It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, October 21th. 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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The corner-crossing war is over. The ability to ladder-vault a corner of private property to access landlocked public lands is now the rule across the American West. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the decision came early on Monday morning from Washington DC.
“At 7:30 our time, without a word, the US Supreme Court denied cert…to Fred Eshleman’s Iron Bar Holdings in the corner-crossing lawsuit, meaning the four hunters who crossed his property to access landlocked…public land, won basically. You cannot bar access to public land with your private land corner. Crossing is legal.”
The win is bittersweet for the hunters’ attorney, Ryan Semerad of Casper-based firm Fuller and Semerad. He believes they would have prevailed in Washington, D.C., had the high court chosen to hear the case.
Read the full story HERE.
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A fuel-tax hike has been shot down in Wyoming, despite the fact that WYDOT is facing a 400-million-dollar-deficit. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports why, despite being in the negative, lawmakers didn’t pass the tax to fund the department of transportation.
“This tax was intended to fill in some of that deficit. Now, lawmakers debated back and forth about the merits of this, whether or not it would be the right thing to do for the people of Wyoming, and many comparisons were drawn to Colorado, a place that has a very high tax rate for a lot of different things. And at the end of the day, lawmakers decided this is not something that's right for Wyoming, and they shot it down, which means that this bill is not going to move forward in the coming legislative session, and it is not going to be considered for something that is going to go into law.”
The bill would have increased Wyoming’s tax on gasoline and diesel fuel from 24 cents to 29 cents beginning in July 2026.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wyoming legislative committee meeting in Cheyenne has adopted a draft bill to let all state law enforcement officers ticket commercial truckers caught driving without being proficient in the English language. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports this bill mirrors a federal test that was resurrected by the Trump Administration.
“Obama actually kind of castrated that rule and the Trump administration revived it in June…the basic parameters are the basic parameters set in federal rule that Wyoming seeks to match. Are you able to read the signs, respond to official inquiries, fill out your log books and converse with the general public. Those are the four parameters that the federal rule uses that the Wyoming bill seeks to incorporate.”
The Transportation, Highways, and Military Affairs Committee voted 11 to 1 to sponsor the bill giving the legislation an edge going into the 2026 budget session, which opens February 9th.
Read the full story HERE.
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As of October first, Wyoming started taxing electric vehicle drivers who plug into charging stations. But Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that now a pro-EV group wants the new fee paused, saying it unfairly over-taxes EV drivers.
“When that fee was instituted, that was a way of making up for what EV drivers weren't paying at the pump because they're not pumping gasoline into their cars. And so along comes this other tax. And so they're saying, hey, look, we're getting double taxed…so EV advocates in Wyoming are asking for a pause. Hey, can we, can we just put a pause on this program and talk it out? We want to pay our fair share. But we don't think that that, that the current program is doing that.”
WYDOT says it's enforcing an existing law after broader EV reforms failed.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, right after this
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A 10-thousand-dollar-reward is being offered after a shocking case of looting and vandalism was discovered at an archaeological dig site in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that details from authorities are scarce, but there’s a reason for that.
“The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is reaching out to people trying to get information, but they're keeping the details at a lull because they don't want copycats or anyone being inspired to head out to the area. We know it's an archeological site around Dubois, and there are several archeological sites of great interest in that area, and they insinuated that there was some vandalism done, that there was permanent damage done, and that artifacts may have been stolen. So it's a pretty serious thing, and with a $10,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction, you know that they're taking this seriously and they want results.”
Bonnie Smith, president of the Wyoming Association of Professional Archaeologists, tells Cowboy State Daily that the laws about the protection of archaeological sites, and punishments for looting and vandalism, "don't have teeth." That reduces the perceived risk and punishment for people prosecuted for these crimes.
Read the full story HERE.
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You’ve probably heard that everything that happens in a Western, happened first in Wyoming. Well, a historian says she’s traced Wyatt Earp’s first gunfight to, you guessed it, right here in the Cowboy State. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean says a personal diary unlocked this mystery.
“Wyatt Earp’s first gunfight has been traced to Oren, Wyoming. Up until now, it was thought that his first gunfight was in like Illinois. But no, he was 16 years old. He was a guard for a wagon train that was headed to San Bernardino, California during 1864. This is when the North Platte River raids were going on. Their wagon train was attacked by Indians, guns on both sides, bullets flying everywhere…This was uncovered by a historian with Wyoming ties. She doesn't live here, but her name's Janelle Maloney, and she is a descendant of wagon train families that came through here... She possesses the diary of Sarah Jane Russo…She kept a diary, so we have this extensive entries about her whole trip West, she's meeting Brigham Young, Wyatt Earp is her wagon guard."
Maloney tells Cowboy State Daily that this confirmed history could reshape Earp's early legend and add a new chapter to Wyoming’s Wild West legacy.
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.
