It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, July 7th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by Cheyenne Frontier Days. Ten days of rodeo thrills, Xtreme Bulls, live concerts, carnival rides, western heritage, and unforgettable cowboy spirit in Cheyenne, Wyoming! Don’t miss the 129th Daddy of ‘Em all July 18-27th.
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A woman who was trying to drive away from the scene of a verbal argument in Gillette ran over her boyfriend in the process early Saturday morning.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that a 32-year-old man was critically injured, and his ex-wife suffered minor injuries, after the man’s girlfriend struck them both with an SUV.
“Deputy Chief Brent Wasson told me that, look, it's still under investigation, but at this juncture it doesn't look like she planned to run these people over. He detailed kind of an argument over custody between the ex wife and the girlfriend. Girlfriend sitting in the driver's seat tries to take off, allegedly runs over her own boyfriend and the ex wife. He's taken out of state for care, so some serious injuries there, and according to the deputy chief, she flees on foot, and, you know, authorities find her and put her in jail.”
The girlfriend was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, and a recommended charge of failing to report a crash or leaving the scene of a crash.
Read the full story HERE.
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The tiny town of Shoshoni with a population fewer than 500 has something that would bolster many small communities — a busy crossroad that sees about 1.4 million travelers every year.
That gave the mayor a novel idea when he took office in 2019. Why not vacate the Shoshoni Town Hall and offer the lot for sale to attract economic development?
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the for-sale sign has attracted the interest of a potentially game-changing development for Shoshoni.
“He wasn't intending to catch a medical clinic with this site. He was really, you know, just fishing for any kind of economic development… some cardiologists on their way to clinics in Riverton and Lander saw the for sale sign… and they're thinking, Gosh, my drive would be so much shorter if I were set up here in Shoshoni. Why don't we just build a cardiac clinic here in Shoshoni? It's like the crossroads of Wyoming, right? They would be able to serve about 10% of the population in Wyoming, in that one little location.”
Wyoming Cardiopulmonary Services has been serving Wyoming patients since 1978 and has offices in eleven Wyoming communities, from Casper and Gillette to Saratoga and Wheatland.
Read the full story HERE.
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Preserving the iconic, and now-abandoned, 1960 airport terminal at Cheyenne Regional Airport is the mission of the Wyoming Aviation Heritage League, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the state’s rich aviation history.
There’s a lot of that history tied up in the 65-year-old building that was closed to the public in 2018, but Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the structure was once a hub of activity and a monument to the eclectic 1960s.
“If you're in Cheyenne and you see this building, it's got these, like, wings on it. And that was purposeful, because back in the day, they wanted people to know that Cheyenne was a player in the aviation industry back in the day, back in the 30s and 40s… Now there's several groups, including the Wyoming Aviation Heritage League, that want to save this structure… It's going to take 10 million bucks to get it done. And they say that's going to be, you know, a few years into the future. But there are some grants they have to work on repairing the roof and do some other maintenance around there to try and get the structure to a place where things can move forward.”
The hope is to reopen the restaurant that used to be in the building, create an art space for artists, retail shops, and include a Wyoming aviation history museum.
Read the full story HERE.
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A trail-riding mare named Barmaid apparently got bored with her job and escaped her corral, then spent about two weeks running free in Grand Teton National Park before finally being captured.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Barmaid broke loose from a corral near Jenny Lake, where she was a trail horse for the Grand Teton Lodge Company.
“I spoke to a photographer who… goes up into Grand Teton in Yellowstone several times a year to photograph wildlife. And she said she was going through on Saturday, and it's like, Oh, hey, there's a horse… and then noticed there were some wranglers chasing it… I connected with the folks at the Grand Teton lodge company. They said, Yep, that was our horse. That was Barmaid, she just started with us this season. Apparently she has a mischievous streak… I guess she wanted a vacation.”
Barmaid was back at work this week having suffered nary a scratch during her self-imposed vacation in the wild.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, right after this.
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Cheyenne may not be a one-horse town, but it’s definitely horse friendly. Now mounted law enforcement officers are coming back to Wyoming’s capital city.
Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak and a number of deputies and their horses spent a week in June training to patrol the streets of Cheyenne. Kozak told Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi that he hopes it will bring back that element of authentic Western hospitality and law-and-order during major events in the state capital.
“He told me that when he was the chief of the Cheyenne Police Department, the Mounted Patrol was one of the best means of public engagement that the department had, because it's Cheyenne. People come here to the Wild West, and they like seeing law enforcement officers riding horses. But since he left the Cheyenne Police Department, it's fallen off. So he decided to make it a priority to bring the Mounted Patrol back, which is why the Laramie County Sheriff's Office is now training its deputies to get ready to have the Mounted Patrol on the streets of Cheyenne for Cheyenne Frontier Days, for parades and other events.”
Kozak said the mounted patrol will be available to assist tourists, respond to service calls, and work with the Cheyenne Police Department when needed. Although there currently aren’t any riders from the Cheyenne Police Department, Kozak said he’d ride with them anytime.
Read the full story HERE.
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The sparks are flying for electricians, thanks to retiring baby boomers and a boom in the construction of data centers.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that it’s a perfect storm that is creating high demand for electricians, while also increasing their wages in Wyoming.
“We need thousands of electricians across Wyoming. It's not just the data centers though. It's the nuclear plant in Kemmerer. It's transmission lines across the state. It's a data center here, data center there. It's also new manufacturers coming in, so right now, there's 700 in training through these union programs. And Wendy, what's cool about it is, you attend the program as a paid employee. You get paid. It's not a huge salary, but it's like 20 bucks an hour, but how many programs will pay you to go to school?”
With major data centers like Meta and Microsoft taking note of the state’s ideal climate and proximity to fiber optics lines, the starting wage for a Level 1 technician at an unnamed data center in Cheyenne starts between $65,000 to $75,000.
Read the full story HERE.
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When rural Cheyenne resident Warren Meyer opened his garage door for a brief moment Tuesday afternoon, he had no idea that stoat — a tiny member of the weasel family — darted inside while his back was turned.
And although the wee beastie was loose inside his garage for almost a day, little damage was done, and Meyer finally managed to catch it in a live trap. However, Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the tiny critter did leave a very tell-tale scent to let his captors know that he wasn’t pleased.
“they spent… 20 hours… trying to figure out what it even was, because he didn't know what a stoat was… and then secondly, how to get it out of there. And finally, figured out that baiting a live wire cage that he'd used to trap rabbits, so baiting that live trap with hamburger… they do have scent glands, and when they're upset, they release a very powerful scent. So when that stoat got caged and it wasn't happy about it, he did fill Warren's garage with his Musk to let Warren know he wasn't happy about how things had transpired.”
Meyer took the stoat outside and released it in his driveway, watching as it scampered off. And although he doesn’t want the stoat back in his garage, he hopes it sticks around, because he’s pretty sure the stoat has been doing a right handy job of slaying mice around the place.
Read the full story HERE.
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And people have told V Cafe Owner KimChi Vu that her Vietnamese restaurant inside the Dubois VFW post is surprising, or ironic. Cowboy State Daily videographers Reilly Strand and Hannah Brock filmed a short documentary that explores how the cafe owners, veterans, and the community forge strong bonds - and heal old wounds - over delicious food.
“The thing that I'm constantly in reminder of is that operating a Vietnamese restaurant, let alone inside a VFW Post, is the last thing I would have ever imagined my path would have been in my life. But you kind of learn to embrace it and accept that there's a reason why you're doing what you're doing right now, and I firmly believe that a lot of it has to do with me wanting to share my culture and my roots, and my desire is even stronger now being in this post for war veterans, especially those that served in the country that my parents escaped for a better future. I'm probably not cutting off fancy like other chefs, right? And that's the thing people ask me all the time. They're like, did you go to culinary school? Are you a trained chef? Not at all. It's just, we call it the Vietnamese ways, you cook with your heart, right? You measure with your heart.”
See the full video HERE.
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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.
