You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"If anyone needed a play-by-play announcer, it's this guy......"}]

Bonus vid 1 5 5 26

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

<title>Bonus Video 1: Tuesday, May 5, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

If anyone needed a play-by-play announcer, it's this guy......

Bonus Video 1: Tuesday, May 5, 2026

 If anyone needed a play-by-play announcer, it's this guy......

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Public Safety

Skeletal human remains found in an abandoned building west of Cheyenne on Wednesday have prompted a lengthy identification process that investigators say could take months, while renewing hope and fear among families of Wyoming's missing.

Deputies with the Laramie County Sheriff's Office say a deceased individual was discovered in a building on Happy Jack Road. The remains were "essentially skeletal."

The sheriff's office, working with the Laramie County Coroner's Office, said there is no evidence of foul play or any threat to the public.

The discovery has already stirred emotions across Wyoming's missing persons community.

"You're excited because you want closure," said Desirée Tinoco, founder of Missing People of Wyoming. "You want one of those cases that, for years, has been forgotten."

Then comes the realization that every identification also brings devastating news to someone.

"You start to really sympathize and understand this is going to be terrible news also for somebody," Tinoco said. "They are going to get answers, and it's obviously not what they want to hear."

Stacy Koester, president of the Gillette-based nonprofit WyoFind Search, Rescue and Recovery of the Missing, said families across the state experience the same emotional conflict whenever unidentified remains are found.

Loved ones "are both anxious and terrified," she said. "They're hopeful that it could be their person, but they're also terrified that it's their person. They're hopeful because then they'd have answers, but they're terrified because those answers could be devastating."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Who Could It Be?"}]

Both Tinoco and Koester said the location immediately made them think of Nash Quinn, the Laramie-area man who vanished July 8, 2024.

Quinn frequently rode his bicycle in the Pilot Hill, Rogers Canyon and Happy Jack Road areas. Deputies and aerial search teams spent days combing those locations after he disappeared.

Both women, however, stressed there is no evidence connecting the newly discovered remains to Quinn.

Tinoco said that after hearing a dispatch call that the clothing found with the remains might date to the 1990s, she realized the remains could just as easily belong to someone who disappeared decades ago or even someone merely passing through Wyoming.

Before investigators had released many details, she had already received a call from a woman in Colorado whose missing friend was last seen wearing clothing similar to what early reports described.

"Could it be related? We don't know," Tinoco said. "I told her to contact the sheriff's office. That's what you always want to do."

[{"type":"text","text":"Koester likewise cautioned against speculation."}]

"Rumors tend to fly like wildfire," she said. "Nobody knows anything except for law enforcement, and everybody needs to be patient and wait for law enforcement to do what they have to do."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Long Wait Ahead"}]

Every discovery, Tinoco said, has the potential to unlock something that had long been buried.

"Getting those new tips, getting that new traction on cases, is what we want," she said. "Even if it isn't for that case, it'll get some good attention on it."

Investigators say the identification process may take several months because of the condition of the remains. No additional information will be released until authorities positively identify the deceased and notify next of kin.

Tinoco said cases like this also remind people how many Wyoming disappearances remain unsolved, some dating back decades.

She noted that many of those investigations are so old the original investigators have retired or died, leaving families and nonprofit organizations to continue pushing for answers.

For now, investigators are asking for patience while they work to determine who was found inside the abandoned building. 

Body found on Happy Jack 7 23 26

<title>Skeletal Remains Found In Abandoned Building West Of Cheyenne | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Skeletal human remains found in an abandoned building west of Cheyenne on Wednesday could take months to identify, investigators say. The discovery has renewed hope and fear among families of Wyoming's missing.

Skeletal Remains Found In Abandoned Building West Of Cheyenne

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming’s lone U.S. House representative was one of seven Republicans who voted against the National Defense Authorization Act for the upcoming year as the $1.15 trillion spending package passed the House.

[{"type":"text","text":"It heads next to the U.S. Senate."}]

In a 216-212 vote, six Democrats voted Wednesday in favor of the bill while seven Republicans — including Rep. Harriet Hageman — opposed the Trump-backed measure.

The other Republicans who crossed the aisle were Reps. Thomas Massie (Kentucky), Tim Burchett (Tennessee), Elijah Crane (Arizona), Anna Paulina Luna (Florida), Chip Roy (Texas), and Josh Brecheen (Oklahoma).

Hageman told Cowboy State Daily via a Thursday text from her communications director that her nay vote was about runaway spending.

Two years ago, she offered an amendment to the 2024 version of the recurring military spending package directing the Pentagon to avoid a trillion-dollar budget request, she noted, adding she was concerned the U.S. would hit that mark by the end of the decade.

“The house did not consider my policy, and the result after failing its seventh audit is a more than trillion-dollar budget request,” wrote Hageman.

“The American people want to support our servicemembers, counter the Chinese Communist Party, and secure the southern border — objectives which this bill accomplishes,” she wrote. “But the U.S. taxpayer also expects fiscal responsibility, and authorizing a $1.15 trillion budget for a single agency that has not made any meaningful progress to clean up its budget while we rapidly approach $40 trillion in national debt fails this expectation.”

Hageman said Congress “must stop writing blank checks with zero accountability, and for that reason I could not support this bill.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Win For Trump'"}]

Politico called the bill’s ascension from House to Senate a “win for Trump.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The Senate version of the package stalled prior."}]

On the House side, Massie and Democratic U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, of California, tried without success to advance a provision that would have removed a multibillion-dollar provision geared toward defense technology collaboration with Israel.  

While she aligned with Massie in her nay vote on the bill altogether, Hageman differed from him Thursday, as Massie and three other Republicans voted with Democrats to direct the president to remove the U.S. Armed Forces from war with Iran.

She has in public statements voiced more support for of the nation’s defense of Israel than Massie, a critic of U.S. involvement.

The bill includes conservative provisions like renaming the U.S. Department of Defense to the Trump-approved moniker “Department of War,” blocking coverage for sex-change treatments and making it easier for military personnel to carry their own guns on military bases.

Republican leaders attached the election reform bill SAVE America Act to the measure as well.

House Armed Services Committee Democrat Rep. Adam Smith of Washington called the bill’s lack of bipartisan support a product of Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “out of control” policies.

The six Democrats who crossed party lines to advance the bill were Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (North Carolina), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Jared Golden (Maine), Adam Gray (California) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington).

Hageman 7 23 26

<title>Hageman One Of 7 Republican No Votes For $1.15 Trillion Trump-Backed Defense Act | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Harriet Hageman was one of seven Republicans who voted against the Trump-backed $1.5 trillion National Defense Authorization Act that passed the House on Wednesday. She said Congress “must stop writing blank checks with zero accountability."

Hageman One Of 7 Republican No Votes For $1.15 Trillion Trump-Backed Defense Act

Around Wyoming

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

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

Renée Jean

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

Lubnau head 2

Tom Lubnau

Opinion

CSD Columnists

, the Wyoming Republican Party Central Committee shouted from their speck of dust on a very small clover: “We are here! We are here! We are here!” 

I guess they're hoping some Elephant with really big ears wanders by and finally hears them.

Their shout took the form of endorsing candidates.

Columnist Tom Lubnau writes, "So what did the Republican Party get for all this? They alienated 4 U.S. Senate campaigns, 9 House campaigns, 3 governor's campaigns, 3 secretary of state campaigns, 1 treasurer's campaign, and 2 superintendent campaigns."

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