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

<title>Today In Weather: Tuesday, February 18, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

When it's -35F in Wyoming.....

Today In Weather: Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

A Yellowstone bull bison with a gigantic abscess on its right rear quarter probably isn’t suffering much pain and will likely survive, one of the county’s top bison ranchers says.

But the recovery process is going to be good, said Ken Klemm, past president and a lifelong member of the National Bison Association.

After seeing a photo of the bison, taken early Wednesday in Yellowstone National Park’s Lamar Valley, Klemm said a gushing rupture of the abscess is imminent.

“It looks like a 5-gallon bucketful of stuff will come out of that one,” Klemm, who has managed some of the world’s largest bison ranches, told Cowboy State Daily.

The abscess probably formed around a wound, he said.

The bison rut, or mating season, is on in Yellowstone. The bull might have suffered a puncture during a fight with another bull, Klemm said.

Lauri Foster lives just outside of New York City and loves coming to Wyoming to visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Early Wednesday, she was on a wildlife-viewing drive through the Lamar Valley when she spotted the bull sporting a huge, bulbous mass near its backside.

Foster works with horses and is familiar with injuries to large animals, so she knew what she saw on the bison must be something serious.

“I thought it had to be a hematoma or an abscess,” she told Cowboy State Daily.

Foster couldn’t see any visible cuts or sores that might indicate exactly where it was wounded, she said.

To keep safe, Foster stayed in her vehicle to photograph that bull and other bison.

The bulls were raising a ruckus as they competed for mating rights.

“They were headbutting each other and chasing each other down,” Foster said.

The bull with the abscess was taking a break, though she surmised he had probably been recently wounded in a fight.

She added that despite how hideous that abscess looked, the bull didn’t seem sick or weak.

“He was walking along normally,” she said.

The rut has made bull bison extra agitated lately. In the most dramatic incident, a bison flipped and seriously injured Washington state resident Carl Isom-McDaniel, 65, in July.

Foster said at one point the bull walked up the middle of the road and stopped directly in front of her vehicle, giving her the stink-eye.

“I was thinking, ‘this is a little intimidating,’” she said.

Bull elk are known for getting into epic battles once their rut starts, usually in September.

Bison take it to another level, Klemm said.

“They’re worse than elk. If the loser doesn’t get away, the other bull will kill him,” he said.

The National Park Service has a general policy of letting nature take its course with animals’ injuries.

Klemm said the bull with the super-sized abscess has a good chance of making it.

“The infection is just raging in there,” he said. "The immune system is keeping that bison from dying, just from walking around with that much infectious material in its body.

“I suspect it will burst fairly soon and he’ll get over it. Bison have unbelievably good immune systems for things like this.” 

Bison abcess 8 6 26

<title>Bison Rancher: Yellowstone Bull With Gigantic Abscess Will Be OK Once It Gushes | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A massive abscess on a Yellowstone bull bison’s right rear quarter likely is the result of an infected wound from a rut battle. When it ruptures, “a 5-gallon bucketful of stuff” will gush out, a top bison rancher says, adding the bison should be fine.

Bison Rancher: Yellowstone Bull With Gigantic Abscess Will Be OK Once It Gushes

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

Renée Jean

Around Wyoming

The wave of legacy ranches for sale in Wyoming is continuing with yet another historic ranch hitting the market for the first time.

This time, it is the 1,542-acre Quarter Circle Lazy B, owned for four generations by the Wallop family, which has ties to British nobility, as well as historic prominence in both Wyoming and American politics. 

The Quarter Circle Lazy B, listed for $24.5 million and on the market for the first time in 135 years, is tucked just under the Bighorn Mountains at the mouth of Little Goose Canyon. Its sale will mark the end of an era for one of Wyoming’s best-known legacy ranches.

Owner Paul Wallop told Cowboy State Daily he and his wife, Sandra, have decided this is the right time to start a search for the ranch’s next steward because none of the children have an interest in taking over the ranch. 

“We’re not ancient,” Paul Wallop said. “But we’re in our mid-60s, and we could easily do another 10-plus years. But in that 10 years, one health event and you’re not keeping up with it.”

Sandra Wallop told Cowboy State Daily she fears it will be more difficult to be “picky” about a successor if they wait. Now is the right time so they can be selective.

“It’s important,” she said. “We want them to have good Wyoming values, be good neighbors. I hate to say it in this fashion, but we want to kind of interview them before we sell to them.”

That doesn’t mean the couple will be “hovering” over their new neighbors, she added. 

“We’re not going to be that kind of neighbor,” Sandra said. “We deeply and passionately love this place … So we’re hoping the next family has the same attitude and perspective that we do.”

The Wallop family first began assembling its ranch in 1889, when English-born Oliver Henry Wallop bought the first piece of what would become the Quarter Circle Lazy B. 

Oliver was the third and youngest son of a titled line in Britain. He took a shine to the American West after graduating from an English university, and decided that would be how he would make his way in the world.

As the youngest son of Isaac Newton Wallop, the fifth Earl of Portsmouth in Great Britain’s Victorian era, Oliver never expected he would inherit land or title. Such young men were, at the time, known as “remittance” men, because they typically left home to make their way in the world and were given a remittance from their family. 

His father’s name, Isaac Newton, does have an indirect tie to the famous physicist of the same name. A relative of Newton’s married into the Wallop family, and many of its sons were subsequently given names to honor that heritage.

Oliver came to America soon after graduating from Oxford in 1883, first buying a ranch in Montana, where he introduced the region’s first thoroughbred horses. He then migrated south to Wyoming in 1889, establishing the Canyon Ranch, which included the Quarter Circle Lazy B.

Oliver was ultimately wrong about his chances for succession. He returned to England after his second brother died, becoming the Earl of Portsmouth in 1925. 

“He had to renounce his U.S. citizenship, and then he served in the House of Lords,” Paul Wallop said. “And I don’t know if there’s any other member of the House of Lords what has ever served in a foreign government — it’s a very unique thing.”

Polo has a long history in Sheridan County, and the Wallops are integral to that story, along with the Scottish brothers William and Malcom Moncrieffe. 

“Malcom Moncrieffe had what was called the Polo Ranch, and then William had the Quarter Circle A Ranch, which is the Brinton Museum now,” Paul Wallop said. “Quarter Circle Lazy B is the neighboring ranch to the Quarter Circle Lazy A.” 

Together, these ranches got a contract with the British cavalry for horses, shipping 20,000 to South Africa for the Boer War.

“They were selling to the U.S. cavalry as well,” Paul Wallop added. “Part of their training for all the horses was just to get them started playing polo.”

Historical records show Sheridan’s first big polo match was July 4, 1893, which played to a crowd of several thousand spectators after a warmup from a military band.

The teams featured five mostly British players on each side, listed as Beckton vs. Sheridan. 

“Polo has always been a big deal here, and it’s still a big deal,” Paul Wallop said. “And that’s partly because of my great-grandfather.”

By the end of World War I, militaries were trending toward mechanical vehicles, collapsing that industry. The remount program died away, and the ranch shifted toward cattle markets.

“My grandfather began in registered Herefords, and he did really well with that up until he passed in the spring of 1980,” Paul Wallop said. 

Some of Oliver Malcom Wallop’s herd were even shipped to Japan, Sandra added, thanks to their elite genetics. 

Japan was crossing its smaller draft cattle with western breeds until about 1910 to increase their size and make them better-suited to meat production. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Royal Guest List"}]

For all its remoteness, the Quarter Circle Lazy B has long attracted an international roster of guests, thanks in part to the family’s enduring ties to British nobility. 

While Oliver Henry Wallop returned to England to serve in the House of Lords, he maintained close ties to his family in Wyoming and his ranch was a quiet magnet for many high-profile visitors, ranging from Buffalo Bill Cody and President Theodore Roosevelt — who designated the Bighorn National Forest after his visit — to Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and, in more recent times, Princess Anne. 

Sports legend John Elway, former French President Valery Giscard D’Estaing, and American political leaders such as Vice President Dan Quayle are also among the high-profile guests.

“I mean, we’ve served tea to Princess Diana’s sister,” Sandra Wallop said. “This ranch has been host to a huge long list of princes and princesses and queens and vice presidents and senators and on and on and on.”

 a popular PBS British historical drama set at Highclere Castle, through an aunt who married the queen’s manager for thoroughbred racing, Lord Porchester.

“He became the Earl of Carnarvon and Paul’s aunt became the Countess of Carnarvon,” Sandra said. “And they owned Highclere, which Paul’s cousin now has, and is where Downton Abbey was filmed.”

The buildings on the ranch reflect its layered history. There’s the historic stone barn, constructed in the 1930s, which once served as a show barn for registered Hereford sales and which today serves as a horse barn and tack space. 

There’s the foreman’s or manager’s house, dating to around the turn of the 20th century. It has three bedrooms and two baths, and is likely the oldest building on the property. 

There’s the Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing lodge, featured in Great American Fishing Lodges, built in 1993. It’s a two-bedroom, four-bath home with a panoramic view of Little Goose Canyon and Moncrieffe Ridge.

And there’s Johnnie’s mountain cabin, a remote two-bedroom, one-bath mountain home. 

Other structures include a heated mechanics shop, a newer Morton building for horses and storing equipment, a farm shed for storage with dog kennels at the south end, a Scale House complete with a 10-ton 1965 Fairbanks Morse Scale and a 100-by-200-foot outdoor riding arena complete with lighting, advanced drainage, tack areas and wash bays.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Land, Buildings"}]

All this set in an area that boasts trophy wildlife of all kinds — moose, elk, deer, mountain lion, bear, and upland game birds. The ranch still has one of Wyoming’s original private game-bird farm licenses, and it’s also one of the first conservation easements written in the state.

Little Goose Creek offers 600 feet of trout stream to go with the property’s four mountain ponds. 

What’s for sale, the Wallops say, is more than just a collection of historic buildings and some scenic acres. To them, it’s a way of life their family has spent four generations protecting.

That’s why they’re less focused on how fast the ranch sells than on who ultimately buys it. They hope for someone who will treasure both its history and its future, helping with the next three or four generations of stewardship. 

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<title>Wallop Family’s Quarter Circle Lazy B Ranch For Sale After 135 Years For $24.5M | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Wallop family's legacy Quarter Circle Lazy B Ranch in Sheridan County is for sale for the first time in 135 years, listing for $24.5 million. It hosted Queen Elizabeth II, supplied cavalry horses to Britain and helped build Wyoming's polo scene.

Wallop Family’s Quarter Circle Lazy B Ranch For Sale After 135 Years For $24.5M

A super-sized male grizzly called Bruno for years has been one of Grand Teton National Park’s most famous bears, but age is catching up with him.

Big, dominant male grizzlies might hit their peak sometime in their early to mid-teens, bear biologist Cecily Costello told Cowboy State Daily.

Bruno, dubbed Grizzly 679 by researchers, is thought to be around 22. Grizzlies rarely live past 30 in the wild.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Observers say Bruno is over the hill."}]

Wildlife photographer Jorn Vangoidtsenhoven has watched Bruno for years and said another bear fan recently told him the beloved behemoth bear isn’t looking so great this summer.

“I just spoke with someone who saw Bruno in the last few days. Per his report, Bruno looks a bit thin and is starting to look old,” Vangoidtsenhoven texted to Cowboy State Daily.

One of Bruno’s biggest claims to fame was being a regular mate of Wyoming’s most renowned bear, Grizzly 399. She was struck and killed by a vehicle in October 2024.

In 2025, Bruno appeared with a nasty, oozing gash on his face. Bear managers usually let nature take its course with bear wounds.

But when Bruno was captured last fall for research by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST), he was treated for facial injuries out of an abundance of caution.

He emerged this spring showing no visible signs of that wound.

An IGBST biologist surmised he suffered the wound in a fight with another bear, perhaps a male, but wouldn’t speculate as to which bear it might have been.

Grizzly watchers and photographers said he might have also been clawed by another famous bear, Grizzly 610, while trying to mate with her.

Wildlife photographer Dominic Westkamp told Cowboy State Daily many think Bruno was slashed by another well-known female, Grizzly 1063.

Regardless of the origin of the healed wound, Bruno has other battle scars and is still a sight to behold, even in his senior years, Westkamp said.

“He’s got that rugged look. He’s been through many battles,” said Westkamp, who took video and photos of Bruno last week.

Bruno was busy in a roadside field, digging up roots, and wasn’t paying any mind to spectators, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Bruno was looking thin, Westkamp added."}]

However, Westkamp noted it’s still a little early for bears to go into hyperphagia, essentially a pig-out period during which they gorge on as many calories as they can to fatten up before winter hibernation.

“I expect Bruno to be 80 to 100 pounds heavier the next time I see him, during hyperphagia,” Westkamp said.

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

A male grizzly in his 20s is past his prime, said Costello, the statewide grizzly research biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

“When they get to their late teens, that is when I expect them to be going into decline,” she said.

“He (Bruno) is definitely on the downhill side,” she added.

There’s no “direct data” she’s aware of on the prime age of grizzlies. However, research on black bears suggests the peak years are about 12 to 15, Costello said.

Moreover, Bruno is entering his twilight years during a time when competition among males for mates is getting tougher, she said.

Grizzlies by the thousands once roamed a huge swath of territory west of the Mississippi. However, by the early 1970s, they’d been pushed back to a tiny remnant population in or near Yellowstone National Park.

They were placed under federal Endangered Species Act protection in 1975 and have since expanded in range and numbers.

The early years of recovery would have been great for a big male grizzly, Costello said.

“When there’s only a few dominant males, they really dominate,” she said.

“In the early years of grizzly recovery, you would have seen one male doing all of the reproduction in an area. Now, it’s harder to compete for mates,” she said.

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<title>End Of An Era: Grand Teton's Favorite Mighty Grizzly, Bruno, Is Getting Old | Cowboy State Daily</title>

For years, a huge male grizzly called Bruno was one of the brawniest bears in Grand Teton National Park. But at roughly age 22, Bruno is past his prime and those who routinely watch him are saying he's gotten thinner and "is on the downhill side."

End Of An Era: Grand Teton's Favorite Mighty Grizzly, Bruno, Is Getting Old

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

Clair McFarland

Crime & Courts

Courts

The transgender Laramie resident who staged a protest 

last summer of Wyoming’s new cross-sex access ban for public restrooms is now waging a self-defense argument in a felony aggravated assault case.

 for using the women’s bathroom in the Wyoming Capitol when a new state law activated banning the practice. 

The ban doesn’t allow for penalties against a transgender person using the women’s bathroom, but allows females aggrieved by that event to sue the state for letting it happen.

About two months later, Kelver was involved in an altercation with a man outside the Crowbar in Laramie. Court documents say that after a verbal clash — the contents of which are disputed — Kelver approached the man.

The man shoved Kelver, who fell to the ground, and Kelver pulled a firearm and chambered a round before pointing the pistol at the man, the affidavit alleges.

This case is ongoing, with Kelver’s attorney Andrew Holcomb, and Kelver, both promising to pursue a 

Meanwhile, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Byrd cast the case as an instance of biased enforcement, and said it highlights the need to reaffirm universal Second Amendment and due process rights for everyone.

“The Kelver case is bigger than one bartender, one crosswalk, and one night in Laramie,” wrote Byrd, who’s also a former legislator, in a Wednesday Facebook post. “It’s a test of whether the Second Amendment means what it says  for everyone.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Kelver Statement"}]

Kelver responded to that claim with cautious statements in a Wednesday phone interview.

“There is a plethora of opportunity for me to be a victim of bias in this, but there’s a lot of evidence we need to address properly, through the legal channels, and kind of go forward with this in a way that is respectful to the legal process,” said Kelver. 

“So I am not intending to make any accusatory statements about how this was handled on the police department’s side or the judicial side at the moment,” Kelver added.

Laramie Police Department Lt. Craig Lenhardt declined Wednesday to comment on the case on the department’s behalf.

Albany County Attorney Kurt Britzius, who is prosecuting this case, did not return an email and phone message request for comment by publication.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kelver delivered another comment via phone."}]

“I fully respect the legal process and intend to address the facts in court, not necessarily anymore in the media,” Kelver said. “I did not go looking for confrontation. I genuinely believed my safety was threatened and my actions were taken in response to that threat.”

Kelver voiced confidence that, “when all the facts are heard in the proper setting it will be clear that this was a defensive response to a frightening situation. I just ask that 

 not rush to judgment based on incomplete information.”

Kelver faces up to 16 years in prison and up to $12,000 in fines if convicted. 

The charges are aggravated assault (up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines), possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent (up to five years in prison and $1,000 in fines), and interference with a peace officer (up to one year in jail and $1,000 in fines).

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"First, Court Documents"}]

Kelver was standing outside the Crowbar at about 10 p.m. on Sept. 13, 2025

 an altercation unfolded after a man shouted something about the bar.

[{"type":"text","text":"Most of the other facts of the case are disputed."}]

Laramie Police Department Officer Hunter Rope wrote in an affidavit filed two days later that he, Rope, was called to respond to 2nd and Ivinson streets on a report of a fight and a person drawing a handgun.

[{"type":"text","text":"Rope spoke with Kelver on scene."}]

“Kelver stated they pulled out a knife during the involvement, but did own a firearm supposedly located in her vehicle,” says the affidavit. “Kelver stated they were a transgender woman and Native American.”

Earlier in the evening, Kelver was near that intersection when a man, later identified as Scott Durham, yelled, “Hey, the Crowbar should be closing, you bunch of fa*s,” the affidavit relates from Kelver’s interview.

Kelver, who was manager of the bar at the time, said this created tension "because we have had, you know, incidents in the past with hateful vandalism and people making a fuss about our pride flags being up and stuff like that."

Kelver has since stepped away from the manager job to deal with the case.  

The affidavit doesn’t list Durham’s full name, but a December court document recounting the county attorney’s office’s efforts to find out if Durham wanted restitution does. That document says Durham did not ask for restitution.

[{"type":"text","text":"Cowboy State Daily has been unable to contact Durham.  "}]

Kelver grew agitated and confronted Durham, asking, “What the f*** did you just say,” according to Kelver’s account of the incident in the affidavit.

Durham reportedly shoved Kelver to the ground. Kelver said Wednesday that this caused a back injury. 

Kelver described to Rope trying to draw a knife, “but dropped it when she hit the ground.”

Officers searched the intersection and didn’t find the knife, the affidavit says.

The teal-colored firearm Kelver had allegedly claimed was in the car was, rather, in Kelver’s side bag — a thick leather satchel — wrote Rope.

Rope handed that to another officer for that officer to clear it, the document says, adding, “a live round was found in the chamber.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Other Account"}]

In Durham’s account, Durham was walking north on the sidewalk across from the bar and yelled “f*** the Crowbar” because he likes the Buckhorn Bar better.

Kelver demanded to know what Durham had said, he repeated his statement, and Kelver — hand on hip — walked toward Durham and the other people with Durham, the latter alleged in his own account.

Durham reportedly said Kelver’s hand was in a black side bag, and Kelver approached Durham “aggressively.”

Kelver and Holcomb both told Cowboy State Daily in separate Wednesday interviews that this was a “three-on-one” situation, and two other people were with Durham.

Durham and another person, whom the affidavit calls “A.S.,” turned and walked west on the crosswalk toward the Buckhorn Bar, but Kelver “got face to face” with Durham, hand still in the bag, the document says.

Durham pushed Kelver away, causing Kelver to fall. Kelver drew a handgun from the bag in which Kelver’s hand had been nestled during the approach, the affidavit alleges.

[{"type":"text","text":"Durham and A.S. kept walking away."}]

Kelver “racked the gun and pointed it at” Durham’s head, Rope recounted from Durham’s account.

A.S., in his interview, said he believed part of the gun was blue, reportedly.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Witnesses And Cameras"}]

A witness reportedly said he heard Durham and Kelver yelling back and forth, watched Kelver cross the street with one hand in the side bag, watched Durham push Kelver to the ground, then heard a gun being racked and saw Kelver point the gun at Durham.

Another witness, “E.B.,” whom the affidavit calls a friend of Durham’s, attested that Durham had said “f*** the Crowbar,” reportedly.

E.B.  said he saw Kelver on the ground pointing a gun at Durham’s head as Durham walked away, Rope relates from that interview.

When police reviewed area cameras, they saw Kelver approach Durham in the crosswalk and Durham push Kelver, the affidavit says.

“Kelver appeared to stumble and fell on her back,” wrote Rope. “After falling, Kelver appeared to pull out a firearm, pull back the slide, load the firearm, and point it.”

Informed of the video’s contents, Kelver allegedly “stated she did not recall pulling the firearm during the altercation.”

Kelver described carrying the gun due to having been stalked the previous night, and for personal safety, the document adds.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kelver was arrested."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Little Law"}]

Wyoming has a law saying people who act in self-defense “shall” not be prosecuted for it.

Courts have answered that mandate by forming the “John’s hearing,” where a person charged with a violent crime can try to show evidence that makes it apparent, at first glance, that that person acted with self-defense.

Then the prosecutor gets a chance to overcome that by showing by a “preponderance of the evidence” that the defendant didn’t act with self defense.

 to dismiss cases at this stage. Often, they 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Self Defense Mission"}]

“Oh yeah, absolutely,” said Holcomb regarding whether Kelver will ask for a John’s hearing.

But first, Kelver faces a June 24 arraignment in Albany County District Court.

John’s hearings are challenging because they’re difficult to win without calling one’s client to testify, said Holcomb. And that takes a lot of preparation.

As to Byrd’s claim of bias in this case, Holcomb said, “That’s something that only the investigating officer and to some degree Kurt (Britzius) would be able to answer — why they only charged my client and not this other guy.”

As of Wednesday, no criminal charges for Durham had surfaced in the public-facing court file.

[{"type":"text","text":"This was one of Byrd’s points in support of his bias claim."}]

The transgender Laramie resident who protested Wyoming’s cross-sex access ban for public bathrooms at the Capitol last summer is now waging a self-defense argument in a felony assault case. “I did not go looking for confrontation,” said Rihanna Kelver.

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