Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"The only bus we want to ride......"}]

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

<title>Daily Smile: Tuesday, December 24, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The only bus we want to ride......

Daily Smile: Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, June 15th.  I’m Mac Watson

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Wyoming lawmakers Friday vowed to rework the Food Freedom Act after months of controversy at small-time food producers and family-owned shops. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that business owner Mark Nelson who owns the Hippy Cow Creamery says he was ordered to stop selling raw milk lattes.

“He was describing these Catch-22’s, where he could get a commercial food license, but then he'd still have to pasteurize milk, and he can create raw milk lattes in his home kitchen, which is a few feet away from what they consider his commercial kitchen, because it's a professional grade latte machine, and so he was talking about all these just weird little catches in the law were with some inconvenience and some trouble, you could sell these lattes under very similar circumstances. Several lawmakers talked about wanting to perfect and discuss and develop bills that Representative Steve Johnson brought to expand the Food Freedom Act.”

Nelson tells Cowboy State Daily that to survive the huge setback in business from losing the latte sales include installing a $20,000 ADA-compliant bathroom at the shop even though there’s another ADA-complaint bathroom “literally 65 feet away.”

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Wyoming business owners say they are leaving a lot of money on the table because they can’t fill open jobs, forcing them to turn away customers and reduce hours. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that one owner says he keeps banging his head against the wall, trying to come up with a solution.

“The labor crunch is so tight in Wyoming, people are doing things that are unheard of, you know. This guy with Ranch Eats, he's not only got health insurance for his employees, that's 100% employer paid, but he's also offering a 401 k plan with a 4% match on top of that, and then you know he has an employee of the quarter program, you get a $250 bonus, plus a limousine trip. Wyoming loses 70% of its of the people who are in their 30s. They've lost 70% of those by then. By the time people reach 30, 70% will leave the state and go somewhere else. That's the highest, pretty much in the country.”

With too few workers to go around, businesses have been quietly curtailing their hours on what seem like odd days — Tuesday and Wednesday — and billing that as “new summer hours.”

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is investigating a graphic video where an alleged Wyoming man tortures a seemingly wounded coyote. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that the video was sent to Cowboy State Daily by a private investigator who says he also sent it to Game and Fish.

“There's allegations that a person who is reportedly from Wyoming was videoed grabbing what appears to be a wounded coyote by a tail, pulling it out from underneath a bush, throwing it, the thing tries to run, but can't really run, because apparently it's been wounded. Guy runs up to it, kicks it in the head, pulls out a knife, stabs it. A private investigator sent this information out to Cowboy State Daily, to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, to agencies and animal rights groups. Game and Fish did confirm that they are investigating something in connection to that incident, because it's an active investigation, they can't offer any information.”

Game and Fish Spokeswoman Amanda Fry confirms that the department is investigating the alleged incident.

A detective was about to fly to Wisconsin to arrest the lead suspect in the 32-year cold case of a woman whose nude body was dumped along I-80 when he got the news the suspect was dead. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that authorities zeroed in on Roger L. Dirkey as the alleged killer, but they were too late.

“Investigators believe that Roger L Durkee is responsible for murdering the former Jane Doe Shafter Jane Doe, who has since been ID as Marion Alexander. so the investigators from the Elko County, Nevada Sheriff's Office were a week or so away from flying out to Milwaukee to actually arrest Dirkey. While they're making their travel plans to go out there, they learned that he had died. For all practical purposes, they thought he was alive because he wasn't showing up dead in the databases, so there was some glitch between when he died and his getting entered in the Wisconsin Vital Services, so as they're making these plans, they learned that he actually had died, and they got it confirmed. His DNA was the likely match of DNA found on her body. And then they had other evidence too.”

Authorities say during the investigation, they found that he had searched nearly 90 Google searches for Shafter Jane Doe, that was one strong piece of evidence in the investigators' minds.

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

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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Steer wrestlers raised money last week for the Montana woman who lost her hand in a rodeo accident. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that the woman’s husband, who is the Montana State rodeo coach, says,  “It’s pretty neat that a college kid could organize something like that.”

“Jaden Whitman and his older brother were driving home from a rodeo in Washington state when they started talking about what they could possibly do to help the Whitaker family. So he texted his coach to see if that would be okay, and Coach Kyle Whitaker responded and said yes. He told Cowboy State Daily that he was just almost choked up that he couldn't believe that a college student would come up with an idea like that.”

The Presley Whitaker Benefit Steer Wrestling Jackpot happened last weekend in Whitehall, Montana, raising nearly $40,000, mostly to help cover Presley’s mounting medical bills.

Sgt. Zach Burns remains in critical condition after being shot multiple times by a gunman in Baggs on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the mayor says people reacted immediately and like heroes. 

“This deputy was already around town, so as soon as the call came in. He was there and got shot several times, and it seems that he probably owes his life to a couple of local business owners who have businesses right close. They rushed over, and from what the mayor was telling me, there was a lot of blood, and that they acted quickly to try to stop that, to slow that down until EMS got there, and EMS also got there very, very quickly.”

A deputy being shot, coupled with a high-speed chase and shootout with the suspect, is enough to make Monday one of the darkest days in the 116-year history of the tiny town of 411 people.

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Divers who plunge the depths of the Colorado River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir find all kinds of treasure, from antique six-shooters to cellphones. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that one woman burst into tears when given her phone back that had her grandchild’s birth video on it.

“He found this part of a two-mile stretch on the Colorado River below the Hoover Dam. He said that he just happened to dive one time, and he started finding wallets and different things, and so he said, ‘Hey, this is great, you know? It makes diving exciting.’ So he started talking it up with others, and now every Saturday, pretty much they go and dive that stretch of the river. And like three years ago, he found a six shooter that was in its holster, rusted, and he believes it was down there for at least 10 years.”

Tony “Gunner” Pierce of Provo, Utah and his diving partner, Ken Wige, who is from Las Vegas, are advocates for diving in the West and enjoy rallying people to different spots from Wyoming to Utah and Idaho year-round to explore what is going on underneath the surface of reservoirs, rivers, and lakes.

Longtime Yellowstone RV travelers David and Jennifer Sinclair were leaving a gas station in Canada when the front bumper of their truck tore off while being towed. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that a video of them dragging the bumper down the road has been viewed millions of times. 

“They were driving the RV when the incident happened. No one was in the pickup truck, but someone else spotted them going down the highway, and it went viral based on that, because they were dragging a bumper down the highway and nothing else. But they said that they were aware of what happened. Within a minute, someone flagged them. I think the same person who took the video flagged them, they pulled off, they recognized what happened, they recovered their pickup truck, and nobody was harmed, and thankfully they were at a stoplight when the whole thing happened.”

Fortunately for the couple, the motorhome was stopped at an intersection when the tow base broke off. Sinclair said it “could have been much worse if it failed in motion.” Unfortunately, they didn’t notice and kept driving, leaving their front bumper-less truck sitting in the middle of the road.

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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 

 - 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 6 15 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Monday, June 15, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Monday's headlines include:
* Suspected Killer Escaped Justice
* How Eagle Scout Saved Life Of Biker
* Divers Find Treasure In Colorado River

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Monday, June 15, 2026

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

CHEYENNE — America is in a digital arms race right now with other countries, Gov. Mark Gordon told construction workers during a tour of the 

data center site this past week, and Wyoming can be part of winning that race.

“We need to have AI, we need to own that property,” he said. “We need to make sure that our data is better, stronger, and more efficient than anywhere else. You all are the vanguard of that, and I say, God bless you.”

Wind gusts punctuated the governor’s hard-hat tour of Related Digital’s facility on Thursday, kicking up little dust devils as Gordon and Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins walked to and from the rapidly rising concrete walls for the data center. 

Work is nearing completion on the first 184,000-square-foot phase of the campus, which is expected to be finished in late 2026. 

The tour was an opportunity for an inside look at how this $1.2 billion data center will operate, as far as fire suppression, energy use, and water cooling. 

It was also a chance for Gordon and Collins to talk about things like affordable housing, worker training, and opportunities that can keep Wyoming youths at home.

Related’s Cheyenne campus will ultimately deliver up to 420 megawatts of computational capacity for its client, CoreWeave, and they claim will generate more than $250 million in tax revenue for Cheyenne over its first 15 years of operation. 

Gordon said Related Digital is offering a model for how data centers can and should be built in Wyoming. 

“What Related has done here is absolutely astounding,” Gordon said. “I used to work for an oil and gas company, and I have a ranch, and I’ve tried to bring that same philosophy to it, too.

“But you have demonstrated it here, and that’s do the right thing, do it the right way, and do it right away.”

One challenge Wyoming faces will be affordable housing.

“One of the things that’s really important is that if you’re going to get educated, and if you’re going to have a job, we want to make sure you have a place to live that you can afford,” Gordon said. “And that’s something I know that (Cheyenne) Mayor (Patrick Collins) has put a tremendous amount of effort into.”

For Gordon and Collins, the real test of projects like Related’s won’t be just the servers humming on the prairie, but whether the jobs and housing they help create give more Wyoming families a reason — and a way— to stay in Wyoming.

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A member of the Related Digital team explained how power leaves the Black Hills substation, disappearing underground in buried lines that have been tucked safely away from the wind, before rising again into two massive switchboards that feed the front and back halves of the data halls. 

Traditionally, the electrical “guts” of a data center have been assembled on site, the employee added. 

But to speed the process along, Related’s gear was built off-site and shipped in fully formed blocks. That’s allowing contractors to set and wire everything more quickly.

Such speed-to-market tactics are what the market demands right now in the race to build out a massive surge in artificial intelligence and data centers.

Row upon row of batteries stand quiet but ready outside the building. They can provide about seven minutes of battery time.

If the power dips or there’s an outage, those batteries take the load instantly while it’s passed along to backup generators. 

This approach ensures a constant flow of power to Related’s servers, which are running 24-7. 

Black Hills Energy will deliver power to Related under Wyoming’s large-load tariff, which has been designed to ensure data center companies are paying 100% of their costs, including the infrastructure required to serve them.

From there the tour filed into the Related Digital Facility itself. 

A huge concrete wall swallowed tiny humans whole and the sound of blustery wind was replaced with the light and easy hum of machinery. 

Inside the facility, the tour stopped near a wall of fans and coils which are an integral part of keeping the facility at an even 73 degrees. 

“The racks are laid out kind of perpendicular to where we are,” a Related Digital employee explained. “Each of those racks has a chimney system taking the hot air out.”

The air chillers work in combination with a closed-loop, direct-to-chip, liquid cooling system, which soaks up heat directly at the source and moves it to a heat exchanger. 

“We use the environment of Cheyenne, which has some colder temperature throughout the year,” an employee explained. “The evolution of these (systems) has gotten significantly more energy-efficient. 

"That overall kind of allows us to build a closed system and run a highly efficient animal.”

As long as the closed-loop system is kept tight and filled, there’s essentially no ongoing makeup water required, he added. 

“It’s basically set as soon as this is put in place,” he said. “It’s like your car radiator. If it’s leaking, you have a problem. Otherwise, you’re set.”

Magnetic-bearing compressors help the chillers remain efficient even when temperatures outside climb above the optimal 70 degrees. 

Those compressors will work harder, but remain highly efficient, thanks to advanced technology.

Related’s approach is about four times more efficient than past approaches, which allows the company to run its server racks more densely, creating more computing power per square foot.

Fire Protection For Billion-Dollar Building

Fire safety is not an afterthought at a facility like a data center. The strategy there focuses heavily on mitigating risk, while avoiding water damage. 

“All of our systems are pre-action systems,” a fire protection expert explained, which will remain dry under normal conditions.

A box on the wall constantly sniffs at the air to detect smoke. Only when both air sampling detection and other triggers align will water finally surge into the pipes through sprinkler heads.

That helps prevent accidental deluges on millions of dollars of sensitive equipment. 

Separate pods throughout the facility, meanwhile, each have their own shutoff valves, so that an incident in one area doesn’t necessarily have to knock the entire building offline. 

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It wasn’t all about the building during the tour. Gordon and Collins also had panel discussions with employees of various contractors to talk about how they came to be part of the project, as well as what kind of training was required.

One worker talked about bringing his son into the trade, and having him help with side projects and shop work, to help him learn a skill that could keep him in Wyoming.

That was a point that particularly interested both Gordon and Collins. 

Wyoming, Gordon said, has invested heavily in career and technical education (CTE), in an effort to give high school students and community college enrollees a head start on apprenticeships and technical credentials.

Staffing the projects has been a challenge, a different employee noted but, those who do come to Cheyenne are often finding there’s plenty of work to keep them in Cheyenne long-term.

Brad Harless, for example, originally came to Cheyenne to work on Microsoft data centers.

“They kept sending me to Cheyenne for work,” he said.

So he just decided to move to the area and stay.

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Related Digital broke ground in October and has since installed about 80,000 feet of chiller pipes, 40,000 feet of medium-voltage conduits to feed the data center power, which is 111 football fields long, according to Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau. 

There’s another 21,000 linear feet of underground utility pipe going in, which is 90% complete.

All of that work has been done by Wyoming businesses and Wyoming workers. 

“That’s exactly why I feel good standing here with the governor and saying that I believe this project lives up to the principles you outlined in your executive order,” Blau said. 

“The governor laid out a vision for attracting investment and creating jobs, while protecting Wyoming’s water and natural resources, respecting local communities and ensuring growth creates lasting benefits to the state,” he added.

The closed-loop system and high-efficiency air chillers mean water use will be on the order of a standard office building, said Blau.

“We’re very proud of that responsible approach,” he said. “The executive order also talks about protecting ratepayers. This project pays the full cost of the energy infrastructure it requires and then some. 

"We’re investing more than $20 million to purchase a new transformer and expand the existing substation to service this data center.”

That investment bolsters the overall energy grid in the region, and will help protect ratepayers from future cost increases.

“Gov. Gordon’s order also talks about workforce growth and opportunity,” Blau said. “Just look around this tent. We have over 400 construction workers today, and we’ll have more than 700 at peak. 

"We’re going to need another tent. Continuing to invest in infrastructure and development enables workers to have careers, not just temporary jobs.”

Related is also going the extra mile, Blau added, by contributing to organizations like Wyoming food banks and supporting regional and cultural events like Cheyenne Frontier Days. 

They’ve also made a $3.5 million commitment for affordable housing in Cheyenne, something Blau said he’s particularly proud of doing. 

“Related is building and preserving a part of Cheyenne where there’s a true need for affordable housing,” he said. “Since the very beginning, Mayor Collins and the governor provided the leadership and partnership to make this project possible. 

"That’s not to say every step has been easy. They’ve held us accountable to make sure we live up to each of these promises.”

Related Digital 20260611 105807 6 12 26

<title>Inside The $1.2 Billion Data Center Campus Being Built In Cheyenne | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Work is nearing completion on the first 184,000-square-foot phase of the Related Digital data center campus in Cheyenne, which is expected to be finished in late 2026. The company says because of its closed-loop system, there’s no ongoing water required.

Inside The $1.2 Billion Data Center Campus Being Built In Cheyenne

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Hunting

Forget about e-bikes, ATVs and other wheeled vehicles. 

The latest powered outdoor trend is people strapping on devices called powered exoskeletons and becoming faster, stronger cyborg versions of themselves.

Battery-powered knee and hip-assistance devices have been around for a while. 

But some reviewers say products like one called the Vastnaut One 4x4 have taken things to a new level by supplying additional support and power to the hips and knees simultaneously.

The company claims that its contraption can boost the wearer’s climbing power by 30%.

Its rechargeable batteries last 4.5 hours, enough to cover about 12.5 miles, according to Vastnaut.

Prices for the devices run from about $1,000 to $2,000.

Seasoned hiker John Housel told Cowboy State Daily that at age 73, he’s had to slow down somewhat, but he’s not sure he’s ready to strap on a set of robot leg boosters.

“I’m a great believer in self-locomotion,” he said. "I would be hesitant about exploring that (using an exoskeleton) much further.

“I can see if I got to the point where I was wearing out before I got to the top of one of my favorite local mountains, I might look into that,” he added.

Even so, he can see drawbacks, such as the batteries wearing out or the contraption getting damaged.

“What if I fell on my descent? The falling might bend a joint on that apparatus, and I’d have to get back down on my own,” he said.

Housel added that it could be better to accept the natural limitations that come with age.

“If I get to the point where I just can’t go somewhere, maybe I’ll just not go to that place anymore,” he said.

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Housel said that exoskeletons could add to a trend that outdoor enthusiasts call “shrinking the land.”

In other words, the more means there are available to traverse territory more quickly, the “smaller” the land gets and the fewer places there will be where one can go to find utter solitude.

Housel said that over the years, he’s seen some of that happen as technology has improved ATVs and e-bikes.

 over whether they blur the lines between human-powered and motorized backcountry transportation.  

However, he’s skeptical that exoskeletons will have that much of an impact, at least not anytime soon.

The prices could be a barrier for many people, Housel said.

“I don’t think they’re going to be that popular. I think the pricing will be a factor,” he said.

He added that people might be hesitant to spend $1,000 to $2,000 on products that might be found primarily online, and not yet in retail stores.

“I think anybody who would be interested in that would want a demonstration” before spending the money, he said.

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The makers of Vastnaut and similar devices claim that they can increase users’ weight-carrying capacity.

That could be a selling point for people like northeast Wyoming resident Owen Miller. 

He frequently hunts deep in the backcountry, in places where killing an elk means facing a long trek out with heavy packs full of meat.

“This looks like a product for ‘Mr. Gadget,’” he told Cowboy State Daily.

“I can definitely see that there’s people that would use this, and it could be compared to the e-bike where you’re biking, but you’re not really biking,” he said. "(This is) like assisted biking, but this is assisted hiking/walking."

Miller said he favors simplicity in the backcountry. So, he’s skeptical about the possible complications of exoskeletons, such as limitations on battery life.

He noted that it might be good for “somebody with a leg injury, or even a back injury.”

Miller said he doesn’t think he’ll buy an exoskeleton anytime soon.

“In my opinion, everything can have its place and be useful for the right person. But as long as I’m healthy, I personally wouldn’t use it just to use it,” he said.

 Avid backcountry elk hunter Bruce Cooper of Bondurant also said he can see the usefulness of exoskeletons for those with injuries or mobility challenges.

He noted that his wife has had two knee surgeries.

“This would help her maybe keep pace with me and have less fatigue,” Cooper said.

“I personally would not have a use for it when hunting. I tend to go distances that would burn the battery, and through heavy timber. I would then have to carry it back when the battery is dead,” he said 

Where exoskeletons might shine in Wyoming is among people hiking for fun in the front country, Cooper said.

“I think it could be beneficial for those who are walking more on (established) paths and trails, and who may benefit from the knee support and need for assistance in walking or hiking,” he said.

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<title>Powered Exoskeletons Could Turn Wyoming Hikers, Hunters Into Backcountry Cyborgs | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Forget about e-bikes, ATVs and other wheeled vehicles. The latest powered outdoor trend is people strapping on powered exoskeletons and becoming faster, stronger cyborg versions of themselves. One company says it can boost climbing power by 30%.

Powered Exoskeletons Could Turn Wyoming Hikers, Hunters Into Backcountry Cyborgs

Julie Mankin

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

GILLETTE — The only notion that high-school junior Caden Shear had of a pioneer-style wagon is what he’d seen playing “The Oregon Trail.”

Yes, the wildly popular 1974 computer game is still teaching kids about frontier life on Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

Today, it has a phone app called OG Trail and an update letting players use trading and crafting to upgrade their wagons, buy food and cure ailments.

[{"type":"text","text":"But Shear’s classmate, Dyson Eixenberger, had no such concept."}]

“When our teacher said we were going to build a sheep wagon, I was confused,” said the Campbell County high school student. “I thought he might be talking about a trailer to put sheep in.”

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The idea to have construction fabrication classes at each of Gillette’s high schools build new sheep wagons was the brainchild of Jeff Wasserberger.

His Board of Cooperative Higher Education Services gathered the donated materials and tasked Thunder Basin High School teacher Nick Newman and Campbell County High teacher Pete Stocker with helping their students each put together sheep wagons much like the one invented by a Rawlins blacksmith in 1884.

The world’s first mobile home for sheepherders was 12 feet long and 6.5 feet high with a built-in stove, bed and cabinetry.

By 1910, Wyoming boasted more than 5 million sheep and was the second-largest wool-producing state in the nation after Texas.

Protection and care of the wooly critters required a herder for about every 3,000 ewes, meaning thousands of sheep wagons dotted the plains and peaks of Wyoming.

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While Shear admitted that living for weeks at a time in a sheep wagon would be better than sleeping in a tent, it’s tight inside, he said.

He lamented that everything you needed either pulls out or is tucked under something else.

But sheep wagons aren’t that far removed from the modern van-life movement, where people pack their lives into mobile tiny homes on wheels.

“I didn’t expect it to be that hard of a build,” said Shear, who plans to become a civil engineer. “It was really time-consuming, but it was pretty fun building it.”

The finished wagons, which took two years to complete, were donated for fundraisers.

The Thunder Basin wagon went to the Gillette College Foundation, while the CCHS wagon donation hasn’t been finalized, but options include the local YES House or local SkillsUSA chapter.

That was a big ask for students accustomed to taking their finished projects home with them, Stocker said.

“Motivation was tough,” he said. “It was a long project, and as a society, we are instant-gratification people.”

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Eixenberger admitted he wasn’t sure his team’s wagon would ever be finished.

“Cutting wood to make it look curved was pretty hard,” said the 16-year-old. “There were people in that class who didn’t know what they were doing, and we ended up redoing a lot of things.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Shear also found it “weird” to put tin on a curved ceiling."}]

“I can do stuff creatively, but I always have a reference,” he said. “For a sheep wagon, there’s not even a (period) reference. But it was cool to build.”

In fact, sheep wagons were often built on the fly on the frontier out of whatever materials were on hand. That really threw the teens for a loop, said Newman.

Gillette high school students spent the last two years building sheep wagons as a class project. Teacher Pete Stocker said it was a challenge to keep everyone motivated. “It was a long project, and as a society, we are instant-gratification people."

Daily Smile: Tuesday, December 24, 2024

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