One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"In his defense, it was a tight turn....."}]

One more for 11 10 24

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

<title>One More For The Road: Sunday, November 10, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

In his defense, it was a tight turn.....

One More For The Road: Sunday, November 10, 2024

 In his defense, it was a tight turn.....

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Public Safety

A multi-vehicle accident between Cody and Yellowstone National Park involving multiple motorcycles has resulted in serious injuries and possibly two fatalities.

At 9:38 a.m., the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) closed all lanes on U.S. Highway 14/16/20 near Wapiti due to the crash. First responders were rushing to the scene, which an eyewitness says involved multiple people who appeared to be seriously injured.

According to exchanges on the Park County Public Safety-WyoLink radio scanner, first responders had received “a report of two fatalities.”

The Wyoming Highway Patrol confirmed that multiple troopers were responding at the same time, asking drivers to “be alert, make room for emergency responders, (and) expect substantial delays.”

The highway was closed at mile marker 32.3. Anyone traveling between Cody and Yellowstone was asked to find alternate routes.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Too Grisly"}]

Wapiti resident Jimmy Rush was heading toward Cody for work when he observed the scene of the incident. It happened sometime between 8 and 8:30 a.m. Wednesday near the Old Faithful RV Park, just outside Wapiti.

“When I passed by, it was still a very early stage of the accident,” he said. “There were no first responders on the scene. There were at least four to five motorcycles and debris everywhere. I counted at least three bodies that I could see lying on the ground, not moving, with more down in ditches."

Rush said the victims were being attended to “by all of the gracious people of Wyoming,” who immediately pulled over and jumped out of vehicles to help.

A Silver Ford pickup truck, either an F-250 or F-350, had been “ejected out into a field,” according to Rush. From what he could see, it appeared to have "impacted something.”

“I immediately called (Park County Dispatch) and said, ‘You guys got to send everybody. There’s multiple bodies and multiple injuries, and one ambulance ain't going to get it done.’”

As Rush continued into Cody, he saw five Park County Sheriff’s deputies, multiple fire trucks, a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper, and two ambulances heading to the scene.

Rush took a photo of a WYDOT truck at the scene, which showed a damaged tailgate.

“It was the only picture I felt comfortable taking,” he said. “It was too grisly.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Happened?"}]

No official information was available mid-morning Wednesday. Rush could only piece together a rough scenario of events based on what he observed.

“From what I can tell, the WYDOT truck was starting to do some type of work,” he said. “There were cones set up, but I don't know if he was setting those cones up for some pending work that was about to happen, or if he had set those cones up because of the accident.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s really hard to tell, but it was severe.”"}]

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is available.

Highway wreck park county 8 12 26

<title>Fatalities Reported In Crash Involving Multiple Motorcycles, WYDOT Truck Near Cody | Cowboy State Daily</title>

An accident involving multiple motorcycles and a WYDOT truck has resulted in two reported fatalities and serious injuries on U.S. Highway 14-16-20 near Cody. "I counted at least three bodies that I could see lying on the ground, not moving," one witness said.

Fatalities Reported In Crash Involving Multiple Motorcycles, WYDOT Truck Near Cody

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Primary election campaign reports that were due Tuesday night show Sen. Eric Barlow out-earned Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder in campaign donations this primary election season, while Degenfelder gathered more money altogether, counting loans from her father and herself.

Degenfelder’s total receipts finished at $1,278,174 - $756,174 in donations and $522,000 in loans - as of her Tuesday Wyoming campaign finance primary election report.

Barlow’s contributions, which include no loans, finished at $1,155,814 in contributions. He also carried $391,710 into this race from fundraising for this campaign in 2025 - making the total about $1.54 million. His total donations tally is a "historic" amount, Barlow's campaign spokeswoman Rebekah Fitzgerald noted in a Wednesday interview. 

Recent history bears that claim: Gov. Mark Gordon posted $541,577 in contributions in his 2022 primary election report and $155,846 in 2018. Former Gov. Matt Mead posted $100,052 in contributions in the 2014 primary election. 

A third Republican governor candidate this year, retired Marine Corps Col. Brent Bien, finished at $191,819.26 in contributions.

The fourth GOP candidate Curt Blake’s report was not available as of publication.

That makes this Republican primary contest for governor a roughly $2.6 million haul, and just over that in expense.  

Of her nearly $1.3 million war chest, Degenfelder spent just over $1.1 million. Barlow spent about $1.36 million. Bien spent $154,424.

[{"type":"text","text":"The primary election is Tuesday. "}]

Degenfelder’s is the only one of the three campaigns that reported receiving loans. Those comprised $497,000 in loans from her father, Steve Degenfelder, and a $25,000 self-loan.

Steve Degenfelder’s portion of her total intake is roughly 39%.

Both Barlow and Degenfelder report receiving political action committee (PAC) money.

[{"type":"text","text":"Degenfelder posted by far the most in PAC money, at $392,500."}]

Of that, she reported $385,500 from Wyoming-based PACs: Fight Wyoming Fight, the Wyoming Rural Electric Association, and Wyoming Conservative Women.

Fight Wyoming Fight, which lists its chair as Casper man Mark Petrie, raised $290,000 for Degenfelder. Wyoming Conservative Women, chaired by Tiffany Gamble, gave Degenfelder $95,000.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Wyoming Rural Electric Association PAC gave $500."}]

Degenfelder’s federal/out-of-state PAC money came from groups out of the traditional energy sector, HF Sinclair ($5,000) and OneOK Employee PAC ($1,000), and from a construction industry-related group, Tremco CPG PAC ($1,000).

[{"type":"text","text":"Barlow’s reports show much less from PACs, at $6,500."}]

Those comprise the Washington, D.C.-based Union Pacific Corporation Fund for Effective Government  ($1,000), the Bayer employee PAC ($500) and Rocky Mountain Power PAC ($5,000).

"I think, as he said from the beginning, this is going to have to be a campaign engaging the people of Wyoming, and he was going to have to go out and do the work," said Fitzgerald of Barlow's lower PAC and loan haul, higher donation total. "That’s reflective there. He said from the beginning he didn’t have a deep pockets to be able to loan himself money and he was going to have to go prove to the people of Wyoming he can do the good work of being governor."

Fitzgerald continued: "And the donations that he has received from PACs is also transparent; folks can see (the nature of) those PACs." 

Barlow logged $15,000 in donations from his mother, and $5,000 from his late father’s trust.

Bien’s report has the highest tally of anonymous donations, at $19,657, compared to Degenfelder’s $350 and Barlow’s $2,317.

"We put out a jar on the table and people would put cash in it," said Bien's outreach coordinator Cheryl Aguiar, referencing Bien's numerous events around the state. She said a lot of the campaign's support came from hours people never logged, and a groundswell of effort around the state. 

Bien posted the least in PAC money: $6,000 from the fundraiser group Friends of Brent Bien and $500 from the Wyoming Freedom Caucus-aligned Liberty’s Place 4 U, helmed by Michael Eathorne and John Gudger.

Aguiar said the campaign refused money from some PACs, and asked some not to send out negative mailers on Biens' behalf. 

"Brent was just super cautious on any negative campaigning and accepting money from PACs that were - well, we didn't know really who was behind them," said Aguiar. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Degenfelder Donors"}]

Noteworthy donors surface in all three reports. For Degenfelder, those include former Wyoming Republican Party Chair Matt Micheli; Lynne Friess, the mother of U.S. House candidate Steve Friess; current and former lawmakers Affie Ellis, Harlan Edmonds, Russ Donley, Timothy Hallinan; and current Sens. Charlie Scott and Jared Olsen.

 at the center of the CheckGate controversy, gave the Degenfelder campaign $1,000. Bextel made headlines for weeks during the legislative session after handing out campaign donation checks on behalf of a Teton County donor to at least four lawmakers on the House of Representatives floor, just after the session had closed its first day of business. 

Degenfelder's campaign spokeswoman Charlotte Jones said in a Wednesday email, "Megan’s campaign has earned support from grassroots donors, conservative Wyomingites, and energy workers from across Wyoming."

"Six state Senators, Senator Barlow’s own peers, have joined President Trump and Harriet Hageman in endorsing Megan Degenfelder for governor," Jones continued. "Megan has captured all the momentum in this race and will spend her last six days continuing to share her positive message for our future with voters.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Jones did not directly address Bextel's donation. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Barlow's donations also show multiple current and former lawmakers."}]

He inherited some money from the candidate campaign of former Rep. Ember Oakley, as well as a donation from Oakley herself.

Some of the current and former lawmakers in his donors roster include Rep. Ken Clousten, Sen. Tara Nethercott, and former legislators Joe Macguire, Jeff Wasserburger and Michael Madden. He also received donations from former House Speaker and current Cowboy State Daily columnist Tom Lubnau (columnists do not give on behalf of CSD), from former Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Bill Hill, and from the late Sen. Al Simpson’s son Colin Simpson.

Ryan Semerad, the attorney who won the famous corner-crossing public lands case, also donated to Barlow. 

Barlow received more than $1,000 from Rene Hinkle, one of the recurring plaintiffs 

Barlow campaign spokeswoman Rebekah Fitzgerald said that donation and others reflect “what he stands for. Which is respectful leadership. And he has a record on that.”

Regarding Hinkle’s donation, Fitzgerald pointed to Barlow’s record of voting in favor of pro-life bills.

“Eric’s record on life in particular, pro-life legislation, is long,” she said. “So I don’t think that a donation reflects anything about his policy. It more reflects his leadership style. Which is a respectful leadership style.”

Barlow has voted in favor of every abortion ban Wyoming has passed in his tenure; and multiple other pro-life bills. 

Bien’s contributors include Republican Reps. Joe Webb, Gary Brown and Marlene Brady, as well as Crook County Republican Party Chair Mark Koep and Lander-based House candidate Jeff Martin, who’s challenging incumbent Rep. Lloyd Larsen.

Barlow Degenfelder Bien 8 12 26

<title>Eric Barlow Earns Most In $3 Million Wyoming Governor's Race, Degenfelder Second | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Campaign finance reports filed Tuesday show Eric Barlow out-earned Megan Degenfelder in the gubernatorial primary election with about $1.54 million, while Degenfelder posted nearly $1.3 million. The whole contest shows a roughly $3 million haul.

Eric Barlow Earns Most In $3 Million Wyoming Governor's Race, Degenfelder Second

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, August 12th.  I’m Mac Watson.

This newscast is brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair. Wrap up your summer at the Wyoming State Fair, August 11th through the 15th in Douglas!

Rodeo, Demolition Derby, live music, entertainment and fair food await. Learn more at W-Y State Fair dot com. See you at the fair! This ad was paid for by Converse County Tourism.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"–"}]

U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner on Tuesday called for the defeat of "Freedom Caucus losers." Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Rep. John Bear, a prominent member of the group, had a harsh rebuke, saying Rasner is a "failed career candidate who has brought division, dysfunction and political games to our state.”

“Reid Rasner came out strong on Tuesday, basically calling for Wyomingites to defeat the Freedom Caucus at the upcoming August 18th election, and in response, Representative John Bear had strong words back for him, and when I was doing research on this, and I wondered how the other House candidates, U.S. House candidates, feel about the state-level Freedom Caucus, and I found pretty much widespread disapproval. Secretary Gray, who is endorsed by the caucus, did not comment by publication. The other candidates I interviewed all voiced disapproval.”

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is a controversial group of Republicans in the state House of Representatives. Proponents praise the caucus for proposing bold reductions to the state budget and efforts to pass socially conservative policies into law. Opponents accuse it of over-relying on its national network and advancing sloppy or generic legislation.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"– "}]

The Weiser Knoll fire near Lander has exploded to be Wyoming's largest wildfire with 0% containment on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the fire started by an overheated wheel bearing on Highway 28 on Sunday.

“It's up to over 16,500 acres. Still 0% contained, about 200 personnel involved, and I talked to some townspeople in Lander, then a couple of ranchers told me they've seen slurry bombers and helicopters out there and the BLM confirms that they have been dropping water and fire retardant on it as well as having crews fight it on the ground, so it's kind of all hands on deck response at this point.”

According to state and federal fire agency reports, the fire was sparked at about 2:15 p.m. Sunday on Highway 28 about 13 miles southeast of Lander. The overheated bearing caused three initial fires to spring up alongside the road at a spot known as Johnnie Lee’s Corner, according to reports. 

The Big Horn County Coroner's Office is reopening the cold case of a man found floating in the Greybull River near Basin in 1973. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that investigators still don't know the man’s name or how he died, but have released photos of what are thought to be his belongings.

“The coroner's office did not reveal why they are choosing to reopen this case now, but they are saying the circumstances of John Doe's death are suspicious and could have been a homicide. Authorities are saying that the man had brown hair, brown eyes, and a reddish mustache. He was around five feet six inches tall, and an estimated 150 to 160 pounds. The coroner's office said they are considering DNA testing as a last option, but the items that were found have been handled so much in the past 50 years that the DNA is likely eroded. The coroner's office said that they are also considering exhuming the body, which is buried at the Basin Cemetery.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Big Horn County Coroner’s Office.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"–"}]

At the school board meeting in Rock Springs on Monday night, a parent presented the Sweetwater County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees with a petition calling for Cole Wright's removal as board chair. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports the petition was signed by 105 people.

“Cherell O’Driscoll says that school board chair Cole Wright has violated the district's ethics policies, committed open meeting violations, and behaved unprofessionally. At Monday's board meeting, Odrisco presented to the board a petition with over 100 signatures asking for the school board chair's dismissal of his position as chair, she made it clear that she doesn't necessarily she's not pushing for him to be off the board entirely, just that she doesn't believe he's doing his job as the chair. The Goldwater Institute, a think tank that represents individuals' First Amendment rights, got involved when O'Driscoll reached out asking for legal advice. They have said that the Sweetwater County School District is misusing its recently revised public comment policy to quote unconstitutionally silence critics.”

According to Parker Jackson, an attorney at the Goldwater Institute, the district faces possible litigation if it does not fix the alleged violations. That could mean lawsuits in state or federal court – or both – based on violations of the First Amendment and state law.

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

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

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

A crowd gathered in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley on Monday as three rangers used kitchen knives to dismember a bison carcass. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that a tour guide said, “They opened up her belly and backside to expose more flesh and blood for the predators to smell.”

“There wasn't an easy way to haul it out of that spot, so three people with the bear management team went out there with seven-inch kitchen knives, and they dismembered it. They cut off all the legs and dragged them away, and then they opened up the back, the belly, and the backside so that it would attract more predators. People who enjoy watching what happens at carcasses get the experience of seeing the grizzlies and the wolves and other animals show up to enjoy the free meal.”

Within 30 minutes, the bison had been butchered, and the three bear management men were back at their vehicles.

A woman was hospitalized Monday after a presumed black bear attacked her while hiking with her dogs near Teton Pass. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Game and Fish officials, who closed the trail, described the incident as a "defensive encounter."

“Apparently, it was a classic surprise at close range sort of thing. There's been bears and it's cropping up all over. We just had that incident, or I guess a couple of incidents in the Bighorn Mountains with a black bear. The game and fish ended up killing that black bear because it had already torn up one camp, and then it just kept coming into another camp.”

In a statement, Game and Fish says the unidentified woman was well-prepared and successfully deployed bear spray during the incident. Following the encounter, she was able to walk back to the trailhead and was subsequently treated at a local hospital for her injuries.

A Colorado man accused of leading a Wyoming state trooper on a 100-mph chase that ended with one of his passengers dead has been bound over to district court on aggravated homicide by vehicle. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that investigators found fake urine and a sex toy in the wreckage.

“The case of a Colorado man who is being accused of a 100 mile per hour car chase that ended in a crash, and the death of one of his passengers on july 23 is now advancing. James Moore's case is being bound over to district court, but one of the charges is not. a second degree murder charge is not going to be bound over. For now Moore is being held at the Laramie County Detention Center on a $100,000 cash-only bond. His next court appearance will be for an arraignment.”

James K. Moore, born in 1999, now faces aggravated homicide by vehicle involving DUI, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, along with property destruction, two aggravated fleeing charges, reckless driving and a taillight violation in connection with the July 23rd crash south of Cheyenne.

Long before he built his cabin in Savery, Jim Baker led two dozen men in an 1841 fight that gave Battle Mountain its name. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that now his far-flung descendants and a tiny museum are fighting time, money, and rotten logs to save the frontier scout’s last home.

“This guy was every bit the equal of Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, people whose names we know. You say Jim Baker outside of Wyoming, and people are like Jim Baker who? They don't know him, and it's not because he didn't do legendary things. Jim Baker survived not just a grizzly bear attack, but an attack by two grizzly bears at once. And you know, the Battle Mountain is named Battle Mountain and Savory is named that because of a fight Jim Baker led him and 24 scouts based on hundreds of Indians.”

Little Snake River Museum Director Lela Emmons tells Cowboy State Daily that members of HistoriCorps and other volunteers in the Savery area spent last summer hand-hewing cottonwood logs to replace water-damaged logs at the cabin. But, the work is not finished.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"—"}]

And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 8 12 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Wednesday, August 12, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wednesday's headlines include:
* Rasner Calls Freedom Caucus ‘Losers’
* Lander-Area Fire Grows To Over 16K Acres
* Black Bear Attack Leaves Woman Hospitalized

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

An elk calf made a decision that could have been fatal by ignoring a wildlife-friendly panel on a ranch fence and trying to plow through the middle of another section, only to become hopelessly entangled.

Luckily for the calf, the ranch hand and his wife were out for a walk and found the calf in time to free it. 

Apparently wiser after its near-fatal mishap, the calf scrambled toward the crossing panel and leapt over it to freedom. 

The ranch hand, Logan Wilson, told Cowboy State Daily that as far as he’s concerned, freeing the calf was just part of his job. 

“We care about all of the wildlife living out here,” he said.

Wilson is a former resident of Buffalo and frequently hunted mountain lions in the Big Horn Mountains. He’s since moved to the Diamond Cross Ranch near Birney in southeast Montana. 

The ranch is in prime wildlife habitat, with ample numbers of elk and deer. 

Wilson said he and his wife were “going on a daybreak walk” when they happened upon the calf. Its back legs were entangled in fence wire, and it was squealing loudly. 

“That sucker was caught. It wasn’t going anywhere,” he said. 

While his wife took video, Wilson went about freeing the calf. 

He started by placing a jacket over its eyes to calm it. 

That’s an effective tactic. Wildlife researchers frequently blindfold animals to keep them calm during field examinations or transport by helicopter. 

Willson freed the calf in short order. Once it got its feet underneath it, the calf took off running. 

This time, in the right direction, toward the panel designed to help elk cross the fence safely. 

“It’s a panel with a ramp on the elk side (outside of the field) to assist herds in crossing," he said. 

The ranch installed the elk crossing panels to help ease some pressure on the fence and to protect elk. 

“The elk go into the fields at night and back out in the morning,” Wilson said. 

Most of the time the herd funnels toward crossing panels. But not always. 

“We had a bull caught in the fence once. A big bull, but we got him out,” Wilson said. 

It’s kind of chaos when a herd of elk get to a fence and they get all balled up,” he said. 

“They can tear up the fences and eat the hay crops,” Wilson said. “It’s a constant thing; we have to follow around and fix fences behind the elk.” 

Wilson said he doesn’t resent that at all. 

He loves seeing the elk, “and they bring in a lot of revenue” from hunters and outfitters given permission to hunt on the ranch, he said. 

Wildlife-friendly fencing has been a boon for game herds across Wyoming and the West, biologist Kevin Monteith told Cowboy State Daily. 

Fences can be built in several ways to make them safer for wildlife. That might include smooth lower wires to allow pronghorn to crawl under. Or upper wires strung at heights that allow deer to jump over, said Monteith, a biologist with the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming.

“Anything that can enhance the freedom of movement” helps herds find the best habitat and migration routes, Monteith said. 

The calf getting stuck in the middle wires of a fence sounds typical, he said. 

“Especially when they’re young like that, they try to pass through the middle of fences,” he said. 

Elk calf 3 8 11 26

<title>Hooray! Ranch Hand Rescues Squealing Elk Calf Entangled In Barbed Wire | Cowboy State Daily</title>

An elk calf got entangled in barbed wire over the weekend at a ranch in southern Montana but thankfully a ranch hand from Buffalo, Wyoming, heard it squealing and rescued it. “We care about all of the wildlife living out here,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

Hooray! Ranch Hand Rescues Squealing Elk Calf Entangled In Barbed Wire

Wildlife

A bison carcass in Yellowstone National Park attracts the usual crowd of grizzlies, wolves, ravens, and tourists. One recently attracted a pack of bear management staff, who thoroughly dismembered it before carrying the pieces away.

Joseph “Jojo” Kaul, owner of Kaul of The Wild Yellowstone Tours, 

 in the Lamar Valley near Soda Butte Creek on Monday. The female bison, which died of natural causes, was around 220 yards from the road.

“It wasn’t really close, but with the proximity of fly fishermen and hikers, it presented a situation that was possibly chaotic,” Kaul told Cowboy State Daily. “They wanted to know how to speed up the process of this bison being consumed.”

Using three sharp kitchen knives, three men from Yellowstone’s bear management started “quartering” the carcass, according to Kaul.

“They cut off all four of her legs at the joint, and dragged them to four different areas, probably about 100 to 150 yards away from the main carcass,” he said. “Then, they opened up her belly and backside to expose more flesh and blood for the predators to smell.”

Kaul described it as “the best-case scenario” under the circumstances, which he explained to the crowd of people watching it unfold.

“There were around 30 people there, and I explained that they were doing everything they could to allow us to enjoy this,” he said. “Instead of completely removing the carcass, they left it so the wildlife watchers and enthusiasts of the park could enjoy it.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Butchering Bison"}]

Carcass management is a critical component of managing Yellowstone's natural landscape. 

 are the go-to tools, but sometimes rangers have to get their hands dirty.

 is familiar with dismembering carcasses in Yellowstone. During his tenure as a Yellowstone ranger, he did it multiple times.

“Most people I worked with didn't like doing it, and I did, so I ended up doing a heck of a lot of it,” Henry told Cowboy State Daily. “I found the physiology and forensics interesting.”

. Every spring, he’d document every bison, elk, and other animals that died over the winter as they began to thaw out of the deep snow.

Usually, the carcasses were left for the grizzlies to devour as they emerged from hibernation. On occasion, Henry and his peers were asked to get hands-on and take carcasses apart.

One instance stands out: In December 1986, Henry single-handedly butchered a bison at Fishing Bridge Junction to an audience of television cameras and Yellowstone’s top staff.

“There was a grizzly bear, Bear 83, that refused to den that year,” he said. “She stayed around Lake Village late into the fall. She chased me when I was on my snowmobile once.”

After Grizzly 83 and her cub were captured and relocated, Henry was given a new assignment: shoot and dismember a bison and scatter the pieces across Pelican Bay.

“The powers that be sent me and another ranger out to shoot a bison,” he said. “We found and shot a bull near Indian Pond and dragged it back to Fishing Bridge.

By then, the grizzly relocation and bison butchering had become a national news story. Several news agencies traveled to Fishing Bridge to see it, as did “a lot of National Park Service big shots,” according to Henry.

“They came from Mammoth to be involved, but when it came time to cut up this bull bison, none of the so-called GS99s wanted to step forward and do the dismemberment. So, it all fell on me.”

Using nothing but his personal five-inch hunting knife, Henry cut up the entire bull. Because that part of the park was closed to traffic at the time, he did it right in the middle of the Fishing Bridge Junction while everyone watched.

After a lot of sweat and blood, Henry had butchered the bison into several smaller pieces. He boarded a helicopter to scatter them across Pelican Bay, so any active grizzlies would head that way rather than wander around Lake Village.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I don't think anything like that would happen nowadays,” Henry said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fast Food"}]

Yellowstone personnel try to maintain a “hands off” approach inside the park, letting things play out naturally. On the occasions when they do have to take an active role, there’s usually a good reason.

According to Herny, carcass dismemberment is employed when dead animals are close to tourist hot spots but not easily accessible for the preferred methods of disposal.

“Whenever an animal died in a developed area or on the roadside, we'd have to move it away,” he said. “Sometimes, maintenance people would come out with heavy equipment, pick up the whole carcass with a front-end loader, put it on a truck, and we'd haul it away.”

Front-end loaders and winches are easier and faster, but sometimes they aren’t viable depending on the terrain and location of the carcass. That’s when you cut it up into manageable pieces that you could load onto a pickup truck with muscle power.”

Kaul said the terrain where the female bison died wasn’t ideal for the easier, faster options to be viable. Dismembering the carcass was the only option.

“She died along Soda Butte Creek and Lamar River,” he said of an area commonly known as "The Confluence." “Dragging it out and removing it would be a very, very hard process. It was treacherous for the three gentlemen to walk out there just to get to the carcass. Trying to haul away the 1,000-pound carcass with a pulley system from a winch would be even harder.”

The bear management personnel told Kaul that by dismembering the carcass and scattering the pieces, Yellowstone’s wildlife could utilize the immense resource while speeding up its consumption. That further reduces the risk to visitors.

Usually, carcasses are transported to one of the “secret spots” where they can be safely left to be consumed far from visitors.

“They have certain spots, out of the way of the public, where they like to dump carcasses,” Henry said. “They like to continue dumping carcasses in the same spots so that bears and other scavengers get used to finding meat there.”

A crowd gathered in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley on Monday as three rangers used kitchen knives to dismember a bison carcass. "They opened up her belly and backside to expose more flesh and blood for the predators to smell," one tour guide said.

One More For The Road: Sunday, November 10, 2024

In case you missed it

More in One More For The Road

One More For The Road: Wednesday, August 12, 2026

One More For The Road: Tuesday, August 11, 2026

One More For The Road: Monday, August 10, 2026

One More For The Road: Sunday, August 9, 2026

Most read