It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, August 12th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair! Beginning August 13th in Douglas, the Wyoming State Fair has something for everyone. For more info visit WY-STATE-FAIR dot com"
—
Nearly 60 years after a 9-year-old girl was murdered and dumped near Devils Tower, her sister visited the spot last weekend, and met the women who were just children themselves when their father and another man found young Denise Clinton’s body.
The killer has never been caught, but Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that placing a marker for her sister has helped Diana Clinton White bury the past.
“For Diana, that place had always been evil… and the sisters who had grown up there knew how special that place was to them, which, of course, had been tarnished when her sister's body was found. So they had a beautiful, perfect day, they all said, and the weather was perfect, and Diana was able to experience the place that they knew of healing and how special it was.”
The sister who had been taken far too young, was now properly put to rest after nearly six decades.
Read the full story HERE.
—
Just a few hours away from Wyoming’s northern border, supporters and fans of former President Donald Trump were in full MAGA-mania mode Friday afternoon as they waited to rally for the man they believe will, quote, “Make America Great Again."
Politics reporter Leo Wolfson was in Bozeman, Montana, for Trump’s Friday rally. He says Trump’s speech to his local supporters was very similar to the speech he gave at the Republican National Convention just a few weeks ago - but it was his conversations with Trump supporters that he found most interesting.
“There's lots of Republican candidates out there, but it's rarely you'll see people as as you know, gung ho as they are for Trump… speaking to a few people at the event, they just said, as simple as they feel like he's the classic, you know, the true anti politician, they think that he, you know, he's a billionaire who doesn't necessarily have to do this, that he could live his life without this, but he's doing it for a higher purpose, and they believe he's looking out for his country and doing this for his country, rather than any other outside influence.”
Wolfson reports that at least 10,000 people were at the Bozeman rally, some traveling from across the country to be in attendance.
Read the full story HERE.
—
Hedge funds, and a major exchange-traded fund with a passive position in some publicly traded stocks in Wyoming’s uranium industry, are sniffing around for investment opportunities in the critical ore, which is needed as fuel for the nuclear industry.
Energy reporter Pat Maio says their investment strategy is to pool money from private investors and earn above-average investment returns by finding under-the-radar possibilities.
“There's a lot of Wall Street appetite for stocks that are playing in the uranium market right now, and when you get hedge fund interest, that's interesting. We're not talking about two and three shares that you and I might buy, but we're talking about, you know, in some cases, millions, in other cases, hundreds of thousands of shares.”
According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all the funds are targeting publicly traded stocks in central Wyoming’s Red Desert region and the energy-rich Powder River Basin in the state’s northeastern corner.
Read the full story HERE.
—
And now let’s get a look at today's weather! Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day has the outlook.
—
A Riverton homeowner appears to have shot a man attempting a burglary on the home Friday night.
Riverton Police officers responded shortly after 11 p.m. Friday to a home near the Riverton City Park to a report of an attempted burglary with shots fired, according to crime and courts reporter Clair McFarland.
“The statement from Riverton Police Department issued about 3am Saturday morning, very terse. Basically, said it looks like there was a person trying a young man in his 20s trying to burglarize the house just a stone's throw away from city park, which is a fairly high area for police responses. And the 20 something man was shot, was taken to the hospital in stable condition, and the homeowner is cooperating with the investigation.”
The Riverton Police Department is investigating the incident and asking anyone with tips to come forward.
Read the full story HERE.
—
After decades of photographing wildlife, Pete Arnold of Cheyenne was trying to figure out how to catch birds in their best moments — without having to sit for hours.
Then it occurred to him — why not let a GoPro camera do the waiting for him?
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Arnold’s idea paid off in a big way, capturing some one-in-a-million shots of burrowing owls.
“They will occupy prairie dog holes… they can dig their own dens, but they like to occupy dens that are already dug. So he set some up where he thought some would be, and just got this fantastic action photos of burrowing owls… they put telemetry on a Wyoming burrowing owl that was in a prairie dog hole up by Gillette. This thing went all the way down to, I think she said, Acapulco, Mexico, and came all the way back… just amazing critters.”
In Wyoming, burrowing owls can be found just about anywhere there’s prairie dog holes - and now that he’s got that perfect shot with his GoPro, Arnold is planning to set it up again.
Read the full story HERE.
—
And although the Sturgis motorcycle rally gets the majority of the publicity, there are associated parties nearby in Wyoming that have their own legendary tales.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean attended the annual Ham and Jam in Hulett, and the annual Burnout in Sundance.
“These towns have come up with these events as a way to draw in Sturgis rally goers and kind of capitalize off of the visit a little bit… in Hulett, some guy named Jim de Lancie. Thought, Man, I really wish we could figure out some way to get these guys to stick around for a while. So he came up with a free pork sandwich and a free music concert… the burnout has a legendary start as well. Some guy in the bar probably a little toasty decided he was going to do a burnout right there in the bar. And everyone's like, Yeah, cool. And the owners like, no way you are not doing that in here… But it became the start of this event every year where, you know, five or six motorcycle riders will voluntarily line up to pop a tire for a good cause.”
Jean says the two events allow rally-goers to forget their troubles for just a little while, then ride on back to Sturgis to keep the party going.
Read the full story HERE.
—
Roughly 60,000 Seventh-day Adventists traveled from more than 100 countries to attend the International Pathfinder Camporee in Gillette scheduled Aug. 5th through the 11th.
But the weather became such a problem for the tens of thousands of campers that, with more dire storms predicted, Camporee leadership decided to cancel the final events.
“60,000 plus people in a town of 34,000 you can feel it just really in the traffic… They were camping in tents... And when, after the storm on Tuesday, a lot of the tents had been downed, and there were still places where there were big puddles of water.”
Torrential thunderstorms and lightning, along with heavy rain and flooding, wiped out about 40% of campsites in the “International Village” in the low-lying areas.
Read the full story HERE.
—
It didn’t take long Thursday night for a neighborhood meeting to discuss a controversial gravel mine on state land at the base of Casper Mountain to devolve into angry accusations.
The meeting was required for Prism Logistics in its pursuit of a conditional use permit from the Natrona County Commission to mine for gravel on 300 acres in what is now a popular public open space area. But Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that emotions were running high.
“People that were there basically didn't let him get to all of his agenda and had a lot of questions to ask. One person called the developer a liar. Another person said he was gaslighting them…There were a lot of issues that were brought up, and there weren't a lot of real, real answers and solutions for them.”
Developer Kyle True said he plans to maintain the road to the county’s satisfaction and has promised to upgrade the road as needed to keep it from deteriorating with the increased semi traffic.
Read the full story HERE.
—
Laramie’s Mark Jenkins still travels the world seeking adventure.
Next month, the longtime journalist - who has climbed Mount Everest, covered the war in Afghanistan, cycled through Russia and kayaked inside glaciers - plans to get back on his bike for a trek across part of Europe.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck caught up with Jenkins during a recent talk in Glenrock, where the 65-year-old author and journalist spoke about his 2012 expedition to the top of Mount Everest with National Geographic Magazine.
“He has traveled the world, doing all kinds of adventures, including covering conflicts like guerrilla war in the Congo. He has summited Everest, he has climbed mountains all over Wyoming. And he continues to do that, written books about cycling across Russia. So he's just one of those guys that you can't keep him down.”
But, Jenkins said, no matter where his globetrotting assignments have taken him, he still comes home to the Cowboy State.
Read the full story HERE.
—
And after dark, the Outlaw bar in Dubois might be too sketchy for some. It has an intimidating aura. One Yelper gave it a disappointing 3 stars just because he feared for his personal safety.
Less than 300 yards away, though, is the Rustic Pine - the two bars are split geographically by Horse Creek, but when it comes to atmosphere, they’re quite different, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols.
“There's the Outlaw, which is considered the biker bar, and there's the Rustic Pine tavern, considered maybe the tourist more enlightened bar. But they both have different clientele, and they both give you a little something different… Why go to one bar where you can go to two?”
You can read Jake’s full story at Cowboy State Daily dot com.
