Daily Cartoon

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

<title>Daily Cartoon: Friday, May 1, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon: Friday, May 1, 2026

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Sunny in much of Wyoming on Thursday with a chance of rain early in areas of the north. Fire danger in places. Mostly clear overnight. Highs in the 60s and 70s. Lows in the 30s and 40s.

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Sunny and breezy today with a high near 74 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 43 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

Sunny today with a high near 74 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 43.

 Red flag fire warning until Friday at 8 p.m. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 71 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 42.

 Sunny today with a high near 67 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 35.

  Sunny today with a high near 71 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 38 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

Sunny today with a high near 71 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 37.

Sunny today with a high near 66 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 30 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

 Sunny today with a high near 66 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 35.

  Sunny today with a high near 69 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 31 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

 Sunny and breezy today with a high near 63 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 35 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 67 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 32.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 58 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 30.

Sunny today with a high near 75 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 45.

:  Mostly sunny today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

  Gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 72 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 43.

  Slight chance of rain before 8 a.m., breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 67 and wind gusts as high as 39 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 45.

  Chance of rain mainly before 7 a.m., gradually clearing today with a high near 70 and wind gusts as high as 41 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 39.

:  Chance of rain mainly before 8 a.m., gradually clearing today with a high near 69 and wind gusts as high as 43 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 41.

Chance of rain mainly before 9 a.m., windy, gradually clearing today with a high near 68 and wind gusts as high as 41 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 41 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

  Chance of rain before noon, breezy, gradually clearing today with a high near 67 and wind gusts as high as 36 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

:  Rain likely, breezy today with a high near 61 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 43 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 8 p.m. Friday night. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 75 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 49.

  Red flag fire warning until 8 p.m. Friday night. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 72 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 41.

  Red flag fire warning until 8 p.m. Friday night. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 75 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 47.

  Red flag fire warning until 8 p.m. Friday night. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 71 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 66 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 42 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 8 p.m. Friday night. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 72 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 47.

  Sunny today with a high near 67 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 42 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 65 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 40.

  Sunny today with a high near 68 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 37.

Daycap small 6 11 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Thursday, June 11, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Thursday, June 11, 2026

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, June 11th.  I’m Mac Watson

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Sgt. Zach Burns has been identified as the Carbon County deputy who took multiple bullets in a shootout with a suspect in Baggs on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the sheriff says Burns is in critical condition but improving.

“We still don't know who the suspect is. He died in a shootout with officers. We still don't know how many officers were involved in that, and we don't know, obviously, his identity, whether he was a local guy or whether you know he worked somewhere else and lived in Baggs. When I was in Baggs on Monday and Tuesday, everybody I talked to, nobody seemed to know who he was, so a lot of them were speculating it's probably not someone who grew up here. Otherwise, we would know.”

According to the sheriff’s report, Burns was shot in the neck, arm, and hip. The report also says the suspect 

Seven of the 10 Republican candidates running to become Wyoming’s next U.S. House candidates courted a largely Christian audience with statements on their faith, and their different approaches to education, family rights, and abortion policy. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the debate was vigorous, but polite.

“It's tough to stand out in a crowd that big. So you have Kevin Christensen talking about saying a prayer with his soldiers moments before invading Iraq. You have Jillian Balow talking about the sacrifices that she's so grateful for that women made so she could be an adoptive mom. You have Bo Biteman harkening to the founding fathers, reiterating the the role of the Congress from the Constitution, you have Chuck Gray talking about the media and insiders, and so there were some bolder overtures that the candidates undertook, possibly in their effort to distinguish themselves from this crowded field.”

The Wyoming Family Alliance is an advocacy group that strives to advance biblical, generally faith-based policy objectives. The group’s president posed a series of questions at a packed event Tuesday evening in The Metropolitan in downtown Cheyenne, to these seven GOP candidates.

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A Pinedale rancher told U.S. Senators on Wednesday that he and other Upper Basin farmers are tired of Wyoming giving up Colorado River water. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that rancher Mike Vickrey told the Senate committee that as he sees it, he and other Upper Basin farmers and ranchers have gone above and beyond to conserve water.

“That rancher said basically, in a nutshell, we're doing all we can to conserve water up here on the upper basin. There's only so much to go around. Maybe we need to rethink the allocations, because this all flows back - no pun intended - this all this all flows back to the Colorado River Compact, which was drawn up in 1922 and a lot of people have said there were a lot, there was a lot more water in the river, and a lot fewer people demanding it back in 1922 Maybe we need to change the way we do things.”

Gov. Gordon, along with Senators Barrasso and Lummis met Tuesday with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as well as Utah Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis.

A 57-year-old woman who was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of a newborn boy in early 1988 repeatedly claimed the baby wasn’t hers. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that investigators say DNA testing shows it’s 1.97 million times more likely Eva Martinez is the baby’s mother than anyone else.

“The sheriff's office sent the case and sent DNA samples. and what that lab was able to do was narrow this baby's DNA down to two potential relatives, not direct relatives, but one who could be a grandfather-type. They tracked back to finding the actual biological father of this baby. Apparently he was living with this woman at that time, back in Cheyenne, almost 40 years ago, telling them, okay, this is who I was with, and they were able to get a DNA sample from her tested, and it came up that it's the probability that she's the mother is extremely high.” 

Cheyenne resident Eva Martinez was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of who has become known over the past 38 years as “Baby John Doe,” whose body was gruesomely discovered on Feb. 28, 1988, near a culvert off a county road, according to court documents. She faces a first degree murder charge.

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I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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A rural neighborhood north of Cheyenne told Black Hills Energy it doesn't want a planned natural gas power plant during "a very contentious” local-only meeting this week. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that one resident says “The only reason you’d do that is to put a data center there.”

“It's a 935 acre parcel, and so you're going to put power generation on that. What kind of noise is that going to make? How is that going to look? You know, it's a pretty scenic area. It's a historic ranching community, pretty residential. It's like I'm told that the roads out there, like a two-lane dirt road, and so you know people are worried about traffic, they're worried about noise, they're worried about quality of life, how that's going to affect their property values, and kind of all the things you would expect.”

The project will trigger a multi-year Wyoming Industrial Siting Division review process, even as Black Hills Energy pursues a multibillion-dollar merger with Northwestern Energy. 

U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis says she still backs renaming U.S. Highway 287 as I-47 — aka “The Trump Interstate.”  Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that’s despite the fact that the main sponsor said it may not be a priority after he lost a primary race. 

“The four lane interstate that John Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, proposed to zip through the state of Wyoming, is now in limbo after Cornyn lost his primary election to Attorney General Ken Paxton. Senator Cynthia Lummis is a co-sponsor of the bill. On Wednesday afternoon, she told reporters that she still supports the bill. Right now, it is in limbo. She declined to comment further on what will happen.”

The I-47 Future Interstate Act proposed designating the roughly 1,800-mile U.S. 287 corridor from the Gulf Coast of Texas to Montana as a future interstate route. The route runs through Wyoming communities including Laramie, Rawlins, Jeffrey City, Lander, Dubois and Moran before continuing north into Montana.

The state found widespread failures with Sweetwater County School District 1’s special ed program, giving the district a year to correct them. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that one former school board member says, “This wasn't a failure by just one person. This is a systemic failure.”

“The report came out this week, and it shows the school district to be in violation of providing special education services through properly credentialed professionals. It also shows that the school district failed to deliver services in accordance with students’ IEPs, or individualized education programs, and it also shows that parents were not given meaningful opportunities to participate in their students' individual education processes. Former board member Cole Ceppi said that they had seen some of these same problems with their own child in the district when he was a member and their child was in the special department, so he said to realize this is a more systemic problem makes me incredibly disappointed.”

The WDE conducted a five-day special monitoring review in February after receiving complaints and reports of possible noncompliance from parents, current and former staff members, and media accounts. 

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More than 69 miles of the Beartooth Highway are still closed because of a late spring snowstorm in southern Montana. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that officials are warning motorists not to use “map apps” as people have become stranded like a German couple who got lost in Wyoming. 

“The Bear Tooth Highway closed at 7:45am Wednesday morning, and it was closed all day due to snow. There is more snow incoming. There's a winter weather advisory for southern Montana, including the Montana portion of the Beartooth Highway until Thursday morning, and Cowboy and Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day said it's entirely possible that the Beartooth Highway and several roads in Yellowstone could close again this weekend, because we've got another cold weather system moving in that'll bring more rain and snow that could easily freeze in the ice on the roads overnight.”

The Beartooth Highway sits at the northern edge of the Yellowstone Plateau, a massive landform that covers northwest Wyoming and southern Montana. A rugged area that is its own environment. Drivers ascend from 5,200 feet to 10,947 feet in just 12 miles.

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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 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 6 11 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Thursday, June 11, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Thursday's headlines include:
* Deputy In Critical Condition
* Woman Arrested In 38-Year Cold Case
* Pinedale Rancher Tired Of Giving Up Water

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Thursday, June 11, 2026

You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"What ever could go wrong, as narrated by MMA announcer, Steve Inman....."}]

Inman 6 11 26

<title>Steve Inman: Thursday, June 11, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

What ever could go wrong, as narrated by MMA announcer, Steve Inman.....

Steve Inman: Thursday, June 11, 2026

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Government & Politics

Executive

In a move indicating that concerns over the dwindling Colorado River have reached a new level, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis joined other Western elected officials met for discussion and negotiations in Washington, D.C.

Gordon, Barrasso and Lummis met Tuesday with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Mike Lee, R-Utah, Sen. John Curtis R-Utah.

On Wednesday, Barrasso invited Pinedale rancher Mike Vickrey to testify about the Colorado River negotiations before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

 said that in Wyoming and other Upper Colorado River Basin states, “our expectations of how much water we will have to irrigate with are based on Mother Nature,” according to a statement from Barrasso’s office.

Vickrey told the Senate committee that as he sees it, he and other Upper Basin farmers and ranchers have gone above and beyond to conserve water.

Meanwhile, downstream states benefit from greater “security” offered by large reservoirs at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, 

Parts of two of Wyoming’s reservoirs along the Green River, a major tributary of the Colorado River, are in Sweetwater County. Those include Fontenelle Reservoir and Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

That means the area has a huge stake in what happens along the Colorado River, Sweetwater County Commissioner Taylor Jones told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.

“I think our concerns are the water levels, and our lack of say,” in Colorado River policy, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Barrasso Takes Lead"}]

Officials offered few details of what the D.C. meetings might mean going forward for Wyoming and the other Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.

Barrasso is “taking the lead” in the matter, according to a text message from Gordon’s office to Cowboy State Daily.

“Any management plan must address shortages from emergency withdrawals and drought, especially from Wyoming’s Flaming Gorge Reservoir,” Barrasso said in a statement following Tuesday’s meeting. "Wyoming and Utah will continue to fight for a seven-basin-state solution that treats our Upper Basin fairly,” 

More details should be forthcoming, Barrasso’s Communications Director Laura Mengelkamp told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.

“This week’s meeting was a great first step in developing an agreement that will treat the upper basin states fairly. The governors and senators did discuss several possible solutions and we will have more to say on that in the future,” she stated.

Wyoming State Engineer Brandon Gebhart represents Wyoming on the Upper Colorado River Commission. 

In an email response to questions from Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday, he said that he had no comments beyond what Gordon had already stated.

In a Tuesday statement, Gordon said the discussion between the Upper Basin elected officials had been “productive.”

“Wyoming is committed to bringing forward ideas, and leading the search for practical solutions that recognize both the realities of drought and the needs of the West,” Gordon stated.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Stark Outlook"}]

Tension has been brewing between the Upper Basin states and those in the Lower Basin, namely Nevada, California and Arizona.

All seven Colorado pact states, as well as numerous Native American tribes and Mexico, were allocated water rights from the Colorado River and its major tributaries under the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which remains binding.

Many experts say there’s far less water in the river now than there was in 1922, but demand has grown with the population.

The Upper Basin states say that most of the population growth has been in the Lower Basin, which continues to demand more water.

Water from the Upper Basin, including the Green River in Wyoming, feeds the Lower Basin’s two primary reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

It was announced this spring that roughly 1 million acre feet of water would be drawn from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to make up for a shortfall in Lake Powell.

Tony Valdez, owner of the Buckboard Marina on the Wyoming side of Flaming Gorge, previously told Cowboy State Daily that the drawdown could be 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Upper Basin Doing Its Part"}]

Jones said the reservoirs and marinas are vitally important for Sweetwater County.

“When they’re going draw the water down, it’s going to affect fishing, it’s going to affect tourism,” he said. "It’s going to affect the marinas, on both the Wyoming and Utah sides of Flaming Gorge.”

“The marinas, they’re even talking about going out of business,” he added.

The county commission hopes to meet soon with Gordon and other state officials. So far, there have been few details coming from state offices, Jones said.

“It’s been pretty quiet, which is a little frustrating,” he said.

 also said policy should be based upon how much water is actually available.

“The only way going forward is a shared pain as hydrology worsens,” Vickrey said. "From my Upper Basin perspective, a supply-driven model of the river is imperative. 

"As conditions continue to change, we must adapt to the actual amount of available water and continue to search for new sources of usable water."

The future hinges on continued negotiations, Jen Lamb, Wyoming representative for the Nature Conservancy, told Cowboy State Daily.

“I think Wyoming remains focused on trying to stay solution oriented, and the fact that the states are still at the table is really critical,” she said.

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<title>Pinedale Rancher Tells Senators He’s Tired Of Wyoming Giving Up Colorado River Water | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Pinedale rancher told U.S. Senators on Wednesday that he and other Upper Basin farmers are tired of Wyoming giving up Colorado River water. Negotiations moved up a notch this week with Wyoming leaders meeting in Washington, D.C., with other states.

Pinedale Rancher Tells Senators He’s Tired Of Wyoming Giving Up Colorado River Water

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

The Beartooth Highway was closed at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday because of snow and extreme conditions at the highest points of the 10,947-foot-high All-American Road.

As of Friday afternoon, the entire 68.29-mile expanse still wasn’t fully open with no estimated time of reopening. That’s because it was still snowing across northwest Wyoming and southern Montana, with no signs of stopping.

The Montana Department of Transportation (MDOT) posted pictures of deep snowdrifts covering the two-lane mountain pass and several inches of fresh snow across the landscape. The agency told tourists traveling between Wyoming and Montana to take the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway to reach Red Lodge, Montana, and beyond.

[{"type":"text","text":"And, above all else, MDOT posted, “Please do not use map apps.”"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Not That Late"}]

Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day hadn’t seen any snow totals reported from the Beartooth Highway. Based on pictures and reports out of Yellowstone National Park, he had a reasonable guess of how much snow had fallen at nearly 11,000 feet.

“It's probably in the neighborhood of 3 to 5 inches of snow, with a lot of wind and cold slicking things up,” he said. “There should be a fair amount of wind up there, and it’s chilly enough to make things icy.”

Meanwhile, a Winter Weather Advisory was issued for southern Montana, including the Beartooth Highway, until 9 a.m. Thursday. Additional snowfall of up to 2 inches was anticipated, along with wind gusts as high as 55 mph.

Tourists might be baffled to hit a snow-caused road closure in mid-June, but that’s the reality on the Beartooth Highway. It doesn’t happen frequently, but it does often enough, and sometimes even later in the summer.

“It snows every month of the year up there,” Day said. “I can remember some Fourth of July where they've had snow-related issues on the Beartooth Highway.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Its Own Climate"}]

Day believes people underestimate the elevation changes they experience when exploring northwest Wyoming. Drivers ascend from 5,200 feet to 10,947 feet in just 12 miles.

The Beartooth Highway sits at the northern edge of the Yellowstone Plateau, a massive landform that covers northwest Wyoming and southern Montana. An area that vast, high, and rugged is its own environment

“If you’re entering from the east, you go from the steppe desert of the Bighorn Basin to the cool, lush forests of Yellowstone, to a high-elevation mountain terrain very quickly,” Day said. “That terrain lifts the atmosphere and makes its own weather.”

It’s not uncommon for people to be driving through triple-digit temperatures in Cody, Greybull, and Lovell only to find snow flurries at the highest point of the Beartooth Highway later that day.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Beartooth Highway wasn’t the only road closed by snow."}]

Yellowstone’s Dunraven Pass and Craig Pass, a section of the Grand Loop Road between the West Thumb Geyser Basin and Old Faithful, were closed to all travel on Tuesday night due to winter weather. Both corridors were reopened by 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Then, Craig Pass was closed again at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday due to “adverse road and weather conditions.”  The entire park was covered with snow by Wednesday afternoon.

The National Weather Service (NWS) was anticipating snow showers all day Wednesday on the Beartooth Pass, with wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Daytime highs were in the 30s.

While astonishing to many, especially tourists, Day wasn’t surprised to see snow closing the Beartooth Highway. He was reminded how inhospitable the mountains can be, regardless of the season.

“I got a note from a guy who remembers treating people for frostbite in Rocky Mountain National Park in June 1976,” he said. “We tend to get these June patterns, and there’s another one coming.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Anticipated Closure?"}]

Plowing the Beartooth Highway is handled jointly by MDOT and the National Park Service. Both agencies had plows ready to clear the highway, but it’s still a day-long effort to get the road safe for vehicles, including massive RVs and tour buses.

The road-closing snow on Wednesday was caused by 

 that moved into Wyoming earlier this week. If that was enough to close the high-elevation highway, Day suspects we aren’t out of the woods yet.

“There’s another one of these coming in over the weekend,” he said. “As we reach Sunday night and go into Monday, they very well might get snowed on again. “

The NWS anticipates a mix of rain and snow showers on the Beartooth Highway starting Saturday and continuing through Sunday. Overnight temperatures could get as low as 28 degrees above 9,000 feet, which is enough to turn rain into snow and ice.

Day isn’t making any promises or predications, but he shared a word of caution. Anyone planning a trek over the Beartooths this weekend might want to reconsider or be prepared to stop, slide, and possibly get stuck.

“That part of Wyoming and Montana is going to be susceptible to cold fronts for another week or so,” he said. “It's going to be really chilly and wet in Yellowstone this weekend, and there’s going to be more weather next week.”

That’s the nature of the beast on the Beartooth Highway, Yellowstone, and northwest Wyoming. When it comes to snow, you’re never really out of the woods, even in summer.

[{"type":"text","text":"Tourists and residents need to dress and drive accordingly. "}]

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<title>Beartooth Highway Still Closed Because Of Snow: 'Do Not Use Map Apps' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

More than 69 miles of the Beartooth Highway are still closed because of a late spring snowstorm in southern Montana. Road officials warned motorists not to use “map apps” as people have become stranded like a German couple who got lost in Wyoming. 

Beartooth Highway Still Closed Because Of Snow: 'Do Not Use Map Apps'

Wildlife

Anyone enjoying an adventure in Yellowstone National Park might notice a bull bison lying in a lush meadow near Canyon Junction. If they see him stand up, they'll notice that he doesn't walk, but hops on three legs while keeping the fourth tucked up close to his body. 

That’s Tiny Tim, a well-known and easily identifiable bison that has been a cause of concern for many, but people who've followed his story of survival for the past two winters believe this bum-leg bison has been doing just fine for himself.

Instead of walking, Tiny Tim literally hops through his meadow to find food and shelter. He's a little skinny, but seems to be healthy, and the majority opinion is that he should be allowed to live on his own terms. 

“You can tell right before he's getting ready to hop, because he's having to really shift everything to get that hop done,” wildlife photographer April Holm told Cowboy State Daily. “It takes him a while to get anywhere, but he always gets there.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Poor Wretch"}]

Holm and her family were on one of their weekly trips to Yellowstone last month when they had their first encounter with Tiny Tim. He was lying down in his field near Canyon Junction, close enough for a great photograph.

“We just thought it was really cool that he was lying there,” Holm said. “It looked like he was just tired and resting. Then my daughter said, ‘Mommy, it looks like he’s dying. Look at his breathing.’”

Holm looked more closely. The bison’s breathing seemed labored, and his eyes looked like they were “rolled back into his head.”

When the bull bison finally stood up, Holm noticed his left front leg was “just hanging there.” 

He was clearly keeping it off the ground as he hopped around the field looking for fresh grass to graze on.

“He hopped around on three legs, and then he lay back down,” she said. “His leg doesn’t have any cuts or anything that we can see, but he was shifting all his weight and licking that front hoof.”

Sharing some sympathy for the bison’s predicament, the Holms got their photos and moved on.

Two weeks later, they were passing by the same spot and decided to see if the bull bison was still there.

[{"type":"text","text":"Remarkably, he was."}]

“He was lying there in the field again, not getting up and flopping his head up and down,” Holm said. “Then, we saw him get up and start eating.”

Three weeks after their first encounter with the bull, he’s in the same field.

“He hasn't moved more than 30 or 40 feet total that we've seen, or anybody else that we've talked to has seen,” Holm said.

Holm was concerned about Tiny Tim thinking he was living on borrowed time. While that may be true, Tiny Tim has borrowed a lot of time and doesn’t seem to be facing an imminent demise.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Village Grump"}]

After Holm posted several videos of Tiny Tim hobbling in his field, expressing concern about his condition and well-being, dozens of people have reached out with their own concerns for the bison.

One of those people was a year-round Yellowstone employee at Canyon Village who wanted to set the record straight.

“She said she was very familiar with the animal,” Holm said. “He first showed up sometime during the summer before last, so he has survived one full summer and two winters, at least.”

Many Canyon Village residents keep tabs on Tiny Tim. Everyone calls him Tiny Tim because he hobbles around, even though he's a fully-grown adult with a bad temperament. 

“Apparently, he gets quite defensive and grumpy if you get too close,” Holm said. 

Tiny Tim is a full-grown bull bison who has survived two winters in Yellowstone despite having one unusable leg. “It takes him a while to get anywhere, but he always gets there,” said one wildlife photographer who’s following Tiny Tim.

Daily Cartoon: Friday, May 1, 2026

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