It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, September 9th. 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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The Wyoming Highway Patrol confirms one person died when two semitrailers collided Saturday morning and one became engulfed in flames.
Cowboy State Daily’s Reilly Strand reports that I-80 near Rawlins was closed for hours Saturday after the fiery and fatal crash.
“There were two semi trailers that were involved, one of which did become engulfed in flames. Those flames then sparked some grass fires, which further delayed the roads opening. That's according to WYDOT and Wyoming Highway Patrol has confirmed that one person has died in the crash, but there are no further details other than that at this time. But yeah, traffic was pretty, pretty backed up. Some people were stuck for over six hours, including a large contingent of people heading to the University of Wyoming football home opener.”
The Wyoming Highway Patrol continues to investigate the crash.
Read the full story HERE.
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As Wyomingites are getting their skis waxed and snowmobiles tuned up, they turn to longtime Wyoming meteorologist Don Day to guide their winter plans.
And after weeks of poring over maps, trends and historical data, Day has come up with his 2024-2025 long-range winter outlook for Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that all those hours of checking and double-checking can be boiled down to two words: colder, snowier.
“In fall, it's going to be mild, warmer than average in September, October and November, as we get into December and into the thick of the winter, in December, January and February, the signs are suggesting, and they're fairly clear signs, according to Don Day, that this winter is going to be colder than average, certainly colder than it was last winter. And there are indications that there's going to be above average snow, but kind of in an inverse to what it was last year. There's a better chance of heavy, above average snowfall in the northern part of Wyoming than in the southern part of Wyoming.”
There are already few long-range forecasts for Wyoming from national agencies. Day encourages Wyomingites to look local, trust today’s broad statements, and wait for the specifics once the snow starts falling.
Read the full story HERE.
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A suspected member of the violent Venezuelan gang that has ignited a firestorm of controversy amid rumors it’s overtaken an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, is incarcerated in a Cheyenne jail.
Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak said while he hasn’t seen any of the reported gang terror in the Cheyenne area, he told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland that he is concerned about the reports.
“The sheriff was not in panic mode… He was doing mitigating things, like he extended the period that the immigration authorities have to pick up an undocumented person when he's being released from jail. So let's say a guy just got sentenced to time served, after two months, he's going to be free. If he's undocumented, it's now two days instead of two hours, that ICE has to come get him under the sheriff's new policy. But one thing the sheriff did say was, everything down there winds up this way, eventually.”
A suspected Venezuelan gang member is now incarcerated in the Laramie County Detention Center. Kozak said Elizando Gonzalez Perez is charged with felony theft on claims he stole a silver 2005 Toyota Highlander from the Colorado Springs area from another Hispanic man.
Read the full story HERE.
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Former Vice President Dick Cheney and former congresswoman Liz Cheney have both announced that they will vote for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid for president because they oppose former President Donald Trump.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that both Cheneys escaped censure by the Wyoming Republican Party at its central committee meeting in Douglas on Saturday because those in the state GOP don’t consider them “Wyoming Republicans” anymore.
“They legitimately don't see these two as Republicans that the party can address. In 2021 the Wyoming GOP voted to not recognize Liz Cheney as a Republican after she continued her vocal criticisms of former vice former President Donald Trump. Dick Cheney hasn't been nearly as vocal on this topic, but during his daughter's 2022 campaign, he did an ad on her behalf where he called Trump a coward.”
During the meeting, it was also announced that Dick Cheney is not registered to vote in Wyoming, but his daughter still is, as a Republican. Dick Cheney did vote in the 2022 primary election in Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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On a couple of acres in the middle of Wyoming, it does not take a lot of imagination to envision a popular kids movie about vintage cars coming to life before your eyes.
Inside a fence next to a building sits a tow truck that resembles Mater from the hit animated movie “Cars.” There’s also a 1954 Ford Skyliner with a jet-like hood ornament and rare glass top, and a 1956 DeSoto that had power windows.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck visited with the owner of these classic vehicles, Steven Murphy, who said that although the cars might be in disrepair right now, he has a vision.
“There are some precious, what some people would call junk cars there, but actually they are very valuable cars that sit on a couple acres and a car Restorer is planning to create kind of, he said, a Disneyland facility for car enthusiasts and car restorers.”
Murphy emphasized that the vehicles on his property are future restoration projects. He does not sell car parts and is not interested in selling what is there.
Read the full story HERE.
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Authorities are one step closer in determining what happened to a Washington, D.C., man whose abandoned vehicle was found on a desolate mining road in Big Horn County more than four years ago.
Davante Richardson, who was 28 at the time, drove to Wyoming in July 2020 after telling others he was planning to, quote, “help Kanye West.”
West had just bought two ranch properties in Cody and Greybull, which is where it was believed Richardson was headed. But Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports there’s no evidence suggesting he made it to either ranch.
“The case has never been cold, but now it's it's even more active, and it sounds like the FBI is taking a pretty active role in using technologies to figure out his route, and that was a distinguishing point that but the sheriff would not divulge too much information on that, because, again, it's an active case… And there's also, there were suspicious things with his car in that it was exceptionally neat. And it like he as if he hadn't been traveling for, you know, almost 30 hours across country. So just some interesting things to note.”
Sheriff Ken Blackburn stopped short of saying he suspects foul play in Richardson’s disappearance, only that certain evidence appears suspicious. He says his goal remains finding Richardson.
Read the full story HERE.
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Members of the Beutler family are still searching their 14,000-acre range near Elk City, Oklahoma, for horses that died last week from contaminated feed. So far, the death toll is approaching 80.
The aftermath has been devastating to the ranch, and a historic 95-year-old bloodline of bucking horses, reports Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy.
“What occurred is the Livestock Nutrition Center, which supplies their feed, accidentally added a cattle antibiotic to this feed, which is toxic to the horses. At last count, there have been 76 of these horses found on the ranch, and there is more to be found. There's 14,000 acres that they're searching, and their guess is that they'll be up to 90 horses that have died, and these are the breeding stock of the Beutler ranch.”
The only surviving horse of that lineage is a bucking mare named Black Kat, which was recently rode to victory by Roedy Farrell of Thermopolis.
Read the full story HERE.
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The school spirit of a now-abandoned town near Hartville, Wyoming, lives on in the surprisingly giant white “S” on a hill that overlooks the school’s former football field.
The “S” stands for Sunrise, a former mining town that was once filled with families, whose pride in their hometown spurred a resident to start a tradition decades ago - one that continues to this day, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean.
“For the sunrise school district that they attended. A lot of these kids were, you know, their families were immigrants who came to America. In their countries, they didn't have a free school system for their kids like we have here. A lot of them maybe couldn't even have afforded to send their kids to school until they came to America, where it's part of a free public school system… Well, these kids who grew up in America, their parents didn't let them take that for granted. They impressed upon them how special that was, that they got to go to school that they might not have got to go to.”
The ”S” whitening expedition happens every year after the Labor Day picnic, held on the old Sunrise ballfield.
Read the full story HERE.
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It’ll be much more colorful in the Cowboy State going forward as Wyoming’s trees put on their fall colors for another season.
The challenge is knowing when and where to go in Wyoming to see the peak colors, which really boils down to elevation, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.
“The high elevations will peak before the low elevation. So if you're wanting to see peak color of the aspens in Yellowstone and Grand Teton, you're probably going to want to head into the park between mid and late September. By the beginning of October, there might still be color, but it'll be peaking or past its peak there, but that's when the peak is reached across most of the rest of Eastern White and Central Wyoming… the window, as far as I can tell, mid September to mid to late October, is when you're going to want to start traveling around, going high and going low, to see these colors at their peak.”
By September 23rd, the colors of fall should be visible across the entire Cowboy State.
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.
