It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, September 16th. 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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People evacuated on both sides of the Wyoming-Montana border in the path of the Short Draw Fire are allowed to go home again after several harrowing days of wind-blown flames burning through ranchland.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that unfortunately for some, there aren’t places to go home to anymore.
“There are some homes that have been lost, have been burned, that they don't know really how many yet. They haven't really had time to do a full inventory, but there definitely have been some… At the same time they are getting a handle on it. It hasn't really grown much. The size of it has fluctuated as they've been able to get better information. So it's fluctuated between about 30,500 acres to about 40,000 and it's kind of remained there for the last day and a half or so. But now the reporting about 27% containment and that they've got lines around it.”
The southern part of the fire area in Wyoming continues to be a problem and that structure protection efforts are ongoing. Just how the fire started remains under investigation.
Read the full story HERE.
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Dying from cancer, one of a Pennsylvania man’s last wishes was a first Wyoming elk and deer hunt for his 14-year-old daughter.
Thanks to a Gillette-area Airbnb owner and outfitter, Lee Swartzfager and his daughter Sadie got that dream hunt. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that this is a story about the kindness of the people of Wyoming, the power of faith and the many hunts to come for his 14-year-old Sadie.
“It’s a really, very deeply emotional story… the daughter was able to make it out. She did get an elk… and her dad, miraculously enough, his condition… it took enough of a turn for the better that he was able to come out. He was not able to hunt, but he was able to at least… be like out in the field in a vehicle when his daughter shot the elk, and they were able to get up to where that was… he's centered on his faith and on the future of his daughter and how kind people and Wyoming is. ”
Rather than people feeling sorry for him, Lee said he wants them to be uplifted by the story of his family’s experience and Sadie’s first hunt in Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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The family of a Laramie man who has been missing for three weeks said they were "devastated" to learn he was found dead in his vehicle Friday, having run off a road in a rural part of Carbon County.
79-year-old Donnie Smith suffered from moderate dementia. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that he was reported missing by family August 24th.
“He went missing on a Wednesday afternoon, and he was last seen cutting his grass, and he just got in his car and drove off and left his wallet and left his cell phone, so as if he was just going to go on an errand. But however, he is suffering, or he was suffering from moderate dementia, so he had been in recent weeks getting lost and confused when he was in his car… he was discovered by a hunter, and he was deceased. And from what the evidence showed on the scene, it happened fairly recently, after he had gone missing.”
Smith’s son-in-law told Cowboy State Daily that there was no foul play or ill intention suspected.
Read the full story HERE.
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Fine art galleries throughout Wyoming have been working through a slump for several months. It is an election year, after all.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that for whatever reason, buyers tend to keep their money to themselves during presidential elections.
“Everyone I spoke to said it's the same sort of thing. It's that buyers are waiting to see what the election results are. But the funny thing is, you think that if you know X or Y candidate wins, that would affect spending habits the next year, but it doesn't. They're still buying art at the same price and in the same frequency as they were before the election. So it's like the election didn't affect anything at all, but they keep their hands in their pockets for the most part during the election cycle, and then business picks up like nothing happened right after it.”
Even while the fine art community anticipates the presidential election lull, there isn’t much they can do to prepare for it. The primary solution is to hope there’s enough financial security to wait until the election’s over.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s much-beloved Grizzly 399 has been described as the “Queen of the Tetons.” Hoback, a huge and popular bull moose, could likewise be described as the “King of the Tetons.”
And a West Yellowstone photographer has - after six years of trying to catch Hoback in the act - finally captured video of the huge bull moose shedding the velvet from his enormous antlers. Outdoors reporter Mark Heinz spoke to videographer Cindy Shaffer about finding Hoback at the right moment.
“The velvet is that protective membrane or layer that forms on the deer, elk and moose… it's full of blood vessels, and it brings nutrients to the antlers as they grow. And then once it's served its purpose, it just dries out, and it either sloughs off on its own, or the animals will scrape it off… She finally got her magnificent photos and videos on Saturday, and she's absolutely thrilled to pieces about it.”
Hoback appears to be in fantastic health, but he’s likely getting on in moose years.
Read the full story HERE.
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There’s a small rectangular building that stands like a cinder block fortress in the small mining town of Walkerville, Montana, beckoning all who dare to enter from its glowing sign outside, lighting up the street in the heart of the quiet town.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson has been on assignment in Montana this past week, covering the contentious race between Democrat Jon Tester and Republican Tim Sheehy. He stopped in at this iconic dive bar near Butte - but found that there would be no talk of politics.
“Pisser’s Palace dates back to the late 1970s and really had a pretty rough and tumble reputation during some of its earlier years in the 80s and the 90s… I talked to a bartender there, Kate Matson, who said they don't really see much for fights anymore, and things are a little quieter than they used to be… Matson said, if there's one rule there. It's that talking of politics is not allowed, and that just starts more problems than it's worth.”
The area is relatively evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, and the bar has a colorful reputation for being a bit of a physical battlefield when politics get involved.
Read the full story HERE.
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A New York-based business development company that specializes in managing credit and equity investments, has quietly sold its struggling Kemmerer coal mining operation in southwestern Wyoming to a Southern California real estate investment company.
Energy reporter Pat Maio says few details have emerged on the sale price of the coal mining operations to ECC Capital Corporation, a specialty finance company that manages a residential mortgage portfolio.
“this is a very odd acquisition, because it's outside of its normal portfolio a coal mine in Wyoming. What's that all about?... Now, if you look at that area where the mine, coal mine is located. It's an interesting spot. It's where the natrium nuclear reactor is going to be built by TerraPower, you know, the Bill Gates backed plant. It's also where other things are happening, like an ammonia plant that would call to ammonia plant and then other industrial factory, like a cause that'll be turning coal into like cosmetics and a skincare, new skincare line, all kinds of stuff that's kind of going to go down along the road right where Naughton coal fired plant is going to be, where they're already headquartered.”
ECC Capital, prior to this acquisition, mainly dealt with distressed mortgages, or loans that are on the brink of going under.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Cody man suspected of murdering his girlfriend received a seven-year, three-month prison sentence Friday on a separate charge for possessing ammunition as a felon.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that although 27-year-old Adam Aviles Jr.’s sentencing hearing Friday was not a proceeding in a murder case, it unfolded like a mini-murder trial. He’s been named a person of interest in Katie Ferguson’s disappearance and suspected murder, but not charged.
“this was an argument within a sentencing hearing where hearsay was allowed, where they were trying to prove murder without necessarily convicting him, just for the purposes of sentencing. And so the FBI agent overseeing the case was able to say things secondhand. Was able to give almost a full account of the investigation. It was grisly. It was long… he'd say things that it was apparent the family had not heard before, and it really gave the feeling as though some of their hopes were being dashed in that courtroom because of how gruesome this testimony was.”
No one has heard from Ferguson since Oct. 5 of last year.
Read the full story HERE.
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For decades, people from far and wide have made the pilgrimage to southern Wyoming’s Sierra Madre Range every fall to see and photograph Aspen Alley, the perfectly picturesque grove of aspen trees growing on either side of a narrow private road near Encampment.
But lately, photographers - and horticulturists - have noticed a decline in the vibrant colors that were the signature of Aspen Alley. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the answer is simple - the trees are getting older.
“The aspen trees that people know are nearing the end of their life cycle, their low altitude aspens, only live for about 50 to 60 years. So those trees are dying, they're dropping and they're not producing leaves while the younger trees are growing, and it's evidence that they're there, but it's gonna take them a while to reach full maturity where they're gonna replace the existing aspen grove.”
The good news is, quaking aspens grow fast, between 2 and 5 feet a year, and can reach heights of up to 80 feet, though they tend to average out to about 50 feet.
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.
