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Pandas finally off the endangered list… but they’re doing everything they can to get back on it....

Pandas 5 22 26

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

<title>Today In Pandas: Friday, May 22, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Today In Pandas: Friday, May 22, 2026

 Pandas finally off the endangered list… but they’re doing everything they can to get back on it....

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

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming’s 10-candidate Republican primary race for U.S. House dropped to nine Thursday, when Teton County rancher Frank Chapman dropped out of the race.

He told Cowboy State Daily it’s irresponsible to continue in this crowded race, “when the voters need to whittle it down and figure it out, through a couple people.”

“There’s too much clutter. It’s not easy to get a message out in that situation,” said Chapman in a Thursday phone interview. “I don’t think it’s responsible to allow people to spend the kind of money that would be required to keep going in this.”

As of the second-quarter Federal Election Commission reports, Chapman landed among the top four candidates in terms of campaign funding. 

He and three other candidates — philanthropist Steve Friess, Casper businessman Reid Rasner, and Secretary of State Chuck Gray — have loaned themselves more than $1 million each.

[{"type":"text","text":"Rasner has spent the most as of July 1, at nearly $2 million."}]

Chapman said he is not out of money, but he does not believe it’s responsible “to allow people to spend the kind of money that would be required to keep going in this.” 

That leaves Friess, Rasner, Gray, state Senate President Bo Biteman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, veterans David Giralt and Kevin Christensen, former legislator Keith Goodenough, and Richard Dodson in the race.

Chapman told Cowboy State Daily he’s very conservative, especially in fiscal terms. But he dislikes divisive politicking and believes the GOP should use more of a big-tent approach.

[{"type":"text","text":"He said he’s not endorsing any of the other candidates at this time."}]

“It’s so important to get everybody into the big tent and not allow your state party to fight,” he said. 

Chapman also said Republicans should “try to get these people to work together so we can actually get something done and not just take advantage of the electorate by saying ridiculous statements you don’t mean … don’t fight with everybody to get it done.”

Chapman added: “It’s not about self-promotion, but about what’s best for the people and how to make their lives better.”

The Wyoming Republican Party’s state central committee, or top statewide delegates, made a controversial move Monday evening by endorsing Gray in the race.

State law bars the party from directly or indirectly backing one Republican over another in the primary election. While some argue that any expense toward endorsements and endorsement announcements violates this law, that remains unclear.

The party is suing Gray in his official capacity in an effort to have the law overturned as an unconstitutional violation of its First Amendment rights. That case is ongoing.

“I think the party made a mistake in endorsing anyone,” said Chapman. “I think that when you have power you have to be judicious in how you use that power, and even if they do have the right to endorse … intelligence and good governance would tell you not to endorse; and let the people decide.”

Miami billionaire Ken Griffin contributed more than $2.5 million to a super-PAC, Fighting for Wyoming, that touted Chapman as a conservative rancher ready to fight with President Donald Trump for the people of Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","text":"That PAC had spent $32,975.67 as of July 1."}]

Chapman said Thursday of Griffin, “He’s a wonderful person that I’ve known since I was in the ninth grade. And we’re just really good friends, and it’s not about politics.

“It’s about who he believes will do a wonderful job for the people of Wyoming and the United States.”

In his own campaign, Chapman’s total receipts as of July 1 amounted to $1,091,623.83.

Of that, $31,622.89 came from contributions; $1.06 million came from a self-loan by Chapman.

The campaign had spent $596,462.50 as of July 1 and had $495,161.33 cash on hand, the FEC says.

Chapman told Cowboy State Daily he may run for office again, if the people wish it. 

A statement his campaign released Thursday quotes Chapman saying, "Wyoming is great because we, the people of Wyoming, are tenacious, independent, hardworking, and unwilling to be pushed around. Although my time as a candidate has come to an end, my commitment to Wyoming has not."

"I will continue to stand with the people of this state, demand accountability and honest answers from those in power, and make certain Washington never forgets that it works for the people of Wyoming—not the other way around," he added. 

Chapman 7 23 26

<title>Frank Chapman Drops Out Of 10-Person Wyoming GOP House Race | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Teton County rancher Frank Chapman dropped out of the 10-candidate race for the Republican nomination in Wyoming's U.S. House race on Thursday. "There’s too much clutter" in that crowded race, Chapman told Cowboy State Daily.

Frank Chapman Drops Out Of 10-Person Wyoming GOP House Race

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Around Wyoming

RAWLINS — Six weeks ago, Carbon County Sheriff’s Sgt. Zach Burns was fighting for his life in the dirt parking lot of a Baggs apartment building after 

 from a gunman who later died in a shootout with law enforcement.

Wednesday, he was discharged from a Colorado hospital and got a hero’s welcome as he was escorted roughly 230 miles home by a long procession of law enforcement representing agencies across two states.

 streets through downtown Rawlins were lined with pockets of people who paused their workdays to wave and yell as Burns was driven by with a loud chorus of sirens following.

“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” said local resident Deanna Deffenbaugh about the turnout. “We take care of our own around here.

“Anytime an officer has gotten hurt in the line of duty — even his family — we get the community involved to step up and help take care of them.”

Deffenbaugh said she doesn’t know the Burns family personally, “but that doesn’t matter. If they’re willing to put their lives at risk for us, we need to take care of them.”

Maybe Deffenbaugh doesn’t know Burns, his wife and two young children, but the folks at the Carbon County Courthouse do. He’s their courtroom bailiff, said Jo Rieger, who had staked out a small patch of shade along 3

“Woo-hoo. He’s coming home!” she shouted. “This is cool and very inspiring. He deserves it. He deserves the biggest hero’s welcome ever.”

For Micah Johnson, who also works with Burns at the courthouse, Wednesday was 

, when Burns took bullets in the neck, arm and hip.

“You fear the worst when you first hear about that, you know?” he said. “I think a lot of us were just waiting to hear any kind of piece of news, right? Then I saw the post that he’s coming home today.”

He was referring to a Facebook post Sheriff Alex Bakken made earlier Wednesday telling people that Burns had been discharged from a Colorado hospital and was on his way home.

At 3:31 p.m., the small groups stationed at street corners and in front of the Carbon Building on the corner of 3

 and Pine streets began to cheer as they heard the sirens blaring louder, along with a medical helicopter circling the procession.

“There he is. I see him,” said a woman in the crowd as a Carbon County Sheriff’s Office truck slowly passed.

Sergeant Burns was sitting in the passenger side with the window rolled down and enthusiastically waving to those who gathered for him.

His beaming smile got just a little bit bigger when he saw a giant red, white and blue “Welcome Home Zach” banner.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘We’re All Family’"}]

About an hour earlier, Valeta Rogabaugh was anxious for the procession to get to Rawlins.

The longtime dispatch supervisor for the Rawlins Police Department walked into the bullpen at the department with tears in her eyes.

She had just heard a county dispatch bulletin that Burns and the procession had “come home” and had just passed into Carbon County on westbound Interstate 80.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said when Chief Michael Ward asked how she was holding up. “It’s just emotional. They even talked to (Burns’ wife) and told her welcome home too.”

Although Burns works for the county sheriff’s office, there are deep connections with the Rawlins PD and other agencies, she said.

“We’re all a team and we’re all family,” Rogabaugh said, adding that Burns’ wife also is a dispatcher for the sheriff’s office.

There are no lines between agencies, said Rawlins Police Sgt. Thom Gamblin, adding that he’s good friends with Burns.

“This isn’t just a guy in uniform coming home, he’s a guy who works and lives here. I’m saying that this is a community, this is home, and it isn’t just his workplace,” Gamblin said.

“This isn’t just his work office, it’s people who love him,” he continued. “These are the people who care for him. It’s the people he meets every day when he serves.”

There’s a reason close to 100 officers from multiple jurisdictions around Wyoming and Colorado responded to Baggs that afternoon when the bulletin went out about an officer down and a gunman was on the run, Gamblin said.

“This is personal,” he said. “He did his job and nearly lost his life over it. He didn’t — thankfully — and now he’s back here where we can protect him.”

Without the quick action of a pair of Baggs residents who 

, he likely would have died, said Chief Ward. Wednesday’s procession was for them as well.

[{"type":"text","text":"“They’re heroes, too,” he told Cowboy State Daily."}]

“It’s a miracle that he’s still with us,” Ward added. “All of us are grateful for that, every minute of every day. His daughter still has a father. His wife still has a husband. He’s still with all of us.

“We could not be more relieved, grateful and excited he’s coming home today.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Stopped ‘Large-Scale Act’"}]

The scope of the potential carnage Burns may have prevented unfolded in the days following, Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken has said.

That includes Burns interrupting the suspect carrying out what appeared to be a devastating plan, the sheriff said

The man had a stockpile of semiautomatic weapon ammunition in his Baggs apartment and was likely planning a "large-scale act," Bakken reported June 17.

Burns was in the area June 8 when dispatchers relayed information about a suspect in an active shooting incident. Burns located the suspect driving in town and conducted a traffic stop at his apartment, the CCSO has reported.

“Upon coming to a stop, the suspect immediately exited his vehicle and opened fire on Sergeant Burns with a semiautomatic rifle,” Bakken said in the report.

The suspect — who so far has not been publicly identified — then 

The suspect tried to start his apartment complex on fire with numerous propane tanks inside, then sped away in his car again, according to the CCSO.

He was eventually killed in a shootout with law enforcement after crashing his car north of town off state Highway 789.

“Thanks to his bravery, (Burns) saved the lives of countless first responders and community members,” Bakken says in the report. “The gunman had stockpiled hundreds of AR-15 magazines in his apartment and, by all appearances, had been prepared to initiate a large-scale act of violence.”

At the Hilltop Conoco station along Cedar Avenue, Paige Garwood and Heather Stalinski were working Wednesday afternoon, handling a steady stream of locals and visitors driving through just off I-80.

They both said they were excited to learn that the long procession of emergency responders for Burns would go past their station.

Neither knows Burns or his family, but both said that Rawlins is a small town, and when one person is in trouble, everyone knows and responds.

“I’ve been reading about him and heard what happened to him. He’s a hero,” said Stalinski. “That he’s coming home is really good, and great for his family, his wife.

“I think he was really brave for what he did. He’s a brave, brave man. I think she should get a lot of (accolades). Would I call him a hero? Absolutely.”

Garwood said that Burns getting out of the hospital and getting back to Rawlins is a great boost for the whole town.

“I think it’s great that he’s coming home, because he almost died because of that idiot,” she said. “He deserves it.”

For Chief Ward and other law enforcement officers, the risk is always there, he said. While running toward danger while others run from it is what they sign up for, the hope is that they won’t have to.

“He took an oath to protect our community, and he almost gave his life doing so,” Ward said about Burns. “On the scale of heroism, that’s pretty far up there.”

Sgt Burns Home 1

<title>Hero’s Welcome In Rawlins: Deputy Nearly Killed In Baggs Shootout Comes Home | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Sgt. Zach Burns — shot three times by a gunman in Baggs last month — got a hero’s welcome in Rawlins after a 230-mile escort from a Colorado hospital Wednesday. “On the scale of heroism, that’s pretty far up there,” said the Rawlins police chief.

Hero’s Welcome In Rawlins: Deputy Nearly Killed In Baggs Shootout Comes Home

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

Andrew Rossi

Many Wyoming ranchers are struggling with an existential problem that’s completely out of their control. Hay has become harder to find, harder to grow, and more expensive to buy.

With the lack of rain and ongoing drought, it’s harder to grow hay for feeding Wyoming’s cattle, horses and other livestock. Ranchers who have historically harvested their own hay might have to purchase it to keep their animals fed, and prices are constantly creeping upward.

In the short term, it’s enough to make ranching difficult. In the long term, some say, it could hasten the end of many family farms and ranches that can’t afford to feed their animals.

“If it’s not a problem now, it’s going to be,” said Dennis Sun, publisher of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. “Some people are looking to sell cattle because they’re afraid they can't get the hay to feed them.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Not A Hay Day"}]

Meeteetse resident Mitchell Huene works with Cowboys with a Mission, a nonprofit that runs two annual Bible schools teaching kids to ride, brand, lay irrigation pipes, and understand “where their food comes from.”

“Whatever anybody needs us to do, we'll do,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “To facilitate that, we've got 43 horses we need to feed.”

In the past, Cowboys with a Mission got its hay from the Pitchfork Ranch. Huene learned in May that the ranch wouldn’t be able to supply them this summer.

“Because of how bad the winter was, nobody in the area has any grass,” he said. “They're grazing their hay fields at the Pitchfork.”

They found a new supplier near Powell that had enough hay in their price range. However, that deal fell through last week.

“There wasn't as much hay coming off the fields as he thought, and he had other customers to take care of first,” Huene said. “That was a bit of a problem for us, because we had about 10 days’ worth of hay left at that point.”

When Huene first arrived in Meeteetse 12 years ago, he was paying $100 per ton of hay. Last summer, it was $150 per ton.

This summer, finding hay for less than $200 per ton is a bargain, and even that’s a rare find.

“We’re seeing hay going for $300 to $350 per ton on Facebook Marketplace,” Huene said. “There was some hay down in Thermopolis posted for $450 a ton this morning. We're a nonprofit, so we're not exactly rolling in dough, and that’s three times what we were paying last year.”

Huene has heard similar stories from ranchers across Wyoming. They either can't produce enough hay or are worried about affording enough hay.

“One hay producer in the area said he got 250 tons off a field last year,” he said. “He got 100 off of it this year.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Hay, No Way"}]

Hay is essential to Wyoming’s agricultural industry. Animals need it, and ranchers need to make sure they’re amply supplied to feed their livestock throughout the year.

[{"type":"text","text":"The year so far has been a struggle for ranchers across the state."}]

“Most ranchers produce their own hay,” Sun said. “When there’s a drought, there’s not much going on.  I'm hearing that ranchers aren’t getting enough water to put up their usual amount of hay.”

By Sun’s estimate, a 1,000-pound cow needs at least 20 pounds of hay every day, assuming it’s grazing and has its diet supplemented with other sources such as grain or corn.

[{"type":"text","text":"A cow that isn’t grazing will need around 25 pounds of hay per day."}]

Many ranchers have reliably produced enough hay to keep their livestock well fed. Anything extra can be sold or stored.

That hasn’t been the case this summer. Sun has heard reports of ranchers who’ve only had a quarter of their usual tonnage.

“They'll either have to start selling livestock or buying hay,” he said. “It’s better when you can buy at $100 or $150 per ton, but you're not going to see any hay like that this summer.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"It Gets Worse"}]

Wyoming ranchers are struggling with an existential problem out of their control. Hay has become harder to find, harder to grow, and more expensive to buy. Some say this will hasten the end of family farms and ranches that can’t afford to feed their animals.

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