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[{"type":"text","text":"Nick Saban's new commercial is outstanding (and required no acting)....."}]

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

<title>Bonus Video 2: Friday, August 30, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Nick Saban's new commercial is outstanding (and required no acting).....

Bonus Video 2: Friday, August 30, 2024

 Nick Saban's new commercial is outstanding (and required no acting).....

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Legislature

The Joint Appropriations Committee majority tried in January to defund the Wyoming Business Council, an agency that gives grants and loans to businesses and communities.

The state Senate, which ran more fiscally moderate this year than the 

, rejected the effort overwhelmingly in February. But then in March, the Legislature passed a budget that funds the Wyoming Business Council’s operations for one year instead of the traditional two-year budget allocation.

The Joint Appropriations Committee is now delving into a monthslong research project into how it can trim the business council, tether it to legislative oversight and refocus it onto what the supermajority Republican Legislature deems proper uses of government.

The committee spent around five-and-a-half hours on that topic while meeting Monday in Lander.

Its members weighed three proposed bills. They also engaged in a spicy back-and-forth with Wyoming Business Council CEO Josh Dorrell.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Give Me A Number'"}]

“Mr. Dorrell, what do you anticipate will be your ask for the Wyoming Business Council for the supplemental budget? And 

, how much do you need to succeed?” asked Senate Appropriations Chair Tim Salazar, R-Riverton.

Dorrell said the WBC’s figures are still in flux, and he expected it to give its final budget request submission to Gov. Mark Gordon in August. But becoming “whole,” or receiving the rest of its two-year budget, would be the priority, he added.

As of now, the agency’s budget ends June 30, 2027, unless the Legislature acts to restore its second-year money.

Salazar later voiced dissatisfaction with that answer, pressing Dorrell on it again.

“Give me a number. Tell me where that fits into the supplemental budget,” said Salazar.

“I’m not going to give you a number,” 

 Dorrell. “I don’t mean to be obtuse, but I want to work it through the proper channels first.”

Besides having its funding cut to one year of operations, the WBC is slated for a potential makeover.

Both the Appropriations Committee and the Joint Minerals Business and Economic Development Committee are reviewing the WBC’s programs and underpinning laws.

Dorrell said he’s looking for information on which programs the Legislature wants to cut.

[{"type":"text","text":"He also indicated that lawmakers don’t fully understand the agency yet."}]

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to really discuss the exact in-and-out if you don’t understand the things that we do,” said Dorrell, adding that WBC has presented program data to lawmakers in recent months. 

“I’d advocate to at least stay whole, as a minimum, (but also) we should look at investing in our communities, and the state agency that unlocks those,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Humble Ask This Time"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, also parried with Dorrell."}]

“Honestly, I’m not trying to be confrontational, but I’m frustrated,” said Pendergraft. “You were asked what does it cost to be successful — no answer. No answer, no money.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Dorrell reiterated that he’d know the answer in August."}]

Salazar’s line of questioning is an echo of one he launched in December, but which Dorrell then handled very differently. 

At that time during the committee’s budget-planning marathon, Salazar asked how much money WBC needs to fix the economic problems facing the state.

[{"type":"text","text":"Dorrell answered $1.7 billion."}]

“Thank you for giving us the courtesy of the truth,” said Salazar at the time.

Around seven weeks later, the committee advanced two pieces of legislation — both of which later failed — that had sought to defund the agency and strip it from state law.

Ahead of next year’s January lawmaking session, the two committees are working on a plan to refocus the Wyoming Business Council and reevaluate its many programs.

[{"type":"text","text":"Neither committee has adopted any WBC makeover bills yet."}]

But the Joint Appropriations Committee on Monday discussed four in this vein.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Bill About Federal Money"}]

One of the bills would authorize lawmakers to review and appropriate federal funds seeking to pass through the WBC for capital and investment projects.  

[{"type":"text","text":"Dorrell cast that one as peculiar.  "}]

Congress authorizes federal money for governmental investments, the U.S. Treasury allocates those investments and enforces their terms, and the executive branch of Wyoming runs the program.

“And then all of a sudden, somehow the state Legislature is inserting itself into this process,” said Dorrell. “And while I am happy to report, I’m happy to bounce ideas off of, it feels like gumming up the system …  is exactly what this is going to do. It doesn’t help us act at the speed of business. I’m open to understanding why.”

House Appropriations Chair John Bear, R-Gillette, said lawmakers would consider that concern carefully so they don’t create undue burden. 

Of the 11 companies involved in this system, he said he hopes “the preponderance of them” have been traditional energy companies.

Bear referenced allegations Wyoming continues to wage in federal court litigation with other red states that large investors colluded to kill coal and other fossil fuels by banding together in green-energy compacts.

“Even though these are federal funds, they’re still taxpayer funds,” said Bear, who went on to ask about the WBC’s administration of its investment projects.

Dorrell said WBC’s investment committee can meet spontaneously to consider and authorize those projects, and 

 employee to serve as investments analyst.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Bill To Stop Feeding Airports"}]

The Wyoming Business Council’s Business Ready Community program generally involves WBC sending a grant or loan to a community entity, which then works on economic development and business infrastructure projects.

But WBC doesn’t call it that anymore. The agency rebranded the controversial program this year as the Building Resilient Communities program.

The Appropriations Committee is considering a bill that would ban airports from benefitting from the program, as well as recreational and convention facilities, and infrastructure projects of the WBC’s choosing.

That would leave the program free to fund or invest in land, buildings, facilities, telecommunications infrastructure, rights of way, sewer and water projects, roads and landscaping.

The bill also seeks to add a requirement that the WBC can’t grant or loan money for assets that the applicant owns or will own.

A lawsuit between Gunwerks and the Cody-based economic development group that secured funding for it has been 

over the allegedly dismal state of a building Gunwerks doesn’t own, but which the economic development group arranged to be built for the company with WBC money.   

The bill pertaining to the BRC program would also require WBC to send grant and loan plans to two lawmakers — one state House representative and one senator — for review and comment before sending them to the executive branch for final approval.  

The biggest bill the committee considered would eliminate 13 Wyoming Business Council programs, 

Others Dorrell hopes to keep, he indicated to Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland.

He asked why the Wyoming Partnership Challenge Loan program is on the chopping block. That’s a loan program in which WBC partners with banks to secure loans for businesses.

Dorrell insisted the WBC is not competing with banks, but is helping businesses get loans on components on which banks aren’t authorized to lend, like the more speculative success prospects called “blue sky.”

Disaster loans are “a challenge,” but outside disaster loans, the program is at industry-standard or higher rates of success, Dorrell said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Pendergraft raised an ideological roadblock."}]

“My problem with this is ideological. Essentially, it sounds to me like you’re not in competition with the banks,” said Pendergraft. “But if a business goes to a bank and the bank turns them down — presumably because of risk — why is it justifiable to take public moneys and … risk public funds, which to me should be, probably, more cautiously invested?”

Dorrell said banks have to refuse certain investments due to other reasons besides risk.

Pendergraft countered again, asking why the government should be involved in the fate of businesses that don’t provide essential public services.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, rebutted Pendergraft’s logic."}]

On the Select Water Committee, he said, lawmakers are willing to “dole out” significant 

“You want to talk about blue sky?” asked Gierau. “Oh my Lord. And we do it. And we do it because it’s right.”

Haroldson said he’d be happy to put a “question mark” next to this program, and he emphasized that this is only a draft bill set for more contemplation later this year.

[{"type":"text","text":"Here Bear answered Gierau’s rebuke."}]

“As you’re forming that ideology in your mind as to how you’ll approach this, I hope you’ll also not compare water infrastructure to helping mom and pop shops have a successful program,” said Bear. 

Small business success is “quite different from water infrastructure,” he added.

Water infrastructure serves small family farms, which are businesses, said Gierau.

“Water infrastructure,” countered Bear, “would be much similar to the road in front of the small mom and pop shop. ... It’s got a common usage.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The County Infrastructure Bill"}]

One of the bills contemplates a revival of the old budget appropriation called the County Consensus Funding program by which counties, if at least half of the governing boards of the local governments within them agree, could receive construction and infrastructure grants through the State Loans and Investment Board.

The Wyoming County Commissioners’ Association has asked the Legislature to send $75 million per year into that program. The draft bill says “XX” where the appropriation would go.

Three-quarters of the allocations to counties would hinge on population, and one-quarter on how poor their property values are.

Apropriations Business Council IMG 6584 6 22 26

<title>Wyoming Business Council Chief Spars With Committee That Tried To Kill Agency | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The head of the Wyoming Business Council sparred Monday with the Joint Appropriations Committee, which has tried to kill it. "No answer, no money," was the reply CEO Josh Dorrell got when he said he won't know the WBC's budget ask until August.

Wyoming Business Council Chief Spars With Committee That Tried To Kill Agency

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park’s “first” petroglyph remains one of its most controversial. Even calling it a petroglyph could raise the ire of some archaeologists.

While Yellowstone was a significant site for many indigenous cultures that left behind plenty of artifacts, rock art was — and remains — rare in the park. 

[{"type":"text","text":"That changed with the discovery of the Old Faithful petroglyphs in 1977."}]

To this day, archaeologists are divided over how to interpret these petroglyphs and the stories they tell. It’s a debate that’s only become more interesting in recent years.

“Not everyone agrees that it's a petroglyph,” said retired archaeologist Mavis Greer. “For me, there’s no question that it is, but who made it and when are still very controversial.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Old Faithful Petroglyphs"}]

Greer is one of the few archaeologists who has seen and studied the Old Faithful petroglyphs.

In 2011, she wrote a short paper on the site with fellow archaeologists John Greer and Elaine Skinner Hale, who was on Yellowstone’s Cultural Resource staff at the time, and even that was subject to controversy.

“I was very excited to see the site, but I don’t think (the National Park Service) was all that happy about what we wrote,” she said. “They don’t want any publications anywhere showing that this and other rock art sites have been found in Yellowstone.”

Greer didn’t discover the Old Faithful petroglyphs. A Yellowstone visitor, Nicole Cromwell, wrote a letter to park staff informing them that she’d found two petroglyphs carved into the rock near an extinct geyser in 1977.

Today, the petroglyphs are in an area that isn’t accessible to the public. Greer is one of the few who’s been able to see them.

“The petroglyphs were made when the pool was dry, and the rocks are ideal height for sitting, so this would have been a good camping area in the past,” she said.

Both petroglyphs are circular shapes with spokes and other shapes emanating from the center, resembling wheels. What the design was meant to depict has been debated for the last 49 years. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The prevailing interpretation is that these petroglyphs are wheels. "}]

Specifically, they depict the wheels of wagons or, potentially, stagecoaches carrying white Europeans into northwest Wyoming.

That was the assumption when the petroglyphs were first studied in the 1970s. 

Paul Sanders with the office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist reached the same conclusion during a 2008 survey of the site.

Many archaeologists don’t even believe it’s Aboriginal rock art. They think the “wheels” were carved by white Europeans rather than any of the tribes associated with Yellowstone.

[{"type":"text","text":"Greer doesn’t agree."}]

“There are lots of wagon wheels in rock art across the northern plains, and none of them are similar to what's at Old Faithful,” she said. “I believe they were made by Native Americans before first contact with Europeans.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Shields And Status"}]

Greer believes the petroglyphs depict the shields of indigenous warriors, a common image on rock art panels throughout North America.

Most petroglyphs are believed to have had spiritual or ceremonial significance to the tribes and individuals that created them. According to Greer, shields fall under the umbrella of ceremonial art.

“The design of the petroglyph was whatever was on the actual shield,” she said. “There had to have powerful symbols on their shields, and they would often make petroglyphs of their shields where others could see that they had that power.”

Shields would have been unique to each individual, and covered with images, designs, and colors representing their personal power and position. 

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s why shield petroglyphs are so common, but none are the same."}]

“It’s a geometric-type design that was used by a lot of different tribes,” Greer said. “They were very ornate and colorful, and depicted powerful animals, spiritual helpers, and other things that helped them not get shot.”

Greer believes shield petroglyphs need to be interpreted through the lens of intertribal warfare. Shields were important status symbols for men in indigenous tribes.

“They had a lot of conflict between tribes because that was a way that men got status in their tribe,” she said. “In order to gain any status, you had to have engaged in something that showed you were brave and an outstanding warrior.”

In that sense, a shield petroglyph was like a self-portrait. It was a one-to-one depiction of the shield its artist used in battle, down to the same designs and colors.

While most of the color has vanished in the hundreds or thousands of years since they were carved, the intricate and unique designs and symbols remain.

“The design of the petroglyph is whatever design was on the actual shield that they were using when they were out in a battle,” Greer said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Which Wheel Or No Wheel?"}]

There are legitimate petroglyphs depicting the wagons of European settlers. 

, one of Wyoming’s most renowned petroglyph sites.

The confirmed wagon petroglyph at Castle Gardens is one of the reasons Greer cited for why she doesn’t believe the Old Faithful petroglyphs depict wagon wheels.

For one thing, the circular designs at Old Faithful are very intricate and asymmetrical. The wheels on wagon petroglyphs are much simpler, emulating the spoked design of an actual wagon wheel.

Also, Greer isn’t aware of any petroglyphs of wheels without wagons. It’s something she researched for her 2011 paper.

“Wheels, by themselves, are even less common in rock art than complete wagons or vehicles,” she said. “The only possible single wheel we found is at Newspaper Rock in eastern Utah, and its identification is based only on its circular form with rays, not any historical association with a wagon or other items, (so) there is no evidence that it’s a wheel.”

For Greer, it’d be highly unlikely to find a petroglyph depicting a wagon wheel without also depicting a wagon. Meanwhile, it’s quite common to find isolated shield petroglyphs.

“When these wheels are compared with the Old Faithful figures, they both are round with spokes or rays,” she said. “The similarities end there.”

There is another type of wheel that had great spiritual and ceremonial significance to indigenous tribes: medicine wheels. 

Medicine wheels, like the Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark in the Bighorn Mountains, were usually constructed in sacred areas.

While the Old Faithful geyser basin could easily have been a sacred area deserving of a medicine wheel, Greer doesn’t think that’s a likely explanation for the petroglyphs.

“When viewed from a stylistic perspective of cultures in the northwestern Plains and Rocky Mountains, a shield design is a better explanation.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Who, When, Why"}]

So, if the Old Faithful petroglyphs weren’t depicting wagon wheels, and they weren’t made by a European, who made them? When were they made?

[{"type":"text","text":"Those questions, according to Greer, are much harder to answer.  "}]

“There are just too many tribes that were traveling through Yellowstone in the last thousand years,” she said. “Even with a lot of investigation, I don’t think anyone would be comfortable saying its Shoshone as opposed to the Crow, Blackfeet, or Kiowa. 

"The Cheyenne and Arapahoe were there, too. Any one of them could have made those petroglyphs.”

Determining the age of the petroglyphs would also be difficult, but that’s another reason why Greer believes they aren’t depicting wagon wheels. They look too old.

“The petroglyphs are in a geologic situation where if a European had made it, it would look a lot fresher than it does,” she said. “It looks like it's been there for some time.”

Greer didn’t have enough data to give an approximate age range for the Old Faithful petroglyphs, but she’s confident that they’re too old to be wagon wheels. 

She believes the petroglyphs are older than the first wagon wheels in western North America.

“My only thought is that they were created pre-contact,” she said. “That's not saying much, because the contact period for this area starts in 1800, but it’s something.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Not So Open Secrets"}]

The Old Faithful petroglyphs remain the best-known petroglyphs in Yellowstone National Park, but even they aren’t common knowledge to the typical tourist. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Anyone who wants to see them can’t."}]

“It's in an area of the park where you cannot go without a ranger,” Greer said. That makes it easier to keep the location secluded.”

While there’s plenty of accessible information on Yellowstone’s archaeology, petroglyphs, and other indigenous rock art are rarely mentioned. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Greer believes that’s simultaneously deliberate and accidental."}]

Greer is aware of other Yellowstone petroglyphs and rock art panels discovered within the last two decades, but information about them is scarce. 

That’s partly because they’re inaccessible to most tourists and scientists.

“I think most archeologists thought there was rock art in Yellowstone, but nobody had gone out there and really searched for it before,” she said. “Doing a rock art survey in the park is not a simple thing. You’d need money, horses, and a camping crew to find those places.”

Greer also believes the National Park Service has a vested interest in restricting what gets published about these sites, at least until they’re better understood. 

From what she’s heard, the newly discovered sites are more fragile than the Old Faithful petroglyphs.

“The new sites have been paintings rather than petroglyphs,” she said. “That’s just the nature of the rock that they're dealing with. 

"On limestone and even types of granite, they're more likely to have paintings than petroglyphs.”

Greer’s 2011 paper on the Old Faithful petroglyphs is still the most recent scholarly work on any rock art in Yellowstone, and it’s “still controversial,” according to Greer.

“That one’s been known for a long time, and I wouldn't say there are a lot of people who think it's a confirmed petroglyph yet,” she said.

The ultimate takeaway is that there’s much more to learn about the history of indigenous tribes in Yellowstone, and the known and yet-to-be-discovered rock art will deepen our understanding of the park’s place in human history.

“There's been a lot of work on indigenous use of Yellowstone prior to and even after the coming of Europeans,” she said. “The history of the park goes back thousands of years, and these rock art panels show us there’s still so much to discover and learn.”

Yellowstone Petroglyph 2 6 21 26

<title>50 Years Of Controversy Over Yellowstone's Only Known 'Petroglyph' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Yellowstone's “first” petroglyph remains controversial. Some archaeologists don't buy it. While Yellowstone was a significant site for indigenous cultures rock art was rare. That changed with the discovery of the Old Faithful "petroglyphs" in 1977.

50 Years Of Controversy Over Yellowstone's Only Known 'Petroglyph'

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

Renée Jean

Outdoors

Public Lands

Waterfalls shoot straight out of volcanic cliffsides, flinging themselves into canyons almost no one ever visits. 

Far from the boardwalks and pullouts, meanwhile, something that looks very much like a starfish seems to nap where no starfish should even be, sunning itself in a crystal-clear thermal pool in Yellowstone National Park. 

It’s all part of a hidden Yellowstone that most people never get to see — the Yellowstone that Bozeman filmmaker Stephen Quayle has spent five decades chasing with a camera and has finally stitched into a new film, 

“Only 5% of Yellowstone is visible by the roads or by the boardwalks around the geysers,” Quayle told Cowboy State Daily. 

Another thin, 10% slice belongs to the hardy few willing to trek for miles into grizzly bear and wolf territory. 

But from a helicopter, “the most gorgeous” waterfalls and the most intriguing geothermal pools can be seen in stunning aerial views. 

Photographing from the air takes a million-dollar camera lens, Quayle said, one that can take high-resolution images from at least 2,000 feet away. 

That’s the minimum height recommended by the FAA for flying over places like national parks. Any lower could violate federal laws if an aircraft disturbs wildlife or park visitors.

“That way we can present to people the Yellowstone that really is,” he said. “And it’s breathtakingly wonderful. It is not just a wonder of the world, it is 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Fateful Party Weekend"}]

Quayle’s relationship with Yellowstone began when he was a college student with time on his hands and weekends to burn in glorious summer road trips. 

Yellowstone was perfect for that when you’re a young man from Bozeman, Quayle said. 

“I went there because that’s where everybody used to go and party,” he admitted. “And from Bozeman, they drive down to the inner West Yellowstone, but I would take a diversion. That doesn’t mean I didn’t partake of some of the wild stuff in those days. 

"But the bottom line is that it was so close, and in those days you could go from one feature to the next and never see another car,” Quayle added.

The more he photographed Yellowstone, the more he wanted to go back. It felt like becoming lost in another world, one that seemed to rearrange itself every time he visited.

At first, Quayle stuck to closeups. Think bacterial mats, colorful mineral formations, tiny, iridescent insects — all reflecting his interest at the time in abstract art.

“Most photographers would take a leaf,” he said. “I would take the veins in the leaf.”

But over time, Quayle saw that Yellowstone was like this gigantic living creature, breathing, pulsing, moving around. 

That could never be captured with microshots of leaf veins and abstract rock patterns. 

For the real Yellowstone, Quayle realized he had to do something to widen his scope. 

On a map, Yellowstone National Park looks vast, but knowable. 

You can drive in and easily hit the biggest, most popular features — Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic, the Canyon — and drive back out with a phone full of photos and a comfortable sense that you’ve now seen Yellowstone.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"It’s a beautiful illusion. "}]

For one thing, Yellowstone is among the most dynamic landscapes on earth. Fire and water are shaping and reshaping its landscapes all the time. 

The park is also vast —  3,500 square miles — and the majority is too dangerous and too inaccessible for most people’s hiking abilities. 

“It’s a matter of practicality,” Quayle said. “Because some of these waterfalls come out of the side of a mountain and you’ve got wolves in the park and you’ve got grizzlies in the park … and the wolves are not, ‘oh they’re so cute,’ and it’s not Yogi Bear time.”

Most tourists see just 5% of Yellowstone from roads and boardwalks. Bozeman filmmaker Stephen Quayle has spent 50 years filming the places most never reach. “It’s like a whole different world,” he said. “You literally wouldn’t know you’re on planet Earth.”

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