It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, August 18th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at www.ConverseCountyTourism.com.
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Since it first sparked Wednesday, the Red Canyon Fire continues to surge in multiple directions about 11 miles east of Thermopolis.
By Sunday evening, the fire had grown to nearly 92,000 acres and was spreading quickly, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson.
“It was started Wednesday by a bolt of lightning. And we know that because people saw it… these oil field workers working up on the mountain looked down, and they actually saw the lightning bolt strike, and then they saw the fire spreading… it's just burning through a bunch of cheatgrass, a bunch of other other grasses, brush. They're just really dry this time of year, and the wind is blowing it… it's now kind of passed a little bit into Washakie County. It's pushing south into Fremont County. So it's 0% contained… they're just trying to get some kind of a handle on it.”
So far, officials believe only one barn has been lost to the blaze, but that tally could definitely rise as firefighters get more of a handle on managing the fire.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two Casper-based electricians were headed for a job in Evanston on Monday when they noticed a plume of dust billowing up from the roadway in the distance ahead, around 20 miles east of Farson.
Cody Carpenter and Jacob Lanier arrived to discover a man lying face-down in the gravel on the shoulder of Wyoming Highway 28 and a crumpled motorcycle 20 feet away. Cowboy State Daily’s Zakary Sonntag reports that while the men thought the biker had to be dead, they sprang into action when he groaned.
“It was clear that the man had suffered some serious brain injury. He was confused. He was asking the same questions over and over again… They got 911, dispatch on the call, and they just stayed there with him and gave him comfort and kept him out of the sun… It's tough to say what the outcome may have been without them there.”
Bob Newman, a retired deputy sheriff from Roundup, Montana, is being treated for multiple head traumas, six broken ribs and other injuries. But he’s alive, thanks to Carpenter and Lanier.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s junior U.S. senator and the speaker of the state House of Representatives both support the idea of a pardon for a 65-year-old mechanic who is in federal prison for deleting emissions systems from diesel engines.
Troy Lake was convicted in June 2024 of conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act. That was after years of deleting or helping to delete emissions controls on diesel engines, including fire trucks and commercial trucks. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to several elected officials about whether or not they support an effort to secure a presidential pardon for Lake.
“When I talked to Holly Lake on Friday… She said that people are working behind the scenes to help the Lake family… Senator Cynthia Lummis, up in Congress, was like, Absolutely, pardon this man. This is ridiculous. And Speaker of the House on the state level, Chip Neiman agreed, saying this should not have happened. Some you know, a little more guarded - Representative Hageman, Senator Barrasso, they were like, we want to cut back on overzealous prosecutions. They didn't specifically call for Troy Lake's pardon.”
Holly Lake told Cowboy State Daily that she and her family have been overwhelmed by community members voicing support for the pardon cause since news of her husband’s incarceration broke.
Read the full story HERE.
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Somewhere deep within the untamed expanses of the northern Colorado wilderness, an ordinary animal is undergoing a frightful metamorphosis.
Cottontail rabbits, a common species in Wyoming, are experiencing the effects of a seasonal surge in a virus that causes dark horn-like growths around a rabbit’s face and neck.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that images of rabbits with this bizarre affliction have made waves across social media, with many likening their strange visage to that of Frankenstein’s monster or an undead zombie.
“It looks like it's horns or tentacles or something strange like that, and it sparked a lot of speculation online about what the heck this could be. So Cowboy State Daily did a little digging into this. We found out that it's caused by something called the Shope papilloma virus, which is specific to rabbits. It only infects rabbits, and really it's not that harmful, other than sometimes these growths could impede their ability to eat food… I spoke to some other people throughout the Cowboy State, however, that speculated that this disease may have been part of the reason for the spread of the legend of the Jackalope.”
While no infected rabbits have been spotted in Wyoming, some have made their way as close as Fort Collins, Colorado, sparking speculation they may soon cross over into the Cowboy State.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, right after this.
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Hunting guides might be associated with adventurous quests for glorious big game animals such as elk, bears or moose — and not for those diminutive rodents, prairie dogs.
However, Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that there’s a robust niche market for people willing to pay a guide to take them to where the prairie dog towns are the thickest so they can blast away.
“I talked to a gentleman in South Dakota and one here in Wyoming who guide for prairie dog hunts, or prairie dog shooting. And they said that the reason that a guide appeals to some people is they have access to… numerous ranches where they can get people on where they wouldn't normally be able to go… the appeal in prairie dog hunting is shooting. It does involve a lot of shooting… You come out for a pheasant hunt to South Dakota, you might walk for miles, get two or three shots. With prairie dog hunting, it's pretty much constant, go, go, go.”
Proponents of prairie dog shooting say they’re doing ranchers a favor and cutting down on the spread of disease. Others argue that prairie dogs fill an important ecological niche and shouldn’t be slaughtered.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Farmer’s Almanac and the Old Farmer’s Almanac just came out with their annual mid-August forecasts for the coming winter, reviving chatter and head-scratching over the question: Do agricultural producers and others actually pay attention to these predictions?
Almanacs and weather folklore blend anecdote, astrological musings, sunspots and mystical math, which meteorologists and researchers widely regard as unscientific and fun, but, according to Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison, not accurate for serious weather prediction.
“It does have this nostalgic connection to the ag community in Wyoming, where people remember their grandfather picking up a copy of the Farmer's Almanac at the feed story every year and poring over it and talking about it over coffee. And so, it is in the DNA of the agricultural community in Wyoming… in talking to Don Day, he likes to take a very scientific approach… and he's completely transparent about how he's arriving at what his forecast will be… the best… the traditional almanac method can do is predict a trend… We like to think Don Day is much more accurate than that.”
The 2025-2026 Farmer's Almanac winter forecast, dubbed "Chill, Snow, Repeat," promises a wild ride with dramatic weather swings, including an early start with cold and snow potentially hitting as early as September.
Read the full story HERE.
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Rusty, a super smart Australian Shepherd who once helped save his owner’s life from a drug overdose, is back in a secure and loving home, after he was discovered lost along a highway in central Wyoming, covered in ticks.
But the road getting home was definitely not one less traveled, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck.
“The saving grace was that Rusty had a microchip, and so… they finally got a hold of the owner's mom and learned that the owner had been incarcerated, she has has an addiction. And so they don't know how Rusty got to Shoshoni, because the owner lived in Cheyenne and was incarcerated in Colorado… after cleaning him up, they understood that he was a very bright, smart dog, a great, great little pooch. And so he ended up staying a couple months with a foster care home. And then… they found another son who said, yeah, he was willing to drive from Oklahoma and pick up Rusty and it turns out that his mom, when she gets out of her responsibilities with the justice system, she's going to come and live with them, and so she's going to be reunited with Rusty. And everybody there is very happy.”
How Rusty ended up outside Shoshoni remains a mystery. But Lander Pet Connection director Hannah MacGregor said the fact that Rusty’s owner had him microchipped really helped the story to have a positive ending.
Read the full story HERE.
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Since its invention, carbonated, sweetened soft drinks have exploded in popularity. Sweet, fizzy and oh so quenching.
As Americans, we guzzle more than our share. The latest Gallup poll shows about half of us drink a soft drink daily. And those who do consume an average of two and a half bottles or cans a day.
But just as the proper terminology is important when discussing fine wines, Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols decided to ask the question, exactly what is the right label for soda - or pop - or soda pop?
“I grew up on the East Coast, so it was soda. Pop was, yeah, pop was not it. But out here in the West, it's all pop… your average Wyoming native knows pretty much pop and that's it. And it's not till you travel and go to other places where you learn that, wait a minute, and pop - they don't understand what I'm saying when I say pop. And maybe it's a way to tell who grew up in Wyoming, who's a true Wyomingite, and who might be a transplant.”
What and why we call our soft drinks is important enough to warrant several social studies through the years. So this topic may never go flat.
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.
