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[{"type":"text","text":"Oh no, it's a bad day at the toilet factory....."}]

Warehouse disasters 5 28 26

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

<title>Today In Warehouse Disasters: Thursday, May 28, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Oh no, it's a bad day at the toilet factory.....

Today In Warehouse Disasters: Thursday, May 28, 2026

 Oh no, it's a bad day at the toilet factory.....

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

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

Public Lands

A tourist caught on video climbing on top of one of the iconic buildings in Grand Teton National Park not only broke the law, he disrespected “my family’s heritage,” said the grandson of Thomas Alva Moulton, who along with brother John Moulton, built the most famous homesteads on Mormon Row.

. A man climbed to the top of one of the historic structures adjacent to the pink house on the John Moulton Ranch.

“A tourist climbed onto the roof of one of the historic buildings just to take photos,” she said, but she didn’t say whether the man had been reported to park rangers.

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[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"My Family’s Heritage"}]

While the Moulton family no longer owns the historic structures, they still have a deep connection to their homesteads in the Teton Valley.

Steve Moulton is the grandson of T.A. Moulton, who built 

of the still-standing structures on Mormon Row and one of the most photographed barns in the world.

“My grandfather built the T.A. barn way back in the early 1900s,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “My dad helped build it and worked on it over the years. I have worked on it myself. I've been on the roof of the T.A. barn because we were putting a new roof on it.”

Moulton admitted that he climbed all over the T.A. Moulton Barn as a child, but that was when it was his family’s property.

The 1-acre parcel with the T.A. Moulton Barn was sold to the National Park Service in 2018, making it the last privately owned real estate on Mormon Row to be folded into Grand Teton National Park.

“I’m associated with the T.A. Moulton Barn, but that doesn't mean that I want to see anything going on down at the John Moulton Barn either,” Steve said. “It’s my family's heritage.”

omeone clambering over the historic building, especially since there’s been such an effort to ensure the remaining structures at Mormon Row remain standing.

“It's clear that there are people in this world who have no respect for public property,” he said. “To keep them in good condition, we have to take care of them, because yes, they are fragile.”

Grand Teton officials "are aware of the video" and warn that "climbing on historic structures can cause irreversible damage," said park spokesperson Emily Davis in a statement to Cowboy State Daily.

“At Mormon Row, visitors come to experience a remarkable historic landscape,” she added. “When someone disregards the rules and climbs on these structures, it detracts from that shared experience and puts an irreplaceable piece of our nation's history at risk.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Loved To Death"}]

Most people who visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks from around the world don’t have destructive intentions. They just want to take in the beauty of the landscape, like millions of others.

[{"type":"text","text":"That, however, can be part of the problem."}]

As visitation to national parks increases, one commonly heard concern is that they’re “

” The reason is that higher densities of tourists are, intentionally or unintentionally, causing more destruction and disturbance to the natural vistas that drew people there in the first place.

“We ask all visitors to help preserve historic buildings by viewing them from designated areas and not climbing on or entering the structures,” Davis said. “Historic buildings can be more fragile than they appear, and even what might seem like minor actions can contribute to the buildings' deterioration over time.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Steve shares some of that concern. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"As Mormon Row has become more popular, the impact on the area is evident."}]

“What bothers me is there's so much foot traffic around the T.A. Barn,” he said. “The pictures used to have green grass in front of the barn. Now, it's just dirt because there is so much traffic.”

 at Mormon Row is underway. Jenkins has said it was part of several “micro-geographic” efforts to improve popular spots in the park for a better overall visitor experience.

“We want to be able to host more visitation at Mormon Row, so we're looking at things we can be doing to help manage that visitation,” he told Cowboy State Daily in May.

The list of desired site improvements includes a larger, centralized parking lot, new interpretive and wayfinding signs, distinct walking paths, and furnishings like benches and trash cans, new restrooms, and a 0.75-mile trail extension connecting Mormon Trail Road to Antelope Flats Road.

“Construction started at Mormon Row earlier this month,” Davis said. “Site improvements there are part of a multi-phase project to improve accessibility and the visitor experience while protecting the site's historic character.”

These improvements will go hand-in-hand with an ecological restoration of Mormon Row. 

Native vegetation will be planted and damaged areas restored, and the new parking lot will be built further away from the historic homesteads to ensure the landscape and views remain as pristine as possible.

they’d help to mitigate the damage of visitor traffic. However, that doesn’t eliminate the damage caused by reckless tourists who are determined to do their own thing to the detriment of the park and its visitors.

“We want (Mormon Row) to last many more decades, so we have to be really careful with anything that goes on around them, as far as touching, climbing, or taking stuff off them for souvenirs,” he said.

Many people value the serenity of Mormon Row and the Moulton barns as much as the Moulton family itself. Steve hopes that will lead to better decisions and increased awareness.

“I want visitors to understand their historical importance,” he said. “I want them to have the same feelings as my family does about preserving the integrity of those structures, so we have to take great care to not do anything that will be destructive to them.”

Climing on Moulton building 1 7 21 26

<title>Grand Teton Tourist Caught Illegally Climbing On Famous Mormon Row Building | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A tourist caught on video climbing one of the famous Mormon Row buildings in Grand Teton Park broke the law and disrespected “my family’s heritage,” said the grandson of T.A. Moulton who, along with his brother, built the most park's famous homesteads.

Grand Teton Tourist Caught Illegally Climbing On Famous Mormon Row Building

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Montana grizzly advocates say it should be mandatory for hunters and trappers to carry bear spray in grizzly country — a move they say will make people safer and save bears from being shot.

A coalition of 19 Montana organizations and 46 individuals Tuesday submitted a petition to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission to require carrying bear spray, much like hunters are required to wear fluorescent orange.

Similar petitions were filed in Wyoming and Idaho in 2019, but those efforts failed.

The push for mandatory bear spray touches on the debate over whether a firearm or bear spray is better for stopping a grizzly attack.

Another point of debate is how many grizzlies can be killed without imperiling bear recovery in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

While grizzlies are not hunted in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, it is legal to kill one in defense of human life.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Alternative to ‘Going for the Gun’"}]

One of the petitioners, Mike Bader of Missoula, said the intent is not to forbid hunters or trappers from also carrying handguns for bear defense if they choose.

But making bear spray mandatory would be no different than wildlife agencies requiring fluorescent orange or requiring that boaters wear life jackets, he told Cowboy State Daily.

“We’re looking at the facts of the matter. And the fact is, hunting and trapping significantly increase your chances of having an encounter with a bear,” said Bader, a grizzly ecologist and former Yellowstone National Park ranger.

Trappers might use meat or other bait that can attract bears, he said. And hunters move stealthily, often through thick cover and at dawn and dusk.

Mandatory bear spray would give them “another alternative rather than going for the gun first” in case of a bear encounter gone bad, Bader said.

There has been a steady increase in the number of bears shot and killed by hunters claiming self-defense, he said.

That adds to the grizzly death toll, which could threaten bears’ full recovery in the Rocky Mountain West, he added.

An important element of full grizzly recovery is robust genetic exchange between subpopulations, such as the Greater Yellowstone population and Montana’s Northern Continental Divide grizzly population, Bader said.

Requiring bear spray would help protect grizzlies, but human safety should remain a priority, Bader said.

“Of course we want to stop bears from getting killed. But the primary thing, just like with hunter orange or life vests, is that it’s a public safety thing,” Bader said.

“All of the wildlife agencies encourage bear spray,” he added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Game and Fish Stresses Education"}]

Petitions were filed in 2019 to mandate bear spray for hunters in Wyoming and Idaho, Kristin Combs, executive director of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The petitions were rejected, she said."}]

Then-Game and Fish Commission member Peter Dube said bear spray should be encouraged for anyone venturing into Wyoming’s backcountry.

However, “I don’t think it needs to be a requirement,” he said, according to notes from the commission’s July 19, 2019, meeting in Rock Springs.

Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that the department emphasizes education regarding safety in grizzly country and how to properly use bear spray.

“We have discussed this option (mandating bear spray) with our commission in the past and decided, rather than making it mandatory, that we would prioritize providing education and outreach, as well as providing free bear spray and training,” she said in a text message.

Mandating bear spray also isn’t something the Game and Fish Commission could have decided on its own. 

It would have required action by the Wyoming Legislature, Bruce added.

Game and Fish hosts bear safety seminars around Wyoming. Participants are invited to test their bear-spraying skills by going up against Robobear.

Robobear is a wheeled contraption with a facsimile of a bear mounted atop it that can reach speeds of 20 mph or more as it charges.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Won’t Fly With Hunters"}]

Guy Eastman of Cody has hunted numerous times in grizzly country and told Cowboy State Daily that he acknowledges the value of bear spray.

Even so, he doesn’t favor making it mandatory, and the idea “isn’t going to fly with the hunters,” said Eastman, who represents the third generation of the outdoor multimedia family.

“It’s one of those things that sounds good on paper. But the actual logistics of implementing that, monitoring it and babysitting people to carry it — that’s a whole other issue,” he said.

Also, even when hunters are carrying bear spray, they might see the rifle in their hands as the best first option if a grizzly charges them, Eastman said.

“You think you’re going to set your rifle down and reach for the bear spray? No. There’s going to be a ‘boom,’” he said.

Eastman added that he thinks the number of grizzlies killed defensively by hunters will never come close to the number killed by wildlife agencies for such things as attacking cattle.

Some argue that opening a hunting season for grizzlies in Wyoming wouldn’t affect human-bear conflicts. Others claim that it would make a difference by making grizzlies more fearful of humans.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Eastman takes the latter view."}]

"We’re not arguing over whether bears are going to die. Bears are going to get killed. We’re arguing over who is going to do it (hunters or wildlife agents),” he said.

Bruce recently told the Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee that Game and Fish agents are likely killing more grizzlies than hunters would during grizzly hunting seasons.

Griz bear spray 7 21 26

<title>Montana Grizzly Advocates Want Bear Spray Mandatory for Hunters, Trappers | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Grizzly advocates in Montana submitted a petition Tuesday to make bear spray mandatory for hunters like wearing fluorescent orange is now. Guy Eastman of Cody has hunted numerous times in grizzly country and said the idea “isn’t going to fly with hunters.”

Montana Grizzly Advocates Want Bear Spray Mandatory for Hunters, Trappers

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Jory Thomas, 14, was absent-mindedly flipping loops with a rope while visiting his grandparents' campground on the Yellowstone River over the Fourth of July weekend when he heard someone start screaming for help.

Within seconds, the Montana ranch kid emptied his pockets, splashed across a side channel and waded chest-deep into the river.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then he did something he'd spent the past year practicing on calves."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"This time, he roped a drowning man."}]

The July 5 rescue unfolded so quickly that by the time the first Sweet Grass County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived three minutes after Jory's father called 911, everyone was already safely on shore.

"My opinion, Jory saved the individual's life, 100%," Sweet Grass County Sheriff Alan Ronneberg told Cowboy State Daily. "Had Jory not acted, I believe the chances of this individual not making it to shore were very slim.”'

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Boat Hits A Bridge"}]

The Thomas family lives on a ranch about a dozen miles outside Big Timber, directly across from a campground where Jory's grandparents had been staying for the week.

Jory wandered over to visit with his parents and grandparents that afternoon, a rope already in his hand as he casually practiced throwing loops.

"All of a sudden he heard some yells for help," Jory's father, Jase Thomas, told Cowboy State Daily.

A boat had struck a bridge pillar, throwing its occupants into the Yellowstone River.

Three people fell in, but only two managed to get out, leaving one person alone in the swift current, desperately clinging to a cooler.

[{"type":"text","text":"Jory didn't hesitate."}]

Somehow, said his father, he convinced the drowning man to let go of the cooler. Then he threw the rope, catching the man around the neck and one arm. 

Jory and another bystander then pulled the man safely to shore before emergency responders arrived. 

In the moment, Jory didn’t think about any potential danger to himself, he just acted on instinct, the teen told KTVQ television in Billings, Montana, which first 

"This current was pretty fast then, and he was moving pretty quickly," he told the outlet. "Only thing I could focus on was helping him get out of the water because I didn't want to see anyone go in front of me.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Let Me Have My Son Back'"}]

Jory's father has spent three decades on the Big Timber Volunteer Fire Department and immediately called 911.

Dispatch records show the call came in at 5:39 p.m. A deputy arrived just three minutes later and reported everyone was already out of the water. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Watching the rescue unfold wasn't easy for the elder Thomas. "}]

He knows that stretch of river, and that it becomes more dangerous just downstream, where swift current, deep holes and logjams create deadly hazards.

"My biggest concern was to let me have my son back," he said before taking a long pause, reflecting on the potential for Jory to also get caught up in the current.

"He understands water, but I don't think he understands what could happen,” Jase said. "I mean, he does, but he had one thing in mind, which is great, and he got it done." 

Jase believes the man his son rescued likely wouldn't have survived much longer.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sheriff Ronneberg agrees."}]

"I'm not sure how close the individual was to being 'lost,' but in my experience such things happen faster than you might guess they can," he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'He Loves Roping' "}]

Although the rescue looked almost unbelievable, it wasn't blind luck. Jory has spent the past year immersing himself in roping.

He practices on roping dummies in his spare time and started roping calves from horseback during local brandings, his father said.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He's always had a rope,\" Jase said. \"He loves roping.\" "}]

Outside of ranch work, he's an avid hunter and is spending this week showing a steer and a pig at the county fair. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'That's Just Who He Is'"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"To his family, the rescue wasn't entirely surprising."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Jase said his son has always been the first person to help someone else."}]

"We'll be in town at the grocery store, and you'll see an elderly person," he said. "They can't pack the groceries, and he never says a word. He goes over and gets their groceries and packs them out. That's just who he is." 

Ronneberg said the rescue is a reminder that courage often appears in ordinary moments.

"Jory saw another in trouble and acted, not for himself but for another," Ronneberg said. "He didn't pull out a phone, but a lariat. He didn't watch what was happening but intervened."

"Jory is a lesson for all of us in this day and age and showed us what is courageous and right.”

Montana lasso teen 7 21 26

<title>14-Year-Old Ranch Kid Ropes Drowning Man On Yellowstone River, Saves Life | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A 14-year-old ranch kid from Big Timber, Montana, had a rope in his hand when cries for help erupted from the Yellowstone River. He sprinted into the water, threw one loop and caught a struggling man around the arm and neck, pulling him safely to shore.

14-Year-Old Ranch Kid Ropes Drowning Man On Yellowstone River, Saves Life

Two tourists were seen getting dangerously and illegally close to Grand Prismatic Spring on Sunday in Yellowstone National Park, enraging hundreds of spectators and millions of internet onlookers.

Tanya Saueressig of Livingston, Montana, was visiting Yellowstone with a friend when she witnessed the incident. She was standing on the Grand Prismatic boardwalk around 7 p.m. during what was otherwise a pleasant evening.

“It was a really nice crowd,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “People on the boardwalk were being lovely, giving each other space, and being quiet. It was a really nice experience.”

Saueressig was getting her final look of the evening when she saw something moving across the expansive microbial mats toward Grand Prismatic.

“I stopped in my tracks and was like, ‘Is that people? That can't be people. Nobody's that dumb,’” she said. 

[{"type":"text","text":"After all, temperatures in the spring run from 145 - 188 degrees. Deadly."}]

But, it was people. Two women, who appeared to be approaching the massive hot spring from the Fairy Falls Trail, which runs along the western edge of Grand Prismatic.

Saueressig's lovely evening quickly soured, as she was immediately overwhelmed by a wave of different emotions.

“I started getting scared because I thought they were going to fall in and get really, really hurt,” she said. “I worried people at the overlook were going to watch someone die that day. They were out there where nobody could help them.”

Concern quickly turned to anger. As she watched the women nonchalantly walk along the edge of Grand Prismatic, within 50 feet of its scalding-hot water, she got “so furious that I literally had tears in my eyes.”

“You could tell they were just strolling along, taking their selfies, without a care in the world,” she said. “They were totally oblivious to what was right under their feet. You're causing so much damage with every step you take, and you don't care.”

Someone else filmed the dark-haired duo 

. That video has been viewed millions of times in less than 24 hours. 

There’s no word on whether the individuals in the videos were identified or reported to Yellowstone's law enforcement rangers.

“I was so angry,” Saueressig said. “It was so mind-boggling to me that they would be out there in the first place.”

Walking on the fragile microbial mats around Grand Prismatic Spring and Yellowstone's many thermal features is a crime, punishable by fines, incarceration, and a multi-year ban from Yellowstone.

 in the park. That hasn’t stopped others from 

Greg Jackson, a former deputy chief for the National Park Service’s Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services in Washington, D.C., called this type of tourist “the 0.1%.”

“Some people see the world differently than the mainstream,” he said. “You build an infrastructure that's dedicated to the 99.9% of people that don’t do this, and then you get people who don’t see that infrastructure or decide it doesn’t apply to them.”

Many people plead ignorance when charged with thermal trespass, saying they weren’t aware they were violating any rules or that they saw no signs in the immediate area where they were caught.

In Jackson’s opinion, it doesn’t matter how much the National Park Service does to prevent this kind of behavior. Nothing stops the 0.1%.

“I’ve seen people climb over guardrails to keep them from falling off a cliff for a better picture,” he said. “You can create as much of a deterrent as you can, but some people aren’t deterred by what would deter most people. Those outliers walk among us.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“Helpless”"}]

Saueressig wanted to immediately report the Sunday evening incident to a Yellowstone ranger. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find one.

“There weren't any rangers on the boardwalk, which there rarely are,” she said. “I think they only show up if an incident is called in, because they have so many other places to be and there's so few of them.”

That left Saueressig even more despondent in the moment. She felt “helpless” to do anything about the egregious act she was witnessing.

“You can help them or stop them because it’s already happening,” she said. “I didn’t have cell reception, so I couldn't call anybody. There wasn't anybody I could run up to and notify. I didn’t know what to do.”

With no other options, Saueressig did the best thing she could by filming and sharing the video on social media. While not a guarantee, it could lead to the identification of the perpetrators.

[{"type":"text","text":"Still, it did little to comfort her in the moment."}]

“The anger I was feeling was awful, and feeling helpless made it worse,” she said.

[{"type":"text","text":"How Vs. Why Not?"}]

Can anything be done to stop “the 0.1%”? Jackson doesn’t see a viable solution that hasn’t already been tried.

“If I could find a way of fixing that, I certainly would,” he said. “It creates a problem for everyone.”

In Jackson’s view, the National Park Service has made “reasonable and good efforts” to curtail the brazen behavior of the small number of tourists who choose to do these things. After all, the vast majority of Yellowstone’s visitors enjoy the park without incident.

[{"type":"text","text":"Would more signage, boardwalks, and barricades help?"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Yes, but in Jackson’s experience, only to a point."}]

“I think they’ve done everything they can, but somebody's always going to think in a way you hadn't thought of before,” he said. “If you build a barricade, people will jump over it. If you build a wall, someone will hang-glide or parachute in.”

Having a ranger in the vicinity, visibly keeping an eye out for miscreants, might help stop this behavior. However, Jackson still didn’t think that would be enough.

“I’ve seen people do things right in front of me that you wouldn't think they would do, and they don’t have a clue,” he said. “A ranger might deter some people, but some people aren't deterred by the things that would deter most people.”

Most people, including Jackson, don’t think like this. That’s why trying to prevent this behavior is often futile.

“We can't see how, and they can't see why not,” he said. “That’s what makes people different. It’s a strange world we live in.”

When Saueressig started filming the two tourists, there was more on her mind than justice.

She recalled the incident at Grand Prismatic in June 2025, when 

 and was scalded to death by the 160-degree thermal water. One wrong step or a small crack in the thin crust could quickly prove fatal.

 to the microbial mats surrounding Grand Prismatic. These delicate living masses of thermophilic bacteria are what give the pool its vibrant colors.

“If they didn’t die, they were leaving permanent scars on the microbial mats,” she said. “They were causing so much damage with every step they took, and they literally didn’t care at all.”

People charged with thermal trespass can, and often do, plead ignorance. That usually isn’t enough to get them off the hook for fines, although it can be enough to avoid a few days at the Yellowstone Detention Center at Mammoth Hot Springs.

Ultimately, the damage is already done. No amount of money or jail time can remove the footprints and other scars left behind by people walking on Yellowstone’s thermal features.

“Ignorance may be a reason, but it’s no excuse,” Jackson said. “The resource doesn't care whether it's been damaged by people who are unaware or malicious. It’s still damage.”

Even the worst sentences can be seen as lucky breaks. Several people have been seriously injured or killed after getting too close to Yellowstone’s thermal features.

One would think a high risk of death might be enough to dissuade tourists from tempting their luck. That mentality’s been proven, time and time again, to not be enough to stop “the 0.1%”

“People still die whether they’re aware they’re intentionally violating the law or not,” Jackson said. “Sometimes, life's a little harder if you're clueless or decide the danger doesn’t apply to you.”

Tourists grand prismatic spring 7 20 26

<title>Tourists Again Illegally Walk On Dangerous Grand Prismatic Spring In Yellowstone | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Two tourists got dangerously and illegally close to Grand Prismatic Spring on Sunday in Yellowstone. Montana resident Tanya Saueressig, who filmed them taking selfies right next to the scalding water, said she "was so furious" she had tears in her eyes.

Tourists Again Illegally Walk On Dangerous Grand Prismatic Spring In Yellowstone

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

Renée Jean

From burgers and ice cream in Atlantic City to showers in Lander to Thai food in Rawlins, hikers on the Continental Divide Trail are giving small Wyoming towns a big economic boost. “It’s put Atlantic City on the map,” said one local business owner.

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