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<title>Daily Cartoon: Thursday, June 19, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon: Thursday, June 19, 2025

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

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

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.

The infamous also put in an appearance — Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Calamity Jane, Tom Horn, and various members of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang.

Marathon high-stakes poker games lasting for days took place at the Occidental, and the original tin ceiling still has the bullet holes to show for it, as does the 25-foot wooden bar, brought to Buffalo via horse-drawn wagons more than 100 years ago.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Flood Of 1912"}]

The brick hotel was built sometime in the 1920s, after a 1912 flood wiped everyone out.

“The two biggest events in Johnson County history is one, the cattle war, and second, the flood of 1912,” he said, pointing at the next block over from the Occidental. “At the corner of that building up there, just above the American flag, you see a line marked about 2 feet above the flag.”

That mark, which is not all that noticeable when one is standing on the street, is where the high-water line for the 1912 flood was. It’s about as high as a man is tall. 

“You can extend it back that way and see how far the damage was,” Kendall said. “And it was a big deal. It was on June 11, 1912. It had been raining in the mountains all day. About 6:30 p.m. it started raining here and by 7:30 p.m. people were putting their babies to bed. They’d finished supper, and all heck broke loose.”

One cloudburst later, and it was like some invisible floodgate on high had suddenly opened up, engulfing the young town.

“It just came through these buildings here and just threw everything out in front of them, out into the street, down the creek,” he said. “This side wasn’t damaged quite as badly as the ones on this side, but when the water finally went down, people just got out here and started cleaning up.”

That included a jeweler who found his inventory of diamonds and other jewels scattered in the mud. 

“People came out here and picked through there and picked up everything they could find and gave it back to him through his store,” Kendall said. “There was one fatality, a young fellow 29 years old named Rodney Childs. He had been trying to get away, but couldn’t make it. He was swept away and died.”

Four of the town’s 17 saloons were completely destroyed, leaving the town to “make do” with just 13.

Kendall touches on many other lesser-known highlights of Buffalo history during the tour, including its red-light district — condemned but tolerated — complete with monthly “fines” that look suspiciously like license fees and its old Wyoming Railroad.

That became infamous for taking six hours to cover 29 miles because it had to stop and open 21 gates along the way. 

The history tour helps Buffalo history shine for tourists, but it’s the scenic Sunset Seeker tours that have so far drawn the most interest.

“That one really is a crowd pleaser,” Kintzler said. “We go out and watch the sun set over the Bighorns, and I stop for ice cream at Creekside Family Fun Center.”

From there, she takes guests to Mountain Plains Heritage Park, giving the kids a chance to burn off the sugar high from the ice cream, while the adults climb a hill to look out over the surrounding mountains. 

Along the way, there are interpretive plaques to spark discussion of the Bozeman Trail, the railroad and Native American history in the area.

“I tell people, put your phones away, kick up your feet and just enjoy the scenery,” Kintzler said. “Enjoy the clip-clop of the horses. Enjoy a slower pace of life and just relax.”

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For all its popularity and charm, Moonhitch has required a carefully engineered survival to make it. Buffalo, like many communities in Wyoming, is seeing increased housing expenses that are making it hard for entrepreneurs like Kintzler to thrive.

“It’s very difficult to make a living in Buffalo as a single-income household,” she said. “But I wanted to put together something that I knew was my own, and that I could make as big or small as I’d like.”

She’s kept costs manageable by leasing her teams during the wagon tour season, rather than owning them outright. 

Her teams include Percheron-Paint cross horses Sparky and Stanley, as well as Morgan-Percheron pair Mitch and Mike and Percheron-mule team Katie and Maggie, known as “Molly mules.”

Percheron blood runs through all of them for a reason.

“Folks ask me all the time, ‘Why Percherons?’” she said. “They are of the draft horse breed and they’re very strong, very docile. You get a lot of strength from them and size, but they’re calm and quiet and easy to work around. They’re not as high-strung as certain other breeds out there, but they’re strong and very gritty.”

The city also decided, at her and other vendors’ urging, to create a new tier of vendor with a lower seasonal fee, making the business a little less costly to operate.

Kintzler has been told often she could easily raise her tour prices from $30 per adult and $15 per child, but she’s decided to keep the fee modest as long as she can.

“I don’t want somebody to miss out on a tour because it was $10 more than the last one,” she said. “I’d rather keep this affordable than make it an exclusive thing at $50 a tour.”

Meeting new people has been her favorite part of the tour, which has included people from all over the world. 

“I love bringing people together,” she said. “People are so glued to their phones and screens these days, so it’s nice to see the face-to-face interaction and folks actually talking to each other.”

She also loves how complete strangers entering the wagon leave it as friends, making dinner plans together, and talking about what adventures to have next.

For a woman who once flew down icy chariot-racing tracks with manes and chunks of snow flying, it’s been oddly satisfying to move at a slower pace, knowing she’s created a moving front porch for the community, one where strangers come together over Buffalo’s past and present. 

Buffalo Wagon Ride 20260718 172306 8 2 26

<title>Wyoming Places: Buffalo’s Covered Wagon Tours A Nod To Town’s Old West Legacy | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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.

Wyoming Places: Buffalo’s Covered Wagon Tours A Nod To Town’s Old West Legacy

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

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, August 3rd.  I’m Mac Watson.

This newscast is brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair. Wrap up your summer at the Wyoming State Fair, August 11th through the 15th in Douglas!

Rodeo, Demolition Derby, live music, entertainment and fair food await. Learn more at W-Y State Fair dot com. See you at the fair! This ad was paid for by Converse County Tourism.

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Searchers are optimistic that the barrel and a trash can they found two weeks ago at the bottom of Fremont Lake contain the bodies of a young mother and her two sons murdered by notorious killer Gerald Uden. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that their next step is to recover the barrels.

“When Bill Doshey and his team were going back through the drone footage a couple days after the search, they saw what appeared to be a trash can at the bottom of the lake. Now this finding is significant because Gerald Uden claims to have placed the bodies of his two stepsons, Richard and Reagan, in that 35-gallon-trash can, so combined to find both the barrel and the trash can in the same vicinity at the bottom of the lake would confirm lends lends great credence to the fact that Udin is in fact telling the truth in his confession when he said he did put their bodies in the lake.”

Uden has already confessed to the killings. In 2013, he told Wyoming investigators he shot Virginia Uden and the boys — Richard, 11, and Regan, 10 — in September 1980, luring them out under the pretense of a hunting trip. Their bodies have never been found.

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. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that one county official gave a blunt assessment. 

“When I was talking to the Crook County Emergency Management Coordinator. I just basically asked ‘how's the situation up there?’ He was pretty blunt. He said, ‘it sucks.’ Now, interestingly enough, some of the places and businesses around the park that aren't directly impacted by the fire are still open. Like the KOA campground, which is right next to Devil's Tower, it's still open now.”

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

Ann Simpson, mother of three and wife of 70 years to prominent Wyoming political figure and late U.S. Sen. Al Simpson, died Friday morning in her daughter's arms. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that her daughter, Sue, remembers her mother as the most beautiful woman, “inside and out, that ever lived.”

“Sue said that Anne could not get enough of her family, her husband, her family, and that everyone in their everyone should have someone in their life who can't get enough of them, and so the way Pete Simpson described it, she was just encouraging even in the political fray.”

Son Colin Simpson said his mother was diagnosed with an illness about two months earlier. Ann Simpson was 94-years old.

For nearly 60 years, Vern Palmer has searched Wyoming ranches and forgotten dumps for old Wyoming license plates. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that at 90, the Big Piney mechanic has a Wyoming license plate from every year, except one. 

“90-year-old Big Piney man Vern Palmer has spent 60 years collecting license plates. Part of his collection is getting every plate from 1913 until now in the state of Wyoming. In every county available, the state started issuing license plates in 1913, and that remains the only elusive plate for this collector so far. They would go out on ranch land into old dump grounds, and it was always a treasure hunt, just looking for old bottles and things when they started collecting these plates and it kind of became an obsession and the two still to this day love to go out hunting for old treasures and they always are hopeful they'll find the one missing plate they need to complete their collection.”

Ask Palmer about license plates and you'll quickly discover they're much more than stamped pieces of metal. They're tiny time capsules.

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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As a young man, Cheyenne native George Wienbarg figured out how to trademark the famous Hollywood sign in L.A. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that did that because he fell in love with a Korean fashion student and promised to make her line of clothing famous by associating it with that sign. 

“He came up, basically ,with a stunt based on the work that he had already been doing with the Hollywood sign to sell pieces of it. He trademarked the Hollywood sign, and you know, I think at the time he couldn't have imagined this would be controversial in any way, but Hollywood's like, ‘wait a minute, that's the name of our city! You can't just put that on a line of clothing.’ We want a piece of that, right? So they took some steps because he had already trademarked the sign.”

Wienbarg found a clever New York attorney to help him trademark the sign for his girlfriend’s clothing line, and then they were in business. Wienbarg soon had articles appearing in places such as Variety, the Los Angeles Times, and many others, delivering on his promise in a big way. 

President Trump has not endorsed anyone in the nine-candidate Republican race for U.S. House and it’s unclear if he will. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the president has a good batting average in Wyoming, but his endorsement hasn't meant a win every time.

“There is absolutely no telling if Trump is going to endorse in the U.S. House race because he endorsed Foster Freese on election day when Foster Freese ran for governor. Now we see Foster Friess's son Steve Friess vying against eight other people for the Republican nomination. The Politico Bill Cuban said ‘maybe this isn't the best race to spend an endorsement’ because Wyoming is likely going to elect someone who will work with Trump either way.”

One of the nine GOP candidates, conservative activist Steve Friess told Cowboy State Daily in a 

 that he’s heard he’s under consideration for an endorsement. The White House did not respond to a request for confirmation. The election is Aug. 18.

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Summer heat has sent water temperatures soaring above 70 degrees in some of Wyoming's prime trout fishing waters, so Game and Fish is urging anglers to quit before noon. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that when it gets that hot, catch-and-release fishing stresses and can kill trout.

“What Game and Fish is asking people to do is to carry a water thermometer with you. Maybe fish only in the mornings, in the early mornings, and once the water starts hitting that 68, 70-degree mark, just put your fishing rod down and go do something else. Unless, like I said, if you're fishing for food that you intend to keep and kill for food anyway, like if you're fishing for bass or if you want to keep the trout to eat, go ahead.”

Avid angler and fishing guide Bradey Hall of Casper tells Cowboy State Daily that 

a water temperature of 70-degrees is widely considered the red line, particularly for trout.

One of the most extraordinary petroglyph sites in North America is hidden away in a secret spot near Newcastle, Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the petroglyphs of Whoopup Canyon depicted in 150 sandstone panels are between 3,000 and 10,000 years old. 

“Whoop-up Canyon is unique because while they're still petroglyphs, they're depicting a lot of what life would have been like, anywhere from 3,000 to up to 10,500 years ago, when there weren't any of the established tribes that we're aware of today, these would have been nomadic peoples that were following game across the landscape. And the image, the panels at Whoop Up Canyon depict the animals, the people, and the technologies that the people were using to hunt those animals.”

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.

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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 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 8 3 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Monday, August 3, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Monday's headlines include:
* Bodies In Barrels
* Devils Tower Wildfire
* Ann Simpson Dies At 94

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Monday, August 3, 2026

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.

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.

Daily Cartoon: Thursday, June 19, 2025

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