It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, May 27th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Community Foundation, who asks you to give back to the place you call home. “5 to thrive” is YOUR opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. Support the community nonprofits you care about with a gift through the Wyoming Community Foundation. Visit wycf.org to learn more.
“At least this time they showed up.” That was the comment by one of the local Marine veterans who attended Monday afternoon’s Memorial Day ceremony at Cheyenne National Cemetery.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which oversees national cemeteries, didn’t update its website with a cancellation last year, prompting people from around the state and region to travel to Cheyenne for a ceremony that didn’t occur.
Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson was part of a crowd of about 200 people that gathered for the first Memorial Day remembrance event after last year’s observance was quietly canceled.
“It had been raining all weekend, and it cleared up just in time to start the ceremony, and came back just in time for it to end. So it was a little prophetic that way… there were people there who showed up last year expecting a ceremony and didn't have one, and they came back again this year… even the person who oversees the national cemetery that yes, that miscommunication is not going to happen again… it was a very nice, appropriate Memorial Day ceremony, probably what people expected last year.”
Tony Thomas, director of Fort Logan National Cemetery Complex in Colorado, told attendees that the 620 veterans buried in the cemetery deserve all the honor and respect people can give them.
Read the full story HERE.
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Ask anyone who knew Kim Love, and they’ll tell you, he was never at a loss for words. It didn’t matter what the occasion was. It could be a job interview, a board meeting or a party - Love was going to say whatever he felt needed to be said, whenever he felt it needed to be said.
Love died on Saturday at Sheridan Memorial Hospital after a bout with cancer. The 79-year-old was a prominent figure in Wyoming’s broadcasting industry and one-time restaurant owner, as well as a civic leader, who helped build up Sheridan’s downtown and Main Street.
“The work that he's done speaks volumes for him, and is going to continue to speak volumes long, long long into the future. Not only did he build Sheridan media empire, basically from scratch. He started with a little dumpy radio station that was above a flower shop… But it doesn't end there. I mean, he thought a lot about, you know, how he can make his community better. And if you look on Main Street, you're going to see signs of him everywhere. For one thing, that Frackletons restaurant, he helped save that not once, but twice… he was the driving force behind all those art sculptures on Sheridan… and he's also the one who brought that Da Vinci horse… he read the story about that in an art class, and he was like, Sheridan has to have that… he wasn't afraid to think big.”
Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
Read the full story HERE.
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A motorcycle rally organized in response to the torture and killing of a wolf in Daniel will return to the western Wyoming town June 14, despite a hostile reception from many locals last year.
The main organizer of Hogs for Hope is dog trainer and social media influencer Jonas Black of Austin, Texas. He told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz that he plans on doing annual rides to Daniel every year until Wyoming reforms its wolf management policy.
“He's not satisfied with Wyoming law, because despite some changes of predator management, chasing and running predators down with snowmobiles is still technically legal in Wyoming, and he says he's going to keep doing it until that changes… They're coming back to Daniel in the middle of next month. They plan on riding through Daniel again, so we'll see how that goes.”
Although the Wyoming Legislature did pass a bill that calls for possible felony criminal charges against people who deliberately prolong the suffering of predatory animals, Black is among those who think the new law doesn’t go far enough. That’s because it doesn’t ban pursuing and running over predators with snowmobiles or other vehicles.
Read the full story HERE.
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One day before President Donald Trump signed sweeping executive orders last week to streamline licensing for nuclear reactors and handling radioactive waste, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official testified before Wyoming lawmakers, highlighting the commission’s autonomy, independence and strong focus on safety.
But Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that some of the Wyoming legislators attending the hearing in Casper on Thursday, along with industry watchdogs outside Wyoming, now question the NRC's focus and independence.
“They had someone there from the Dallas office of the NRC, explaining… as he put it, the new mission statement, which really emphasized getting things moving and efficiency and responsiveness to to the industries that they regulate, which is nuclear waste generation, creating small modular reactors, like the ones proposed for a project in Bar Nunn… outside watchdogs who keep track of the NRC are a little concerned, like, what's the priority here? Is the priority just to get projects approved? Or are we really going to regulate these for the health and safety of Wyoming residents?”
Trump’s orders could have significant impacts for at least three Wyoming projects seeking federal approval.
Read the full story HERE.
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Barbed wire is a fixture of rural life in the United States. Repairing and replacing barbed-wire fencing is one of the most important and least-enjoyed tasks for anyone on a working ranch.
But a rancher in Cody has found a way to recycle old, unusable stretches of barbed wire. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke to Janelle Prows, who has turned something functional into artistic tumbleweeds.
“A lot of people have bad barbed wire memories. So the idea of barbed wire being twisted into something that's beautiful and evocative and brings up all those emotional experiences because they see it in a different context, is what the artist I spoke to said was really powerful about working in the medium of barbed wire, because people don't look at it as a beautiful thing. There's no beauty to it… So the fact that the people's perspectives are changed by seeing it be twisted into giant tumbleweeds or elk or bison or any number of things… that's kind of the neat dichotomy of working with barbed wire as a medium of art and sculpture.”
Millions of miles of barbed wire still stretch across the United States. Especially in Wyoming, artists don’t have to go far to find material to work with.
Read the full story HERE.
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Memorial Day weekend may be considered the unofficial start of summer for many people, but for those serious about smoking meat, it’s also the start of barbecue season.
Serious grillers now begin their summer of experimentation, tweaking and attention to the most minute details - especially for those who covet a spot at the Wyoming State BBQ Championship in Worland the third weekend in August.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that it’s not just the cooks who work at perfecting their craft - judges are just as rigorous.
“The fun part about barbecue competitions is actually eating the food. So I was really fascinated to find out that you can't just walk in and become a judge. You have to go to school. You have to learn all these different aspects of it… you had to become certified, and the more certified you are, the more that they want you to judge. So it really is this whole culture and this competition level that I didn't even understand until I really started investigating this story.”
Dorothy found out that events like the Wyoming state championships are not your average backyard barbecue, and a good judge can tell instantly if an entry has been prepared by a professional or amateur.
Read the full story HERE.
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When George Ziemens was studying to be an archaeologist, the world was convinced that Clovis man was the earliest sign of humans in North America.
Now, decades later, he’s leading an archaeology dig on the Powars II Paleo-indian site in Sunrise, Wyoming, that’s one of a handful of sites in North America that are rewriting that bit of history. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the site is one of few where researchers say they’ve found artifacts that predate Clovis man.
“There are some artifacts that old in other parts of the country, but this is the first site in the West to find artifacts that old. It's significant because up until recently, we thought that Clovis Man, who goes back about 12,000-13,000 years ago, was the first appearance of mankind, early man, in North America. But, you know, Sunrise and these other sites are kind of rewriting that, and that's very significant for Wyoming to be part of that. It's that's International in interest. It's drawing people from all over the world.”
The oldest artifact found in Sunrise to date is now 16,000 years old, beating a previous find that had been dated to 14,000 years old. That makes it the oldest Paleo-indian artifact found in the Western High Plains.
Read the full story HERE.
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Jeffrey City’s townhouses are a stark representation of the nearly deserted community’s once-bustling population. The 10 buildings, which each have six 1800 square feet apartments, were once full of families in brightly painted homes - before the uranium industry went bust in the Fremont County town in the 1980s.
But Cowboy State Daily videographers Reilly Strand and Hannah Brock discovered that while many of the doors and windows are boarded up, there are a handful of tenants living in the townhouses - including Bill Rowley, who has taken on the role of caretaker.
“This is where I'll die. Some people might think that's a sad thing, but it's not. I have no regrets. I mean, I I have lived and would I change a few things? Probably one of them wouldn't be coming to Jeffrey city. I mean, I've actually really glad that I came here, and I don't have any intentions on leaving anytime soon. So most of these are pretty much in the same condition on the inside. Some of them are a lot dirtier than others. We had a problem. One of these basement windows was open and out, trying to ignore the crap. If I have done nothing in here, as you can see, we had critters in here. I'm the caretaker here at Jeffrey city townhouse complex. I've been living in Jeffrey city since 2017 I moved here in august 2017
these townhouses were originally built in the mid 1970s to house Western nuclear is growing workforce and their families. Bill thinks some of them have sat empty for about three decades. Today, many who drive through Jeffrey city. Think they're all abandoned."
You can watch the entire documentary, called “Jeffrey City’s Not Dead,” on our website.
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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 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
