA rodeo capped the day, but the grand finale wasn’t bull riding. 

“It was topless steer riding,” Lamb said with a chuckle. “They don’t do that any more. So some things have calmed down quite a bit.”

DCI agents used to come to the event to help provide security, Lamb added. 

“One of them was a friend of mine, and it was horseback security,” he said. “So they had some horseback guys.”

Lamb doesn’t care that the event is a little tamer, nor did he care that rain clouds were gathering.

“I wouldn’t miss this,” he said. “I haven’t been able to come the last 10 years because of (work). But I”m not managing the racetrack anymore, so I can just go where I want.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Detour No More"}]

Ham and Jam is supposed to be a one-day party. Ride in, have a Bloody Mary, eat a pork sandwich, and roar off into the distance toward the next town on the Devils Tower loop’s “hydration station.”

But in Hulett, Wednesday’s spillover from Sturgis is so good it changes the script for some. They end up circling not just the date on their calendar but real estate listings, too.

Mike Romano, for example, first experienced the area as a child, then came back as an adult for rally week. Before he knew it, he was buying a ranch and changing his address.

“This place just speaks to me,” he said. “That might sound corny, but to some people that’s reality. I came here to unwind from two phones, two iPads, two laptops.”

Romano had been running a global company. But coming back to the rally as an adult showed him what his life was missing. 

“This helped me reconnect when I came back here,” he said. “So I gravitated to the Hulett side.”

Wolfensperger, as well, found herself drawn to Hulett. She first came in 2012, but had a motorcycle accident that year and had to go home early.

The next year, she and her husband were back. 

“We were staying out here with a friend and, well, we never left,” she said. “We saw the chaos that’s out there and so we just stayed here and people watched and fell in love with the town.”

The couple have five, six motorcycles. For them, the Sturgis Rally never really ends.  “When it’s not rally, we love riding the hills,” she said. “We ride the hills at least 300 to 400 miles every Sunday, which is not hard to do out here.”

Out-of-towners might think of Ham and Jam as a wild Wednesday detour for their Sturgis adventures. But for some, like Romano and Wolfensperger, the detour became the destination.

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<title>Sturgis 2026: Hulett's Ham & Jam — The Detour Party That's Become A Destination | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Hulett's Ham and Jam is supposed to be a one-day party. Ride in, have a Bloody Mary, eat a pork sandwich, and roar off into the distance toward Sturgis. But it's become such a popular event, the 30,000 bikers who visit every year have extended their stay.

Sturgis 2026: Hulett's Ham & Jam — The Detour Party That's Become A Destination

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

The mother and grandfather of a 2-month-old Manderson baby who died July 6 have pleaded not guilty to seven total charges alleging child endangerment, reckless endangering and drug offenses

Travis Study, 57, the infant's grandfather, pleaded not guilty to five charges during his arraignment Tuesday in Big Horn County District Court. Destynie Study, 22, the baby's mother, pleaded not guilty to two charges in Big Horn County Circuit Court on July 8.

Travis Study faces one felony count of endangering a child through exposure to methamphetamine, along with four misdemeanor charges: Reckless endangerment, endangering a child, possession of methamphetamine and possession of marijuana.

Destynie Study faces misdemeanor charges of reckless endangering and endangering a child. Her next court appearance is a pretrial conference scheduled for 3 p.m. Nov. 25.

A four-day jury trial for Travis Study is expected to be scheduled within 180 days. He remains jailed on a $75,000 cash-only bond. 

The charges stem from conditions investigators say they discovered after the infant's death July 6. 

The family's camper had no running water, a broken air conditioner and sewage system, and measured about 95 degrees inside. Investigators reported human waste, urine and feces throughout the home, along with a urine-soaked crib and drug paraphernalia.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Morning The Baby Died"}]

The investigation began just after 10 a.m. July 6, when agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation were notified of the suspicious, unattended death of an infant.

Destynie Study told investigators she fed and changed her 2-month-old daughter around 1:30 a.m., then put her back to sleep in a crib.

[{"type":"text","text":"She said she awakened around 9:45 a.m. and found the baby unresponsive."}]

Destynie grabbed the infant, got into her father's vehicle and started driving toward Three Rivers Hospital in Basin, calling 911 along the way.

By the time DCI Special Agent Anthony Giles arrived at the hospital, investigators were already documenting what they saw.

Dirt covered Destynie's arms, legs and clothing, according to an affidavit, and investigators reported what appeared to be lice eggs or significant dandruff near her scalp.

"An overwhelming smell of body odor, urine and feces was coming from her person and the room," Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Anthony Giles wrote.

Investigators reported finding dirt beneath the infant's fingernails. The same odor came from the baby's body.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"The infant's diaper was completely saturated in urine,\" Giles wrote."}]

Investigators also reported a small amount of feces and a live insect moving inside the diaper after it was removed.

The baby had lived in the Manderson camper with Destynie, Travis and another child who was just over 1 year old.

What investigators found later that day inside that camper became the foundation for the charges now moving through two Big Horn County courts.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Inside The Camper"}]

Armed with a search warrant, DCI agents went to the camper that afternoon.

Several black garbage bags that investigators believed were recently placed there were sitting outside.

When agents opened the door, they reported being hit by the same overwhelming odor of urine, feces and body odor they had encountered at the hospital.

Investigators found a 5-gallon bucket containing human waste in the bathroom.

The crib where Destynie said the baby slept was damp and smelled strongly of urine.

Investigators reported finding urine-soaked bedding and a soiled diaper underneath the mattress. Liquid had pooled inside the crib's frame, and when investigators lifted it, more foul-smelling liquid drained from the support structure.

Garbage bags outside the camper contained baby food and a comforter investigators believed was heavily soiled with urine and feces.

The DCI affidavit says agents recovered more than 21 grams of suspected marijuana and a glass pipe containing white crystalline residue.

Both Travis and Destynie told investigators that Travis regularly helped care for the children when Destynie was away.

[{"type":"text","text":"Travis described what he did as \"normal grandpa stuff.\""}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Warning Over The Phone"}]

Investigators also documented a warning allegedly made by Travis while Destynie was at the hospital.

[{"type":"text","text":"Travis remained on speakerphone while they interviewed his daughter."}]

When agents asked to take Destynie's cellphone as evidence to help establish a timeline, Travis allegedly said he didn't know what might happen if someone carrying a badge or gun showed up at his property.

[{"type":"text","text":"It would be \"a bad day for that individual,\" he allegedly said."}]

The conditions investigators documented July 6 weren't the first time authorities had concerns about the family.

Court records outline four contacts involving the Wyoming Department of Family Services and Manderson police beginning in April.

During one visit, officials investigating concerns about the family's living conditions were denied entry to the camper.

Another welfare check came after reports that Destynie had missed prenatal appointments during what investigators described as a high-risk pregnancy.

During another contact, a caseworker reported that the family's Jeep smelled strongly of cat urine and was filled with debris.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Access Denied"}]

By late May, DFS had received reports that the infant had lost 11% of her body weight and that Destynie had missed a medical appointment.

When caseworkers and police returned to the property, investigators say they were again denied access to the camper.

Travis allegedly told them to "get the f*** off his property and never come back."

Less than two months later, Destynie told investigators she awakened to find her daughter unresponsive in the crib.

The affidavit does not identify an official cause or manner of death. Neither Travis nor Destynie Study is charged with causing the infant's death.

[{"type":"text","text":"The investigation remains ongoing."}]

Manderson police and sign 7 9 26

<title>Mother, Grandfather Plead Not Guilty After Baby Dies In Hot, Feces-Filled Camper | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The mother and grandfather of a 2-month-old Manderson baby who died July 6 have pleaded not guilty to child endangerment and other charges alleging unsafe living conditions and drugs in the home.

Mother, Grandfather Plead Not Guilty After Baby Dies In Hot, Feces-Filled Camper

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Courts

A Tinder date gone horribly wrong ended with a Newcastle man dead with a hollow-point round in his chest and a South Dakota man facing a second-degree murder charge — and vastly different stories from the couple who had just met for a hook-up.

The woman Drake Alexander Ingalls of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, had driven nearly 90 minutes to meet this past weekend told investigators that Ingalls “did not need to shoot that gun at all.”

Ingalls, however, says he shot the other man in defense of his Tinder date after the woman screamed for “help” several times, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Agent Zack Miller.

The shooting happened a little before 5 a.m. Sunday, and Ingalls had his initial court appearance Tuesday, where a Weston County Circuit Court judge gave him a $250,000 cash-only bond and set an Aug. 19 preliminary hearing.

By the time Newcastle police responded to the home of the victim, identified in court documents as Jason Greene, he was lying face-down on the floor and obviously dead, wrote Miller.

An officer “entered the trailer home and located the victim … lying face-down on the floor between the hallway and living room with a large pool of blood underneath his chest,” the affidavit says. “Officers and emergency medical personnel confirmed Greene was deceased.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What She Said"}]

In separate interviews with the woman and Ingalls, both told investigators how they met on Tinder and had been talking for anywhere from a couple weeks (according to her) to a few months (according to him) before Ingalls drove to Newcastle on Saturday so they could meet up, the affidavit says.

They had a room at a local hotel and had been drinking for hours by the time the woman got a text from Greene calling her a “whore,” Miller wrote.

The woman then allegedly proceeded to claim Greene had mistreated her, but later told investigators that Greene had “never assaulted her and the two were not in any physical altercation,” the affidavit says.

Upset after getting the text, the woman asked Ingalls to take her to Greene’s place “so she could talk to him,” Miller wrote.

The woman “told Ingalls about the text message and that Greene had abused her in the past,” the affidavit says. “(She) told Ingalls that if he heard her yell for help to come and help her.”

Greene didn’t know they were coming to his residence, the document adds. Miller’s affidavit also doesn’t elaborate on how the woman and Greene knew each other.

The woman and Greene were in a “heated verbal argument” with her “yelling loudly,” which Ingalls reportedly heard, the affidavit says. So, he left his car outside the trailer and went to the woman.

The woman also told investigators that she didn’t actually see the shooting, “and adamantly stated Greene never assaulted her and the two were not in any physical altercation,” the affidavit says.

She continued to say that Ingalls “did not need to shoot that gun at all,” Miller wrote about her statement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What He Said"}]

That’s not how the confrontation went down, however, Ingalls said in his own interview with investigators, the affidavit says.

“Ingalls claimed he came around a shed and observed Greene struggling with (the woman) near the doorway threshold,” Miller wrote. “Ingalls described the struggle as Greene behind (the woman) and he had his arms hooked under her armpits and another hand on the back of her head or hair, and it appeared he was trying to pull (her) into his trailer.”

Ingalls said he tried to pull the door open, then pointed a handgun at Greene and demanded he let the woman go, according to his statement detailed in the affidavit.

“At which point, Ingalls said he fired his handgun,” Miller wrote. “Ingalls could only see Greene’s chest as (the woman) was in front of him and he believed he shot him right in the middle of the chest.”

That’s when Greene stumbled back into the trailer and fell onto the living room floor.

Ingalls had the gun because he had it in his car and grabbed it when he heard the woman yell for help, the affidavit says.

“Ingalls retrieved his 9 mm Glock 17 handgun from the center console of his car and chambered a hollow-point round into the handgun as he approached the side entrance of the trailer,” Miller wrote.

Ingalls and the woman then got back into his car and drove around the block before returning to the scene and the woman called 911.

If convicted of second-degree murder, Ingalls could get anywhere from 20 years ot life in prison, a fine of not more than $10,000, or both.

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<title>Tinder Date Ends With Newcastle Man Shot Dead, S.D. Man Facing Murder Charge | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Tinder Date Ends With Newcastle Man Shot Dead, S.D. Man Facing Murder Charge

Around Wyoming

Growing up, Texan James Neeley had never heard of mountain man Jim Baker, who was a frontier scout, trapper and early non-Native settler with ties to both Colorado and Wyoming when the West was young.

A sister’s genealogy search changed all that a couple decades ago. On Saturday, he was among a handful of Baker descendants who gathered for a photo commemorating the Little Snake River Museum’s work to preserve the cabin Baker built when he settled in present-day Savery in 1873.

Members of HistoriCorps and other volunteers in the Savery area spent last summer hand-hewing cottonwood logs to replace water-damaged logs at the cabin. The work is not finished, Little Snake River Museum Director Lela Emmons told Cowboy State Daily. 

Efforts are already underway to raise additional funds to keep the restoration going, and to source more of the huge cottonwood logs 

“There’s still another 10 or 12 logs we need to replace,” she said. “Getting those logs is the hardest part of the whole thing.”

Large cottonwood logs aren’t simply available at Home Depot or some other lumberyard.

Long before he built his cabin in Savery, Jim Baker led two dozen men in an 1841 fight that gave Battle Mountain its name. Now his far-flung descendants and a tiny museum are fighting time, money and rotten logs to save the frontier scout’s last home.

You Still Here? Friday, July 5, 2024

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