It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, December 26th. From the Cowboy State Daily newsroom, I’m Wendy Corr.
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Tucked away in the government spending bill Congress passed over the weekend to avert a government shutdown are a few provisions that could have a significant impact on Wyoming health care. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the spending bill allows acute hospital care at home and telehealth temporary waivers to continue through March 31st.
“So many people in Wyoming live so far from their health care services, they often have to trial hundreds of miles to get to a health care provider. But what telehealth has really provided them since the COVID pandemic is the ability to receive these telehealth services at home. There was a waiver granting that that service as part of some of the COVID funding money, and that was extended at least till the end of March because of the government spending package.”
Congress is expected to enact more comprehensive health care measures next year under Trump.
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When it comes to bagging big, dangerous critters, hunters want all the knockdown power they can get, and a Cody-based company has taken that to the extreme.
Big Horn Armory Inc. touts its AR500 as the world’s most powerful AR-style rifle. The semi-automatic weapon is chambered in the company’s own .500 Auto Max cartridge and can thump out half-inch diameter bullets just as fast as a shooter can stand to pull the trigger.
Greg Buchel, the company’s founder and president, founded the Cody-based company after the .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum cartridge was created. He told Cowboy State Daily he and a neighbor thought they should make a lever-action rifle chambered for that cartridge. Big Horn Armory was created in 2007, and started turning out its first lever-action rifles a couple of years later.
As they grew in popularity, Big Horn Armory decided to produce an AR chambered big enough to take down anything that might lumber across North America, and came up with the .500 Auto Max cartridge.
Buchel said his company has thrived in Wyoming, and he’d like to see manufacturing continue to grow here.
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In the days leading up to Christmas, Santa Claus should be in overdrive preparing to traverse the globe, giving his list a second check. Instead, he's once again in a precarious situation south of Casper.
For several years, someone has set up a Santa dangling over the edge of a cliff along Highway 220 west of Casper heading toward Alcova. Santa's sleigh is lodged in a juniper bush at the cliff's edge, while Kris Kringle hangs on by a single arm.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that nobody knows who keeps putting Santa in such a precarious situation.
“Just west of Casper, heading towards Alcova on Highway 220 there's Santa's sleigh crashed into a juniper bush, and Santa is hanging on with one arm off the side of a cliff. And it's not photoshopped or AI, as many people thought. It's a real decoration. You can drive past it, and people look for it every year, and it's been there for several years.”
Despite a lot of people who enjoy seeing it, nobody is fessing up to knowing who leaves Santa hanging there every year.
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The spirit of Christmas comes to life every year in Sheridan at one of the city’s historic mansions.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean spent an evening at the Kendrick Mansion, where re-enactors shared a day in the life of the Kendricks at Christmas in 1924. She said it was an intimate and cozy trip back into time.
“they put on the right costume for the year. They have the right artifacts in place. They go through the diaries, the newspaper clippings, the journal entries, the letters, and they read them for, you know, like highlights of the Kendrick gear. And then they invite the public to come and spend an hour at the mansion, you know. And they call it Christmas with the Kendricks.”
This festive day in-the-life of the famous Wyoming family unfolds one room at a time, with a script that’s been carefully researched and written by Trail End staff, based on both the real people and the real events of the Kendricks’ lives in Wyoming.
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For someone who already didn’t like heights to begin with, like late U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, the incident was about as terrifying as it gets.
While flying somewhere over northwest Wyoming in the late 1990s, a latch on the door of the small, state-owned plane Thomas and then-Gov. Jim Geringer were flying on came open. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson spoke to Gale Geringer, Thomas’ former chief of staff, who said despite his fears, Thomas never hesitated about getting on a plane even though he didn’t enjoy it.
“They were never at risk safety wise, but it was a little scary, particularly considering that Thomas was not a fan of heights, and he kind of overcame that fear throughout his life in an interesting way. He kind of just faced it head on… Surprisingly, he was also a pilot, private pilot, so he was able to overcome his fear in that way. He would routinely people take people up to the Capitol dome when they were visiting from Wyoming, and he even went paragliding with his former chief of staff, Liz Brimmer, at one occasion as well. So he was really a man that just kind of faced his challenges head on, no matter what they were.”
Brimmer said Thomas’ desire to face his fears was emblematic of everything he did during a lifetime that included service in the U.S. Marines. He died in office in 2007 of complications from leukemia.
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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. I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
