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[{"type":"text","text":"The European mind is beginning to comprehend..."}]

Bonus vid 2 7 19 24

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

<title>Bonus Video 2: Friday, July 19, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The European mind is beginning to comprehend...

Bonus Video 2: Friday, July 19, 2024

 The European mind is beginning to comprehend...

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Sunny, breezy, smoky in much of Wyoming on Monday. Fire danger in some areas. Mostly clear overnight. Cooler with highs from the low 70s to mid 90s. Lows from the mid 30s to mid 50s.

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Widespread smoke, sunny and breezy today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph.

Widespread smoke mainly before 11 a.m., sunny and breezy today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 50 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Areas of smoke, sunny and breezy today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, sunny today with a high near 84 and wind from 11-16 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke before 9 p.m. and a low near 44.

  Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Areas of smoke, sunny and breezy today with a high near 90 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 50 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph.

 Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Areas of smoke, sunny and breezy today with a high near 82 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.

 Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Widespread smoke mainly before 7 a.m., sunny and breezy today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 39 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

 Areas of smoke, sunny today with a high near 80 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 41.

  Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Widespread smoke mainly before 7 a.m., sunny and breezy today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 37 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

 Areas of smoke, sunny and breezy today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 41 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

  Widespread smoke mainly after 4 p.m., sunny today with a high near 79 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 39.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Areas of smoke, sunny today with a high near 70 and mostly clear overnight a low near 35.

Widespread smoke mainly after 1 p.m., sunny and breezy today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

:  Widespread smoke, sunny and windy today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 43 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Widespread smoke mainly before 3 p.m., sunny and windy today with a high near 82 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph.

   Widespread smoke mainly before 4 p.m., sunny and windy today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph.

  Areas of smoke, sunny today with a high near 77 and wind from 17-23 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke and a low near 44.

:   Areas of smoke, sunny today with a high near 72 and wind from 21-24 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 44 and wind from 12-17 mph.

Areas of smoke, mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.

   Red flag fire warning from 11 a.m. today until 8 p.m. tonight. Areas of smoke, mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a slight chance of rain after midnight, areas of smoke before 9 p.m., a low near 51 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.

:  Areas of smoke, mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Red flag fire warning from 11 a.m. today until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 95 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with areas of smoke, a low near 57 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Red flag fire warning from 11 a.m. today until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, mostly sunny, breezy and hot today with a high near 91 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with areas of smoke, a low near 56 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Widespread smoke mainly before 1 p.m., sunny and breezy today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.

   Red flag fire warning from 11 a.m. today until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 93 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 52 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph.

  Patchy smoke, slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 89 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Red flag fire warning from 11 a.m. today until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, increasing clouds, breezy and hot today with a high near 97 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

   Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 88 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

   Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke after 1 p.m., mostly sunny, breezy and hot today with a high near 90 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

   Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke after 11 a.m., mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 92 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

Daycap no play 8 3 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Monday, August 3, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Monday, August 3, 2026

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, August 3rd.  I’m Mac Watson.

This newscast is brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair. Wrap up your summer at the Wyoming State Fair, August 11th through the 15th in Douglas!

Rodeo, Demolition Derby, live music, entertainment and fair food await. Learn more at W-Y State Fair dot com. See you at the fair! This ad was paid for by Converse County Tourism.

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Searchers are optimistic that the barrel and a trash can they found two weeks ago at the bottom of Fremont Lake contain the bodies of a young mother and her two sons murdered by notorious killer Gerald Uden. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that their next step is to recover the barrels.

“When Bill Doshey and his team were going back through the drone footage a couple days after the search, they saw what appeared to be a trash can at the bottom of the lake. Now this finding is significant because Gerald Uden claims to have placed the bodies of his two stepsons, Richard and Reagan, in that 35-gallon-trash can, so combined to find both the barrel and the trash can in the same vicinity at the bottom of the lake would confirm lends lends great credence to the fact that Udin is in fact telling the truth in his confession when he said he did put their bodies in the lake.”

Uden has already confessed to the killings. In 2013, he told Wyoming investigators he shot Virginia Uden and the boys — Richard, 11, and Regan, 10 — in September 1980, luring them out under the pretense of a hunting trip. Their bodies have never been found.

Just as firefighters seemed to be getting a handle on a nearly 300-acre fire burning just outside the southwest boundary of a closed Devils Tower, another fire erupted to the southeast Sunday. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that one county official gave a blunt assessment. 

“When I was talking to the Crook County Emergency Management Coordinator. I just basically asked ‘how's the situation up there?’ He was pretty blunt. He said, ‘it sucks.’ Now, interestingly enough, some of the places and businesses around the park that aren't directly impacted by the fire are still open. Like the KOA campground, which is right next to Devil's Tower, it's still open now.”

Although the 282-acre Left Creek Fire burning to the west is not as bad as it was, Emergency Management Coordinator Ed Robinson tells Cowboy State Daily that having another wildfire so close to the monument’s boundary “certainly doesn’t help any.” 

Ann Simpson, mother of three and wife of 70 years to prominent Wyoming political figure and late U.S. Sen. Al Simpson, died Friday morning in her daughter's arms. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that her daughter, Sue, remembers her mother as the most beautiful woman, “inside and out, that ever lived.”

“Sue said that Anne could not get enough of her family, her husband, her family, and that everyone in their everyone should have someone in their life who can't get enough of them, and so the way Pete Simpson described it, she was just encouraging even in the political fray.”

Son Colin Simpson said his mother was diagnosed with an illness about two months earlier. Ann Simpson was 94-years old.

For nearly 60 years, Vern Palmer has searched Wyoming ranches and forgotten dumps for old Wyoming license plates. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that at 90, the Big Piney mechanic has a Wyoming license plate from every year, except one. 

“90-year-old Big Piney man Vern Palmer has spent 60 years collecting license plates. Part of his collection is getting every plate from 1913 until now in the state of Wyoming. In every county available, the state started issuing license plates in 1913, and that remains the only elusive plate for this collector so far. They would go out on ranch land into old dump grounds, and it was always a treasure hunt, just looking for old bottles and things when they started collecting these plates and it kind of became an obsession and the two still to this day love to go out hunting for old treasures and they always are hopeful they'll find the one missing plate they need to complete their collection.”

Ask Palmer about license plates and you'll quickly discover they're much more than stamped pieces of metal. They're tiny time capsules.

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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As a young man, Cheyenne native George Wienbarg figured out how to trademark the famous Hollywood sign in L.A. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that did that because he fell in love with a Korean fashion student and promised to make her line of clothing famous by associating it with that sign. 

“He came up, basically ,with a stunt based on the work that he had already been doing with the Hollywood sign to sell pieces of it. He trademarked the Hollywood sign, and you know, I think at the time he couldn't have imagined this would be controversial in any way, but Hollywood's like, ‘wait a minute, that's the name of our city! You can't just put that on a line of clothing.’ We want a piece of that, right? So they took some steps because he had already trademarked the sign.”

Wienbarg found a clever New York attorney to help him trademark the sign for his girlfriend’s clothing line, and then they were in business. Wienbarg soon had articles appearing in places such as Variety, the Los Angeles Times, and many others, delivering on his promise in a big way. 

President Trump has not endorsed anyone in the nine-candidate Republican race for U.S. House and it’s unclear if he will. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the president has a good batting average in Wyoming, but his endorsement hasn't meant a win every time.

“There is absolutely no telling if Trump is going to endorse in the U.S. House race because he endorsed Foster Freese on election day when Foster Freese ran for governor. Now we see Foster Friess's son Steve Friess vying against eight other people for the Republican nomination. The Politico Bill Cuban said ‘maybe this isn't the best race to spend an endorsement’ because Wyoming is likely going to elect someone who will work with Trump either way.”

One of the nine GOP candidates, conservative activist Steve Friess told Cowboy State Daily in a 

 that he’s heard he’s under consideration for an endorsement. The White House did not respond to a request for confirmation. The election is Aug. 18.

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Summer heat has sent water temperatures soaring above 70 degrees in some of Wyoming's prime trout fishing waters, so Game and Fish is urging anglers to quit before noon. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that when it gets that hot, catch-and-release fishing stresses and can kill trout.

“What Game and Fish is asking people to do is to carry a water thermometer with you. Maybe fish only in the mornings, in the early mornings, and once the water starts hitting that 68, 70-degree mark, just put your fishing rod down and go do something else. Unless, like I said, if you're fishing for food that you intend to keep and kill for food anyway, like if you're fishing for bass or if you want to keep the trout to eat, go ahead.”

Avid angler and fishing guide Bradey Hall of Casper tells Cowboy State Daily that 

a water temperature of 70-degrees is widely considered the red line, particularly for trout.

One of the most extraordinary petroglyph sites in North America is hidden away in a secret spot near Newcastle, Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the petroglyphs of Whoopup Canyon depicted in 150 sandstone panels are between 3,000 and 10,000 years old. 

“Whoop-up Canyon is unique because while they're still petroglyphs, they're depicting a lot of what life would have been like, anywhere from 3,000 to up to 10,500 years ago, when there weren't any of the established tribes that we're aware of today, these would have been nomadic peoples that were following game across the landscape. And the image, the panels at Whoop Up Canyon depict the animals, the people, and the technologies that the people were using to hunt those animals.”

Hundreds of images are carved into the sandstone walls across 150 known panels. They depict people, animals and even the technology used by some of the earliest Indigenous people in North America.

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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 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 8 3 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Monday, August 3, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Monday's headlines include:
* Bodies In Barrels
* Devils Tower Wildfire
* Ann Simpson Dies At 94

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Monday, August 3, 2026

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

Greg Johnson

Outdoors

Public Lands

Just as wildland firefighters seemed to be getting a good handle on a

burning just outside the southwest boundary of a closed Devils Tower National Monument, another fire has erupted to the southeast.

The Newton Fire burning just east of Wyoming Highway 24 southeast of Devils Tower was discovered at about 1:15 p.m. Saturday, and had grown to an estimated 200 acres in a couple of hours, the National Interagency Fire Center and Crook County Emergency Management report.

Asked for an update on the wildfire situation around Devils Tower — which has closed the monument for much of Saturday and all of Sunday — county Emergency Management Coordinator Ed Robinson was blunt.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It sucks,” he said."}]

“We get one fire almost contained, and then we’re fighting another one now, too,” he told Cowboy State Daily from the scene of the Newton Fire on Sunday.

Although the 282-acre Left Creek Fire burning to the west is “not as bad as it was,” Robinson said that having another wildfire so close to the monument’s boundary “certainly doesn’t help any.”

While state forestry and National Park Service officials told Cowboy State Daily earlier on Sunday that they would evaluate the potential of reopening Devils Tower later in the afternoon, the new fire takes that option off the table, Robinson said.

Highway 24 has been closed from the “Y,” or where it branches off Highway 14 north toward Devils Tower, and all residents in the vicinity have been placed on “set” status to be prepared to evacuate, according to Crook County Emergency Management.

The Newton Fire also will slow some of the progress at the Left Creek Fire as some personnel and resources are diverted to try to keep the new wildfire from getting out of control, Robinson said.

For state Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, whose family homestead contains part of the Left Creek Fire, another blaze sparking up so close to the tower is another gut-punch for local firefighters and residents.

“That’s out by the Tower Cemetery,” he said. “It’s a pretty tough deal, and that one’s probably going to burn up to the rimrock at the highway (24), and they’ll make a stand there at the highway, it sounds like.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"KOA Still Open"}]

A little farther north and next to the monument, Devils Tower/Black Hills KOA campground remains open, and is hosting the basecamp for firefighters working both fires.

“Yup, we’re open and full business ahead,” said worker at the KOA who identified himself as “just Chris.”

“We’re catching the breaks, because we are just north of the fires,” he said. “So, we’re open. Everything is good on our end here. That’s what I keep answering phone calls about all day.”

He said the KOA staff has also helped feed the wildland firefighting crews as they go in and out of the field to work the fires.

“Last night, we stayed up late and were the drop-off point for food, and (owner) Andrea Driskill opened up the kitchen,” Chris said. “We made sandwiches and the go-lunches, and had breakfast waiting for them.”

Not only is the KOA campground open, it’s continuing a long-running tradition of nightly screenings of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“Yup, ‘Close Encounters’ every night, 8 o’clock,” Chris said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"How We Got Here"}]

The Left Creek Fire was discovered at about 10:40 a.m. Saturday, and grew quickly in hot and dry conditions in northeast Wyoming, with temperatures hitting 99 degrees Saturday, the National Weather Service reports.

Believed to have been caused by lightning, Ogden Driskill said the wildfire was on the fence line of his land and another ranch owner — and he was struck with fear when he first saw the smoke.

“It was really scary, because that’s some of the grass we depend on in the fall and winter,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Sunday morning while meeting with state and National Park Service officials.

“In my opinion, it without a doubt could’ve been a 5,000-acre-plus fire — or more,” Driskill said, adding that quick and precise work from the more than 100 firefighters on the scene have kept the wildfire in check.

“We literally watched helicopters put out crown fires all day long,” he said. “They kept it in the original line all day long (Saturday), and the ground crews kept it from spreading on the ground.”

That work Saturday has kept the fire at an estimated 282 acres, said Dick Terry, said district forester for Wyoming State Forestry.

While he wouldn’t say the fire is contained, he said he’s confident it’s basically under control.

“We’ve got fire line around most of it, but it’s indirect,” he said. “It’s still small and not contained just because we’ve got the east side with a shaky line until we get a little bit of a handle on that.”

The fire has so far also stayed outside the boundary of the national monument, Terry said.

“I would assume it’s lightning,” he added about the suspected cause of the fire. “But, I haven’t seen the start of it yet. But it’s 99% sure it’s lightning.”

No structures are in the area and he put his confidence at “about 80%” that the monument could reopen sometime Sunday.

That was before the Newton Fire was discovered later.

National Park Service Powder River Group Superintendent Dustin Sene agrees, while also praising the work of local agencies and landowners for helping keep the fire small and relatively in check.

“They did a great job getting ahead and getting the park evacuated,’ he said. “It’s an incredible interagency effort, as well as the local community here.

“Everybody worked well together and we’re starting conversations about when the park will get opened again.”

He also thanked the local KOA campground, which is just outside the monument’s boundary and remains open, for feeding firefighters over the weekend.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Kink In The Plans"}]

The fire and Devils Tower closure have also put a kink into the vacation plans of weekend visitors and bikers starting to make their way to the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

“Some travel moments write themselves, and some are actively on fire,” posted John and Jenny of the “No Rules Just Roam” travel platform. “The whole scene looking like something out of a movie.”

“We are staying near Devils Tower National Monument and found out at the entrance that a Level 3 wildfire had closed he entire monument and evacuated everyone, including the staff, due to imminent danger,” the couple reported. “This is genuinely serious and we hope everyone got out safely.”

While reporting updates on the fire, they also posted a video of a camper walking through the campground with Devils Tower and smoke from the fire rising eerily in the background.

“Scrolling — Not the news. Not the fire updates,” John and Jenny posted, adding the woman was watching “reels” like nothing was happening.

“I looked at the fire. I looked at her. I looked at the fire again,” the report continues. “She did not look up.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"150 Firefighters"}]

Meanwhile, wildfire resources were quickly marshalled to battle the fire, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reports.

While the fire grew to nearly 300 acres in about 12 hours, “progress has been made,” Crook County Emergency Management reported Saturday. So far, “150 firefighters are currently on this fire, along with four large air tankers, two SEATs (single-engine air tankers), and four helicopters.”

That number was adjusted to more than 100 on Sunday.

Local residents and agencies also have responded to assist.

“Everyone should stay away from the national park and don’t drive in, because they are watching and will ticket anyone violating the closure,” the agency said.

That closure will keep visitors like Bryan Abernathy away, who is part of a crew of bikers making a pilgrimage to the Sturgis rally.

“Whole crew rolled to Devils Tower today,” he posted Saturday to his Sturgis SD 2026 diary on Facebook. “The actual park was closed due to a forest fire. Got to see airplanes and helicopters dropping water.”

This isn’t the first time America’s first national monument has been closed because of a wildfire.

In May 2013, it was closed when what was supposed to be a 300-acre prescribed burn got out of control in high winds and ignited a spot fire in about the same area as the Left Creek Fire, according to the National Park Service.

That fire also burned some power lines that left a couple dozen homesteads in the area without electricity.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Meanwhile, Another Fire"}]

The Left Creek Fire isn’t the only serious wildfire being fought in northern Wyoming.

Two counties to the east, a Wyoming Type 3 incident management team was called in to help fight a fire in the Clearmont area of Sheridan County, which has ballooned to more than 7,200 acres since it was started by lightning on Friday, according to the Type 3 team.

“A lightning storm moved across the region starting multiple fires north of Clearmont, Wyoming, in Sheridan County,” according to a report from the Type 3 team and its commander, Jon Warder.

“Weather and fuel conditions led to the fire quickly growing in size,” the report says. “While structures were threatened, none have been lost so far.”

The NIFC reports the Lumin Fire is about 5% contained, and that terrain and fuels are making the wildfire difficult to fight. As of Sunday evening, that containment figure hadn’t been updated.

While he was at the Devils Tower site Sunday, Terry said he also had been checking in on the Lumin Fire.

Crews there have made considerable progress on getting more control and protecting buildings in the area, he said.

“It kind of sounded like they got some burnouts completed and, hopefully, they’ll be winding down on that,” he said.

Devils Tower Fire 761355127 1034776352639182 2376020774372480484 n 8 2 26

<title>Second Wildfire Breaks Out Near Devils Tower, Monument Still Closed | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Just as firefighters seemed to be getting a handle on a nearly 300-acre fire burning just outside the southwest boundary of a closed Devils Tower, another fire erupted to the southeast Sunday. “It sucks,” was the blunt assessment from a county official.

Second Wildfire Breaks Out Near Devils Tower, Monument Still Closed

[{"type":"text","text":"Was he expecting a hug? Narrated by MMA announcer, Steve Inman....."}]

Inman 8 3 26

<title>Steve Inman: Monday, August 3, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Was he expecting a hug? Narrated by MMA announcer, Steve Inman.....

Steve Inman: Monday, August 3, 2026

Kerry Drake

Wyoming Life

When Manus Hand was 9 years old in 1973, he noticed that many places — towns, cities, counties and townships — around the country shared the name of his home state, and he wondered where the word originated. 

His father, James, a Laramie attorney, suggested he write to the postmasters in every "Wyoming" he’d located, and ask them what they thought.

It was a win-win for the youngster, his dad explained. He’d get the answers he wanted and also some neat postmarks for his stamp collection.

As it turned out, Manus' love of stamp collecting, American history and atlas reading would converge three years later for America's bicentennial to lead him on a nationide odyssey with his parents and five sisters that ultimately took him to the White House.

Manus, to his surprise, received friendly replies from everyone he wrote, plus information about the other Wyomings. There was no consensus, though, about the origin of the word.

As the nation’s 200th birthday drew closer, his dad had an idea to pitch to Wyoming’s Bicentennial Commission in Cheyenne.

The father-and-son team told the group that as a goodwill gesture the Equality State could make plaques that would convey Wyoming state citizenship to the residents of every other Wyoming. 

And they’d be hand-delivered by Manus, whose first name actually is Latin for "hand" -- effectively making him Hand Hand. Manus describes it as an example of his father's finely honed sense of humor.

The Bicentennial Commission agreed to provide a grant of $1,200, if Manus could raise a matching amount for the trip. The elder Hand solved that problem, too.

[{"type":"text","text":"Herschler Kicked In $1,200"}]

“Dad just dragged me over to the other wing of the Capitol, straight to the governor’s office, and I did my presentation again,” Manus, now 62 and a professonal web designer in Parker, Colorado, told Cowboy State Daily. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Gov. Ed Herschler provided the matching $1,200 on the spot."}]

Word spread quickly about what was soon dubbed “The Wyoming Trip” as Manus gave newspapers in the state details about the project. He was at a friend’s house in Laramie when he saw Walter Cronkite talk about the upcoming event on the “CBS Evening News.”

Like most people, Hand remembered, America’s most trusted newsman mispronounced his name (it’s MAWN-us). Still, any publicity was good publicity.

On June 11, 1972, the Hand family packed into its station wagon with the appropriate “5-WYOS” license plate and headed for their first official stop in Wyoming, Minnesota. With two adults, six kids, luggage and boxes of plaques and other gifts to give to more than two dozen Wyomings, Manus said, “We were pretty danged packed.”

“My mother hated every minute of it,” he added, though she didn’t confess that until recently. Manus, a parent and grandparent now, understands: “Imagine what it’s like to have all six of your kids yelling and screaming.”

His parents wanted to keep a strict schedule, but their hopes were quickly dashed. If there’s a common thread to the 25-page journal about the trip compiled for the commission by Manus and his folks, it’s that something always made them late on every leg of the journey, especially car troubles and illnesses.

This wouldn’t have been much of a problem if Manus’ initial vision had come to fruition.

“I had no clue what we were in for, honest to God,” Manus said. “I just thought we’d say ‘hi' to the postmaster, hand them the plaque, and off we’d go to the next town.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Royal Treatment"}]

It didn’t happen that way. A call ahead of their Minnesota destination revealed there was already a TV news crew ready to interview Manus. When the car was near the city limits, a police escort directed them to a park where there was plenty of food to eat and a stage with singers and city officials.

This royal treatment continued when Manus was summoned to the stage and given a certificate signed by the governor of Minnesota, making him an honorary Minnesotan. 

Then he was presented the key to the city by the mayor, who noted that Wyoming, Minnesota, had a big boating community where ships were manufactured. He gave Manus a 4-foot canoe paddle that is now on display at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming, along with the nonedible gifts the family received.

The scene was repeated in nearly every place on their itinerary. Their station wagon remained full, its load lightened each ceremony only to be replaced by scrapbooks, flags, chocolates, cheese, and proclamations naming it “Manus Hand Day.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“That was a total shock to me,” Manus said."}]

He recalled wearing his “little boy, lime green leisure suit” to every event. “I thought I looked pretty sharp,” he added, chuckling.

Manus said in addition to the honorary Wyoming citizenships, one of his important missions was to tell people about his state. He gave many press interviews, did question-and-answer sessions with audiences, and met with countless local officials.

As he traveled to Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine and Massachusetts, there were other firsts. Included was his initial trip to Canada, where the family visited Wyoming, Ontario.

It was the first time he saw the Atlantic Ocean. The first time he ever heard a tornado siren was in Wyoming, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids with 70,000 people — more than any city in his state. Fortunately, the twisterthat landed that day only took out a few trees.

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Then came New York City, where they became stuck in a huge Times Square traffic jam.

Fifty years ago, it was all about the Bicentennial and Laramie's Manus Hand embarked on a project that took him to dozens of towns, cities and counties named Wyoming. Wyoming's Dick Cheney was President Ford's chief of staff and hosted the 12-year-old and his family.

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