It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, October 3rd. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show with Jake! From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday, Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols brings to life the latest news, weather, sports and in-depth conversations that matter to you.
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A father whose son has been missing for two weeks after climbing Yellowstone National Park’s highest peak is urging people not to give up on him.
Brian King-Henke, father of 22-year-old climber and Yellowstone-based concessionaire worker Austin King, told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland that King called his parents and at least two friends from the peak on Sept. 17. That was the last time anyone heard from him.
“He known now that Yellowstone not only is transitioning from rescue to recovery mode, which implies death, but they, they're also scaling back their search efforts here on the 12th day. And so he, he knows these things, and he, you know, pretty much what he has to say is, just keep praying for my son. He said that he won't give up hope until he actually gets a call, if he actually gets the call saying his son has died.”
King-Henke said new leads have been reported, including footprints searchers found – and signs of an “off-permit” fire, or a fire outside of designated camping spaces.
Read the full story HERE.
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It was another nervous night for people in rural Wyoming with an uncontained wildfire making a run at another small community in Sheridan County near the Montana border.
The Elk Fire, which blew up to about 20,000 acres overnight Sunday and threatened the town of Dayton, grew to about 32,000 acres by Tuesday evening. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the fire shifted with the winds overnight, taking aim at Parkman, a community of fewer than 500 people.
“It didn't get close enough to actually prompt either of those places to evacuate. However, they were both put on kind of like standby notice… people in Parkman are continuing to to rally to help those firefighters there… When I talked to them this morning at the at the park and barn grill, they were busy setting up a buffet for and it's not just for the firefighters and the crews working the fires. It's for their families too… they told me that even though they're ready to evacuate, they're going to keep doing that until and if they're told to evacuate.”
There was no school Wednesday for students at Tongue River High School in Dayton or the Slack School in Parkman.
Read the full story HERE.
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There hasn’t been much talk about a constitutional amendment going before voters this November until recently.
Constitutional Amendment A asks the voters if they would like to support creating a separate, fourth class of taxation status for certain residential properties. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the proposal to bring the amendment to the voters was passed by the Legislature in 2023. But some who supported it then have changed their minds.
“One of these people is House Majority floor leader Chip Nieman, who said it opens up too many possible consequences that could be negative for taxpayers if things go in a negative way for Wyoming economically. He pointed out that technically, this could raise tax rates. It would allow lawmakers to raise tax rates in Wyoming sometime in the future, which could potentially happen with a different legislature and a much worse economic picture, which very, very much concerns him.”
If approved, the amendment would create a subclass of primary residences that could be assessed and taxed at a different rate than other properties in the state.
Read the full story HERE.
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Since 2020, the western Wyoming town of Alpine has seen its population balloon from about 900 to an estimated 1,300, and the proposed expansion of a gravel pit right on the edge of town is only adding to the community’s growing pains.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that residents are worried that fine-particle silica dust from a proposed 240-acre expansion of the Alpine Bear Pit gravel operation could pollute the air, as well as water in the nearby Palisades Reservoir.
“The gravel pit says it will have all kinds of benefits and will help, you know, help improve the water flows into the Palisades, Palisades reservoir. There on the other side, you have some residents who really don't like the idea, because they're not too keen on all the dust of the gravel pits… but you've got like, 20 different agencies involved, and they all have to go so it's just, it's a huge headache, and it's part of, really the growing pains that Alpine has been going through.”
Residents are also concerned that gravel pit expansion could disrupt the local elk herd’s migration route and disrupt recreation on the reservoir.
Read the full story HERE.
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If anyone thought September was hotter and drier than it has been in decades, they’re right. It has been in parts of Wyoming.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the warm weather hasn’t altered long-term forecasts for the Cowboy State, which say people should expect a colder than normal winter.
“The numbers from the National Weather Service offices in Cheyenne, Riverton and Rapid City showed that September temperatures were anywhere from three to 10 degrees above their historic averages, usually their 30 year averages and precipitation was way down…. So what does that mean? It means September was dry and warm, and in some cases, record breaking dry and warm, but that doesn't have any kind of extended meeting. But, or at least a better way to put it, is a warm fall and a dry fall doesn't mean a warm, dry winter.”
Winter 2024-2025 should have above-average snowfall, but certain areas may be more impacted than others.
Read the full story HERE.
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Cheyenne’s City Drug has been accused of illegally compounding and dispensing medications - and a previous Wyoming State Board of Pharmacy meeting that did not allow public comment on the issue became highly contentious.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that at a meeting early Wednesday morning, even nine state legislators did nothing to persuade the board to allow the public to comment on its decision to suspend the license of the popular Cheyenne pharmacy.
“State Representative Jeanette Ward, who was one of the nine legislators who appeared at the meeting, to call them out for this in question, why public comment wasn't being allowed. An attorney for the board explained that because the investigation and disciplinary action into city drug is still ongoing, they could not allow public comment on the matter as a result of a settlement agreement arranged between city drug and the board.”
By a 5-1 vote Wednesday, the board approved a settlement agreement allowing City Drug to continue filling prescriptions while serving a three-year stayed suspension.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Colorado man who killed a mountain lion with a shovel probably saved his dog from being devoured by the big cat.
Outdoors reporter Mark Heinz spoke with an experienced Wyoming mountain lion hunter, who said mountain lions will kill and eat dogs if they get a chance.
“A man reported that on September the 25th he was in a campground at night and a mountain lion approached him, and his dog got, I think, he said, within about 10 yards of the dog, and the cat just started to become incredibly aggressive, so he grabbed a shovel and killed it… my source from Wyoming basically said… mountain lions can and do view pet dogs as prey.”
Had the big cat succeeded in its apparent goal, it wouldn’t have been the first time that mountain lions took a toll on Colorado dogs. Residents around a small community in rural Boulder County said they lost 23 dogs to mountain lions in 2022.
Read the full story HERE.
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Police say they have caught two people trafficking bulk amounts of fentanyl and meth from Aurora, Colorado, into Park County.
35-year-old Korinne McKay and 58-year-old Wayne Wright each face up to 80 years in prison and $100,000 in fines if convicted on four felony drug charges apiece.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that agents used “various investigative techniques” to apprehend the pair.
“They tracked them to Aurora, and then they watched them come back through just outside Meeteetse, and they pulled them over. And the document alleges that the woman just was stuffing something under the seat as the deputy walked up and turned out to be, allegedly, 2000 fentanyl pills with another 5000 in the trunk and a pound of methamphetamine and a little marijuana from a dispenser.”
They both have a preliminary hearing set for Thursday morning, at which time Cody Circuit Court Judge Stephen Joseph Darrah will decide whether the state has probable cause to keep prosecuting them.
Read the full story HERE.
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Alaska’s north slope is isolated, prone to brutal weather and home to gigantic, fearsome polar bears. And welder Tex McBride of Gillette absolutely loves working there. He told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz that even though he knows how to be “bear aware” from living in Wyoming, polar bears in the Arctic Circle take being “bear aware” to a whole new level.
“It's kind of cool when stories lead to other stories. And there was a gentleman who's from Gillette, saw the story about the Wapiti school we did, and their grizzly resistant fence. And he said, oh, boy, that's nothing, guys, because he welds in oil fields up on Alaska's north slope, and they have polar bear proof fences up there, because they've got polar bears, which are on a whole other level… they are like the ultimate bear. And so they have, really, these, like, heavy duty steel cage like structures they have to walk through when they leave their man camp and they look around, make sure there aren't any bears, and then they go outside.”
Polar bears aren’t the only apex predators lumbering about the North Slope. McBride said last year, a worker had to scramble on top of a truck to escape an irritated grizzly.
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! And don’t forget to drop in on the Cowboy State Daily morning show with Jake Nichols, Monday through Friday from 6 to 10 a.m.! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
