It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, October 20th. Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson. “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story."
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A Naturalist has made an incredible discovery about birds in Yellowstone National Park. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Naturalist George Bumann and his wife cracked the code, learning the language that ravens use for everything from predator warnings, to where they can find something to eat.
“When folks would pull into the parking lot there in Lamar Valley, they had a specific call that basically said, We're going to eat anything that falls out of your picnic basket. This is our territory…he figured out that if he heard a certain call, he knew that that Raven was telling other ravens in the world that a type of Eagle was flying their way…So the Ravens give away the Eagles…Fascinating insights into our relationship and how sound really governs activity out in the natural world, where a raven can call and not only alert other ravens, but alert all kinds of other species that an eagle's in the area.”
Bumann says this type of “language” isn’t just confined to ravens, other animals communicate with calls and sounds as well.
Read the full story HERE.
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In her 2016 memoir “North of Crazy,” Neltje Doubleday Kings chronicles her decision to leave a life of privileged aristocracy for a more authentic life in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Wendy Corr reports from the road that Neltje gifted her ranch on Lower Piney Creek near Banner, Wyoming, to the University of Wyoming and her legacy is benefiting many.
“Now, students, professors, anybody with the association with University of Wyoming has this space to be creative. There's so many different creative opportunities that can be had there at the Nell cheese center. And that's why the collegiate chorale and the orchestra and the jazz band were able to go there in mid September and make this amazing, amazing performance, this beautiful tribute to music there are the great outdoors in the at the at the foot of the Big Horns.”
Along the way, the publishing heiress recreated herself as a painter, rancher, businesswoman, and mother while creating a platform for other artists to find their voices.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Powell photographer has gotten photos of a piebald cow elk in a herd southwest of Cody. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi tells that Michael Moore got the perfect shot of this rare condition.
“Pie baldism is a result of a recessive gene that has to be in both parents in animals, and when both parents have that gene, and not every time they produce an offspring, but if they both have the recessive gene, their offspring will be off color, for lack of a better way to put it. In this case, elk usually have brown hair and skin, and there have been several elk spotted. They're elk. There are a lot of elk that have been spotted that are piebald, which means that they have blotches of white on their skin and in their hair. But in this case, the elk that was spotted along the South Fork of the Shoshone River near Cody was almost entirely white. So that's a really rare instance where both of the parents had this recessive gene that when they got together and produced an offspring, it produced this piebald elk, which is just Mitch mashed in color. It happens one in every 100,000 according to Colorado State Parks.”
Moore captured this rare elk on the South Fork of the Shoshone River near Cody. You can see the picture and the full story at cowboy state daily dot com.
Read the full story HERE.
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How many times have we heard the story in Wyoming of a generational legacy property that’s on the auction block. Probably bought up by a billionaire from out of state. Well, Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports this story is the exact opposite.
“Kanye West had listed the Big Horn ranch as well as the Monster Ranch, which is still for sale, and a Wyoming family is buying it back. It's going back into the hands of the Flitner family…They are just basically putting back together their agricultural operation. Their beloved Baldridge cabin is now back that was historically the cow camp for 114 years for this family which homesteaded back in the early 1900s so it's all put back together again.
The controversial rapper purchased the nearly 7,000-acre ranch from Flitners in 2019, just a few months after he purchased the 39-hundred-acre Monster Lake Ranch.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, right after this
The Sheridan Sheriff’s Office announced on Friday that the remains of Kyle Ellis, then 29 when he was reported missing, have been positively identified. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that Kyle had caught a ride from a resort in the Big Horn Mountains and was last spotted at a gas station in Greybull.
“And that was the last time anybody had seen him. And his family was curious, because they knew people in Graybull, it's a small town. They thought somebody might have seen him, but nobody did. His remains were found about 60 miles away in rural Park County. And…it appears he was camping out and he succumbed to the elements. The temperature that night, or during the period when he left, was between zero and 20 degrees.”
Kyle went missing in 2018 and the Sheriff’s office says no foul play is suspected.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Tom Miner Basin, on the edge of Yellowstone National Park in Montana, isn't just beautiful, it's also home to a concentrated grizzly bear community. So how does a successful beef ranch co-exist with one of the densest populations of grizzlies in the U.S? Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports it’s a balance.
“The B Bar organic beef operation has had to find a way to work in harmony. And they basically have a live and let live. You know, make smart adjustments. Don't put cattle in places where, you know there's going to be immediate conflict, but conflict between conflict with predators is really down the list, according to the staffer I spoke with…It's an incredibly lush high basin, and so it stays green well into autumn, and it's just has a lot to eat for a foraging grizzly.”
Every October, bear lovers flock to B Bar Ranch to catch a glimpse of the many grizzlies feasting on caraway root.
Read the full story HERE.
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Cheyenne resident Gilbert Lucas spent some time in prison for robbery. But as Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports, prison didn’t define him, it changed his life for the better.
“Lucas was in prison for robbing a cash register at the place that he worked, and throughout that process of being incarcerated, he kind of learned to see the world in a different way and do what he called leading with love instead of with fear. Now, once he got out of prison. This led him into the hair industry,...Now Lucas went on to open his own barber shop here in Cheyenne, where he started cutting hair under a subscription model, which allowed him to free up some of his time throughout the day to spend on some other philanthropic activities and helping out with community charity and other efforts like that.”
Lucas tells Cowboy State Daily that even though he’s become a nationally-recognized barber, and even having his name inscribed on statues in Cheyenne, prison taught him how to lead with love and look for the beauty in life.
Read the full story HERE.
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Each day in the month of October, Cowboy State Daily runs a ghost story. This time, Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy has three spooky tales that all have one thing in common…besides being scary!
“We're looking at three different stories where trees were the center of the haunting and each one of violent murder happened beneath the trees, and the echo still remains. Our first story, it was all about the Coon dogs who were frightened of this tree and refused to hunt any longer. The hunters turned tail as well. The second story, we have an apple where the blood, they say, was from skin to core, mysteriously under the same tree where a peddler had been found with his throat gashed. And our third and final story, it is one that many are familiar with. Cattle Kate, she was hanged in a lumber pine, and this lumber pine, according to local author Sam Lightner, causes your technology to act up. It's eerie. It's strange. But these are all accounts that are recorded in our Wyoming newspapers.
Lightner says he experienced technical difficulties with his drone and other mishaps that he could not explain. Attempting to film a documentary, he said it became quickly apparent that her ghost did not want that video created. 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 watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
