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[{"type":"text","text":"Love is in the air and gravity never takes a day off....."}]

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

<title>Bonus Video: Monday, February 24, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Love is in the air and gravity never takes a day off.....

Bonus Video: Monday, February 24, 2025

 Love is in the air and gravity never takes a day off.....

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.” 

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<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

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Around Wyoming

Legislature

Students in Lincoln County School District No. 1 will have to leave their smartphones, smartwatches and other internet-connected devices behind during the school day starting this fall — and those who repeatedly violate the rule could end up paying for it.

The district's board of trustees has adopted a Smart Device Policy for the 2026-27 school year that prohibits students from possessing smart devices on campus during school hours. 

Students caught violating the policy three times will face a $25 fine, a provision district leaders say is intended to change behavior rather than generate revenue.

School districts across the state are enacting smart-device policies after the Wyoming Legislature passed a bill earlier this year requiring the adoption of formal policies to address the possession and use of smart devices by students while on school grounds. 

However, district board chair Kristi Dearden said she is not aware of any other school districts whose policies include a fee for repeat offenders.

“In education, you have to be able to gain and keep students’ attention for them to learn,” said Shawn Rogers, principal of Kemmerer Junior-Senior High School. “When you’re competing with a cellphone, you’re going to lose every time.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Legislature Puts Districts in Charge"}]

The move comes as schools across the state consider how to monitor smart-device usage.

Campbell County School District in June approved a ban for K–8 students between opening and end-of-day bells, with high school students allowed to use their cellphones between class periods and during lunch.

Cody High School in Park County School District 6 also implemented a total ban.

Last year, Cowboy State Daily reported on 

a total ban implemented at Evanston High School

EHS English teacher Laura Clarito said the ban changed the attitudes of students.

“Since cellphones were disallowed, I have seen more engagement in coursework and more conversation during downtime,” Clarito said. “Kids aren't phone zombies now, they are humans.”

Both Rogers and Dearden said Lincoln County School District No. 1’s new policy is a direct result of the recent legislation.

“There was a need for it,” Rogers said. “We were really happy that our Legislature finally gave us something to go on. We feel like we battle with those phones so much it’s definitely a distraction.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The $25 Fee"}]

Rogers said school administrators and board members researched what other states were doing to implement smart-device policies. In Texas, they learned, some districts are imposing fines for policy violations.

As the Lincoln County district considered how to change behavior, leaders thought a fee on a third offense made sense.  

“On the third offense, the behavior’s not changing,” Rogers said. “We would hope that it doesn’t get to that point.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Student Council To Receive Money"}]

Dearden said any fines collected will be deposited into the district’s student council fund.

[{"type":"text","text":"Rogers said he hopes the council won’t see much money from this source."}]

“I’m hoping it’s not going to be that big of a deal,” Rogers said. “Even if the fund collects $300, that means 12 students pushed it to three offenses.”

[{"type":"text","text":"That, he said, would signal a larger problem."}]

“I would hope that parents would make kids pay their own fine if it gets to that level,” he added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Community Feedback"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The policy has generated spirited debate within the community."}]

Discussions on social media revealed sharply divided opinions, though no one spoke directly to Cowboy State Daily when asked to share their thoughts.

Some argued a ban on smart devices violated personal property rights. Others questioned how students would contact their parents in an emergency such as a shooting.

Others said the school office should be in charge of communicating with parents as necessary. Many supported the policy, saying students have the right to an education, not a right to a cellphone.

“Everyone I’ve spoken to is in support of it,” Rogers said, “though I’m not naïve enough to believe there aren’t naysayers.”

Dearden said no community members have spoken publicly at board meetings about the policy. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Win Back Education’"}]

The Lincoln County district’s policy points to research showing the mere presence of a cellphone reduces cognitive capacity.

 suggesting that banning smartphones in schools has a positive impact. She also shared a 

study from the National Library of Medicine

 that explored the impact of smartphone use on a student’s understanding of course material and psychological well-being in the classroom.

The policy declares Kemmerer Junior-Senior High School a “smart device free zone” from the first bell to the final bell.

It defines a smart device as “any portable electronic tool capable of connecting to external networks (including but not limited to Wi-Fi, cellular data or Bluetooth) or possessing independent processing power to store, record, or transmit data. This includes, but is not limited to, cellular phones, smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, e-readers, handheld gaming consoles, and wearable technology.”

Students can leave their devices in a locked vehicle or place them in a secure lockbox at the front office before school begins.

A first violation results in confiscation of a device until the end of the school day. A second offense requires a parent or guardian to retrieve it from the school.

[{"type":"text","text":"A third violation carries the $25 fine."}]

The policy also includes what administrators call a "burner device" provision. Students who place a dummy or decoy phone in a lockbox while secretly keeping their primary device will automatically receive a third offense.

With the new school year looming, administrators are optimistic that the policy will produce positive results.

[{"type":"text","text":"We call it “win back education,” Rogers said."}]

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<title>Lincoln County Students Face $25 Fines If They Keep Bringing Phones To School | Cowboy State Daily</title>

If stern warnings and rules won’t keep kids from bringing their cellphones and devices to school, maybe cash fines will get their attention. That’s the idea behind a new Lincoln County rule that will fine students $25 if they keep bringing them to school.

Lincoln County Students Face $25 Fines If They Keep Bringing Phones To School

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

Renée Jean

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

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming-based U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner says a former sheriff’s deputy threatened him. The former deputy denies it adamantly.

They both provided screenshots potentially supporting their claims. The Torrington Police Department says it's investigating.

Rasner dispatched a statement and later conducted a phone interview Wednesday, alleging that 

former Goshen County sheriff’s deputy Aaron Mose – who parted ways with the department in 2024 – called him at 8:21 a.m. Sunday.

The statement Rasner’s attorney Bill Fix reportedly sent to law enforcement Wednesday morning alleges that Mose said, “Listen, we ran your ass outta Goshen County last week, and if you ever come back through here again, you better watch your back.”

Mose in a Wednesday phone interview adamantly denied making any such statement. He sent Cowboy State Daily what appears to be a screenshot of his phone carrier’s call log, showing no calls made between 10:35 p.m. Saturday and 1:35 p.m. Sunday.

Rasner’s team sent its own screenshot of what appears to be his phone’s call log, with unrelated phone calls blurred, showing an incoming call from Mose’s number at 8:21 a.m. on an unspecified day.

Cowboy State Daily ran both images through a free AI content detector, isgen.ai.

The site registered Mose’s screenshot as 100% human content. It registered the call log shot from Rasner’s team as 89% human and “likely original” – a score that could be less than perfect due to the privacy blurs on the other phone numbers.

[{"type":"text","text":"The stakes might be high."}]

A person who makes a false report to law enforcement can be charged with false reporting, and a person who lies to law enforcement in an investigation can be charged with interference, both misdemeanors punishable by jail time.

But, Torrington Police Chief Matt Johnson emphasized in a Wednesday interview, people shouldn’t be charged with either of those crimes unless they “knowingly” provided a false report or lied about evidence.

“There’s a fair number of boxes that would need to be checked for those things to move forward,” said Johnson. “It’s a mistake to automatically assume that because something turns out to later be inaccurate, a person will be charged. There’s an intent element.”

Another curveball is the rise of phone “spoofing,” in which bad actors hijack others’ numbers to masquerade as them. The scam is so prevalent the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has established a 

[{"type":"text","text":"“From a technology standpoint that is possible,” said Johnson."}]

U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner's attorney filed a police report Wednesday on a Chuck Gray supporter and former sheriff's deputy for allegedly threatening Rasner. The former deputy denies making a threat. Torrington police are investigating.

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