It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, July 8th. 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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Lucas Goodeill and his cousin Skyler Tomlinson, both 18, were out on Beck Lake in Cody on an inflatable raft on the afternoon of July 4 when a thunderstorm swept them into the water. A stranger onshore who saw them go in acted quickly and saved their lives.
Lucas’ mother doesn't know the name of the man who saved her son's life. But she told Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi that wherever he is, she has a simple message for him - thank you.
“One of those afternoon thunderstorms swept in, and it caused the placid waters to get really choppy. So these guys, they're in a inflatable raft that capsized, and they, these are 18 year old kids. They're strong, they're good swimmers, and they were barely able to keep themselves afloat… And then this mystery man, he had been shouting encouragement at them from the shore. Then he grabbed two life vests from his canoe. He dove in, he swam to them, got the life vest to them, and then he pulled them to shore… so we don't know who this guy is, but the mother of one of the two teens, she wanted to send her deepest thanks, because she said she's a widow, and this is her only son.”
Jeanne acknowledged that the boys should have been wearing life jackets when they were on Beck Lake, and that lesson has been learned. They picked up new life jackets over the weekend.
Read the full story HERE.
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Bethany Wheeler was still shaken, but grateful, Monday, after her husband and father-in-law barely escaped a trailer home fire just south of Laramie late Friday.
The fire destroyed Dennis Wheeler’s home and nearly all of his possessions. But Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the devastation could have been much worse.
“They suspect that fireworks set a shed ablaze that was right next to a guy's trailer home. Trailer home went up, and I spoke with the family, I spoke to the daughter in law. She said her husband was able to get his dad out of there with just seconds to spare. She says pretty much right when they got out, the whole thing went up in flames… The guy completely lost his home and most of his possessions, but he is okay.”
Although he escaped in time, Dennis, who is a disabled veteran, lost nearly everything. Bethany said she and her husband’s children, as well as neighbor children, were terrified by the near-fatal fire, adding that none of the kids in the park want to celebrate the Fourth with fireworks anymore.
Read the full story HERE.
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Secretary of State Chuck Gray and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus say they aren’t done pushing reforms to improve election integrity, above the raft of new laws that went into effect July 1.
Wyoming has already passed landmark reforms for election integrity, but more needs to be done. That’s what Gray told Cowboy State Daily’s Matthew Christian on Monday.
“Chuck Gray said he wanted to see pen and paper ballots and also some more efforts to make sure that it's only citizens voting. He said he specifically wants photo ID - now you can theoretically vote if you have a birth certificate or something like that. So he wants a little bit more restrictive photo ID requirements… the chair of the state's political subdivisions, elections and corporations subcommittee in the Senate, Cale Case… he personally would like to see… things stay where they are through the 2026 election… so that the committee knows where they are and where they need to change going forward.”
To get election laws changed in next year’s session would require a two-thirds vote of both the Wyoming Senate and the House of Representatives because it’s a budget year.
Read the full story HERE.
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When Mary Hayward started goading her friends into competing in the sport of wife carrying, she didn’t know much about the race.
But she and her husband Isaac decided to compete for the first time a few years ago - and this Fourth of July, the Sheridan couple not only won the Wyoming wife-carrying race in Ranchester, they also qualified for the North American Championships.
“One of the hot spots in Wyoming for Wife Carrying Races is Ranchester. They have a course right there by the town hall… it's a 278 yard course… And there's some obstacles, like a Tough Mudder, but not quite as hard. They don't have to scale any walls, but they did have to go through a mud bog, and they have to do it by carrying a 100-plus-pound woman… their wives, they've got to be a good rider. You have to grab hold of your husband's belt, be upside down, basically facing his Fanny, and your legs are draped over his shoulders… kind of the equivalent of being a good jockey in a horse race.”
The Haywards' victory qualifies them for the North American Championships in Maine in October. The winner there moves on to the world competition in Finland.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Natrona County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a shooting Saturday night at an unincorporated camping area at Alcova Reservoir that sent two Colorado people to the hospital.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that deputies were called about 10:30 p.m. to an area on the southeast side of the reservoir for a report of shots fired.
“There is a camping area between two campgrounds on the Alcova Reservoir. They said it's kind of just a place where people put up tents. And apparently, Saturday evening, there was a man trying to get in his vehicle and drive, and he was… intoxicated. There were some campers there that were trying to stop him, and according to the Natrona County Sheriff's Office… the intoxicated man pulled out a rifle and pointed it at a man trying to stop him from Casper. And that man pulled out a handgun and shot both the intoxicated man and a woman apparently was in the way as well. Both got shot in the legs, so they were taken to the hospital.”
The shooter was initially detained for questioning and later released. Deputies have spoken with all the people involved and the case remains under investigation.
Read the full story HERE.
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A new federal effort could end Wyoming’s cloud seeding program. Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene announced Saturday her intention to introduce a bill criminalizing cloud seeding and other weather modification techniques.
Cloud seeding involves releasing the chemical silver iodide into clouds. The compound causes ice crystals to form from liquid water within the clouds, in turn leading to rain or snow.
Wyoming Stock Growers Association Executive Vice President Jim Magagna told Cowboy State Daily’s Matthew Christian that some ranchers in Pinedale have reported benefits from cloud seeding, but efforts to stop cloud seeding are happening at multiple levels of government.
“Wyoming has two types of cloud seeding programs, one of which is a ground based and one of which is air based; the ground based ones occur at the Wind River Range. The other ones are at the Sierra Madre range. The Wyoming Legislature has stopped funding all but the ground based one already, and there's some support to say, hey, we're okay with this decision as well.”
Silver iodide is toxic enough to be regulated by the Clean Water Act. However, the effects of the chemical haven’t been scientifically proven.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 40-year-old Lander man who bludgeoned a house guest to death with a metal bar last April was sentenced Monday to between 25 and 50 years in prison.
A January trial for Michael Vigil resulted in a hung jury. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that rather than go to trial a second time, Vigil chose to plead guilty to second degree murder and accept the 25-50-year sentence.
“Back in April, he was arrested, a guy found dead in his yard, bludgeoned to death. He's saying things like, ‘the guy made a sexual advance on me,’ and then as the case progresses, he's saying, ‘No, you know, actually I have schizophrenia, and I fully believed he was making a sexual advance on me.’ And so at the sentencing hearing Monday, the victim's family were like, ‘it has been so hard for us to shoulder the claims that you made against our dad, our grandpa, our loved one, in your own defense.’”
The family of the victim, 57-year-old Warren Jorgenson, delivered tearful statements before the court Monday in Lander. One of his daughters acknowledged that her father had struggled throughout his life with addiction – a weakness that led to him drinking with Vigil the night of his death.
Read the full story HERE.
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During his century on the planet, Everett Spackman remembers living through the Great Depression, severe rationing during World War II, getting his family’s first television and watching Walter Cronkite with millions of other Americans as Neil Armstrong took humanity’s first steps on the moon July 20, 1969.
Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson spoke to the centenarian about some of the changes he’s seen in his 100 years.
“He grew up in a house without indoor plumbing. They had to use an outhouse. They had phones with party lines on it… I said, Do you remember your first car? And he remembered right away. He says, Yeah, 1926 Model T. I'm like, wow, I bet you wish he still had that. He goes, Yeah, I paid six bucks for it… A buddy talked him into signing up for the naval reserves in 1950 thinking that's just an easy 50 bucks a month. We go for a weekend, whatever. And the Korean War happened, and they called him up… He was a state entomologist for like 19 years, and then after that, worked for another 30 or so for the University of Wyoming… He had a very interesting life.”
Spackman said in the weeks since hitting that triple-digit mark, people seem to ask him a lot what the secret is to such a long life. His answer? “It’s just not having died yet.”
Read the full story 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.
