It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, September 2nd. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by ServeWyoming - Wyoming's center for volunteerism and AmeriCorps service for the last 30 years! For volunteer opportunities, visit ServeWyoming dot org"
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A woman died in a plane crash Sunday near Meeteetse in the vicinity of Phelps Mountain, which also sparked a fire.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke with Park County Coroner Cody Gortmaker, who confirmed that the woman was a passenger in the plane, and that the male pilot had survived.
“Scanner traffic at the time was, you know, a frenzy of trying to organize because the crash sparked a fire. And so I was hearing a lot of, I believe, helicopters or other aerial units planning to land and seeing smoke. One agent said, I see the smoke. I don't yet see the wreckage. Gortmaker also confirmed that … Park County Search and Rescue was called to the scene.”
Gortmaker said he will identify the deceased publicly after he has notified her family of the fatality.
Read the full story HERE.
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Residents in northern Campbell County near the Montana border are being ordered to evacuate as a newly sparked wildfire is spreading fast.
The Silver Spoon Fire was reported a little after 10 a.m. Sunday and is burning toward a rural subdivision, reports Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson.
“When we did our first report on it, about 1:30 was at 300 acres, and now it's at 1000 acres that the fire marshal there says that they are throwing everything that they can in it, dozens of crews. They've got a couple of helicopters… they've also ordered an evacuation for the Bitter Creek area around a place called Anderson draw, and they've done an evacuation within 10 miles of that area.”
The Silver Spoon fire is just east of the Remington Fire, which started in northern Sheridan County on Aug. 22 and ran north into southern Montana, burning more than 196,000 acres.
Read the full story HERE.
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A bill to create a Wyoming Healthcare Commission was soundly rejected Friday by the Joint Health, Labor and Social Services Committee over concerns Gov. Mark Gordon could overstep his authority with it.
The commission would have served as an advisory group, monitor changes in the health care industry and offer policy recommendations to state legislators. Politics reporter Leo Wolfson says opponents of the bill on the committee expressed fears that creating the commission could lead to a violation of separation of powers by Gordon’s office and an expansion of powers for his executive branch.
“This commission would have served under the authority of the legislature, but it would have been selected by Governor Mark Gordon, for a number of members of the committee, that connection was far too much, and they expressed concern that there would create a conflict of separation of powers if it was created…this connects to a larger sentiment among some conservatives of a distrust of healthcare leaders and professionals. Ever since the covid 19 pandemic. This certainly is a dynamic that's playing out.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a growing sentiment of expressed distrust among conservative circles for the advice of health care leaders.
Read the full story HERE.
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Buyers in the Jackson Hole market want properties that are special and irreplaceable, and that’s exactly what they’ll find with the latest $20 million-plus home to list in Teton County, the nation’s wealthiest.
The 9,300-square-foot home is called Starfall, set in the Bar B Bar Meadows subdivision north of Jackson. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that The home lists for $28.5 million.
“This is a 9300 square foot masterpiece. The guy that was building this intended it to be his dream home in his dream place… You can see the Tetons from every room in the house. There's an outdoor hot tub, it's got a gym, it's got a steam room, it's got European white oak floors, an insulated outdoor kitchen and a giant home theater. It's just it's got every bell and whistle you can think of. And then, not only is it in the Tetons, but it's in an elk migration corridor next to it too. So it's quite the home.”
The Bar B Bar neighborhood has been a coveted location for decades, by names such as the Rockefellers and other founding Teton County families.
Read the full story HERE.
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For the third straight year, Wyoming’s Weitzels Wings has been voted Festival Favorite by the crowds of rabid chicken wing fans at the annual National Buffalo Wing Festival on Sunday evening.
The three-peat for the Laramie-based wing wagon empire, aka Double Dub’s, is a record for the 23-year-old festival. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson spoke with owner Trent Weitzel after the announcement.
“They three-peated. No other wing outlet has done that, so they're the first to do it. They're three time running. It's basically the Super Bowl of buffalo wings, and they've won it the third straight time. Trent is over the moon. He's extremely excited, and he's already thinking about next year… in five years at the wing festival, at the National wing festival, they have won 18 awards, including three festival favorites, which means they have won festival favorites more than they haven't won it this year. They also won first place for the best hot traditional wing sauce… They've shown a lot of pluck.”
Double Dub’s has five war wagon wing trucks in Wyoming, two in Colorado and one in Wisconsin. He also takes Weitzel's Wings to tailgate before Buffalo Bills games.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two people have been arrested after a shooting that left a person dead Saturday night in Uinta County at a home near the Fort Bridger historic site while the annual rendezvous is underway.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the incident occurred about 5:48 p.m. Saturday.
“On Sunday, the Uinta County Sheriff's Office released a very terse press release, like there was a shooting near the Fort Bridger rendezvous… the rendezvous is now safe… and, you know, the threat's been neutralized, basically… Two people were arrested, and so it, it didn't say much. I started calling people, hounding people. I don't know whether that was a factor, but a short while later, they released a more detailed press release saying that a person had died.”
Rendezvous organizers told Cowboy State Daily on Sunday that the shooting incident happened nearby and not at the event, and that there was no disruption of the rendezvous.
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A mountain lion in town is hardly unheard of in Sweetwater County. And a wildcat, either a bobcat or mountain lion, has apparently been living in Rock Springs - and Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz says that the big cat has gained a local fan base.
“I reached out to both Game and Fish and local animal control… they reported, yeah, there's been one. They each reported. One recent report has been made to them a mountain lion in town, but that's all they had. But then I also chatted with a local lady who swears you know this big cat is living near her place. She has no problem with it. She actually appreciates she says it scares the coyotes away. So she thinks that's awesome. And she said, this is part of Wyoming.”
Animal control prefers to capture wild animals alive and set them free in remote locations. But if an animal is suspected to have a transmissible disease such as rabies, it must be euthanized.
Read the full story HERE.
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When 19-year-old mass murderer Charles Starkweather saw a car by the road west of Douglas in January 1958, he saw an opportunity. He was on the run after already killing 10 people. What followed, writes Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck, ended one of America’s more notorious crime sprees.
“What's amazing to me was that he was caught in Douglas Wyoming, and a deputy sheriff came over the hill just as he was wrestling with a man that stopped to help what appeared to be just the car situation, and it turned out to be a murder scene… I talked to a criminology professor at the University of Wyoming who really brought out that this case was the first mass murder that happened when basically most households in America had TVs, and it became this huge media thing.”
Starkweather was executed in Nebraska’s electric chair June 25, 1959.
Read the full story HERE.
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Anyone who sees a biplane flying low over Powell is likely witnessing the ongoing work of an exceptional career. Charles Orville Moore just turned 80, but he’s still one of the best and most experienced crop sprayers in Wyoming, if not the United States.
Moore has been the go-to pilot for spraying crops in Powell for the last 20 years, and Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that even after 48 years, Moore intends to keep going.
“His lifetime aspiration was to fly, and he's been doing that for most of his life. Again, 48 years, he wants to get to 50. And he moved to Powell in 2004 and has been spraying for all the time that he's been here. And the way he described that, he said, That's the type of flying that, if you weren't crop dusting, they'd arrest you for doing it. So he still enjoys it. He's still extremely good at it, and he's going to keep doing it for as long as he can.”
Moore has been a licensed pilot and an airframe and powerplant mechanic since 1970 and has been flying professionally since 1975. He started spraying in 1976, and it has been his career ever since.
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.
