It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, October 10th. 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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When the Elk Fire was bearing down on all three sides of the Horseshoe subdivision west of Dayton, evacuating the area was the last thing on resident Warren Tritschler’s mind.
He wasn’t going to leave the home he and his wife spent 30 years of their lives building. So, when fire roared down the hill overnight Friday into early Saturday morning, Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Tritschler was there with a garden hose in hand.
“He prepared for this ahead of time, you know, he filled up stock tanks. He had his garden hose all hooked up, as long as he had power for his well, he was in business. And then he had a backup weed sprayer on a buggy which held about 65 gallons… these guys are pretty determined, and they are pretty brave. I mean, he was telling me about a guy who drove his truck right through a wall of flame eight to 10 feet tall, because he could see that the wind was pushing it into an area where it was going to go straight for Dayton.”
Tritschler and other Hillbilly Hotshots, as locals have dubbed them, have worked side by side with volunteer firefighters, battling the blaze that has consumed nearly 76,000 acres so far.
Read the full story HERE.
As the Fire continues to grow, Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the burn area is moving toward Big Goose Canyon and the city of Sheridan’s water treatment facility that’s stationed there.
“The Elk fire is most active, pushing south and east, kind of following along the face of the big horns. And really made a run overnight at the water treatment plant for the city of Sheridan. That's a top priority for them to protect. They did, and it is. It is safe for now, but everybody, it's all hands on deck. They're approaching 900 people on this, on this fire now.”
Read the full story HERE.
Meanwhile, an especially ornery Pack Trail Fire continues to cause problems in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Since it started Sept. 15, the Pack Trail Fire has merged with the Fish Creek Fire into a single 66,000-acre wildfire complex burning timber, brush and undergrowth in some rugged, inaccessible terrain.
Read the full story HERE.
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If it holds up, people will be able to concealed carry firearms in some areas of the Wyoming Capitol under a draft rule passed Wednesday by the State Building Commission.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the state’s top five elected officials unanimously approved the draft rule that allows unlimited concealed carry in parts of the capitol that the Building Commission has jurisdiction over.
“What was passed on a unanimous vote by the State Building Commission on Wednesday, allows people to carry firearms - conceal carry firearms - in the Wyoming capitals extension hallway. Although a hallway may not seem like a substantial amount of space for people to be able to take advantage of this, it is a very long, extended hallway that gets extensive foot traffic during the legislative session.”
The approved rules will now go out for a 45-day public comment period. After that, the building commission will either vote to approve the rules as written, or amend them.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Casper Police Department Officer who shot a Wyoming man to death after a tense standoff involving a rifle will not be criminally charged, the region’s top prosecutor determined this week.
Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen released his decision letter to Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland on Wednesday, regarding the June 6 officer-involved shooting in which 26-year-old Trae Stewart Spurlock was killed.
“Spurlock, and the the body camera footage reflects this, but Spurlock was adamant that he was not going to jail. And there were these veiled allusions to that's why I have the guy, and I'm not going to jail. I refuse. And so he he told police, take that as you will. And it was under that determination that all of the other tensions unfolded.”
Itzen pointed out that police were at the apartment due to Spurlock’s own “criminal activity” and were there at the invitation of the leaseholder and for a civil standby, and officers did try to deescalate the situation.
Read the full story HERE.
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Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone National Park erupted for the fifth time this year, sending superheated water hundreds of feet into the air and getting an early start to the week at 8:05 a.m. Monday.
The largest geyser in Yellowstone Steamboat doesn’t have a regular eruption schedule. However, Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that it does have an observable cycle that indicates when an eruption is imminent - whether that’s a day, a week, or a month out.
“a lot of the other geysers in the park, they just erupt without much warning. But steamboat lets you know when it's going to erupt, or when it's close - the problem with that is it'll show you that it's close to an eruption, but close might be the next hour, the next day, or several months, or even potentially years from that point.”
The cycle between Steamboat’s eruptions has been getting longer as Yellowstone’s tallest geyser ends one of its most active periods in recorded history.
Read the full story HERE.
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A woman in Washington state thought she was doing raccoons a favor by feeding them, until a whole mob of the furry bandits showed up and drove her out of her home.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the situation is a cautionary tale for anyone who considers feeding wild animals.
“ I guess there were more than 100 at a time showing up at her place… they were starting to get aggressive, and so she actually fled her jumped in her car and fled her home on october 3, because it was getting so bad, and then called the sheriff's office there for help… I talked to a person here, east of Cheyenne, who happens to rescue animals, including raccoons, and her goal is to rehabilitate them and get them back out into the wild. And yes, she reiterated that message, it's just not a good idea to feed raccoons. They might seem cute at first, but it's almost inevitable that they're going to get pushy and aggressive, and they like to bring their friends.”
Experts point out that once raccoons and other animals are conditioned to getting food from humans, it’s extremely difficult to break that habit and rehabilitate them to return to the wild.
Read the full story HERE.
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A back-and-forth debate with Natrona County and private landowners on the back side of Casper Mountain over ownership of a well-used road has finally been settled.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that after decades of maintaining County Road 505 while not actually owning it, the county commissioners have finally jumped through the legal hoops to claim the road.
“They voted, after taking evidence that the road belonged to the county for the past at least 10 years, but they had evidence that goes back to basically 1920 they voted for zero to establish County Road 505, as an official County Road.”
The hearing and establishment of the road was uncontested by a Natrona County ranch and its owners, who initially challenged county ownership of the road earlier this year, and even blocked it at one point.
Read the full story HERE.
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In a deeply red Wyoming, there aren’t many swing districts or areas where Democrats have a legitimate chance of gaining seats in the Wyoming Legislature. House District 33 in Fremont County is one of the few exceptions.
The district includes the Wind River Reservation, which historically tends to lean toward Democratic candidates. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the candidates for HD 33 — incumbent state Rep. Sarah Penn of Fort Washakie, and Democratic challenger Ivan Posey — are each making appeals to voters of the opposite party along the campaign trail.
“Representative Sarah Penn is a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, and she expresses hardline conservative views… and she also wants to see government spending reduced as a way to help with property taxes… Ivan Posey has run a campaign really trying to appeal to a lot of Republican voters, even though he's a Democrat. On Property taxes, he wants to see kind of equitable relief provided across the board for Wyoming homeowners.”
Many Democrats around Wyoming are looking at the HD 33 race as one of the best opportunities for the party to gain back a seat in the Legislature.
Read the full story HERE.
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Alaska’s annual Fat Bear Week competition is one of the world’s biggest wildlife-watching events, and this week Bear 128, a female mama bear nicknamed Grazer, won for the second year in a row.
But as entertaining as the Alaska bear-watching event is, outdoors reporter Mark Heinz says it’s not something we could re-create in Wyoming.
“The circumstances of Grizzlies here are completely different. These aren't coastal or big Riverside Grizzlies that have like this gigantic, you know, runs of salmon coming up, where they can just sit there and gorge themselves for hours on end. Our bears really have to work for their food. They've gotta find big game carcasses or gut piles left behind by hunters or, you know, dig up roots or or get whatever they can. And so that's why we don't have a fat Bear Week, because we really don't have any fat bears.”
It's not unusual for adult Alaska Brown bears to weigh 1,000 pounds. Some are rumored to be in the neighborhood of 1,500 pounds. But around Wyoming, a 700-pound grizzly is considered huge.
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.
