One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"We really have to get the parking lot fixed at Cowboy State Daily....."}]

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<title>One More For The Road: Monday, June 2, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

We really have to get the parking lot fixed at Cowboy State Daily.....

One More For The Road: Monday, June 2, 2025

 We really have to get the parking lot fixed at Cowboy State Daily.....

Ever the entrepreneurs, Andrew Rossi and Bill Sniffin launch an auto detail company.....

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<title>One More For The Road: Tuesday, August 4, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

One More For The Road: Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Around Wyoming

[{"type":"text","text":"The room Roman Parra left behind still looks much the way he left it."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"His Bible remains on the coffee table at his home in Worland. "}]

His truck still needs a suspension repair he never got to finish with his father.

And in the days since the 20-year-old former Worland athlete died from injuries suffered in a northern Colorado rollover crash, family members say those ordinary reminders have become priceless.

, Colorado State Patrol said Parra was critically injured July 25 when the Chevrolet Tahoe he was driving rolled on Weld County Road 80 near Eaton, ejecting all five occupants. Three Colorado passengers died at the scene. A fourth passenger survived with minor injuries. Parra remained hospitalized for eight days before dying Sunday. 

Cowboy State Daily requested the official crash summary from the Colorado State Patrol but had not received the report before publication. 

 that the State Patrol said that speed and impairment contributed to the crash, though a cause hasn’t yet been determined.

Now, those who knew Roman best say they hope he is remembered not for the crash but for the life he lived.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Mother's Worst Call"}]

Roman's mother, Alyssa McDonald, said Saturday had been an ordinary summer day.

She had taken Roman's younger sister to the fair parade before returning home to surprise her oldest son by cleaning his bedroom.

[{"type":"text","text":"Roman had driven to Colorado the night before for a concert with friends."}]

As she folded clothes and straightened his room, she expected him to walk back through the front door the next day.

[{"type":"text","text":"Instead, at about 5:15 p.m., her phone buzzed."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The Life360 app she used to keep track of Roman showed a collision."}]

"I texted, called, panicked when I saw there was no movement," said McDonald. 

She hoped his phone had simply fallen to the floor or been tossed across the vehicle.

[{"type":"text","text":"When the location never changed, she called police and waited."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Nearly two hours later, the hospital called."}]

"They told me there had been a bad accident and my son was involved," she said. "Three had passed away at the scene, but Roman had survived."

[{"type":"text","text":"Doctors rushed him into emergency brain surgery."}]

"The chance of him making it off the table was very unlikely," she said.

[{"type":"text","text":"For over a week, his family remained by his bedside before Parra died."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Faith Before Football"}]

Long before he became one of Wyoming's top linebackers, Parra was the little boy who wanted one thing more than anything else.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He just never wanted to let me down,\" McDonald said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"His faith grew naturally alongside him, she added. "}]

As a second-grader, teachers noticed he signed the bottom of school assignments with the words "God is Good." 

Near graduation, one of his teachers asked what he wanted to do with his life.

"My first priority is my relationship with Christ," he replied, according to his mother.

Looking back, McDonald said she believes that answer explained the way he lived.

"I think that was probably his purpose in life — to spread that kindness, that joy and Christ's love," she said.

[{"type":"text","text":"His aunt, Daniela Parra, saw the same thing."}]

If someone challenged Roman's beliefs, she said, he didn't argue emotionally.

"He would fight for God all the time," she said. "If somebody said something, he could back it up with Scripture."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Competitor On Every Field"}]

In his final high school football game in the fall of 2024, McDonald said Parra tore his meniscus.

[{"type":"text","text":"Coaches wanted to pull him from the game."}]

He finished the game and scored the final touchdown of his high school career.

In the spring of 2025, he again played through the same injury during the state soccer tournament because he didn't want to leave his teammates behind.

When football ended, Roman spent the summer working construction alongside his father while preparing to attend Laramie County Community College this fall to study automotive technology.

Asked what his son had taught him over the past 20 years, Armando Parra paused.

"He taught me peace and patience," he said. "As much as you raise a kid, a kid raises you."

[{"type":"text","text":"He credits Roman with helping him become a better man."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He changed my life,\" Armando said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'He Was That Loved'"}]

The waiting room rarely emptied during Parra's eight days in the hospital.

[{"type":"text","text":"Friends drove from Cheyenne after work."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Football families stopped in."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Strangers from Eaton, Colorado, brought food, water and supplies."}]

One mother loaned the family a wagon so they could haul meals through the hospital.

[{"type":"text","text":"For Daniela, none of it came as a surprise."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I expected it,\" she said. \"He was that loved.\""}]

She remembers her nephew as the young man who encouraged everyone around him.

[{"type":"text","text":"His father said Roman never limited his friendships to teammates."}]

"He was friends with everybody," Armando said. "He fit in everywhere. He talked to everybody."

 to help cover Roman's medical and funeral expenses.

Armando also asked for prayers for the lone survivor of the crash, saying he believes the young man now faces an unimaginable burden.

"I feel worse for him than I feel for anybody," he said. "That poor boy that has to live through this is going to need more guidance than anybody I know."

Roman Wesley Parra and new Colorado crash location 8 3 26

<title>Worland Man Dies Sunday, Eight Days After Being Ejected From Car In Colorado | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Worland athlete Roman Parra died Sunday, eight days after being ejected from his vehicle in Colorado. His family said Roman's greatest gift wasn't in sports, but making everyone feel loved. "His purpose in life was to spread kindness," his mom said.

Worland Man Dies Sunday, Eight Days After Being Ejected From Car In Colorado

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

 an 87-pound elderly man with cerebral palsy in her care who’s mostly deaf, mostly blind and wears adult diapers that allegedly hadn’t been changed in 10-14 days has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors.

The deal would knock down a felony charge of intentional neglect of a vulnerable adult to a misdemeanor neglect charge.

Under the deal, Colleen Blakesley, 67, will plead guilty or no contest to the lesser charge and, if the judge follows the sentencing recommendation outlined in the agreement, avoid jail time and have a year of unsupervised probation.

A no-contest plea isn’t an admission of guilt, but acknowledges there’s enough evidence to secure a conviction.

Had she been convicted of the felony, Blakesley faced up to 10 years in prison.

She had a hearing on the plea Friday, but paperwork on whether the deal was accepted, and if so, if sentencing had been set, hadn’t been filed by Monday, according to the Hot Springs County District Court.

A call to the county attorney to clarify wasn’t immediately returned. This story will be updated when the results of Friday's hearing are available.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Started With A DFS Report"}]

The man’s condition came to the attention of the Thermopolis Police Department on Feb. 24 when a doctor doing a home visit for the man reported his condition to the Department of Family Services, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by Sgt. Nicole Andersen filed in the case.

Andersen and a DFS agent “received a complaint regarding an elderly male being neglected,” the affidavit says. “The complaint included that the male, who wears diapers, had not been changed for 10-14 days. This complaint came from a trained professional.”

They arrived to be hit with “a pungent, strong, foul smell in the home, although the living room area seemed relatively clean,” the affidavit says. “At this time, the victim … was in clean clothes.”

The elderly man isn’t vocal, and a family member told Andersen that he’s deaf, nearly blind and that they communicate with him by tracing letters in his hand, she wrote.

“I observed Robert was very skinny and not mobile,” she added, later documenting that at the hospital, the man “weighed approximately 87 pounds at the time of admission.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Man Was Combative"}]

Blakesley is the legal caregiver for the man, Andersen wrote, adding that Blakesley said he was last changed three days before.

“Upon speaking with Colleen, she advised she had last changed his diaper on Sunday afternoon, but also stated that he had been in the clothing he was observed in by the complainant for approximately two weeks due to him being combative and her not being able to change him,” according to the affidavit.

Blakesley also told police she was aware that the man had multiple sores on his body and had not seen a doctor since August 2024.

While Andersen observed the man in clean clothes, that wasn’t the case when the visiting doctor was at the home earlier that day, the affidavit says. The doctor also provided a photo of the man’s condition.

“In this photo, I observed (the man’s) pants to be extremely soiled and having the appearance of being wet, along with stains on his shirt — to include what appears to be staining near the bottom of the shirt of urine, feces, or both,” the affidavit says.

As the man was transported to a local hospital by ambulance, “I was advised that his condition was highly concerning to both EMS staff and the doctor,” Sergeant Andersen wrote. “I took photos of his wounds while in the hospital, while wearing protective gear as there was a concern of scabies.”

Thermopolis sign and police vehicle 8 3 26

<title>Deal Calls For No Jail For Thermopolis Caregiver Accused Of Neglecting Elderly Man | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Thermopolis woman accused of neglecting an 87-pound elderly man who’s mostly deaf and blind, and wears diapers that allegedly hadn’t been changed in 10-14 days has reached a plea agreement. The deal calls for no jail time and a year of probation.

Deal Calls For No Jail For Thermopolis Caregiver Accused Of Neglecting Elderly Man

Outdoors

Public Lands

UPDATE 2 p.m.: This story has been updated to reflect the Left Creek Fire has been upgraded to 100% contained.

After getting bookended by a pair of wildfires that prompted the closure of Devils Tower over the weekend, the national monument reopened again to the public Monday — albeit on a limited basis.

While Devils Tower is open, the hiking trails around the tower and throughout the monument remain closed as crews continue to battle a pair of nearby fires, one just southwest of the monument’s boundary and another southeast.

“We were able to open it up this morning, but as of today, the hiking trails in the backcountry are closed,” said Dustin Sene, Powder River Group superintendent for the National Park Service.

“We’re hoping to get those back up as soon as possible,” he added. “I’m glad we were able to get it open today.”

While the trails remain off limits because of the fires burning nearby, Sene said that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do at Devils Tower other than stand there and look at it.

“You can still come in, drive the roads, and the visitors center and bookstore are open,” he said.

Asked if climbing the tower is still off-limits, he answered, “Oh yes, that’s affirm.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Another Fire"}]

Wyoming State Forestry, NPS and firefighting officials had contemplated discussing reopening Devils Tower on Sunday afternoon after the 282-acre 

 on the southwest border of the monument was started Friday.

That didn’t happen, however, with the discovery Sunday afternoon of the now-300-acre 

 just southeast of Devils Tower and just east of Wyoming Highway 24.

With progress on the Left Creek Fire, fire managers were able to divert resources to the Newton Fire quickly, which has kept it relatively in check for the past 12 hour or so, Sene said.

“Boy, they did get there quick, and so did the air resources,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Monday. “It’s nice we had these resources here at the park already.

“If there was a time to have a second fire, this was it. I’m just really impressed with the local fire folks here.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Really Scary’"}]

The National Interagency Fire Center reports that the Left Creek Fire hasn’t grown since Saturday, and by Monday afternoon is 100% contained. That doesn't mean the fire's not still burning, but that crews are confident thier fire lines will hold.

The Newton Fire isn’t reporting any containment; however, it also hasn’t shown much growth overnight and a previous order putting area residents at “set” status to evacuate has been lifted.

Highway 24 also had been closed for a time Sunday south of Devils Tower, but has since reopened.

While both fires seem to be going well for the wildland firefighting crews working them, it was “really scary” when the Left Creek Fire was discovered, said state Sen. Ogden Driskill.

The fire, believed to have been started by lightning, is on the fence line of his property — and it’s land the ranch depends on.

“It was really scary, because that’s some of the grass we depend on in the fall and winter,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Sunday morning while meeting with state and National Park Service officials.

“In my opinion, it without a doubt could’ve been a 5,000-acre-plus fire — or more,” Driskill said, adding that quick and precise work from the more than 100 firefighters on the scene have kept the wildfire in check.

“We literally watched helicopters put out crown fires all day long,” he said. “They kept it in the original line all day long (Saturday), and the ground crews kept it from spreading on the ground.”

That work has kept the fire at an estimated 282 acres, said Dick Terry, district forester for Wyoming State Forestry.

While he wouldn’t say the fire is contained, he said he’s confident it’s basically under control.

“We’ve got fire line around most of it, but it’s indirect,” he said. “It’s still small and not contained just because we’ve got the east side with a shaky line until we get a little bit of a handle on that.”

The fire has so far also stayed outside the boundary of the national monument, Terry said.

“I would assume it’s lightning,” he added about the suspected cause of the fire. “But, I haven’t seen the start of it yet. But it’s 99% sure it’s lightning.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Newton Fire, And Another One"}]

The Newton Fire was discovered at about 1:15 p.m. Sunday, and had grown to an estimated 200 acres in a couple of hours, the National Interagency Fire Center and Crook County Emergency Management report.

Asked later Sunday for an update on the wildfire situation around Devils Tower — which has closed the monument for much of Saturday and all of Sunday — county Emergency Management Coordinator Ed Robinson was blunt.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It sucks,” he said."}]

“We get one fire almost contained, and then we’re fighting another one now, too,” he told Cowboy State Daily from the scene of the Newton Fire on Sunday.

The Left Creek and Newton fires aren’t the only serious wildfire being fought in northern Wyoming.

Two counties to the east, a Wyoming Type 3 incident management team was called in to help fight a fire in the Clearmont area of Sheridan County, which has ballooned to more than 7,200 acres since it was started by lightning on Friday, according to the Type 3 team.

“A lightning storm moved across the region starting multiple fires north of Clearmont, Wyoming, in Sheridan County,” according to a report from the Type 3 team and its commander, Jon Warder.

“Weather and fuel conditions led to the fire quickly growing in size,” the report says. “While structures were threatened, none have been lost so far.”

The NIFC reports the Lumin Fire is about 50% contained, and that terrain and fuels are making the wildfire difficult to fight.

While he was at the Devils Tower site Sunday, Terry said he also had been checking in on the Lumin Fire.

Crews there have made considerable progress on getting more control and protecting buildings in the area, he said.

“It kind of sounded like they got some burnouts completed and, hopefully, they’ll be winding down on that,” he said.

Devils Tower Fire Jennifer Pierson via Crook County Fire 8 3 26

<title>‘Really Scary’: Devils Tower Reopens As Two Wildfires Burn Nearby | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After getting bookended by a pair of wildfires that prompted the closure of Devils Tower over the weekend, it reopened again Monday as the fires continue to burn. “It was really scary,” said Ogden Driskill, whose ranch is impacted.

‘Really Scary’: Devils Tower Reopens As Two Wildfires Burn Nearby

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

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

BUFFALO — Tourists enjoying a warm summer evening in Buffalo get to see something uniquely Western that’s not seen much anymore — a covered wagon rolling down Main Street at a leisurely pace, a gentle clip-clop of hooves echoing off historic storefronts.

Kids wave and phones inevitably come out — cue the social media selfies — the minute Moonhitch Wagon’s history tour appears. 

Owner Ashlee Kintzler doesn’t mind a bit. She’ll stop for a beat if she can, and smile and wave for the photo.

“When you’re on the Moonhitch Wagon, you’re always in your own one-float parade,” she jokes with the guests. “Everybody wants to stop and take photos and videos and they want to come up and ask who you are and what you’re doing and how they can take a ride.”

The one-wagon parade has quickly established itself as a popular way to not only see Buffalo but also to catch other local attractions, such as sunsets over the Bighorn Mountains and history of the Bozeman Trail. 

And, soon, scenic and historic guided tours of Fort Phil Kearny.

“It’s so beautiful out there,” Kintzler said. “There’s rolling hills and whitetail deer and you’ve got the mountains as your background. It’s stunning, so we’ll do those in the golden hour at 6 o’clock in the evening and at 7:30 for a sunset view.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Still Loves Chariot Racing"}]

Although the Moonhitch Wagon takes its time, the idea for the new business was born from a life spent going very fast.

“I grew up in a chariot-racing family,” Kintzler told Cowboy State Daily. 

Her dad continued racing chariots into his 40s, and as a kid, Kintzler always knew just what she wanted to do in life — race chariots just like Dad.

“I ran chariots for a few years with my dad until I went off to college,” she said. “Then we both decided to get out of the chariot-racing world and get into more of a leisurely pace with what you’d call a heavy horse, a draft horse.”

It was a decision born from health complications for her dad and lifestyle considerations for Kintzler, who needed to prioritize her time for college classes.

“Chariot racing … we had always teased that it was a dying sport when we got into it,” she added. “There was never any money involved in racing chariots. It was really just for bragging rights and for the glory of hanging out with a great group of people.”

These days, the sport is practically nonexistent, though she still loves the adrenaline of it, Kintzler added.

“You start in a set of starting gates, like you would a flat track horse race, and when those gates pop, it’s a very quick break,” she said. “You’re zero to 45 instantaneously, and you cruise that quarter-mile racetrack as fast as you can. 

"Looking back, it kind of makes me laugh that I used to do that, and now we go 3 mph to get anywhere with our wagon and our teams.”

Kintzler moved to Buffalo in 2022, and one of the first things she noticed was the charm of her new home’s many historic buildings downtown. 

There was a whole nexus of Wild West history around the Occidental Hotel, she realized, with storefronts that have changed little since the 1800s lining the main drag. It was all, in her opinion, just begging for a wagon to appear.

“This town would really benefit from an attraction that is true to its heritage,” she thought. 

And it would also give her the chance to put all those skills she’d learned while chariot racing to good use.

Moonhitch was thus “born out of family legacy and Wyoming heritage” to feed both her love for horses and chariot racing and to celebrate her new home’s history.

Moonhitch supplies the horses and wagons, but it all works out so well because of Buffalo itself.

It provides the perfect backdrop to bring historical tales to life. It’s also a community that is proud to say it’s the real-life template for just about any Wild West movie or novel. In fact, it was one of the settings for Owen Wister’s famous novel, “The Virginian.”

The idea that anything that’s ever happened in a Western happened in Buffalo first was actually the theme of a BBC documentary, local historian Richard Kendall tells his wagon tour riders.

“We have the wagon trains surrounded by Indians,” he said. “We’ve got Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. 

"We have the Johnson County Cattle War. We’ve got Fort Phil Kearny up here, where the cavalry was surrounded and wiped out by the Sioux. So it’s all happened here.”

From his wagon seat, Kendall points out the 1884 Johnson County courthouse, built on the old site of the Lone Star Dance Hall, then glances down a Main Street that was once lined with 17 saloons serving a town of just 637 souls.

“I did the math,” he tells his riders with a chuckle. “That’s one saloon for about every 35 men, women and children in town.”

He points next to the Occidental Hotel, which is “the cradle of Buffalo itself.”

“There were three things that worked together to determine that Buffalo was going to be right here,” he said. “The first thing is that Main Street generally follows the Bozeman Trail from down around Douglas up to the gold fields in Montana.”

The second factor was the creek flowing right through the town, which meant there was ample water for civilization. 

The third and final deciding factor was its distance from Fort Phil Kearny.

“There was a rule that said you couldn’t serve liquor within 3 miles of the fort,” Kendall said. “Guess how far it is from right there to the fort? Exactly 3 miles.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hotel Of The Century"}]

The Occidental was begun by a man named Charlie Buell who was taking care of the fort’s sutlers. 

“He would give them a place to take care of their horses, give them a meal and a place to sleep,” Kendall said. “He started in a tent right there where the Busy Bee is, and as he got more business, he expanded to a wooden hotel here.”

The Occidental served as the nerve center of the growing community.

“It was the place where business was taken care of,” Kendall said. “If you needed somebody to go to work for you, you came down here. They were in the saloon.”

Business decisions were also often made there, and famous people came to stay there.

“Teddy Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover stayed at the Occidental,” Kendall said. “Their names are in the register.”

Owen Wister, Ernest Hemingway, Buffalo Bill Cody, Johnson County Sheriff William “Red” Angus, frontier sheriff and U.S. Marshal Frank Canton, and renowned Union general, General Philip Sheridan are among other famous people who stayed there.

Tourists enjoying a warm summer evening in Buffalo get to see something uniquely Western that’s not seen much anymore — a covered wagon rolling down Main Street at a leisurely pace, a gentle clip-clop of hooves echoing off historic storefronts.

One More For The Road: Monday, June 2, 2025

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