Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"\"This dog is an idiot...\""}]

Smile 9 14 24

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

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, September 14, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

"This dog is an idiot..."

Daily Smile: Saturday, September 14, 2024

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

Renée Jean

Outdoors

Public Lands

John Merwin showed up 45 minutes early for the 18,800-acre Belvoir Ranch’s grand opening Wednesday afternoon at a trailhead about 8 miles west of Cheyenne. 

He just couldn’t resist the chance to sneak in a 7-mile bicycle ride before all the speeches began.

“I worked for the Board of Public Utilities when they bought this back in the early 2000s, and I knew there was a master plan to have bicycle trails out here,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I’ve looked forward to this ever since then, and I know this has been in the works for several years.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The short ride was great, Merwin added."}]

“It’s nothing real technical,” he said. “But it’s some open, flowy trails.”

The trails roll up and down gentle hills with just enough curve and rock features to be fun without being intimidating, he added. There are also accessible trails for those using wheelchairs or walkers. 

Merwin was one of 40 to 50 mountain bikers and hikers who showed up not only to hear all the speeches, but to break those trails in properly the minute all the speeches ended.

The opening marks the first time Cheyenne residents can freely access the city-owned Belvoir Ranch for recreation since the city bought the sprawling property west of town in 2003.

The new trailhead and roughly 13 miles of singletrack and shared-use paths give hikers and cyclists a long-promised playground in the city’s backyard, turning what was once mainly an insurance policy for future water and landfill needs into a full-fledged outdoor destination.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Remembering A Champion"}]

Wednesday’s opening of the Belvoir Ranch also tugged at heartstrings for everyone who knew former Cheyenne City Councilman Scott Roybal, 

 in September and was the project's longtime champion.

“He saw the recreational side of it right from the start,” said Councilman Pete Laybourn.

While the ranch was officially acquired for water and landfill options, Roybal “really understood” the solitude, the beauty, and the recreational opportunity, he said.

Roybal faced a skeptical public, but never backed down, Laybourn added.

“We wouldn’t be here today if he wouldn’t have just consistently kept working on it,” he said. “He had to be patient. A lot of patience went into it, and everyone remembered him. It just felt like, ‘Man, we wish you were here with us.’”

Roybal’s absence was the emotional undercurrent of the day for Mayor Patrick Collins as well.

“Scott had a deep love for this community, and he had a genuine passion for the ranch and making the Belvoir Ranch (a place) that would one day be open to the public, where everybody could enjoy it,” Collins told a crowd of close to 100 gathered for the occasion. “He understood that protecting the land wasn’t enough. 

"We needed to open it up so residents and families, children, and future generations would experience its beauty firsthand. I know he would have taken great pride in seeing this ribbon cutting today.”

Belvoir Ranch’s trailhead and trail system were paid for through a combination of a $486,000 grant from the Wyoming Office of Outdoor Recreation and money from windmill leases on the ranch. 

The total price tag for the recreational project came to $1,230,736.93, said Collins. 

“Now, I would have rounded that up,” he added. “But I’ll never do that again, because … Scott, when he was on the finance committee on the City Council, the first thing (he) would ask is, ‘Mr. Mayor, what do I get for that 93 cents?’”

On Wednesday, Collins said he finally has an answer for that question. 

“Scotty, today what you get for that 93 cents is the last piece of the puzzle to open up this beautiful 13 miles of trails, the trailhead and all that we have today,” he said. "So, Scotty, that 93 cents was the last piece, and brother, we miss you.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Big Hole Still The Dream"}]

Even with the ribbon finally cut, city officials stressed that Wednesday’s opening is only the first phase of plans for the ranch. 

Still to come is the dramatic “Big Hole” on the south side of the Union Pacific tracks — a landscape Roybal and other early champions long dreamed of opening. That remains off-limits for now.

Collins said the city has spent five years trying to negotiate 

 beneath the railroad, but safety and flooding concerns have stalled those plans.

“I call the railroad tracks the Great Wall of China,” he told the crowd. “We can’t get under it, we can’t get over, we can’t get across it.”

It was Cheyenne City Engineer Tom Cobb who suggested the city pivot from waiting on that piece of the project and instead build trails on the north side. 

“His pivot got us started,” Collins said. “But this trailhead is perfectly located so that when the day comes that they allow us to build a trail to the Big Hole — which is the most beautiful place, I can’t wait to get there — this trailhead will be able to service that also.”

Beyond local riders and hikers, tourism officials believe the Belvoir Ranch has great economic potential.

Visit Cheyenne CEO Jim Walter told Cowboy State Daily the ranch fits neatly into how the city already markets itself to visitors.

“When we market the Cheyenne area, I call it our three-legged stool,” he said. “One is our Western heritage, one is what we call ‘downtown chic’ — our bars, our breweries, our restaurants — and then the third leg of that stool is outdoor recreation. 

"This gives us another opportunity to promote coming up to Cheyenne and hiking and mountain biking and having access to this open space.”

He added that Belvoir knits together other recreation opportunities, such as Curt Gowdy State Park and the trails around Pole Mountain and Vedauwoo. 

The idea that Belvoir Ranch will one day link all the way to Colorado’s Soapstone Prairie and Red Mountain open spaces will be tremendous and something else to look forward to, he said.

Roybal’s family — his mother, brother, sister and niece — had all come to stand where Roybal had long hoped to be when Belvoir Ranch finally opened to the public.

His brother, Jon Roybal, told Cowboy State Daily the occasion was a “real tribute” to Scott’s years of work.

“He’s a piece of Wyoming and now this commemorates it,” Jon said. “So we’re super proud.”

His sister, Chris Dittmar, liked that Mayor Collins highlighted the 93 cents anecdote, saying it had captured Scott in a “nutshell.”

“He always had a little something to say about something like that,” she said. “That was just his personality.”

The repetition of the joke, with the $20.26 cost of the stone monument, was also perfect, she and Jon said, capturing both the year of the dedication and Roybal’s personality. 

“This was a big, big project for him,” his mother Mary Roybal said. “He’s looking down from above. It’s emotional.”

Belvoir 20260701 belvoir ranch 0209 7 2 26

<title>After More Than 20 Years, Cheyenne Opens Belvoir Ranch To The Public | Cowboy State Daily</title>

More than 20 years after buying the Belvoir Ranch west of Cheyenne, the city opened 13 miles of trials on Wednesday. “He’s looking down from above,” said the mother of Councilman Scott Roybal, who championed the project and died suddenly last year.

After More Than 20 Years, Cheyenne Opens Belvoir Ranch To The Public

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

For nearly a year, the man known only by his scattered bones on a remote Wyoming mountainside remained a mystery.

Investigators found pieces of his skeleton spread across rugged country near the Sweetwater Gap Guard Station, along with a tent and personal belongings. 

An identification card hinted at who he might be, but proving it would require an investigation stretching from Sublette County to Scotland, involving Interpol, foreign police agencies and DNA collected half a world away.

On Thursday, the Sublette County Sheriff's Office announced the mystery has finally been solved.

The remains belong to John Gillies, a Scottish man who would have been 69 years old this year.

"This case is a testament to the dedication of everyone involved and the strength of partnerships that extend well beyond our county and even our nation's borders," Sheriff K.C. Lehr said in a statement.

"What began as the discovery of unidentified remains in a remote area of Wyoming ultimately brought together local, state, federal and international partners with one shared goal — to give a family answers,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Very Remote'"}]

The investigation began Sept. 6, 2025, when Wyoming Game and Fish personnel 

discovered scattered human skeletal remains

 in a remote section of the Wind River Mountains near the Sweetwater Gap Guard Station.

Authorities later described the location as "very remote," in an area that sees little traffic outside of occasional search-and-rescue missions.

Deputies found disarticulated skeletal remains, a tent, and personal belongings. At the time, authorities said foul play did not appear to be a factor.

Four days later, a 14-member search team made up of deputies, detectives, Sublette County Search and Rescue volunteers and U.S. Forest Service personnel combed roughly 20 miles of rugged terrain, recovering additional skeletal remains.

By late December, a forensic anthropologist estimated investigators had recovered about 85% of the skeleton and concluded the remains had likely been in the wilderness for about six years.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'More Than Bones'"}]

Among the items recovered at the scene were personal effects that eventually led investigators to believe the man could be Gillies.

With no immediate next of kin in the United States, detectives contacted Gillies' ex-wife on Sept. 16, 2025.

Although she had not yet received confirmation that the remains belonged to her former husband, she provided photographs, medical history and details about his life.

[{"type":"text","text":"One message stayed with investigators throughout the case."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I wanted you to know he was more than bones\" she had said. "}]

The sheriff's office called her compassion and willingness to help "a powerful reminder that every unidentified person is someone's loved one."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Investigation Crosses An Ocean"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The investigation soon expanded across the Atlantic."}]

Detectives contacted Saint Mary's Church in Kirkintilloch, Scotland, which helped locate Gillies' surviving relatives and assisted with an international death notification.

Through Interpol, Police Scotland and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement International Bureau, investigators obtained DNA reference samples from Gillies’ family, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office reports.

Those samples arrived in Wyoming on Feb. 10. The following day, investigators personally transported the family DNA and the recovered skeletal remains to the Wyoming State Crime Laboratory in Cheyenne for comparison.

On Tuesday, the lab confirmed the remains were biologically related to Gillies' surviving family members, bringing the nearly yearlong investigation to a close, along with six years of limbo overall for the family.

[{"type":"text","text":"Investigators immediately notified his family in Scotland."}]

At their request, the Sublette County Sheriff's Office and the Sublette County Coroner's Office are now working with Interpol to return Gillies' remains home for burial.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Questions Remain"}]

The sheriff's office did not say how Gillies came to be in the isolated Wyoming wilderness or whether he had been reported missing before his remains were discovered.

[{"type":"text","text":"Authorities also did not announce a cause or manner of death."}]

Instead, investigators focused Wednesday on the collaboration that ultimately restored a name to a man who had spent years missing and unidentified.

"We are grateful to everyone who played a role in helping bring John home," Lehr said.

The sheriff's office specifically thanked the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Sublette County Search and Rescue, the U.S. Forest Service, the Wyoming State Crime Laboratory, Interpol, Police Scotland, the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement International Bureau, Saint Mary's Church in Kirkintilloch and, most importantly, Gillies' family "for their patience, trust and assistance throughout this investigation.”

Missing man found inset

<title>Scattered Bones Found In Remote Wyoming Wilderness ID'd As Missing Scottish Man | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Scattered human bones found in Wyoming's rugged Wind River Mountains nearly a year ago have been identified as a Scottish man. "I wanted you to know he was more than bones,” his ex-wife said when contacted by investigators.

Scattered Bones Found In Remote Wyoming Wilderness ID'd As Missing Scottish Man

Lubnau head 2

Tom Lubnau

Opinion

CSD Columnists

Chuck Gray, a man who has been chasing an office for years, may win the Republican nomination for U.S. Representative with a little over 20 percent of the vote.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The candidate field is huge. "}]

The Secretary of State’s website lists the following candidates in this order: Bo Biteman, Chuck Gray, David Giralt, Frank Chapman, Jillian Balow, Keith B. Goodenough, Kevin Christensen, Reid Rasner, Richard Dodson and Steve Friess.

Gray, fresh with another boxcar load of family money, is the statistical leader, according to polling information shared with me. 

While Chuck has large negatives, he has a solid backing of conservative Republicans who are impressed with his red-meat approach to politics.

He has been campaigning for an office in Wyoming for many years, now, and has a firm base of support from the MAGA Republicans. So far, the holy grail has eluded him, because he has not received the endorsement of Donald Trump.

Depending on whom you consult, billionaire heir Steve Friess, Reid Rasner and Jillian Balow come in next, in the polling.

To be clear, no campaign has shared their actual polling data with me.

My information comes from candidates who want to sway my opinion to their favor. Take my insights for what they are worth.

The rest of the field poll in near-single digits.

Wyoming has typically shown disdain for rich people from Teton County, rolling into Wyoming and running for political office. Attempts for millionaires to appear as blue-collar men of the people somehow come off hollow.

Frank Chapman, a rich midwestern attorney who bought a ranch and moved to Teton County is supported by a PAC running a social media campaign that consists of a country music video, and opens with, “Frank rides the range at the break of dawn, loves this land, knows right from wrong . . .” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"He bought a guest ranch. "}]

As for his bona fides as a cowboy, my cowboy friends just shake their heads.

It seems like a day doesn’t pass that I don’t receive a mailer from Steve Friess. Friess might have the biggest boxcar of money. He talks about a place where we can raise our kids, a young man can learn a trade, get a good job in mining or minerals, and work with President Trump to take Wyoming from good to great. He tries to characterize himself as an “outsider” and successful businessman.

I have a hard time seeing Friess running a backhoe, driving a haul truck or fighting fire. I suspect his campaign is having trouble getting more traction for that reason.

Reid Rasner is running an interesting campaign aimed at aligning with Trump values and attacking "China" Chuck Gray. His physical ability videos are something I’ve not seen in Wyoming politics. We’ll see if running sprints and flipping tires connect with the Wyoming voters. They appear to crack the social media algorithm. 

The other candidates seem to be suffering from lack of money. If your family does not have hundreds of thousands of dollars to dump into campaign advertising, it is hard to break through all the political noise.

Bo Biteman has been in Wyoming politics long enough to rise to President of the Senate. 

Give him credit: he steered the Senate through some real minefields last session. But Biteman's association with the Hazlitt coalition of Young Americans for Liberty, a Freedom Caucus ally, is a pedigree hard to shake. 

Voters will have to decide if he's a steady hand or just Freedom Caucus with better manners.

Jillian Balow was elected into a Superintendent of Public Instruction's office that was the center of a political firestorm.  She calmed the storm. 

She was good enough at the job that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin poached her to come run his schools department for a while. 

Now she's back, asking voters to send her back East, again. The question is whether competence or loyalty is the selling point this Republican primary.

I like some of the other candidates and have no idea about others. Column length limits prohibit full analysis of their campaigns.  Given the clutter in the advertising airwaves, it is going to be hard for any of the others to break out.

What could happen to change the current polling results?

First, the other candidates could voluntarily solidify their support for one candidate. If the race pares down to a two- or three-candidate race, the election becomes a different story.

Second, Donald Trump could endorse one of the candidates. That endorsement might be enough to tip the scale. This race, in many ways, has become a race for Trump’s approval.

Third, there could be some sort of July surprise that sways people. As candidates become increasingly desperate based on polling data, you will see increasingly shrill behavior.                                               

As it sits now, without a major shift in the electorate, we can get ready for Chuck Gray as our Republican nominee for U.S. Representative.

Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 to 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com

<title>Tom Lubnau: Splitting the Field — Why Chuck Gray Might Win With Only One in Five Votes | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Tom Lubnau writes, "Chuck Gray, fresh with another boxcar load of family money, is the statistical leader in the congressional race, according to polling information shared with me."

Tom Lubnau: Splitting the Field — Why Chuck Gray Might Win With Only One in Five Votes

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Media outlets gasped last week at the socialist movement’s success in the New York congressional 

That success headed west Tuesday, to Wyoming’s southern neighbor of Colorado.

Democratic socialist Melat Kiros, 29, defeated 15-term incumbent U.S. House Rep. Diana DeGette in Tuesday evening’s primary election.

Colorado Public Radio called the ouster “a stunning blow to the Democratic establishment in Denver and continuing a run of leftist victories in major cities.”

Former Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan, a Dvemocrat, told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that he wasn’t surprised at the move by Denver voters, but he doubted the proximity of a House socialist – if Kiros wins the general election – will affect Wyoming much.

“We have our own issues, and we’re certainly more sensitive to certain issues than others,” Sullivan said. “And it doesn’t necessarily divide us or make us closer to anybody else.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Could Deepen 'Don't Colorado My Wyoming' Sentiment"}]

Liz Brimmer, longtime Wyoming politico, agreed in general, but said having a socialist congressional neighbor could galvanize Wyoming even harder into a tendency it already has: spurning anything that looks like Colorado governance.  

“I think Wyoming uniformly and strongly feels, you know, ‘Don’t Colorado my Wyoming',” Brimmer said. “And I think if anything, it deepens that sentiment.”

Brimmer said the ouster speaks of “these times, where there’s no doubt an anti-incumbent strain.” But no one will know all the reasons, nor should presume too much, until the voter data return, she said.

The Republicans saw the anti-incumbent strain surface differently, with newcomers ousting President Donald Trump’s foes in GOP primary elections.

State Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, who is finishing off his final legislative term, voiced fascination with the election outcome.

Brown, a self-described political junkie, lives about 14 miles from the Colorado border.

He said the ouster shows Denver is increasingly dictating the rest of Colorado’s fate, and that the state is growing more polarized.

On the Republican gubernatorial primary side, The 

 a half-point lead for Victor Marx as of Wednesday.

“He’s just as crazy as a democratic socialist on the left,” said Brown.

As for DeGette’s defeat, it’s not as symptomatic as one would think, he added.

“She was running a ‘Hey, I’m the incumbent and I’ve been here 30 years’ (campaign),” he said.

That hurt her. As did a growing divide on the left over Israel’s approach to its many foes — and Congress’ funding of Israeli war and defense efforts, said Brown.

Israel was also a fulcrum in the May primary loss of libertarian-leaning incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky. But the Republican voters took the inverse approach on that one, nominating the candidate who supports funding Israeli war efforts.

Jack Speight, the GOP strategist who helped Wyoming Gov. Stan Hathaway to victory in 1966, told Cowboy State Daily Kiros’ win is alarming.

Speight was a Democrat when he graduated from the University of Wyoming law school. But the allure of capitalism and the prevailing logic of his good friends pulled him to the Republican side, he said in another interview last month.

The socialist victories of 2026 are “sad for this country. It may well affect the results of this fall, and nationwide,” he said. He called it a shift of California transplants into the Rockies, and a symptom of a growing entitlement.

[{"type":"text","text":"Colorado isn’t the only Wyoming neighbor with socialist momentum."}]

Sam Forstag, a smoke jumper endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-New York, won his primary bid for Montana’s U.S. House District 1 on June 2.

Forstag may be less favored than Kiros going into the general election: No Democrat has won that Montana House district this century.

 a “test for left-leaning politicians” who have been arguing for a populist surge in the blue party.

Melat Kiros Getty 7 1 26

<title>Win By Colorado Socialist Could Galvanize Wyoming Independence, Says Politico | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Fresh after socialist-backed candidates' success in New York's U.S. House primaries, Colorado Democrats nominated their own socialist House candidate Tuesday. Having a socialist neighbor could galvanize Wyoming's independence even more, one politico said. 

Win By Colorado Socialist Could Galvanize Wyoming Independence, Says Politico

[{"type":"text","text":"Don't mind if I do......."}]

Smile no play 7 2 26

<title>Daily Smile: Thursday, July 2, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don't mind if I do.......

Daily Smile: Thursday, July 2, 2026

It’s campaign flier season, which means 

 with messages about political candidates, which can range from 

The two biggest-spending out-of-state groups in the state’s 2024 primary election cycle  — Make Liberty Win and Americans For Prosperity — are at it again this year.

Make Liberty Win backs Wyoming Freedom Caucus-aligned candidates, 

 Americans For Prosperity backs a variety of GOP hopefuls, generally on libertarian-leaning or business-friendly credentials.

Lander residents in late June received Make Liberty Win door hangers showing the town’s incumbent Republican legislators, Sen. Cale Case and Rep. Lloyd Larsen, dressed in sheep suits with little hooves raised.

“Don’t let Rep. Lloyd Larsen and Sen. Cale Case in Sheep’s Clothing Fool You On Election Day August 18th!” says the door hanger.

The back of the flier says both voted against banning sexually explicit government funded events, “endangered children by voting against a ban on gender transition surgeries for minors” and “exposed women to their radical transgender agenda by voting against protecting women’s sports.”

Larsen and Case both said this is an inaccurate and clumsy account of their voting records.

 tracked down the “young man” handing out the door hangers to tell him so, the legislator told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday phone interview.

“I kind of started driving around town and found the young man who was passing them out,” said Larsen. “He inquired if I was going to vote, and he commenced to tell me about the evils of me and Senator Case.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The man had “no idea who he was talking to,” said Larsen."}]

Larsen visited with the man, but soon held the flier up to his own face, and the young man said, “Oh. This is uncomfortable,” Larsen recalled.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘He’s Just Trying To Make A Living'"}]

In Larsen’s recollection, the young man had graduated from a Colorado university with a bio-engineering degree and hadn’t been able to find work. He was able to secure work passing out door hangers for Make Liberty Win.

“It was hard to get mad at him, you know?” said Larsen. “He’s just trying to make a living.”

But Larsen said the fliers are frustrating, because they distill a person’s voting record onto a few flashy, sometimes inaccurate talking points on a flier.

It’s campaign flier season, which means Wyoming voters are being inundated with attack fliers about political candidates. One flier targeting Lander incumbents claim they “endangered children” and “exposed women to their radical transgender agenda."

Daily Smile: Saturday, September 14, 2024

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