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<title>Steve Inman: Sunday, June 15, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Steve Inman: Sunday, June 15, 2025

 Friendly reminder to quit playing the streets, as narrated by MMA announcer Steve Inman....

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

Greg Johnson

Outdoors

Public Lands

Just as wildland firefighters seemed to be getting a good handle on a

burning just outside the southwest boundary of a closed Devils Tower National Monument, another fire has erupted to the southeast.

The Newton Fire burning just east of Wyoming Highway 24 southeast of Devils Tower was discovered at about 1:15 p.m. Saturday, 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 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.

Although the 282-acre Left Creek Fire burning to the west is “not as bad as it was,” Robinson said that having another wildfire so close to the monument’s boundary “certainly doesn’t help any.”

While state forestry and National Park Service officials told Cowboy State Daily earlier on Sunday that they would evaluate the potential of reopening Devils Tower later in the afternoon, the new fire takes that option off the table, Robinson said.

Highway 24 has been closed from the “Y,” or where it branches off Highway 14 north toward Devils Tower, and all residents in the vicinity have been placed on “set” status to be prepared to evacuate, according to Crook County Emergency Management.

The Newton Fire also will slow some of the progress at the Left Creek Fire as some personnel and resources are diverted to try to keep the new wildfire from getting out of control, Robinson said.

For state Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, whose family homestead contains part of the Left Creek Fire, another blaze sparking up so close to the tower is another gut-punch for local firefighters and residents.

“That’s out by the Tower Cemetery,” he said. “It’s a pretty tough deal, and that one’s probably going to burn up to the rimrock at the highway (24), and they’ll make a stand there at the highway, it sounds like.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"KOA Still Open"}]

A little farther north and next to the monument, Devils Tower/Black Hills KOA campground remains open, and is hosting the basecamp for firefighters working both fires.

“Yup, we’re open and full business ahead,” said worker at the KOA who identified himself as “just Chris.”

“We’re catching the breaks, because we are just north of the fires,” he said. “So, we’re open. Everything is good on our end here. That’s what I keep answering phone calls about all day.”

He said the KOA staff has also helped feed the wildland firefighting crews as they go in and out of the field to work the fires.

“Last night, we stayed up late and were the drop-off point for food, and (owner) Andrea Driskill opened up the kitchen,” Chris said. “We made sandwiches and the go-lunches, and had breakfast waiting for them.”

Not only is the KOA campground open, it’s continuing a long-running tradition of nightly screenings of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“Yup, ‘Close Encounters’ every night, 8 o’clock,” Chris said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"How We Got Here"}]

The Left Creek Fire was discovered at about 10:40 a.m. Saturday, and grew quickly in hot and dry conditions in northeast Wyoming, with temperatures hitting 99 degrees Saturday, the National Weather Service reports.

Believed to have been caused by lightning, Ogden Driskill said the wildfire was on the fence line of his land and another ranch owner — and he was struck with fear when he first saw the smoke.

“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 Saturday has kept the fire at an estimated 282 acres, said Dick Terry, said 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.”

No structures are in the area and he put his confidence at “about 80%” that the monument could reopen sometime Sunday.

That was before the Newton Fire was discovered later.

National Park Service Powder River Group Superintendent Dustin Sene agrees, while also praising the work of local agencies and landowners for helping keep the fire small and relatively in check.

“They did a great job getting ahead and getting the park evacuated,’ he said. “It’s an incredible interagency effort, as well as the local community here.

“Everybody worked well together and we’re starting conversations about when the park will get opened again.”

He also thanked the local KOA campground, which is just outside the monument’s boundary and remains open, for feeding firefighters over the weekend.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Kink In The Plans"}]

The fire and Devils Tower closure have also put a kink into the vacation plans of weekend visitors and bikers starting to make their way to the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

“Some travel moments write themselves, and some are actively on fire,” posted John and Jenny of the “No Rules Just Roam” travel platform. “The whole scene looking like something out of a movie.”

“We are staying near Devils Tower National Monument and found out at the entrance that a Level 3 wildfire had closed he entire monument and evacuated everyone, including the staff, due to imminent danger,” the couple reported. “This is genuinely serious and we hope everyone got out safely.”

While reporting updates on the fire, they also posted a video of a camper walking through the campground with Devils Tower and smoke from the fire rising eerily in the background.

“Scrolling — Not the news. Not the fire updates,” John and Jenny posted, adding the woman was watching “reels” like nothing was happening.

“I looked at the fire. I looked at her. I looked at the fire again,” the report continues. “She did not look up.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"150 Firefighters"}]

Meanwhile, wildfire resources were quickly marshalled to battle the fire, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reports.

While the fire grew to nearly 300 acres in about 12 hours, “progress has been made,” Crook County Emergency Management reported Saturday. So far, “150 firefighters are currently on this fire, along with four large air tankers, two SEATs (single-engine air tankers), and four helicopters.”

That number was adjusted to more than 100 on Sunday.

Local residents and agencies also have responded to assist.

“Everyone should stay away from the national park and don’t drive in, because they are watching and will ticket anyone violating the closure,” the agency said.

That closure will keep visitors like Bryan Abernathy away, who is part of a crew of bikers making a pilgrimage to the Sturgis rally.

“Whole crew rolled to Devils Tower today,” he posted Saturday to his Sturgis SD 2026 diary on Facebook. “The actual park was closed due to a forest fire. Got to see airplanes and helicopters dropping water.”

This isn’t the first time America’s first national monument has been closed because of a wildfire.

In May 2013, it was closed when what was supposed to be a 300-acre prescribed burn got out of control in high winds and ignited a spot fire in about the same area as the Left Creek Fire, according to the National Park Service.

That fire also burned some power lines that left a couple dozen homesteads in the area without electricity.

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

The Left Creek Fire isn’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 5% contained, and that terrain and fuels are making the wildfire difficult to fight. As of Sunday evening, that containment figure hadn’t been updated.

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 761355127 1034776352639182 2376020774372480484 n 8 2 26

<title>Second Wildfire Breaks Out Near Devils Tower, Monument Still Closed | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Just as firefighters seemed to be getting a handle on a nearly 300-acre fire burning just outside the southwest boundary of a closed Devils Tower, another fire erupted to the southeast Sunday. “It sucks,” was the blunt assessment from a county official.

Second Wildfire Breaks Out Near Devils Tower, Monument Still Closed

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

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Trent Tope’s historic general store in tiny Aladdin is particularly counting on Sturgis Rally goers this year. That’s because tourists aren’t spending money like they once did.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s tourists here,” the owner of Aladdin’s only store told Cowboy State Daily. “But they’re just not spending money like normal because they’re putting it all in their gas tanks.”

Fortunately for Tope, the cavalry is coming. 

It’s not a cavalry that rides a horse — though it has plenty of horsepower. It’s a cavalry that rides thousands of motorcycles through Wyoming every year, seeking adventures from Cody in the west to Aladdin in the northeast and from Cheyenne in the southeast. 

All along these adventures, Rally goers will gas up, buy burgers and beer, and fill hotels, motels and campgrounds. It’s a money trail that helps keep many businesses in small and large communities alive. 

“Honestly, if it weren’t for the Rally, (the Aladdin General Store) probably wouldn’t even be economically viable,” Tope said. “So we’re really looking forward to it.”

Aladdin looks to capture up to 60% of its annual revenue during August, all thanks to the many Rally goers who stop in for drinks and a plate of barbecue. 

There will be live music every day of the Rally as well as barbecue plates and an outdoor swimming pool bar. 

Jordan Yates, who co-owns the Aladdin store with Tope, dreams up interesting cocktails for the store’s tiny bar. She has 10 to 12 friends who will come help serve the extra-large crowds, as well as offer their own creative shots. 

“We’re already starting to pick up quite a bit,” Yates said. “I’m hoping we have the calendars by Rally to share, but we’re waiting on the printer.”

Aladdin’s calendar girls, who posed for the annual fundraiser that supports nonprofit causes such as the volunteer fire department and FFA, will be offering a bike wash, too. 

Even if the calendars are not ready, Yates said most of the calendar girls will still have posters to sign, and they will be helping with the bike wash.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Devils Tower Loop"}]

Aladdin is just one of the tiny towns on the Devils Tower Loop, a route many Sturgis Rally goers will ride during their visit. 

The loop runs through Beulah, Sundance, Carlile Junction, Devils Tower, Hulett, Alva, and Aladdin on the Wyoming side. It takes in Whitewood, Spearfish, Belle Fourche, St. Onge and Sturgis in South Dakota. 

Many of the towns along the loop — or even near the loop, like Moorcroft — stage their own events during the Sturgis Rally to draw riders.

Among the best-known of these side events is Hulett’s Ham and Jam, held on Wyoming Wednesday of Sturgis Week, which is Aug. 12 this year. Roughly 

 on one day for a free pork sandwich with classic picnic dishes like pork and beans and potato chips. 

The music and food are free — while supplies last — paid for by the town and sponsors as a thank you to the riding community. The main serving station is right next to Captain Ron’s Rodeo Bar on Main Street, where the idea was born almost 40 years ago. 

Sundance has also made its mark with the 

, where riders gather to shred their tires, producing thick clouds of black smoke, in a 3 p.m. street party that dovetails perfectly with the noon Ham 'N Jam. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"When The Region Goes Black"}]

Ham and Jam time is go-time for the region, Hulett’s Tom Coronato told Cowboy State Daily. He co-owns the Ponderosa Cafe and Bar with his brothers, Dean and Bob Coronato. The latter also owns 

“I think the entire Black Hills, if you actually talk to the liquor salesmen, your food salesmen, and all the purveyors, this is when the entire region goes into the black,” he said. “Most businesses ride the red for 10 months out of the year, but then like July and August put them into the black, until they go back into the red sometime around Christmas.”

It’s a nerve-wracking cycle for the business owners, Coronato said. And it’s one that requires some thought into what the visitors will actually buy. Expensive artifacts and curiosities, for example, not so much. But stickers and postcards with artwork on them are popular as mementoes.

Beyond the short-term lift to businesses though, there’s a longer-term impact that goes beyond how individual businesses do during the rally. The ripple effects start with sales and lodging tax revenues that support county services and spread out to the general impression the area makes, which ultimately attracts new residents.

“I’ve lost count of how many people have moved into the surrounding area,” Coronato said. "Crook County, Gillette, Spearfish — all the surrounding counties — because they’re Rally people who came through here and said, ‘You know what, when I want to move out of my home in Chicago or Denver I want a second home out here because the summers are just outstanding.'”

That’s helping build a larger community, with demographics that can better help support new businesses.

“They may be second homeowners, but they still pay taxes here,” Coronato said. “They still pay school tax. They’re still paying revenue into the communities. They’re putting insurance companies in business and the title companies — the ripple effects are way larger than ‘Hey, I’m able to sell more beer on Wednesday than anyone else.’”

It’s not just small communities that benefit, though. Larger communities such as Cheyenne and Cody also see substantial economic benefit from Rally goers.

Cody Yellowstone Director of Marketing Katrina Southern told Cowboy State Daily that Rally goers show up before and after the Sturgis Rally to check out the Beartooth Loop, which is on Harley-Davidson’s list of top-rated scenic rides. That loop includes Chief Joseph Highway and can easily include side trips into Yellowstone. 

“My husband rides as well, and I mean the twists and turns down Chief Joseph as well as the Beartooth are phenomenal for bike riding,” she said. “And people will also take the Chief Joseph route and loop around, go in through the northeast gate of Yellowstone National Park, and then come back around through the east gate.”

There’s also a scenic loop that goes around to Sheridan and the Bighorn Mountains, as well as loops that run down to Thermopolis and the Hot Springs.

That’s brought some Sturgis Rally goers back to Cody multiple years in a row for new adventures. The late-August riders help bridge the gap between the family-vacation crush of midsummer and Cody’s strong September shoulder season.

“We’ve been essentially a base camp for the Sturgis Rally for quite a few years now,” Southern said. “And everyone here loves having them come in. They’re always so friendly and they’re just looking for a new adventure.”

In Cheyenne, Sturgis brings between $3 to $5 million annually, Visit Cheyenne’s Jim Walter told Cowboy State Daily. While that represents a 1-2% slice of the capital city’s $485 million tourism economy, it’s still a hefty sum in real dollars.

Cheyenne is the “last big stop” for many of the Rally goers, Walter said. It’s where many of the riders stage for the last night in a real bed and the last big restaurant meal before arriving in Sturgis.  

“I know over the years the Plains Hotel has always had motorcycle parking specifically out front for people going to Sturgis,” Walter said. “I think there’s a few bars that do some things as well, like they’ll put out signs that say, ‘Welcome bikers.’”

Walter sees the Rally goers as an essential boost after Cheyenne Frontier Days, when many residents are feeling tapped out and less likely to eat out. 

“Having that Sturgis traffic come through sells that extra cheeseburger, that extra glass of beer, and fills that extra seat in the restaurant when everybody here in the community is all worn out and staying home for a couple of days,” Walter said. “These folks are coming through and doing that for us.”

On a map, the Sturgis Rally looks like a dot in South Dakota, but in Wyoming it’s a long and winding money trail that lifts towns from Cody to Hulett and Aladdin and from Cheyenne to Newcastle and beyond. 

For some places, the trail is just a handy, 1-2% bump, smoothing over a slow period when children head back to school and families aren’t likely to be vacationing. 

For other places, it’s become the difference between life and death for tiny town businesses. 

For them, it’s half a year’s income, crammed into a few loud and boisterous days. 

“There’s basically only four ways to get to Sturgis,” Coronato said. “Every community benefits along those highways for miles. It’s hundreds of miles of benefit.”

Ham and Jam 8 2 26

<title>Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Is Make-Or-Break For Businesses In Small Wyoming Towns | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A stream of bikers on their way to and from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally create the biggest business week of the year for small northeast Wyoming towns. Bikers stay at motels, pack bars, eat and gas up — helping some businesses thrive, and others survive.

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Is Make-Or-Break For Businesses In Small Wyoming Towns

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Wyoming Life

Randy Melton describes himself as a muleskinner, a teamster who drives mules. He explained that the term “muleskinner” came about because in the old days when someone was outsmarted they got skinned.

“I spend my whole day outsmarting mules so that’s why I’m a muleskinner,” Melton said. “They don't say cursing like a muleskinner for no reason because most of what we yell at our mules is not printable.”

Randy and his wife Alesha have been hauling their mules to parades and events in Wyoming, including reenacting a shootout in South Pass City this past month for Gold Rush Days.

Jesus even rode one of their mules in a scene in the movie “The Chosen.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Big Screen"}]

Melton said their mules’ film career started with a commercial for Coors, and it was almost by accident. The Meltons were hired to provide horses, but the actors couldn't ride at all.

“The director pointed at me and told me to go to wardrobe,” Randy Melton said. “So, I went to wardrobe and filled out a contract that I didn't even know what it was. When I got back, I was in the commercial.”

After that, the animal coordinator who hired the Meltons just kept hiring them for more movies. That was about 15 years ago, and you can still catch glimpses of Melton and his teams in various films.

“When you're watching a movie and you see a wagon go by in the background or something like that, that's what I do,” he said. “We do horse stunts, driving wagons on fire, wagon chases, and stunt doubling for the actors.”

Melton's latest movie was “Horizon” with Kevin Costner. He also worked on the "Killer of the Flower Moon," a couple horror movies and “The Last of Us,” an American post-apocalyptic drama television series. Parts of that series were filmed in Yellowstone National Park and the Tetons. 

“I just provided horses and did background riding and safety riding,” Melton said. “I really am not on camera that much.”

Alesha is a fifth-generation muleskinner and it was her grandfather who started the outfitting business nearly 50 years ago that the couple operate today.

“When my great grandpa first came to this country from Illinois as a young man in the late 1800s, he ended up in Brownsville,” Alesha said. “He was in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado and was there when Tom Horn was around.”

All the rustling and outlawry chased her ancestors into Utah, about 40 miles from the Wyoming border. The Meltons now live in Myton, Utah.

Alesha still has two of the mules her grandfather raised for packing: Poncho, 31,  and Kay, 36. They are her favorites. While Kay is retired, Poncho is still working.

“They were born when I was still in high school and we raised them,” Alesha said. “I grew up in the outfitting world and have been raising mules all my life.”

As with their movie roles, outfitting was not a family intention. Her grandpa was cowboying for a living and everybody kept asking him where the big mule deer and big elk were. It got so he started charging them for taking them out, and that morphed into an outfitting business.

Melton also grew up with mules, although his experience was a bit different from that of Alesha’s.

“My grandpa and his brothers were in east Tennessee, farming with mules,” Melton said. “We put up loose hay the old-fashioned way with teams of mules until I turned 15.”

The first time Melton remembers ever driving a mule, he said he was probably 3 or 4 years old.

“I was too little to throw hay in the trailer, so I got to drive the team,” Melton said.

Melton’s last job in the Army, before he transitioned into civilian life as an outfitter, even involved mules. He was the muleskinner for the first cavalry division, horse detachment, in Fort Hood, Texas.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Defending the Mule"}]

Melton said mules are becoming more popular because more folks are recognizing their abilities for packing in the backcountry and trail riding.

“When I was a kid, mules were not as popular with a lot of people because they're just not as sexy as a horse,” Melton said. “But now a lot of people are catching on that the mule is more sure-footed, stronger and smarter.

The mule is also selling for more, Melton said. He said that in a recent Cody horse sale, the highest selling horse sold for $50,000. The same day, in another sale in Utah, the highest selling mule sold for $100,000.

To get a mule, Melton said, you breed a jack (male donkey) with a mare. If you breed a jenny with a horse, you get a Henney, which resembles a horse more than the donkey and is less desirable.

“Mules have all the hybrid vigor of both the donkey and the horse,” Melton said. “They have higher intelligence, more endurance, and better bone structure."

He said they also don't get sick as easily, survive on less feed and are not as much maintenance as a horse. Melton also said vet bills aren't as high.

Mules also have a lot more personality than a horse because their brain is split like humans, Melton explained. A horse reacts to his environment and then forgets about it but a mule actually reasons and processes information.

“Mules are they're not really stubborn,” Melton said. “They're just independent thinkers.”

Melton says mules are all about good training. Every time you put your hands on your mule,  you either make it better or worse. That's because of their intelligence and that they are paying attention to everything, and learning.

His mules each have their own quirky personality, and he said it is hard to pick a favorite. For the stagecoach he brought to South Pass and the Trail Blazers Days in Thermopolis, Melton used Kit and Kat for the wheel team. Mandy and Myrtle were his leaders on the stagecoach.

For his freight wagon, he has a set of blond mules named Willie and Tina and pairs them with their Belgian drafts. They are not dainty mules; each weighs about two tons. They were bred from a Mammoth Jack and a Percheron mare.

Because mules can get expensive, the Meltons breed their own herd. They have “babies on the ground” born this year all the way up to their 36-year-olds.  

When not starring in movies or parading around in events, the Meltons are using their mules to pack into the backcountry. 

[{"type":"text","text":"They both agree they were born to be muleskinners."}]

Muleskinners 2 Alesha Nazryth leading string 8 2 26

<title>Life Of A Modern-Day Muleskinner: Starring In Movies & Beer Ads And Guiding Hunts | Cowboy State Daily</title>

As modern-day muleskinners, Randy and Alesha Melton said their mules’ film career started with a commercial for Coors. Their latest movie was “Horizon” with Kevin Costner. They also appeared on "Killer of the Flower Moon," and “The Last of Us."

Life Of A Modern-Day Muleskinner: Starring In Movies & Beer Ads And Guiding Hunts

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

CASPER — Texas is turning to a Wyoming mint to produce its official commemorative gold and silver coins sold through its Texas Bullion Depository.

Texas is the first state to authorize official commemorative coins and the first to have its own depository for precious metals. Officials from the state were at the Scottsdale Mint recently to see the first coins stamped for 2026.

“It’s the Cowboy State alliance,” said Josh Phair, CEO of the Scottsdale Mint. “It’s historic. To see a state who is obviously constricted in what it can and can’t do with coinage (and) legal-tender, this is a pretty big statement piece.”

While states cannot create their own currency, the fact of Texas endorsing and legislators authorizing the commemorative gold and silver coins to call attention to the depository is “making a statement,” he said.

Phair emphasized the role of gold and silver as currencies throughout the ages and called it a type of “Noah’s Ark” investment.

Tom Currah, associate deputy comptroller for fiscal matters in the Texas Comptroller’s Office, said coins are meant to broaden the scope of the Texas depository and potentially have purchasers store their metals at the facility.

“We’re excited about the launch of the new coins,” Currah said. “The Texas Legislature about a decade ago decided that the state should have a depository for people to store their precious metals. This is sort of the next step in that process.”

Currah, who graduated from Natrona County High School in Casper, said Texas contracted with Lone Star Tangible Assets, which runs the state’s depository, to produce and mint the one-ounce and half-ounce gold coins and one-ounce silver coins.

The state’s first commemorative issue with the precious metals occurred at the end of 2025 and resulted in 26,000 silver coins and 565 coins being purchased in a two-week period.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Quality Important"}]

Lone Star Tangible Assets CEO Matt Ferris said he chose the Scottsdale Mint because he has known Phair for several years and understands the mint's quality of product. 

The goal is to have a product that rivals the quality of the U.S. Mint.

“Naturally, we couldn’t do it in Texas,” he said. “Then the question was, ‘Where can we make a quality product in the United States so when someone asks ‘Where was this made?’ You’re not saying we’re making Texas coinage in Canada or the U.K.'”

The 2026 Texas coins were the last designed by well-known numismatic artist Joel Iskowitz. He died a couple of months ago, Ferris said.

The coins' face depict the goddess of Liberty holding the Lone Star over the Texas Capitol’s dome.

Phair said every coin produced at the mint has its own “recipe” that involves the tonnage pressure of the press on the metal and the times it is stamped so coin quality is maintained. 

“The tricky thing is if we produce something right now, and they go order 100,000 of them, making sure it’s consistent all the way through,” he said. “A lot goes into making sure the repeatability is there in production.”

Last week, mint workers tried a few sample runs of the 2026 Texas coins to help establish the recipe.

The Texas commemorative coins can be purchased by anyone and can be found on typical gold and silver coin dealer websites. The depository is also available to the nation’ residents to store their precious metal in, Ferris said.

“It brings another level of checks and balances,” Ferris said. “Consumers using a depository or potentially buying a product don’t have to just take a private company’s word that everything is on the up and up. … You actually have the state of Texas confirming that (the coins are) there.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"American-Made Product"}]

Phair said Texans choosing the Scottsdale Mint makes it an American-made product. He noted that many commemorative coins come out of Canada and some from Australia.

Currah said the whole commemorative coin program is just getting started and plans eventually call for greater production of the coins.

The Texans’ initially ordered 25,000 silver coins for the 2026 issue. Instead of getting the design to the mint midyear in future years, they are trying to advance and speed up the production process.

As the first state to authorize official commemorative coins and have a depository for precious metals, the State of Texas turned to Casper's Scottsdale Mint to produce gold and silver coins. They chose Casper because it rivals the quality of the U.S. Mint.

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