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An angry customer scores complimentary Whoppers, as narrated by MMA announcer, Steve Inman.....

Inman 4 16 26

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Steve Inman: Thursday, April 16, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Steve Inman: Thursday, April 16, 2026

 An angry customer scores complimentary Whoppers, as narrated by MMA announcer, Steve Inman.....

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Law Enforcement

Federal and state investigators spent more than seven months building a drug trafficking case against a Jackson man before launching coordinated predawn raids across southwest Wyoming and southeast Idaho that uncovered methamphetamine, cocaine, cash and two AR-15 rifles, newly filed court documents reveal.

The investigation culminated shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday, when agents executed simultaneous search warrants at homes in Etna, Jackson and Victor, Idaho, arresting 42-year-old Julio Jaimes Angeles.

At first authorities released few details about the operation, saying only that "large amounts" of methamphetamine and cocaine had been seized.

[{"type":"text","text":"A probable cause affidavit filed Wednesday paints a much fuller picture."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Months Of Investigation"}]

The affidavit shows DEA Task Force Officer Jeffery Allison opened a narcotics investigation into Angeles in December after investigators suspected he was selling methamphetamine and cocaine throughout southwest Wyoming and southeast Idaho.

Working with a confidential informant and an undercover officer, investigators completed three controlled drug purchases from Angeles between January and April.

Those purchases totaled roughly 84 grams of methamphetamine and 90 grams of cocaine, the affidavit states.

When an undercover officer later tried to arrange another methamphetamine purchase in May, investigators say Angeles referred the buyer to another person in Victor, where about 56 grams of methamphetamine were purchased.

Meanwhile, investigators obtained court approval to install a GPS tracking device on Angeles' pickup truck.

From January through July, agents monitored the truck's movements and learned Angeles regularly visited a second home he owned at 445 Pinto Lane in Etna, often for brief visits inconsistent with someone living there full-time.

Investigators also conducted surveillance and trash pulls at the property.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Simultaneous Raids"}]

On Tuesday, officers executed search warrants at the Etna home, Angeles' primary residence in Jackson, and a third residence in Victor.

The affidavit says investigators found 40 grams of cocaine, 30 grams of methamphetamine, two AR-15 rifles and about $58,000 in cash at the Jackson residence.

After the arrest, investigators say Angeles admitted selling methamphetamine and cocaine and directed officers to additional narcotics stored at the Etna property.

There, officers recovered 54.1 grams of cocaine and 141.1 grams of methamphetamine.

Investigators say the drugs were hidden inside a garage closet connected to an entertainment room furnished with a pool table, foosball table, couch and television.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Children Visiting "}]

During the Etna search, officers encountered four adults and two children, ages 6 and 9, inside the home.

The children's father told investigators they were visiting from Pennsylvania for a birthday party and had spent the previous night at the house after Angeles offered them a place to stay.

The father reportedly told investigators he was unaware drugs were inside the home.

The affidavit says investigators believe Angeles knowingly allowed the children to remain inside a residence containing methamphetamine, forming the basis for a child endangerment charge.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Charges Filed"}]

Angeles made his initial appearance at a preliminary hearing Wednesday morning in Lincoln County Circuit Court, where Judge Thomas O. Deering advised him of the charges and set his bond at $250,000 cash only. 

He is charged with two counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance — one involving methamphetamine and the other cocaine — as well as felony possession of both drugs and one count of child endangerment.

Julio James Angeles 7 23 26

<title>Multi-State Drug Raid Shows Kids Slept in Home With Hidden Meth, Cocaine | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A monthslong investigation ended with coordinated raids in southwest Wyoming and southeast Idaho, where investigators found meth, cocaine and two AR-15s. They also allege children ages 6 and 9 stayed overnight in an Etna home where drugs were hidden.

Multi-State Drug Raid Shows Kids Slept in Home With Hidden Meth, Cocaine

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Around Wyoming

For the first time since it was homesteaded 138 years ago, the Hoback River Homestead — a legacy Wyoming ranch that brokers say has the largest privately owned stretch of the Hoback River — has hit the market.

The 2,062-acre ranch located just south of Bondurant doesn’t boast a $20 million mansion, but is still listing as one of Wyoming’s most expensive properties on the market today at $59.5 million. 

That’s because it’s one of the rarest opportunities Hall and Hall real estate broker Pete Widener says he’s ever seen.

Widener, who specializes in high-end ranch properties, says the ranch’s size and its intact nature — including the original homestead — make it almost impossible to compare to anything else on the market. The ranch’s size is particularly notable given its proximity to heavily carved-up valleys near Jackson Hole. 

“If you took a ruler and made a line and had a radius around Jackson Hole and you did 100 miles out, this would probably be the largest ranch without encumbrances on it,” he said. “It’s probably one of the larger ranches in existence without easements on it — no encumbrances — and it’s certainly the only one I know of that’s never been sold since homesteading.”

The ranch’s marquee feature is its live water. The 2-mile stretch of the Hoback River means private access to a productive cutthroat trout fishery, all surrounded on three sides by mountains and federally managed land. 

“Every corner you go around that looks like the fish will be in it — they’re in it,” Widener said. “They’re nice-size cutthroat rising to dry flies … It’s just really fun, visual fishing, with the river and the mountains in the background.”

The Hoback isn’t the only live water on the ranch, either. Fisherman’s Creek provides important irrigation diversions that support large meadows across the valley floor, which in turn supports 45 to 100 livestock.

Today the ranch runs about 45 horses for one of the owners. In earlier times, from 80 to 150 cattle grazed there. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wildlife And Wilderness"}]

The ranch lies in a major elk migration corner, and animals have been visible on most of Widener’s visits, from calving cows to bugling bulls in the fall. 

Widener has also seen sage-grouse and sandhill cranes. Grizzly bears and wolves use the property and the surrounding national forest.

The outdoor recreation opportunities are “massive,” Widener said. They range from off-roading, hiking, mountain biking and swimming in freshwater springs to horseback riding. 

There’s also a spot where previous owners maintained a private airstrip. The old windsock is still there, fluttering in the valley breeze.

The homestead’s historic bones are still visible, Widener said. That includes the original homestead and its associated cabins. Some of those cabins still have spent cartridge casings hammered into the walls after they were used to carve the occupants’ initials. 

Widener said the family selling the ranch has chosen not to be identified, but said they are well-known locally and have decided to go in a different direction after the passing of the family’s patriarch a few years ago. 

That history includes a lightning-struck tree near the entrance.

“It looks like a limber pine, but it could be a ponderosa,” Widener said. “It’s really big and old.”

The lightning bolt came straight down, striking the tree in the 1940s, leaving it half-dead. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A 'Show Ranch' Opportunity"}]

In an era when many legacy ranches are getting chopped into smaller luxury parcels, Widener said he sees Hoback River Homestead as a “show ranch” opportunity — the kind that doesn’t come around in every generation.

Other big ranches in the region, such as the Little Jenny, which sold 8 to 10 years ago, contend with public roads slicing through their heart. The Hoback River Homestead does not have that. It sits behind a locked gate on one side, and is surrounded by national forests on the other three sides.

Widener remembers thinking when he first visited how remote the ranch felt. 

“I remember looking around thinking, ‘Man, there’s nobody here,’” he said. “We see this ranch as far more valuable due to its privacy.”

The ranch sits halfway between Jackson and Pinedale, however, and is a short drive from either community, making it convenient for last-minute dinner decisions like sushi in Jackson or steak in Pinedale.

“This is a rare deal, and it would be a shame to see someone not continue on with keeping it as a large parcel — if not making it larger,” he said. “Very few landowners are making ranches larger. A lot of them are getting split up. I’d certainly like to never see this one get split up.”

Hoback 005 7 23 26

<title>2,000-Acre Wyoming Homestead On Market For First Time Ever At $59.5 Million | Cowboy State Daily</title>

For the first time since it was homesteaded 138 years ago, the 2,000-acre Hoback River Homestead is on the market. The legacy Wyoming ranch has the largest privately owned stretch of the Hoback River and is listed at $59.5 million.

2,000-Acre Wyoming Homestead On Market For First Time Ever At $59.5 Million

UPDATE 7:40 p.m.: Albany County Emergency Management reports that the fire is 90% contained and that all evacuation orders have been lifted. Also, "900 feet of handline was constructed today (Thursday) and the fire received substantial rain late this afternoon," the agency reported.

Elder Louis and Sister Debra Fico, a Casper couple serving as missionaries at Batel Ranch west of Tie Siding, had just finished preparing the church camp for another week of teenage campers when they saw lightning crack across the sky.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We saw the flash,\" Louis said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Almost instantly, smoke began rising from the forest."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The couple called 911, realizing a wildfire had likely ignited nearby."}]

Within minutes, the peaceful mountain retreat shifted into emergency mode.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's time to get out,\" Louis remembered thinking."}]

As camp leaders hurried teenagers into vehicles and drove away from the ranch, they looked back toward the mountains.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We saw the mountain burning,\" he said."}]

The blaze, now known as the Fish Creek Fire, prompted evacuations Tuesday and sent firefighters racing into the Medicine Bow National Forest.

As of 11:30 a.m. Thursday, the Albany County Sheriff's Office reported the fire was 50% contained with an estimated size of just over 16 acres.

Batel Ranch remained under a GO (Evacuate Now) order, while all other previously evacuated areas were in SET status, meaning residents should remain prepared to leave if conditions worsen.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'A Tinderbox' "}]

Just across the area at Fish Creek Ranch, Bill Fuller Jr. witnessed the same unfolding emergency.

[{"type":"text","text":"A homeowner called Fuller after hearing a loud crack."}]

"She said, 'I think our tree got struck by lightning,'" Fuller recalled.

The homeowner had looked toward the northwest corner of the roughly 4,600-acre ranch and noticed what he described as a small trickle of smoke.

[{"type":"text","text":"Fuller and the ranch manager drove to investigate."}]

"Within minutes that tree was up in flames," he said. "By the time I got there it was obvious it was going to be big."

[{"type":"text","text":"Fire crews were already arriving as the flames began spreading."}]

Fish Creek Ranch includes 13 homeowner partners and serves as a wildlife preserve. Fortunately, Fuller said, the apparent ignition point was on the ranch's northwest corner, meaning the fire would have had to cross multiple ridges before reaching homes.

[{"type":"text","text":"Still, the danger was obvious."}]

"It could happen," Fuller said. "Right now it's a tinderbox. It's as dry as it's ever been."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Time To Pack "}]

Batel Ranch hosts spiritual retreats for young women, blending scripture study with outdoor adventure.

Campers spend their days reading scripture, participating in faith lessons, playing games and learning wilderness skills, including building shelters from natural materials gathered in the forest and weaving rope from reeds collected around a nearby pond.

About 20 girls, ages 16 and 17, most from the Denver area, were attending camp when the fire broke out. Five adult leaders were also there.

[{"type":"text","text":"Another 80 girls were scheduled to arrive Wednesday."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"They never did."}]

The Ficos had spent days helping prepare the camp. Cabins were ready. Activities had been organized. Everything was in place for the next group of campers.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then the evacuation order came."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"There wasn't time to pack things up,\" Debra said."}]

Camp leaders focused solely on getting everyone safely off the mountain, leaving the camp almost exactly as it had been prepared.

Despite the urgency, every camper and leader evacuated safely, and no injuries were reported.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Ranchers Stay To Help"}]

While some residents left immediately, Fuller said others stayed as long as it was safe to do so.

[{"type":"text","text":"They had horses, equipment and neighbors to look after."}]

"We basically told them, 'We're not leaving,'" Fuller said. "If you know ranchers, you know we're gonna stay until we can't stay."

The ranch had 23 horses on the property, and neighboring ranchers quickly began checking whether livestock needed to be moved.

Homeowners worked together to make sure families and animals were safe while firefighters battled the growing blaze.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's Wyoming,\" Fuller said. \"That's how it is.\""}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Homeowners Pulled Together"}]

The following day, Louis and Debra returned to Batel Ranch to assess the damage.

[{"type":"text","text":"To their relief, the camp was still standing."}]

No buildings had been destroyed, and they found no visible damage from flames or smoke.

For Fuller, the outcome reflected the work of firefighters and the community that rallied around them.

"Our main goal is to express our unbelievable appreciation for the men and women who came and got it out and stayed all night," he said.

Firefighters remained on scene overnight watching for flare-ups after containing the blaze.

Fuller also praised the volunteers, sheriff's deputies, emergency responders and neighboring ranchers who worked together throughout the incident.

"It was a great community," he said. "All the homeowners pulled together to make sure neighbors were safe and horses were safe. Ranchers in the area all came together to see if people needed help moving livestock."

As firefighters continue working to fully contain the Fish Creek Fire, officials are asking the public to avoid the area so emergency crews can safely continue their work.

Tie siding fire 7 23 26

<title>20 Teenage Campers Evacuated As Fish Creek Fire Explodes; Ranchers Won't Leave | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Moments after lightning struck, Casper missionaries watched the Fish Creek Fire explode to life and rushed 20 teen campers to safety. Meanwhile, residents stayed behind to look after neighbors and horses. "It's Wyoming. That's how it is," one said.

20 Teenage Campers Evacuated As Fish Creek Fire Explodes; Ranchers Won't Leave

Wyoming Life

Cheyenne is where a young bareback rider named Chris LeDoux first began turning eight-second rides into western legend, eventually winning the 1976 PRCA Bareback Riding World Championship 50 years ago.

This summer, his son is bringing that legend home. 

To mark the anniversary of his father’s world championship, Ned LeDoux is launching the Bareback Jack Tribute tour. Playing in select cities, it will start at the Lincoln Center in Cheyenne on July 24 during the 10-day Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo. 

Cheyenne was just the most appropriate venue to kick off such a tour, Ned said. The city was the start of both his dad’s rodeo and his music career.

“My dad rodeoed there and he played the main stage there,” Ned told Cowboy State Daily. “And dad always kind of called Cheyenne Frontier Days his Grand Old Opry of the West.”

What Ned most remembers about his dad, though, wasn’t the championship ride. It was the way he was always there for family. 

“He was the best,” he said. “Him and Mom both. The best parents a kid could ever ask for.”

LeDoux led by example, Ned said, demonstrating values such as hard work and integrity every day.

“It was always fun to be on the road with him, playing drums for him,” Ned said. “He was the same guy on the road that he was at home.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Maybe We Should …"}]

The tribute tour developed as Ned and some of his bandmates were talking about this year being the anniversary of his father’s world championship. 

“They thought, ‘Well, maybe we can just do a few select shows and just call it the Bareback Jack Tribute and play nothing but dad’s stuff,'” Ned said. “And we already play a handful of his songs anyway, but we were like, ‘Well, what if we bring back some of the songs that maybe some of us have never played, or the last time we did play those songs was when we were playing with dad.’”

The collection of songs for the 90-minute set will bring back memories not just for the band but for LeDoux’s many fans as well.

“I mean, with dad’s catalogue, we could pay for four or five days,” Ned said with a chuckle. “So, we just kind of picked out some of our favorites and I think some of the fan favorites as well. So it’s just going to be a lot of fun.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Why Bareback Jack?"}]

The title of the tribute tour is also the first song LeDoux wrote. It was created during his high school days in Cheyenne, and it’s all about his own budding passion for roughstock events. 

“I’ll come flying from the chutes with my spurs up high,” the chorus line goes. “Chaps and boots reachin’ for the sky. Spurrin’ a wild with my head flung back. You’ll all know me, my name’s Bareback Jack.”

While traveling the college rodeo circuit, LeDoux usually had his guitar with him and would often sing for his fellow cowboys. 

“Bareback Jack” became their underground anthem. It was also featured on LeDoux’s first album, Songs of Rodeo Life, produced by his independent record label American Cowboy Songs. 

“Bareback Jack was also kind of his nickname,” Ned said. “So of course that song is definitely going to be in the mix.”

The set list will also include other favorites such as “Take me to the Rodeo,” “Eight Second Ride,” and “Running Through the Rain.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Broken Collarbone And More"}]

LeDoux’s bareback championship ride came during what had been a difficult year. 

He broke his collarbone in Phoenix and was battling a slew of other injuries.

That year, the NFR was a “clean slate.” The year’s earnings weren’t factored into the World Championship standings. 

That was fortunate for LeDoux, who was able to return home to Kaycee and heal before entering the NFR in Oklahoma City. 

He was third in the world standings and four other cowboys still had a mathematical shot at the world title. 

LeDoux didn’t just need a good ride. He needed a spectacular one.

“Man, the electricity and the adrenaline at the NFR could power New York City for a year,” he wrote of that time in “The Finals: A Complete History of the National Finals Rodeo (1998).”

LeDoux’s mom had made a homemade strap to help keep everything that had been broken in place, and so far it seemed to be working. 

LeDoux didn’t know just how much he was going to need that strap.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Riding Stormy Weather"}]

The horse he drew was called Stormy Weather. It was a horse absolutely no cowboy wanted to draw that year — least of all LeDoux and his recovering collarbone.

Stormy Weather had slammed five-time bareback world champion Bruce Ford to the ground earlier that year. 

In fact, the horse had thrown so many guys and jerked so many collarbones apart already he was in the running for bareback horse of the year.

“This is the only ride of my life that matters,” LeDoux said at the time. “Live or die or get crippled, it doesn’t matter. This is the demon we all must stand up to at some point in our life.”

The horse always looked like a beast to riders, but with LeDoux there was a different vibe, its owners, the Steiners, would later say.

“You’d have to have seen other people on him to know,” Bobby Steiner told ProRodeo Sports in a February 2026 article. "Everybody knew that horse and he was one of the all-time baddest eliminators. For Chris’ gold buckle, he didn’t just draw it. He earned it by that ride.”

LeDoux went on to score a 78-point ride. When the dust had settled and the final math was done, he had won nearly $5,000 at the finals, putting him at the top of the world standings. 

That earned him the trophy saddle, as well as a gold buckle for his belt. 

Even when LeDoux’s bronc-riding days gave way to touring with a band, Ned said his dad never stopped thinking like a cowboy. 

“We might be 2,500 miles away from home, and he’s thinking about where he should build his tack room,” Ned said with a chuckle. “He’d be in the back of the bus drawing up blueprints, like where the stalls should go, where the tack room should be. Then he’d call me back there to go over it.

“He was always thinking about building something, He was never boring, that’s for sure.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"All About Gas Money "}]

LeDoux wasn’t looking for record deals when he started recording his songs and selling cassette tapes from his gear bag.

It was all about the gas money to get to the next rodeo.

But his family loved the idea, and they were his most supportive fans. 

His mom, Bonnie, hand-wound eight-track cassettes for him in her kitchen. His sister added labels to his records. His uncle and other siblings helped sell tapes at feed stores and other events.

That homespun effort helped build a fan base that now spans grandparents, parents and children who are turning up at Ned’s shows.

“Maybe they got one of Dad’s eight-tracks or cassettes back in the '80s, and went to a bunch of shows,” Ned said. “Then they started having kids and introduced Dad’s music to them, and then their kids started having kids. It’s just kind of continued through the generations.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"LeDoux And Garth"}]

LeDoux’s record deal was a long time coming. By the time he signed with Capitol Records in 1991, he’d already released 22 albums on his own. 

Though he didn’t have major financial backing for any of them, he sold hundreds of thousands of copies. 

LeDoux’s music career got a big break in 1989, thanks to the Garth Brooks song “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)." The song, which hit No. 8 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs that year, included a LeDoux call out in its third verse:

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“The competition’s getting younger "}]

"Tougher broncs, you know I can’t recall

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"\"A worn-out tape of Chris LeDoux"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"\"Lonely women and bad booze"}]

"Seem to be the only friends I’ve left at all.”

Brooks would play with LeDoux at Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1996, and the two became close friends. LeDoux died in Casper in 2005 at age 56.

“When you define the title ‘Cowboy,’ it’s as much about what you do out of the saddle as you do in the saddle,” Brooks told ProRodeo Sports News in a 2026 interview. “Chris was a success at being a cowboy on a horse and on the ground. He was true and honest, a loving husband, father and friend.

“Nobody gets to lead the perfect life. But for the record, if I could ever be half the man Chris was, I feel I would have lived a perfect life.”

Chris and Ned Le Doux

<title>‘Bareback Jack’ Rides Again: Ned LeDoux Launching Tribute Tour For Dad In Cheyenne | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Fifty years after Ned LeDoux’s dad, Chris, won the PRCA bareback championship, his son is launching the “Bareback Jack” Tribute tour in Cheyenne, the city that helped start both his dad’s rodeo and music careers. The tour starts Friday, July 24.

‘Bareback Jack’ Rides Again: Ned LeDoux Launching Tribute Tour For Dad In Cheyenne

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

A hiker probably couldn't have done anything more to save himself when he surprised a grizzly at close range in the dark in Glacier National Park on May 3 and was subsequently killed, a seasoned bear-country trekker told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.

Officials concluded Tuesday that a 33-year-old man likely surprised a grizzly in the dark before he was killed in Glacier National Park in May. Running into a bear in the dark is a “nightmare scenario,” said an outdoorsman who was in the park at the time.

Steve Inman: Thursday, April 16, 2026

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