You Still Here

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You still here 11 21 24

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

<title>You Still Here? Thursday, November 21, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You Still Here? Thursday, November 21, 2024

 "Putting a real bear in my house & hiring an exterminator to catch it....."

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

RAWLINS — Six weeks ago, Carbon County Sheriff’s Sgt. Zach Burns was fighting for his life in the dirt parking lot of a Baggs apartment building after 

 from a gunman who later died in a shootout with law enforcement.

Wednesday, he was discharged from a Colorado hospital and got a hero’s welcome as he was escorted roughly 230 miles home by a long procession of law enforcement representing agencies across two states.

 streets through downtown Rawlins were lined with pockets of people who paused their workdays to wave and yell as Burns was driven by with a loud chorus of sirens following.

“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” said local resident Deanna Deffenbaugh about the turnout. “We take care of our own around here.

“Anytime an officer has gotten hurt in the line of duty — even his family — we get the community involved to step up and help take care of them.”

Deffenbaugh said she doesn’t know the Burns family personally, “but that doesn’t matter. If they’re willing to put their lives at risk for us, we need to take care of them.”

Maybe Deffenbaugh doesn’t know Burns, his wife and two young children, but the folks at the Carbon County Courthouse do. He’s their courtroom bailiff, said Jo Rieger, who had staked out a small patch of shade along 3

“Woo-hoo. He’s coming home!” she shouted. “This is cool and very inspiring. He deserves it. He deserves the biggest hero’s welcome ever.”

For Micah Johnson, who also works with Burns at the courthouse, Wednesday was 

, when Burns took bullets in the neck, arm and hip.

“You fear the worst when you first hear about that, you know?” he said. “I think a lot of us were just waiting to hear any kind of piece of news, right? Then I saw the post that he’s coming home today.”

He was referring to a Facebook post Sheriff Alex Bakken made earlier Wednesday telling people that Burns had been discharged from a Colorado hospital and was on his way home.

At 3:31 p.m., the small groups stationed at street corners and in front of the Carbon Building on the corner of 3

 and Pine streets began to cheer as they heard the sirens blaring louder, along with a medical helicopter circling the procession.

“There he is. I see him,” said a woman in the crowd as a Carbon County Sheriff’s Office truck slowly passed.

Sergeant Burns was sitting in the passenger side with the window rolled down and enthusiastically waving to those who gathered for him.

His beaming smile got just a little bit bigger when he saw a giant red, white and blue “Welcome Home Zach” banner.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘We’re All Family’"}]

About an hour earlier, Valeta Rogabaugh was anxious for the procession to get to Rawlins.

The longtime dispatch supervisor for the Rawlins Police Department walked into the bullpen at the department with tears in her eyes.

She had just heard a county dispatch bulletin that Burns and the procession had “come home” and had just passed into Carbon County on westbound Interstate 80.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said when Chief Michael Ward asked how she was holding up. “It’s just emotional. They even talked to (Burns’ wife) and told her welcome home too.”

Although Burns works for the county sheriff’s office, there are deep connections with the Rawlins PD and other agencies, she said.

“We’re all a team and we’re all family,” Rogabaugh said, adding that Burns’ wife also is a dispatcher for the sheriff’s office.

There are no lines between agencies, said Rawlins Police Sgt. Thom Gamblin, adding that he’s good friends with Burns.

“This isn’t just a guy in uniform coming home, he’s a guy who works and lives here. I’m saying that this is a community, this is home, and it isn’t just his workplace,” Gamblin said.

“This isn’t just his work office, it’s people who love him,” he continued. “These are the people who care for him. It’s the people he meets every day when he serves.”

There’s a reason close to 100 officers from multiple jurisdictions around Wyoming and Colorado responded to Baggs that afternoon when the bulletin went out about an officer down and a gunman was on the run, Gamblin said.

“This is personal,” he said. “He did his job and nearly lost his life over it. He didn’t — thankfully — and now he’s back here where we can protect him.”

Without the quick action of a pair of Baggs residents who 

, he likely would have died, said Chief Ward. Wednesday’s procession was for them as well.

[{"type":"text","text":"“They’re heroes, too,” he told Cowboy State Daily."}]

“It’s a miracle that he’s still with us,” Ward added. “All of us are grateful for that, every minute of every day. His daughter still has a father. His wife still has a husband. He’s still with all of us.

“We could not be more relieved, grateful and excited he’s coming home today.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Stopped ‘Large-Scale Act’"}]

The scope of the potential carnage Burns may have prevented unfolded in the days following, Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken has said.

That includes Burns interrupting the suspect carrying out what appeared to be a devastating plan, the sheriff said

The man had a stockpile of semiautomatic weapon ammunition in his Baggs apartment and was likely planning a "large-scale act," Bakken reported June 17.

Burns was in the area June 8 when dispatchers relayed information about a suspect in an active shooting incident. Burns located the suspect driving in town and conducted a traffic stop at his apartment, the CCSO has reported.

“Upon coming to a stop, the suspect immediately exited his vehicle and opened fire on Sergeant Burns with a semiautomatic rifle,” Bakken said in the report.

The suspect — who so far has not been publicly identified — then 

The suspect tried to start his apartment complex on fire with numerous propane tanks inside, then sped away in his car again, according to the CCSO.

He was eventually killed in a shootout with law enforcement after crashing his car north of town off state Highway 789.

“Thanks to his bravery, (Burns) saved the lives of countless first responders and community members,” Bakken says in the report. “The gunman had stockpiled hundreds of AR-15 magazines in his apartment and, by all appearances, had been prepared to initiate a large-scale act of violence.”

At the Hilltop Conoco station along Cedar Avenue, Paige Garwood and Heather Stalinski were working Wednesday afternoon, handling a steady stream of locals and visitors driving through just off I-80.

They both said they were excited to learn that the long procession of emergency responders for Burns would go past their station.

Neither knows Burns or his family, but both said that Rawlins is a small town, and when one person is in trouble, everyone knows and responds.

“I’ve been reading about him and heard what happened to him. He’s a hero,” said Stalinski. “That he’s coming home is really good, and great for his family, his wife.

“I think he was really brave for what he did. He’s a brave, brave man. I think she should get a lot of (accolades). Would I call him a hero? Absolutely.”

Garwood said that Burns getting out of the hospital and getting back to Rawlins is a great boost for the whole town.

“I think it’s great that he’s coming home, because he almost died because of that idiot,” she said. “He deserves it.”

For Chief Ward and other law enforcement officers, the risk is always there, he said. While running toward danger while others run from it is what they sign up for, the hope is that they won’t have to.

“He took an oath to protect our community, and he almost gave his life doing so,” Ward said about Burns. “On the scale of heroism, that’s pretty far up there.”

Sgt Burns Home 1

<title>Hero’s Welcome In Rawlins: Deputy Nearly Killed In Baggs Shootout Comes Home | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Sgt. Zach Burns — shot three times by a gunman in Baggs last month — got a hero’s welcome in Rawlins after a 230-mile escort from a Colorado hospital Wednesday. “On the scale of heroism, that’s pretty far up there,” said the Rawlins police chief.

Hero’s Welcome In Rawlins: Deputy Nearly Killed In Baggs Shootout Comes Home

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

State Sen. Eric Barlow released poll results Tuesday showing him with a sizable lead over other Republican candidates in the race for Wyoming governor.

[{"type":"text","text":"Two of his opponents doubt that outcome. One of them doesn’t."}]

Barlow, a legislator of 13 years and former House speaker, is running for the Republican nomination against Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, retired Marine Col. Brent Bien, and Centennial man Curt Blake.

His campaign released polling results Tuesday showing him at 42% support, followed by Degenfelder at 19% and Bien at 14% — with 22% undecided — when people were asked who they would vote for if the election were held today.

The poll was taken in the past three days by the Pulse Decision Science firm, the campaign says.

“Barlow has gained 10 points since the campaign’s previous survey and his net favorability has climbed from +19 to +34,” says a Tuesday statement by his campaign. “This comes even as he has been outspent more than 5-to-1 by Degenfelder and the outside groups supporting her.”

Barlow said he’s taken six full trips through all 23 Wyoming counties and is starting his seventh statewide tour.

[{"type":"text","text":"The primary election is set for Aug. 18."}]

“We believed from the beginning that if we showed up, listened and stayed focused on Wyoming, voters would respond,” Barlow said. “This poll is encouraging, but it does not change how we campaign.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We will keep showing up, keep listening and keep earning every vote.\""}]

Barlow told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday-evening phone call that he trusts the polling, and its cross-tabulation veracity checks. He said Wyomingites' reception of him on the campaign trail is also "quite encouraging." 

His campaign has amassed 2,500 volunteers and contributions from nearly 2,000 individual Wyoming donors, with more than $1 million raised from in-state individuals, the statement says.

The statement says Barlow has focused his campaign on expanding economic opportunity, improving access to rural health care, strengthening Wyoming’s energy and agriculture industries, addressing housing challenges, keeping decisions local and keeping the state's public lands accessible to Wyomingites. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Nah, Says Degenfelder"}]

Degenfelder’s campaign manager Charlotte Jones emphasized that Barlow’s numbers are from his own campaign.

“Voters should take the Barlow campaign’s internal ‘polling’ numbers with a heavy grain of salt, which come as no surprise from the campaign of a career politician desperately trying to run from his record of opposing Wyoming Industries and Wyoming values,” wrote Jones in a Tuesday email. 

“Megan’s campaign is focused on talking to voters about the issues they care about and highlighting her record as the only candidate in the race with a proven record fighting for our mineral industries, and defending women’s sports and parental rights," wrote Jones, "which is why she has earned the support of Donald Trump and Harriet Hageman.”

Trump endorsed Degenfelder in January before she entered the race, and doubled down with a 

U.S. House Rep. Harriet Hageman, who’s running for U.S. Senate, has endorsed Degenfelder and campaigned with her in multiple locations.

[{"type":"text","text":"Not Doing That"}]

The Wyoming Republican Party Central Committee broke tradition Monday night and 

One delegate, Weston County GOP Chair Kari Drost, asked the committee to consider endorsing Degenfelder as well, but the committee cast a majority vote to end the process instead.

The Central Committee considered, but voted against, adopting an official position opposing Barlow.

Bien is not doing polling, says a Tuesday email from his campaign associate Cheryl Aguiar. She called his campaign a grassroots effort.

“As someone who taught statistics to graduate students, I would have all sorts of questions on methodology, sample size, randomness, question wording, and other aspects mainly founded in ‘who paid for the poll?’” she said.

The landline and cellphone call poll was taken from 400 likely Republican primary election voters and with a margin of error of 4.9%, according to the Barlow campaign.

The main prompt asks, “If the Republican Primary election for Wyoming Governor were held today, for whom would you vote?”

Respondents could give answers in three categories for each of the four candidates. For example, for Barlow they could choose “Definitely Barlow,” “Probably Barlow,” or “Lean Barlow.”

[{"type":"text","text":"They could also choose different variations of undecided.  "}]

“Since we don't have the poll's methodology, I would say that this poll is obviously being released by a campaign, so we would advise voters to evaluate it accordingly,” wrote Aguiar. “Our campaign is more interested in what we're hearing from Wyoming  citizens at town halls and community events across the state.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Aguiar said campaigns release internal polling “to tell a story.”"}]

“We respect that. Our campaign is focused, though, on earning votes, not headlines,” wrote Aguiar, adding that no one appears to have gathered 50% of voters and the race has room for “a lot of movement.”

A group called Women For Responsible Government Action has run multiple attack ads against Barlow, and favorable ads supporting Degenfelder in recent weeks.

This group bears a similar name to one linked to Hageman’s campaign for U.S. Senate, “Women for Responsible Government PAC.”

But the group launching TV ads against Barlow is a 501(c)4 run by Hageman’s allies, not Hageman, according to a Thursday text message from Hageman’s campaign advisor Tim Murtaugh.

Murtaugh said Hageman does not control the TV-ad-buying group, but it “often aligns with her views, including protecting Wyoming’s children from permanent genital mutilation and preventing coercive gender identity education for kindergarteners.”

Jones said Thursday on Degenfelder’s behalf that the superintendent isn’t aligned with either the action group or the PAC funding Hageman’s Senate run.

"Megan is not involved with either organization, and her campaign is not permitted to coordinate with either of them,” wrote Jones. “She is focused on her own campaign and her positive message of making Wyoming more affordable, growing our legacy industries and protecting Wyoming values."

The issue group has run ads touting Degenfelder as a “strong leader” who has stood with Trump, fought for school choice, getting “pornography out of our libraries” and keeping men out of girls’ sports.

Degenfelder has not worked as a legislator and has passed no laws toward those goals. She has backed legislation toward those ends, however. 

Soon after she became superintendent she 

 sexually-explicit books out of school libraries. That issue had 

The attack ads lend credibility to Barlow’s favorable poll results, longtime politico and former Assistant Interior Secretary Rob Wallace told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday phone interview.

“The fact that Eric has been attacked so hard the last two-to-three weeks tells me the opposition knows that these poll numbers are valid, or similar,” said Wallace. 

He clarified, saying that with “dark money” or independent groups, people often don’t know who’s behind them.

Wallace also said it wouldn’t serve Barlow to dispatch bad poll numbers at this phase of the race.

[{"type":"text","text":"Barlow emphasized the ads and the money behind some of them as well."}]

“Eric Barlow is winning this race and pulling away while taking five times more in hostile media spending than any other candidate,” claims a Tuesday statement by his campaign.

The statement says Barlow’s campaign team has spent $80,688 on radio and TV ads – about $10,200 more than Degenfelder.

But Women for Responsible Government Action has spent $202,265 and Wyoming’s Turn PAC has spent $149,815 on TV, cable and satellite messaging either backing Degenfelder or opposing Barlow, the statement says.

“The outside groups are blanketing every media market with lies about Eric Barlow’s record reaching Wyoming, Denver, Salt Lake, Idaho Falls, and Rapid City cable zones,” the statement says, “while Barlow has held a disciplined broadcast and radio footprint.”

The statement asserts that “out-of-state dark money is not moving the race; it is hurting Degenfelder and hardening support in Barlow's favor.”

[{"type":"text","text":"What He Actually Voted For"}]

One of the issue group’s ads claims that Barlow voted to allow sexual orientation and gender identity to be taught to kindergarteners and to allow sex change procedures “to be done on kids.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The record tells a different story."}]

Barlow voted against the 2023 Senate File 111, which would have criminalized parents and doctors for their roles in transitioning children’s genders medically.

, calling the bill’s definitions ill suited for its purpose.

Barlow had nothing but praise for the 2023 bill Chloe’s Law, however, and voted in favor of it. The bill sought to strip violating medical professionals of their licenses.

[{"type":"text","text":"“This bill I find to be very precise,” said Barlow at the time."}]

The House Appropriations Committee crippled Chloe’s Law that year, and it didn’t make House debate, after the Senate voted 26-5 in its favor. But a later version of it became law in 2024 — with Barlow voting aye once again.

"I absolutely believe minors need to be protected form physically altering surgeries, period," Barlow said Tuesday. He noted that the bill has exemptions allowing treatments for kids with intersex designations or conditions, and puberty blockers for kids with precocious puberty. 

Barlow had, as the ad notes in a subtext, voted against the 2023 

. It sought to ban teaching of gender ideology to public-school kids in grades through kindergarten through third grade.

But Barlow voted in favor of that bill’s 2024 successor, 

The sequel legislation bans schools from teaching sexual orientation or gender identity without prior permission, and compels schools to notify parents if their children experience psychological changes, which may include a newly-voiced transgender identity. 

He told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that the 2024 bill was simply written better. 

"I read the bills, right," said Barlow. "Read the bills. Not just who it protects but how it protects them."

The 2024 bill was "a much stronger bill and much more protective of Wyoming kids, which they deserve," he said. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Not Surprised At All"}]

Blake hasn’t built the name recognition of the other three candidates and in a Tuesday phone call, and said he was unsurprised to find his name left out of the Barlow campaign’s announcement.

Blake is running as a “purple” Republican, and said he’d love to keep Wyoming as it is. He cast himself as pragmatic.

“I think a poll can say whatever you want it to say,” said Blake. “With that being said, it wouldn’t surprise me if Eric is in the lead. He’s a damn good guy.”

Eric barlow 7 21 26

<title>Barlow Campaign Releases Poll Claiming Big Lead Over Degenfelder And Bien | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Eric Barlow gubernatorial campaign released an internal poll Tuesday showing a significant lead over both Megan Degenfelder and Brent Bien. According to his internal polling numbers, 42% of voters support Barlow while Degenfelder is at 19% and Bien at 14%.

Barlow Campaign Releases Poll Claiming Big Lead Over Degenfelder And Bien

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

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

Public Lands

A tourist caught on video climbing on top of one of the iconic buildings in Grand Teton National Park not only broke the law, he disrespected “my family’s heritage,” said the grandson of Thomas Alva Moulton, who along with brother John Moulton, built the most famous homesteads on Mormon Row.

. A man climbed to the top of one of the historic structures adjacent to the pink house on the John Moulton Ranch.

“A tourist climbed onto the roof of one of the historic buildings just to take photos,” she said, but she didn’t say whether the man had been reported to park rangers.

<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Da00gdXO94z/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:16px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Da00gdXO94z/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"> <div style=" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; 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[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"My Family’s Heritage"}]

While the Moulton family no longer owns the historic structures, they still have a deep connection to their homesteads in the Teton Valley.

Steve Moulton is the grandson of T.A. Moulton, who built 

of the still-standing structures on Mormon Row and one of the most photographed barns in the world.

“My grandfather built the T.A. barn way back in the early 1900s,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “My dad helped build it and worked on it over the years. I have worked on it myself. I've been on the roof of the T.A. barn because we were putting a new roof on it.”

Moulton admitted that he climbed all over the T.A. Moulton Barn as a child, but that was when it was his family’s property.

The 1-acre parcel with the T.A. Moulton Barn was sold to the National Park Service in 2018, making it the last privately owned real estate on Mormon Row to be folded into Grand Teton National Park.

“I’m associated with the T.A. Moulton Barn, but that doesn't mean that I want to see anything going on down at the John Moulton Barn either,” Steve said. “It’s my family's heritage.”

omeone clambering over the historic building, especially since there’s been such an effort to ensure the remaining structures at Mormon Row remain standing.

“It's clear that there are people in this world who have no respect for public property,” he said. “To keep them in good condition, we have to take care of them, because yes, they are fragile.”

Grand Teton officials "are aware of the video" and warn that "climbing on historic structures can cause irreversible damage," said park spokesperson Emily Davis in a statement to Cowboy State Daily.

“At Mormon Row, visitors come to experience a remarkable historic landscape,” she added. “When someone disregards the rules and climbs on these structures, it detracts from that shared experience and puts an irreplaceable piece of our nation's history at risk.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Loved To Death"}]

Most people who visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks from around the world don’t have destructive intentions. They just want to take in the beauty of the landscape, like millions of others.

[{"type":"text","text":"That, however, can be part of the problem."}]

As visitation to national parks increases, one commonly heard concern is that they’re “

” The reason is that higher densities of tourists are, intentionally or unintentionally, causing more destruction and disturbance to the natural vistas that drew people there in the first place.

“We ask all visitors to help preserve historic buildings by viewing them from designated areas and not climbing on or entering the structures,” Davis said. “Historic buildings can be more fragile than they appear, and even what might seem like minor actions can contribute to the buildings' deterioration over time.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Steve shares some of that concern. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"As Mormon Row has become more popular, the impact on the area is evident."}]

“What bothers me is there's so much foot traffic around the T.A. Barn,” he said. “The pictures used to have green grass in front of the barn. Now, it's just dirt because there is so much traffic.”

 at Mormon Row is underway. Jenkins has said it was part of several “micro-geographic” efforts to improve popular spots in the park for a better overall visitor experience.

“We want to be able to host more visitation at Mormon Row, so we're looking at things we can be doing to help manage that visitation,” he told Cowboy State Daily in May.

The list of desired site improvements includes a larger, centralized parking lot, new interpretive and wayfinding signs, distinct walking paths, and furnishings like benches and trash cans, new restrooms, and a 0.75-mile trail extension connecting Mormon Trail Road to Antelope Flats Road.

“Construction started at Mormon Row earlier this month,” Davis said. “Site improvements there are part of a multi-phase project to improve accessibility and the visitor experience while protecting the site's historic character.”

These improvements will go hand-in-hand with an ecological restoration of Mormon Row. 

Native vegetation will be planted and damaged areas restored, and the new parking lot will be built further away from the historic homesteads to ensure the landscape and views remain as pristine as possible.

they’d help to mitigate the damage of visitor traffic. However, that doesn’t eliminate the damage caused by reckless tourists who are determined to do their own thing to the detriment of the park and its visitors.

“We want (Mormon Row) to last many more decades, so we have to be really careful with anything that goes on around them, as far as touching, climbing, or taking stuff off them for souvenirs,” he said.

Many people value the serenity of Mormon Row and the Moulton barns as much as the Moulton family itself. Steve hopes that will lead to better decisions and increased awareness.

“I want visitors to understand their historical importance,” he said. “I want them to have the same feelings as my family does about preserving the integrity of those structures, so we have to take great care to not do anything that will be destructive to them.”

Climing on Moulton building 1 7 21 26

<title>Grand Teton Tourist Caught Illegally Climbing On Famous Mormon Row Building | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A tourist caught on video climbing one of the famous Mormon Row buildings in Grand Teton Park broke the law and disrespected “my family’s heritage,” said the grandson of T.A. Moulton who, along with his brother, built the most park's famous homesteads.

Grand Teton Tourist Caught Illegally Climbing On Famous Mormon Row Building

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Jory Thomas, 14, was absent-mindedly flipping loops with a rope while visiting his grandparents' campground on the Yellowstone River over the Fourth of July weekend when he heard someone start screaming for help.

Within seconds, the Montana ranch kid emptied his pockets, splashed across a side channel and waded chest-deep into the river.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then he did something he'd spent the past year practicing on calves."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"This time, he roped a drowning man."}]

The July 5 rescue unfolded so quickly that by the time the first Sweet Grass County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived three minutes after Jory's father called 911, everyone was already safely on shore.

"My opinion, Jory saved the individual's life, 100%," Sweet Grass County Sheriff Alan Ronneberg told Cowboy State Daily. "Had Jory not acted, I believe the chances of this individual not making it to shore were very slim.”'

A 14-year-old ranch kid from Big Timber, Montana, had a rope in his hand when cries for help erupted from the Yellowstone River. He sprinted into the water, threw one loop and caught a struggling man around the arm and neck, pulling him safely to shore.

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