It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, September 3rd. 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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An evacuation order remained in place Monday as a wildfire burning in rugged, hard-to-access terrain in northern Campbell County near the Montana border continues to grow.
The Silver Spoon Fire has been burning grass, brush and timber near the Bitter Creek area, prompting a Sunday evacuation notice for people near Anderson Draw and within 10 miles of Bitter Creek Road. That’s according to Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson.
“Ranchers are reporting that they're trying to save their cattle that some grasslands are burning. I heard from one family who said that basically they just went out and cut fences and stuff to let their cattle out, and that they're scattered, quote, from hell to breakfast… also overnight, a fire broke out at a coal silo north of Gillette at the Rawhide mine and spread to about 100-110 acres. The fire department says they're getting a handle on that one too. So it's just really, really busy for Campbell County firefighters right now.”
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. It’s also burning north of two other large Campbell County wildfires that have blazed through ranchland around Gillette.
Read the full story HERE.
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With 10.5 breweries for every 100,000 beer-drinking adults, Wyoming’s craft breweries are a vital part of the Cowboy State’s tourism scene. They help add close to $200 million to the state economy every year.
But many brewers tell Cowboy State Daily they feel their industry has turned a corner, and Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that some are worried a crash is imminent.
“Costs of everything have gone up. Beer cans cost more, bottles cost more, even the water and the electricity, they all cost more. The other part, though, is we're seeing a change in demand. People are switching to things like ready made drinks in a can, or they're trying new drinks, like seltzers… and then in places like Colorado too, it's not just alcohol anymore. Some people are switching to like marijuana. So all of that's having an effect on demand for beer.”
Reduced demand and increased costs are also meeting up with the emergence of ever more breweries, adding even more softness to the market.
Read the full story HERE.
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The bizarre behavior of a marauding quartet of coyotes has prompted a rural Douglas-area resident to put out a warning to her neighbors, and a call for hunters or trappers to come deal with the bothersome beasts.
Outdoors reporter Mark Heinz spoke with Marly Borup, who said her husband warned her about the coyotes a little over a week ago.
“This is someone who ranches out there so very used to seeing coyotes, very used to seeing wildlife. But these particular coyotes… they're particularly bold, they're particularly fearless. They don't seem to care about people coming at them and trying to scare them. So, you know, of course, they think that's worrisome.”
Outdoorsmen in northeast Wyoming say the coyotes seem particularly thick this year there, too. Even the young ones seem to be out for whatever they can drag down and devour.
Read the full story HERE.
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Myron Cook wants to show the world the wonders of Wyoming’s geologic features. His YouTube page is allowing him that opportunity, getting millions of views from his nearly 140,000 subscribers and making him a literal rock star on the platform.
A petroleum geologist for 35 years, Cook told Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson that he wanted to share his love for science with the world after retiring.
“What Cook does is he primarily goes around to different geology sites around Wyoming and shows the amazing geology of the cowboy state and explains how it was created millions of years ago… He believes what's great about geology is it shows that there's so much more to our world than meets the eye, and there's some amazing processes that led to some of the geographic features that we see.”
Cook said he considers Wyoming to have some of the most interesting geology in the world, because it’s easily accessible with the naked eye.
Read the full story HERE.
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For the past 50 years, Jack Schmidt has been reciting cowboy poetry and impressing the ladies with his cooking.
Schmidt has been involved in the cattle business since his youth and in retirement. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy visited with the man who continues to do the two things he loves best: reciting cowboy poetry and cooking in a Dutch oven.
“Jack Schmidt is a cowboy poet who actually has taken the art form to save his dutch oven cooking. He was doing recipes on the wagon, and he could remember a 12 minute poem, but he could not remember the three ingredients he needed for buttermilk biscuits. So he put it into poet form, and he was able to save it. And that is the beauty of this art form.”
Cowboy poetry saw a revival in the 1980s and 1990s as old cow punchers gathered, reciting the poems of old. Newer ones written by the likes of cowboy poet Baxter Black, who died in 2022, had audiences, even late-time talk show host Johnny Carson, laughing along to poems about the cruelty of gardening and other topics close to a cowman’s heart.
Read the full story HERE.
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Hidden behind 110-year-old, 6-foot hedges stands a brick home described as one of Sheridan’s historic gems. The original owner christened it “Mount View” because it sits on top of a hill that offered both a view of the Big Horn Mountains and the city’s cemetery.
The more than 6,000-square-foot home boasts more than 15 rooms overall and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the home will be put on the market in the near future.
“She says she wants to be free to travel… She's owned it twice, and she's lived there since 2003 basically, except for a few years… it's just one of those places where you can't replicate it anymore. It's like stepping back in time.”
The home, along with a carriage house and chicken coop, was completed in 1912. It boasts prairie-style architecture with Italian Renaissance details. It’s not on the market yet, so there’s no list price.
Read the full story HERE.
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Park County Archives Curator Brian Beauvais has worked to combine two of his passions — history and exploring the outdoors.
It’s what led him to the photos and diaries of geologist Thomas Jaggar four years ago. Cowboy State Daily’s Amber Steinmetz spoke to Beauvais about his project to re-create Jaggar’s photos - which were taken 125 years ago - in a present-day setting.
“Some of the pictures he showed me, he'd go and the trees were really overgrown, and it looked like a totally different photo. So he really couldn't get the shot he wanted, but then in other pictures, it almost looked exactly the same. I mean, there was a few extra trees in some of them, but it really hadn't changed. In one and I mentioned it in the story, there's a dead tree in the front of the picture, and you can also see that in Brian's photo 100 plus years later. So the fact that that dead tree is still standing is pretty amazing.”
Beauvais tries to take photos in August and September, the season when Jaggar himself was in the area. He has taken day-trips around the Cody area, and even gone on a pack trip through the remote wilderness of the Thorofare, to re-create Jaggar’s historic photographs.
Read the full story HERE.
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In the late 1960s, a treasure trove of indigenous artifacts were uncovered while constructing corrals at the Medicine Lodge historical site nearly 100 miles west of Buffalo.
Then-State Archaeologist George Frison and his associates tested and studied the area at the base of the Bighorn Mountains, and discovered petroglyphs, arrowheads, awls and beads, some that dated back 10,000 years, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy.
“Dr George Frison actually did his very first project on this site, and he said he knew about it since the 1940s but that in the 1960s what happened is a rancher and his bulldozer uncovered a rich treasure trove of artifacts. Luckily, another archeologist was there, and he was able to preserve the site, and the rancher agreed to let them go in. And one thing led to another, and today it is preserved for all time, for all people to come and see this rich history.”
Interpretive signs along the base of the bluff guide visitors through the history of the Medicine Lodge site and the surrounding region.
Read the full story HERE.
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In 1482, a 30-year-old Leonardo da Vinci dreamed of creating the largest equestrian statue in the world. More than 500 years later, a smaller version of that dream stands in Sheridan.
Even though it’s one of da Vinci’s famous masterpiece works, the bronze casting of his majestic horse outside the Downtown Sheridan Association has become known as “The Wyoming Horse,” according to Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.
“Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to create the largest equestrian statue in history, back in 1482. He spent 11 years working on it, and he made a clay sculpture, but then the whole thing fell through, and it might not have even been possible at the time. So he died, and then 500 years later, someone else saw the drawings, and they're like, You know what? We should do this. So they spent a lot of money to build the full 24 foot equestrian statue based on Da Vinci's drawings, and then they put that up in Milan, Italy, where he was intending to put it. And there are a few other sculptures, and there's an eight foot cast of the bronze sculpture in Sheridan.”
The saga of da Vinci's Horse is a triumphant celebration of how the vision of a Renaissance genius was realized centuries after his death. Wyoming is one of the few places where da Vinci’s last work is displayed.
Read the full story HERE.
