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Jerry Seinfeld on the power of saying the phrase, "It is what it is...."

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<title>Bonus Video 2: Sunday, May 25, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Bonus Video 2: Sunday, May 25, 2025

 Jerry Seinfeld on the power of saying the phrase, "It is what it is...."

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Sunny, breezy, smoky in much of Wyoming on Monday. Fire danger in some areas. Mostly clear overnight. Cooler with highs from the low 70s to mid 90s. Lows from the mid 30s to mid 50s.

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Widespread smoke, sunny and breezy today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph.

Widespread smoke mainly before 11 a.m., sunny and breezy today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 50 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Areas of smoke, sunny and breezy today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, sunny today with a high near 84 and wind from 11-16 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke before 9 p.m. and a low near 44.

  Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Areas of smoke, sunny and breezy today with a high near 90 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 50 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph.

 Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Areas of smoke, sunny and breezy today with a high near 82 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.

 Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Widespread smoke mainly before 7 a.m., sunny and breezy today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 39 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

 Areas of smoke, sunny today with a high near 80 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 41.

  Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Widespread smoke mainly before 7 a.m., sunny and breezy today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 37 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

 Areas of smoke, sunny and breezy today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 41 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

  Widespread smoke mainly after 4 p.m., sunny today with a high near 79 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 39.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Areas of smoke, sunny today with a high near 70 and mostly clear overnight a low near 35.

Widespread smoke mainly after 1 p.m., sunny and breezy today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

:  Widespread smoke, sunny and windy today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 43 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Widespread smoke mainly before 3 p.m., sunny and windy today with a high near 82 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph.

   Widespread smoke mainly before 4 p.m., sunny and windy today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph.

  Areas of smoke, sunny today with a high near 77 and wind from 17-23 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke and a low near 44.

:   Areas of smoke, sunny today with a high near 72 and wind from 21-24 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 44 and wind from 12-17 mph.

Areas of smoke, mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.

   Red flag fire warning from 11 a.m. today until 8 p.m. tonight. Areas of smoke, mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a slight chance of rain after midnight, areas of smoke before 9 p.m., a low near 51 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.

:  Areas of smoke, mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Red flag fire warning from 11 a.m. today until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 95 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with areas of smoke, a low near 57 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Red flag fire warning from 11 a.m. today until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, mostly sunny, breezy and hot today with a high near 91 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with areas of smoke, a low near 56 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Widespread smoke mainly before 1 p.m., sunny and breezy today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.

   Red flag fire warning from 11 a.m. today until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 93 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 52 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph.

  Patchy smoke, slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 89 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Red flag fire warning from 11 a.m. today until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, increasing clouds, breezy and hot today with a high near 97 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

   Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke, breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 88 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

   Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke after 1 p.m., mostly sunny, breezy and hot today with a high near 90 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

   Red flag fire warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Patchy smoke after 11 a.m., mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 92 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

Daycap no play 8 3 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Monday, August 3, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Monday, August 3, 2026

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

Andrew Rossi

Around Wyoming

 petroglyph sites in North America is hidden away in a secret spot near Newcastle, Wyoming. The petroglyphs of Whoopup Canyon are among the oldest and most "realistic" known to exist.

Hundreds of images are carved into the sandstone walls across 150 known panels. They depict people, animals and even the technology used by some of the earliest Indigenous people in North America.

A lucky group of people got to visit this protected site July 25 as part of a tour coordinated by the Wyoming Historical Society and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Newcastle office.

The tour was led by Lucas Keeler, a BLM petroleum engineering technician who’s also one of the foremost authorities on Whoopup Canyon.

“It’s one of the largest and oldest petroglyph sites in North America, and it’s a love and passion of mine,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"It’s Not Art"}]

At many petroglyph sites, it’s hard for most people to recognize what’s being depicted. Images are deliberately abstract or artistic, which some believe is attached to the spiritual significance of the people who made them.

At Whoopup Canyon, little is left to the imagination. The images, free of artistic embellishments, are easy to identify and interpret as what they are.

Ralph I. Olinger, a businessman, amateur archaeologist, and Wyoming House representative from Lusk, noted as much during the first scholarly assessment of the petroglyphs with University of Denver anthropology professor Etienne B. Renaud in the 1930s.

“The deer and elk are mostly pictured, but there are mountain goats, antelope, bison, and a few other animals,” he wrote. “There seems to be none of horses.”

Keeler noted that the realism of the petroglyphs is one of many unique attributes of Whoopup Canyon. That’s also why he emphasized that the images “are not art.”

“It wasn’t art to the people that created them,” he said. “It is a historical record with cultural and spiritual significance. A sacred link to the land. There’s nothing wrong with referring to petroglyphs as ‘rock art,’ but it’s deeper than that.”

That was the background Keeler provided to the tour group before they departed from Newcastle to reach the sandstone canyon. They hiked a mile through chest-high grass, under the shade of ancient cottonwoods, before stopping at the end of the canyon to get a closer look at the panels.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Life And Times"}]

As the group approached the canyon wall, careful not to touch anything, many images were easy to understand. The walls were covered with elk, deer, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, birds, and “Mister Bison,” the only bison depicted along the entire four-mile expanse.

Keeler noted that all the animals are extant, meaning 

 in Wyoming. No mammoths, lions, or other extinct animals 

There are also images recognizable as humans. They aren’t passive figures but are depicted as actively engaged with other figures in the same panel.

According to Keeler, most of the panels depict hunting scenes. It reveals how these nomadic tribes hunted and the tools they used to do it.

“We have a lot of hunting scenes,” he said. “It was a big deal to these people, because it took a lot of time and pride to make these panels. You can see different creators with different techniques.”

Many panels depict human figures wielding atlatls, one of the oldest weapons in human history, as they pursue pronghorn and deer.

Many of those same panels also have a repeating pattern of half-circles along a long horizontal line. Instead of an artistic flourish, this is believed to be another accurately depicted tool.

“We think these are large game nets,” Keeler said. “It was some sort of netting used to capture animals. We'll see a lot of that netting (pattern) with a bunch of animals running up to it.”

Keeler explained that many indigenous tribes set up nets and drove herds of animals toward them. An individual isolated at the point where several nets met would be much easier to kill.

“They would bring this antelope into a three-sided catch, and somebody at the end, the game caller, would whack it on the head,” he said. “It’s well-documented. Lewis and Clark witnessed the Cheyenne using these antelope traps, and they continued to use them up to the 1870s.”

“The game caller” is also a common figure in these rock panels. It’s a humanoid figure wielding a large object, like a club, over their head.

Keeler also noted another intriguing animal depicted alongside the human figures. The best explanation for these four-legged, pointed-ear creatures is that they’re images of domesticated dogs.

“You can see where the dogs were being used, running after the other animals,” he said. “Dogs were domesticated over 10,000 years ago, so that tracks.”

That’s where the age of Whoopup Canyon’s petroglyphs gets interesting.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Oldest Or 'Oldest?'"}]

Whoopup Canyon is believed to be one of the oldest petroglyph sites in North America. However, age can be a tricky thing to determine.

Keeler referenced “Mister Bison” as a textbook example of accurate dating based on the patina of iron oxide and manganese covering the image, contrasted with a nearby elk.

“The elk is pretty cream-colored without much black on it, while the bison is completely black,” he said. “That means the image has to be older than the stuff covering it.”

The iron oxide-manganese patina can be dated using Carbon-14 and cation-ratio dating, and many of the panels have been.

Based on previous dating of the patina, “Mister Bison” is believed to be over 8,000 years old.

That might not even be the oldest image in the canyon. Samples from other panels have been dated from 2,500 years to 10,500 years old.

Today, dating is more difficult due to the mistakes of well-intentioned amateurs.

In 1942, historian and farmer Charles Haas of Rapid City, South Dakota, did an extensive photographic documentation of Whoopup Canyon. To make the images more visible in his black-and-white photos, he traced the images with white chalk.

“The chalking left residue which interferes with dating methods,” Keeler said. “It is estimated that nearly 97% of the glyphs at Whoopup have been chalked.”

Nevertheless, the panels in Whoopup Canyon are still considered among the oldest in North America, and certainly in Wyoming. They’re so old that even today’s tribes have trouble interpreting them.

“We have tribal consultations with various Plains Native American tribes that we periodically bring out to get opinions on the images,” Keeler said. “It can be very eye-opening because (images) go so much further back than the tribes that we know of today.”

Keeler has guided members of the Lakota, Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, Shoshone, and Arapaho tribes to Whoopup Canyon. While spiritually and culturally significant to all of the tribes, the petroglyphs are not ascribed to any of them, because they’re so much older.

“There were no Lakota, Cheyenne, or Arapahoe when these were made,” he said. “These were nomadic tribes, wandering and following game. It was a whole different world back then.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Standouts"}]

Amid the plentiful images of elk, pronghorn, and people, there are a few images that Keeler found particularly noteworthy.

One, at the far end of the canyon, depicted several people standing close together. Instead of being simple stick figures, each figure has depth and dimension.

“It looks like a family,” Keeler said. “They’re not holding hands, but they’re close together. That whole cliff face had so much going on that’s unlike anything else in the canyon.”

Keeler mentioned that he’s asked about that panel during the tribal consultations.

[{"type":"text","text":"“They all say something different,” he said."}]

A nearby figure, wielding an atlatl, is almost three-dimensional. He has clear proportions that were intentionally carved into the rock.

“He’s about the only person out here that's got any meat on him,” Keeler said.

There are several images and panels that Keeler can’t explain. They include a line of pronghorn, end to end, and something he referred to as “the Unicorn.”

But there’s one panel, on the opposite end of the canyon from the family, that defies explanation.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Skin-Changer?"}]

One of the more unique panels is four humanoid figures close together. They’re unlike anything else in Whoopup Canyon and, to Keeler’s knowledge, any other petroglyph site.

[{"type":"text","text":"He introduced it as “the one the tribes don’t like.”"}]

“There’s nothing else like it here, that’s for sure,” he said. “It's hard to know what was going through their head when they did that.”

The images appear to be part of the same sequence. One of the figures appears to be stretching their head and upper body, while the final figure is holding an object that resembles a torch.

Keeler has no definitive explanation, but he’s wary of one that’s been proposed: the panel depicts the transformation of the Deer Woman.

Many Indigenous American tribes have stories of spirits or “witches” that can turn into animals to disguise themselves and deceive others. The Navajo have “yee naaldlooshii,” “the skin-walker,” and many tribes, including the Sioux, have “the Deer Woman.”

Historically, these spirits have been malicious and duplicitous entities in tribal mythology. That would make a depiction of one on a petroglyph panel unique and unusual.

“A lot of cultures across the world have that story of a bad shapeshifter,” Keeler said. “I don’t know if that’s what’s depicted on the panel, or what it’s trying to symbolize, but there’s a lot going on.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Exclusive Access"}]

Many of Wyoming’s petroglyph sites are open to the public. Whoopup Canyon is not one of them.

While the canyon itself is on BLM land, the only way to access it is by roads going through private ranches. That has given the site some added protection, as it has been vandalized in many ways over the last century.

In 1997, the U.S. Department of the Interior called for an emergency closure of Whoopup Canyon. That closure remains in effect, keeping the canyon 

 to all activity except scientific, educational, and sociocultural projects.

The easiest way to see Whoopup Canyon is to be an elementary school-aged student in Newcastle or Upton.

“The Upton Science Kids come out for one day in June, and I take the Newcastle Elementary School fourth graders doing Wyoming history out in October,” Keeler said. “Those are the only two groups I do every year.”

The June 25 excursion with the Wyoming Historical Society was the first tour of its kind in several years. The group worked with the BLM to get permission from the private landowners to access the site.

“It’s illegal to access without their permission, and it’s still an area of critical environmental concern for the Interior Department, so it’s closed to the public,” Keeler said.

That said, Keeler hopes there might be an opportunity to offer future tours of Whoopup Canyon, perhaps one a year, so more people can experience the canyon and its history.

While the petroglyphs are most closely associated with today’s Native American tribes, Keeler believes anyone can find a connection to the images in the sandstone. The history depicted in the petroglyph panels of Whoopup Canyon is universal.

“For me, the petroglyphs are telling the same story of everyone’s history,” he said. “Wherever we came from, we all go back to these nomadic-type peoples. So many different cultures can relate to these things, because this is our origin story. It’s the roots of so many different people.”

Whoop Up Canyon IMG 1106 8 2 26

<title>Whoopup Canyon Has One Of The Oldest And Largest Petroglyph Sites In North America | Cowboy State Daily</title>

One of the most extraordinary petroglyph sites in North America is hidden away in a secret spot near Newcastle, Wyoming. The petroglyphs of Whoopup Canyon depicted in 150 sandstone panels are between 3,000 and 10,500 years old. Access is extremely limited.

Whoopup Canyon Has One Of The Oldest And Largest Petroglyph Sites In North America

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

Agriculture

With countless miles of rusty old fences threatening pronghorn and other wildlife across Wyoming, conservationists say devices called wire winders are giving them an edge.

A wire winder mounted on a skid steer can roll up a half-mile of old fence in about two minutes, a task that would probably take a half-day to accomplish by hand, said John Graves, director of conservation and resource management for the Sheridan Community Land Trust.

“It’s pretty darn cool,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “To sit there in the cab of the skid steer and watch that wire come in, it’s great.”

The importance of removing old barbed wire and woven-wire fences can’t be overstated, said Steve Martin, Wyoming director of the North American Pronghorn Association.

Old fences can block pronghorn from reaching thousands of acres of habitat in the Red Desert and other places in Wyoming and Montana, Martin told Cowboy State Daily.

There are countless miles of fence that must be removed and replaced with wildlife-friendly fencing, he said.

Bringing wire winders to bear “is a game changer” in that daunting task, Martin said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Short Work By Sheridan"}]

The Sheridan Community Land Trust manages the Big Goose Natural Area, just west of the city.

The area includes an off-leash dog-walking trail for residents and cattle ranching, as well as ideal habitat for pronghorn and other wildlife, Graves said.

The problem was that about a mile and a half of old barbed wire and woven-wire fence was making it nearly impossible for pronghorn to get in, he said.

The land trust had a contractor, Black Fern Fencing, lined up to replace it with wildlife-friendly fence in early July. But the old fence had to come out first.

“Rolling up all of that wire by hand takes hours and hours, and it will get you all cut and scraped up,” Graves said.

The trust had a skid steer. And the Pronghorn Foundation and Bowhunters of Wyoming donated about $8,000 to buy a wire winder to mount on it.

Volunteers removed the wire from fence posts and then pulled the posts.

That cleared the way for Graves to come in with the wire winder.

“That machine just sucks up all the old barbed wire and woven wire into neat rolls that can be taken to the recycling center,” Graves said.

The Black Fern crew came in right behind him, installing the new fencing.

It includes a smooth bottom wire, which allows pronghorn to crawl under without getting snagged on rusty barbed wire.

“We’ve already seen increased pronghorn activity on the property,” Graves said.

The Pronghorn Foundation hopes to soon acquire a skid steer with a wire winder to start going after other old fences in Wyoming and Montana, Martin said.

Old fencing hampers wildlife movements across the West, and removing and replacing all of it will be a gargantuan task, he said.

“Unlike deer and elk, pronghorn will rarely, if ever, jump a fence. They want to crawl under it,” he said.

So woven-wire fences are particularly hard on pronghorn, he said, because there’s no way to get underneath them.

Researchers from the University of Wyoming concluded that fences trapped pronghorn in areas of the Red Desert during the harsh 2022-2023 winter, and many of them died.

Recent upgrades to wildlife-friendly fences in the Red Desert opened up about 10,000 acres to pronghorn, Martin said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Never-Ending Job"}]

The task of removing and replacing old fences won’t be finished anytime soon, Martin said.

But bringing wire winders will expedite the process.

“If you’ve ever been out there, wrestling with that old wire by hand, you know how many hours that can take,” he said.

Removing old fence can be done mostly with volunteer labor, and wire winders can spare volunteers the nastiest part of the job, he said.

The next hurdle is coming up with the funding for new fencing, which allows wildlife to crawl under or jump over it but still keeps cattle safely contained, Martin said.

“That new fence can cost $25,000 per mile,” he said.

Fence winder

<title>How "Wire Winders" Roll Up Old Fencing Quickly, Keep Wildlife From Getting Tangled | Cowboy State Daily</title>

With countless miles of rusty old fences threatening wildlife across Wyoming, conservationists say devices called wire winders are a game changer. They can roll up a half-mile of old fence in two minutes, a task that would take a half-day by hand,

How "Wire Winders" Roll Up Old Fencing Quickly, Keep Wildlife From Getting Tangled

Public Safety

A motorcyclist has died after an accident on the Beartooth Highway on Thursday morning.

Information acquired via WyoLink confirmed that a motorcycle incident was reported near the junction of U.S. 212 and Wyoming Highway 296, the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, around 10 a.m..

Details of the incident are still unclear, but one communication mentioned an individual was “down an embankment.”

A First Flight of Wyoming helicopter landed near the scene at 11:15 a.m. By then, first responders had been doing CPR on the victim for more than 50 minutes.

[{"type":"text","text":"By 11:22 a.m., a coroner from Red Lodge, Montana, was on the scene."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"No additional information was available as of noon."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Multiple Confirmations"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Cowboy State Daily confirmed this information through multiple sources."}]

Red Lodge Fire Rescue sent a fire truck and ambulance to the scene. A source with Red Lodge Fire Rescue confirmed they had responded to a report of an accident involving one motorcycle, but their first responders were still on the scene and couldn't provide any updates.

Monte McClain, a spokesman with the Park County Sheriff's Office, confirmed one fatality at the scene. He didn’t have any additional information, as the response and investigation were taken over by the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP) was not available for additional information at the time of publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Tragic Warning"}]

There's been a growing concern about the number of motorcycle incidents on the Beartooth and Chief Joseph Highways this summer. Cowboy State Daily published a story about these specific concerns 

Earlier this month, Park County Fire District 2 issued a statement urging motorcyclists to “consider the challenges” before embarking on the narrow, winding mountain passes. WHP spokesman Aaron Brown agreed, confirming a notable increase in motorcycle incidents on both highways this summer.

“The WHP has seen five motorcycle crashes on the Beartooth Highway this year, and all of them have been in July,” he told Cowboy State Daily on July 24. “A few had minor injuries and at one reported had serious injuries, but no fatalities.”

Colloquially, Brown has heard about the increase in motorcycle crashes from WHP troopers stationed in northwest Wyoming.

“One trooper was telling me they've heard reports of even more motorcycle crashes up there,” he said. “We don’t have all the reports because some of those were county responses.”

Brown said he believed there were multiple contributing factors to these accidents, including the narrow curves of the highways and excessive speed. However, he also believed many motorcyclists could be overestimating their abilities. 

 “I think, at the end of the day, we're seeing a lot of riders trying to go outside of their skill set,” he said. “That’s not to say they’re not good enough to do the Beartooth and Chief Joseph, but they need to ride within their skills. If you’re going to do the Beartooth or Chief Joseph, ride within your skills and slow down. It’s not a place you want to be crashing out on.”

This is an ongoing story. Updates will be provided as additional information is confirmed.

Beartooth highway 7 30 26

<title>Motorcycle Accident Results In Fatality Thursday Morning On Beartooth Highway | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Cowboy State Daily has confirmed that a motorcyclist died in an accident Thursday on the Beartooth Highway near the junction of U.S. 212 and WY 296. This comes after growing concerns about motorcycle safety on the Beartooth and Chief Joseph passes.

Motorcycle Accident Results In Fatality Thursday Morning On Beartooth Highway

When a Jeep got stuck up to its axles in mud driving on the bottom of Palisades Reservoir on the Wyoming-Idaho border, a pair of trucks owned by family friends came to the rescue.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then they also got mired in muck up to their fenders."}]

That’s when Alpine’s Redneck Rescue responded to the call to somehow pull all three vehicles out of a multi-person rescue effort that had gone wrong twice already.

“The first vehicle, a Jeep, was driving across the lake bottom, noticed that it was getting soft, went to turn, and got buried,” 

 Nick Cummings said about the call he got about two weeks ago.

Once they realized their vehicle was stuck, the occupants called some family friends to help them out, he said. As their Chevy was on its way to rescue them, it also got stuck in the muddy bottom. Then came a black Ford F-150, which also became mired in the muck.

That’s when they called Redneck Rescue, which “goes to a lot of places the tow trucks don't want to go,” Cummings said.

With remote-controlled winches, a custom-built winch foot, and hundreds of feet of tow straps, Redneck Rescue is equipped to handle situations other tow trucks can't.

“This is a normal situation for us,” Cummings said. “Getting cars out of the mud is a pretty popular call in the summertime.”

How do you get vehicles stuck up to their axles in mud on the bottom of a lake bed? You call a tow company that has remote-controlled winches, a custom-built winch foot, and hundreds of feet of tow straps. “This is a normal situation for us,” the owner said.

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