It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, July 8th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by Wyoming Senior Olympics - on July 10th you can help support senior athletes in Wyoming by participating in the WyoGives day of giving!
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The Yellowstone contract worker who injured a park ranger and was killed in a shootout on July 4 held a female hostage at gunpoint prior to his death.
The gunman, Samson Fussner, 28 of Florida, was an employee of Xanterra, a company offering hotel and other services within Yellowstone National Park.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland acquired a recording of a "be-on-the lookout" notice aired on the Park County dispatch system hours before the incident, and confirmed its authenticity with the Park County Sheriff’s Office.
“What it alleges is that the shooter had taken a woman hostage and was threatening to go shoot up possibly a fireworks show… at some point, he also allegedly threatened suicide by cop, which is a phrase generally meaning you're going to engage or aggravate cops so that they kill you.”
The investigation into the incident is ongoing, and under the jurisdiction of the FBI.
Read the full story HERE.
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Secretary of State Chuck Gray is already drawing lines in the sand when it comes to the 2026 Wyoming governor’s race.
At a political rally in Casper on Sunday, Gray said he’s heard rumblings that Gov. Mark Gordon may try to run for a third consecutive term in 2026. But Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that if Gordon tries that, Gray has said that he won’t certify his candidacy.
“This would be unusual, but not totally unprecedented in Wyoming history, as former governor Ed Herschler served three terms. But law has been put in place since that time, that makes it so that a governor cannot serve more than eight years in any 16 year period, which would have appeared to invalidate Gordon's effort.”
The Wyoming Constitution does not definitively clarify whether a governor can run for a third term or more in Wyoming, but it also doesn’t outlaw it. And Gordon has said nothing publicly on the topic so far.
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Wyoming has its own money pit. It’s called Anchor Dam, and it lies in the southwest corner of the Bighorn Basin.
The valley where the dam was built looks picture perfect for a dam - but Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the dam has never held any of the water it was designed for.
“I think geologists were fooled by the fact that there was so much chuckstone sediment there that normally doesn't leak. But there were faultlines that made that a much more highly fractured rock than expected, it was also thinner in the location where they moved the dam to, they decided they had to move it further up, that turned out to be a little too thin, then underneath there's dolomite. That's a very soluble limestone.”
Anchor Dam is often pointed to as an example of wasteful government spending. But Jean says rather, this project was an attempt to bring water to an arid part of the state that really needed it in order to prosper.
Read the full story HERE.
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Anonymous bidders in auctions operated over a private online network by Wyoming’s Office of State Land Investments don’t always tell the full story of an entity’s ulterior motives.
Some energy industry participants in this week’s Wyoming-led oil and gas lease auction are wondering if the Wyoming Outdoor Council or even an activist billionaire might try to scuttle the sale, according to energy reporter Pat Maio.
“There's a lot of disdain, I'm finding out, for the Wyoming Outdoor Council because they've gotten to the point now where, I mean, theoretically, you know, if you're taking leases out of the hands of oil and gas companies, that hurts education in Wyoming, right? Because a lot of that money, that royalty money goes directly to education.”
Last week, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed an emergency order to implement changes in this week’s auction to keep environmental activist groups like the Wyoming Outdoor Council from driving up bids and taking energy-rich properties out of the hands of developers.
Read the full story HERE.
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When the Cody Theatre opened on the historic Western town’s main street, one of its main attractions was being the first air-conditioned building in Wyoming. It was a great selling point for 1937 movie-going audiences.
Nearly 90 years later, the theater’s cooling unit is the ultimate example of if it ain't broke, don’t fix it, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.
“It was the first building in the state of Wyoming to have air conditioning, this giant swamp cooler that just sprays water. And then it gets evaporated and cooled and move throughout the building. I know the owners of the Cody theater very well… And the thing that stuck out to me is when we were talking about it, they said that is this the most cost efficient option? No, it's a nightmare… for them, it's about preserving the integrity of the Cody Theatre.”
Despite its age, the Cody Theatre's swamp cooler still performs remarkably well. The feedback they get from summer audiences is that it often works too well.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel.
I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
