Daily Cartoon

Cartoon 2 8 9 26

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

<title>Daily Cartoon 2: Sunday, August 9, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon 2: Sunday, August 9, 2026

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

As vampire bats move north and chronic wasting disease (CWD) spreads south, a disease researcher is worried it’s only a matter of time before the two find each other, if they haven’t already.

And that could just add to and accelerate the spread of the pernicious disease, which has killed countless deer and elk, Peter Larsen, associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, told Cowboy State Daily.

There’s also concern that the spread of CWD could prompt the development of other fatal prion-based diseases, which could sicken and kill other species, including humans, added Larsen, also the co-director of the Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach.

Prions are malformed proteins that cause CWD and similar maladies, which attack the brain and nervous system.

At present, there’s no risk of CWD getting into cattle, veterinarians told Cowboy State Daily.

There’s zero evidence in Wyoming for the presence of the cattle-specific prion disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly called mad cow disease, Wyoming State Veterinarian Hallie Hasel told Cowboy State Daily.

In the 1980s and 1990s, there was an outbreak of the human form of mad cow disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). It killed 178 people who ate contaminated beef, mostly in the United Kingdom.

There’s never been a documented case of humans getting similarly ill by eating meat from CWD-infected deer and elk.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Blood-Sucking Bats"}]

Personal experience prompted Larsen to start researching the possible links between CWD and vampire bats.

“I was fed on by a vampire bat when I was doing research in South America,” he said.

Vampire bats are native to South America and Central America. They’ve been expanding their range into Mexico.

And it’s possible that they could get as far north as New Mexico within a decade or so, Larsen said.

As to whether they’ll ever make it to Wyoming, the chances are “very low,” because vampire bats are adapted to hot, humid climates, he said.

However, other species of bats that eat insects and can survive farther north might take in CWD prions from “blood-engorged insects,” he said.

Moreover, CWD-positive white-tailed deer might have been imported to Mexico from ranches in Texas, Larsen said.

So, there’s a chance the vampire bats are already sucking blood from those deer in Mexico, he said.

“My biggest concern, from a vampire bat perspective, is, over time, does that raise the risk to livestock?” Larsen said.

Vampire bats moving north into Texas could transmit rabies to cattle. And “if you add a layer of prions on top of that, that’s a big deal,” Larsen said.

During a previous interview with The Wildlife Society, Larsen said the leading hypothesis for the origin of CWD was from a research facility that kept mule deer alongside sheep infected with another prion disease, scabies.

Continuous exposure to scabies prions might have caused the deer to eventually develop CWD prions, he said.

Prions can be spread through the blood, urine or feces of infected animals, and they can survive in soil, water or even dust for years.

Larsen said he’s concerned that with CWD prions becoming so prevalent across such a broad area they might give rise to prion diseases in other species.

There have been cases of animals that were “exhibiting strange symptoms, like rabies symptoms” but tested negative for rabies, Larsen said.

“Does that mean that those were cases of prion diseases that are being missed?” he said.

For now, CWD is thought of as just “a deer and elk disease,” he said.

And it might remain so, but he encourages more research into the possibility that it won’t.

He used the recent New World screwworm outbreak in cattle in Texas and other states as an example of something that shouldn’t have taken Americans by surprise.

“We need to get in front of it. If we think, ‘this can never happen,’ and then it starts happening, then we’re already behind,” Larsen said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Species-Specific’"}]

For the most part, prion diseases stay in their lanes and don

t cause cross-species harm, former Montana state veterinarian Martin Zaluski told Cowboy State Daily.

“Prion diseases are highly species-specific, until they’re not,” he said.

However, the instances of “until they’re not” seem extremely rare, he said.

“The general consensus is that we’ve had CWD since, maybe, the 1940s or 1950s,” and there has been no evidence of it sickening cattle, he said.

The chances of prions getting transmitted to cattle through bats also seem incredibly slim, he said.

CWD prions are most likely to get into cattle through soil and plants, by way of deer or elk urine or feces, or the carcasses of animals that died from CWD, he said.

CWD could be taken up in plants, which are in turn grazed by cattle, Zaluski said.

“That’s happening across the U.S. already,” with no evident threat to livestock health, he said.

CWD possibly sickening Wyoming cattle “is not a concern in any way,” said Hasel.

Vampire bat and elk 8 8 26

<title>Biologists Concerned Vampire Bats Could Transmit Chronic Wasting Disease To Cattle, Humans | Cowboy State Daily</title>

As vampire bats move north from Mexico and chronic wasting disease moves south from the Northern Rockies, a disease expert worries that the bats could start carrying the disease and transmitting them to cattle or even humans.

Biologists Concerned Vampire Bats Could Transmit Chronic Wasting Disease To Cattle, Humans

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Agriculture

Jack Baird, who runs sheep and cattle on over 30,000 acres near Thermopolis, calls cheatgrass "a little thief" because it robs moisture from native grasses on the sections of land he uses for grazing.

Fellow rancher Chip Axtell of Hot Springs County estimates at least 20% of his own rangeland and farm have been taken over by cheatgrass, which is only green in the early spring and late fall. This limits where he can graze his cattle and is especially damaging during a drought.

“Cheatgrass grabs up all the moisture, so the native grasses get pushed out,” Axtell said. “If you keep stressing the land further with grazing or drought, it just becomes the predominant grass that's around.”

More than $32 million has been lost in agricultural land and wildlife habitat last year due to cheatgrass, a fast-growing invasive weed known. It is an ecological nightmare for wildlife and land managers.

estimate if cheatgrass continues to spread, annual losses could exceed $109.8 million.

Cheatgrass, also known as downy brome, literally creates a drought state on the landscape even when Wyoming is not in a drought. Since the 1800s, this invasive weed has been choking out native grasses and “cheating” them out of the nutrients and soil.

“It is actually a pretty pathetic grass with a minimal root system,” Nancy Fleming, the Wind River Bighorn Basin District's invasive annual grass coordinator, told Cowboy State Daily. “But it’s seed production is tremendous.”

One cheatgrass plant can produce 200 seeds viable for up to 11 years. Thousands will sit in a seed bank in the first few inches of soil, just waiting to germinate.

“The cheatgrass takeover has been going on for over a century,” Axtell said. “It grows wherever there's a disturbance in the ground such as a two-track, or any digging. The cheatgrass comes in because the seeds get started in that disturbed ground.”

 Axtell said he has been battling cheatgrass his entire life and tries not to graze all the grass in order to leave the native grass healthy and keep the cheatgrass at bay.

 “There's no silver bullet when it comes to invasive annual grasses, particularly cheat grass,” Fleming said. “Cheatgrass is something that we're managing. It's not something that we will eradicate.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Evil Enemy"}]

Cheatgrass is an invasive annual grass that's not native to North America. It came from Europe and Eurasia in the mid- to late 1800s as a contaminant in seed and straw, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

“It's been noted in every state in the lower 48 but it's causing more destruction in the Western States because of our climate,” Fleming said.

Cheatgrass grows in the winter and sprouts its roots under the snow. It is the first plant to green up in the spring. As an annual, it dies off each year and has a different growing cycle that Wyoming’s native perennial grass.

Cheatgrass’ sole purpose is to produce as much seed as possible before dying off every June. Then in becomes another type of menace: Fuel for fire. 

 “It takes one lightning strike to get a fire started,” Fleming said. “That fuel load created by dead cheatgrass helps spread the fire quickly through this country.”

 that cheatgrass has disrupted the fire cycle in sagebrush habitat and other western ecosystems, leading to more frequent and more intense burns. Those fires subsequently destroy native grasses and sage.

“Invasives come back the next year and so the fire doesn't affect them,” Fleming said. “As a result, we see this reoccurring, increased fire cycle that is not typical for this area.”

Fleming said fires typically burn every 30 years in grass and sage ecosystems, but thanks to cheatgrass they are occurring every five years or sooner.

 burned more than 126,000 acres outside of Thermopolis. Several organizations are monitoring the land to beat back the expected surge of cheatgrass. The fire started from a lightning strike on Axtell’s ranch and spread to neighboring ranches.

“Cheatgrass has the first opportunity to get the moisture and get started,” Axtell said. “With this fire, they're really watching to see where it's going to come back.”

Axtell said a grant for more than $8 million has been allocated to fight cheatgrass in the burn area. He is hopeful that by being proactive they will keep the cheatgrass to a minimum.   

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Benefits of Cheatgrass"}]

“When it's green, cheat grass actually has some decent protein and a forge quality to it,” Fleming said. “But it's only green from April to maybe June which is a very short window.”

Baird admits that because the cheat grass can be beneficial, he has mixed emotions about the expense of eradicating it.  

“If you get a good fall rain, it might stay green under the snow until December or January,” he said. “Those cows are getting green feed and getting protein naturally from the cheatgrass.”

Baird said cheatgrass can be up to 18% protein in the early season, but cattle will have little of the grass to graze. The good grass, according to Baird, might only be 6% protein in the winter, but even when it dries it still has good feed value. 

Cheatgrass, on the other hand, has no feed value once in dries in the spring.

 Although experts say they can only manage the weed, not eradicate it, they are seeing successes.  

“The best tools that we have for long-term management is herbicides,” Fleming said. “We have been using products like Rejuvra to treat invasive annual grasses on a large-landscape scale.”

The goal is to target seed sources. Plants would not only grow but viable seed would also be eliminated.

Baird had five acres sprayed with the herbicide and noticed the cheatgrass was not as productive. However, the herbicide's expense makes the treatment prohibitive on much of his 30,000 acres of grazing leases and private property. It is close to $50 an acre to treat, he said.

So far, Fleming said, studies have shown if an area is treated twice, much of the cheatgrass will be eliminated and native grasses can regain their lost foothold.

“What we're finding is that when you treat, your perennial grass production nearly doubles in the treated areas and your annual grass does nothing,” Fleming said.

 By eliminating cheatgrass, Fleming said studies show the perennial grass has access to nutrients and water.

“Our grass feels good again,” Fleming said. “It's not in a drought state anymore nor being suppressed. It's actually being vigorous, more productive.”

Fleming said that these more resilient, productive, perennial species would then be more competitive when cheatgrass re-enters the landscape.

 Landowners have access to the herbicide at local weed and pest offices and can apply for grants to apply the chemical.

“Rejuvra is fairly new, and it's kind of a proven chemical, so we probably will get on a program now,” Axtell said. “Before, there was no guarantee that what you were going to use with Plateau or other chemicals was really going to give you that great of control.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Work In Progress"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Axtell said that as more people treat for cheatgrass, it will help."}]

“You would no longer have neighbors who aren't treating while you're still battling cheatgrass coming in from around you,” Axtell said. “It's helpful that the chemical is so good at what it does.”

For those who are concerned about using an herbicide, more labor-intensive options are available, although these techniques have not been as effective. Axtell said they have tried these techniques themselves but have seen little effect against cheatgrass.

“We try not to graze in the spring and graze in the fall and let those natives propagate and come back,” Axtell said. “We've tried grazing with goats. We've tried real early spring grazing with high intensity and then getting off to try to graze out the cheatgrass.

“It just seems like once it's there, it's really hard to re-establish some natives.”

Baird said current drought conditions have actually naturally helped in the battle against the cheatgrass.

“Down on my BLM allotment, where it was basically a monoculture of cheatgrass, there was absolutely nothing green there at all,” Baird said. “The cheatgrass didn't have the moisture, so the deep-rooted native grasses took hold before the cheatgrass even had a chance to germinate.”

Fleming said she has visited other states where the cheatgrass had destroyed wildlife habitats and agricultural lands, and said it was heartbreaking.

“I work really closely with the BLM, and every single year, we're spraying a large section of public land for invasive grasses,” Fleming said, “The idea is, hopefully, we can start connecting larger chunks of property together by working with private landowners on larger projects.”

Cheatgrass and fire Game and Fish 8 8 26

<title>Cheatgrass An Nightmare For Wyoming Rangeland, Costing $110 Million In Losses | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Cheatgrass has become a nightmare for Wyoming ranchers, costing an estimated $110 million in annual losses. Hot Springs rancher Chip Axtell estimates 20% of his own rangeland has been taken over by cheatgrass. “It grabs up all the moisture," he said.

Cheatgrass An Nightmare For Wyoming Rangeland, Costing $110 Million In Losses

Wyoming Life

In the 1960s and '70s, a big banner hung over the Greybull blacksmith shop that proclaimed "Wyoming’s Ugliest Man" worked there. 

Foreign tourists on their way to Yellowstone National Park would detour to the shop where Reuben Reifschneider would entertain them by popping out an eye and his teeth, showing exactly how he had won that title.

Reifschneider, who lived in Basin and had his shop in Greybull, won nationwide acclaim when he earned the title “Wyoming’s Ugliest Man” on Art Linkletter’s popular CBS variety show "House Party" in 1964 and 1965.  

The June 12, 1965, the Casper Morning Star reported that defending champion Reifschneider was voted “the ugliest man in Wyoming” by the audience, whose wild applause “was overwhelming.”

“It isn’t the glass eye that gets them,” Reifschneider said after his second win. “It’s my winning smile.”

Ralph N. Gillett of Greybull and Reifschneider were flown to Hollywood to appear on the Friday program to compete for the title in front of millions of viewers. 

It was a running gag and guest feature, and the colorful blacksmith earned it, according to the locals who remember Reifschneider as a gregarious storyteller.

“I remember him as a kind and patient man,” Pam Richardson told Cowboy State Daily. “He had to work at the ugly. He wasn’t handsome, but he wasn’t scary to us kids.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Costume Needed"}]

Dan Zavorka said Reuben was one of the nicest guys in the world and embraced his title. 

“I recall him telling my folks that he took out his glass eye and false teeth for the contest,” Zavorka said. “Reuben was just himself. He didn't need a costume at all.”

According to Zavorka, the other contestants competed for the title by dressing in outrageous costumes. He recalls seeing one man with a big scruffy beard pretending to be a caveman.

Earline Oset said her dad, Buck Caldwell, competed against Reifschneider in the first contest by growing a beard and pretending to be a prospector.

“My dad could never have been the ugly man,” Oset said. “He had gotten a little black and dirty from working and he crawled on a burro. It was pretty cute.”

Oset said Reifschneider deserved the title because he didn’t need a costume. He just had to take out his eye and teeth and it changed his entire appearance to a “natural ugly.”

After his second win, the June 17, 1965, Casper Morning Star said Reifschneider proudly boasted on TV, “We’ll show those bearded fellers that we baldfaces ain’t sissies!”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Baldfaced Vigilantes"}]

Reifschneider was referring to a special group to which he belonged: The “Baldfaced Vigilantes.” According to the Morning Star, the group, known as the BFV, were beardless, terrorist rebels. Their agenda was to demolish the Diamond Jubilee beard-growing promotion among Wyoming men. 

To achieve their goal, the BFV were known to kidnap and shave bearded individuals.

“Last Sunday night, bearded whiskerino Walter Johnson of Lander was waylaid on a lonely country road outside town and shaved with a cordless electric razor,” the Casper paper reported. “And to add insult to injury, the masked desperadoes who perpetrated the deed painted the letters BFV in bold, black strokes across Johnson’s cheeks and forehead.”

Reifschneider’s title of Wyoming's Ugliest Man was a huge boost to the cause of the BFV since he won against a bearded individual. 

The taunts between the groups continued for the rest of the summer and the Wind River Mountain Men joined in to defend beards in Wyoming.

“If we don’t get help, the beard-growers might just be in the minority this summer in Wyoming,” the bearded men told the newspaper.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Goofy Blacksmith"}]

Reifschneider took his title in stride and for decades would entertain both the young and old with his special talent of “ugly.”

Jeral Preis wrote on the “10 Things I remember about Greybull, Wyoming” Facebook page that his dad told him a story about Reifschneider.

“He bet dad a beer that he could bite his eyeball,” Preis wrote. “He popped his eye out and bit it. He then bet dad another beer he could bite his other eyeball, popped his teeth out and bit it. Dad told me 'never bet a man at his own game.'”

Wade Werbelow remembers Reifschneider with his big ears and bigger smile. His grandpa, Lyle Kenyon, had a shop next to Reifschneider’s, and Werbelow spent a lot of time with the men as a youngster.

“My grandpa and Reuben would go in the bowling alley on coffee breaks at 10 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon,” Werbelow said. “I can remember he'd blow out his teeth, and put his glass eye in a cup of coffee just to get a reaction from people.”

Zavorka said Reifschneider always had time to talk and he always had time for children.

“I was probably 8 years old, and he would just sit down, tell me a story, laugh, and carry on, and, and just keep on talking,” Zavorka said.  

Paul Vinzant remembered that it was Reifschneider who was responsible for Greybull’s fireworks display every Fourth of July.

“He had the fireworks stand,” Vinzant told Cowboy State Daily. “I was just a kid who bought firecrackers from him.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Storyteller"}]

Greybull Historian Tom Davis said that in his early years as a farmer, he had lots of old equipment that Reifschneider would fix up for him in his welding shop.

“Reuben loved to tell stories, and he would tell me how busy he was — then he would stop working and spend 15 or 20 minutes or more telling me stories,” Davis said. “One of his favorite stories was from World War II when he was in General Patton's 3rd Army.”

Reifschneider told Davis he was busy repairing a Jeep when his sergeant rushed over, telling the men to clean up a bit, because General Patton was there inspecting his troops. Reifschneider replied that he was too busy repairing a Jeep to mess around waiting for the General--and he crawled back under a Jeep and kept working.

Pretty soon, Davis recounted that Reifschneider noticed a pair of highly polished boots standing beside the Jeep. He heard a voice saying "Soldier! What are you doing? Why aren't you ready? Fall in for Inspection."

"I'm too (explative) busy getting this Jeep fixed so that it can go all the way to Berlin without breaking down!" Reifschneider said.

Then, according to Reifschneider, he heard the general say, "Carry on soldier. We need more men like you in this outfit."

Davis said Reifschneider continued to live in Basin, even after moving his welding shop to Greybull in 1958-59. 

In March 1977, Reifschneider died unexpectedly and both Greybull and Basin mourned the passing of Wyoming’s Ugliest Man.

Ugliest man 475496866 1051871780314198 6712966853480816328 n 8 8 26

<title>'Wyoming's Ugliest Man' Earned Title Proudly On TV By Popping Out Eye And Teeth | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Reuben Reifschneider proudly earned the title of “Wyoming’s Ugliest Man” twice by popping out a glass eye and his teeth on Art Linkletter’s “House Party” TV show in 1964 and 1965. “Reuben was just himself. He didn't need a costume at all,” said a friend.

'Wyoming's Ugliest Man' Earned Title Proudly On TV By Popping Out Eye And Teeth

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

Andrew Rossi

Food

If you find a giant puffball mushroom in Wyoming, you can slice and spice it up for a fungi feast. It's like a slice of bread, two feet across.

Tyler Sease was foraging near the Happy Jack Recreation Area near Laramie when he found the mother of all mushrooms. It was a western giant puffball about as big as two basketballs put together.

Sease could have made a great meal with that massive mushroom, but he probably needed to spice it up a bit. Puffballs cook nicely, but the flavor can leave something to be desired.

“They are edible, but I find them pretty bland,” said Jake States, a retired professor, Lander resident, and mushroom expert. “I sauté them with garlic.”

Western giant puffballs are one of the more common edible mushrooms in Wyoming. Anyone fancying a fungi feast can go out and find one – it might even be as big as Sease’s.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Western Flair"}]

Calvatia booniana, the western giant puffball, is common throughout the fields and forests of Wyoming.  According to States, the shape and size of Sease’s mushroom is enough to identify it.

“Although the puffballs in general have a rounded shape, these large ones are really unique,” he said. “The western giant puffball is irregularly shaped, whereas the eastern giant puffball is almost perfectly round.”

Based on the photo, States believed the mushroom Sease found might have been two fruiting bodies, called gastrocarps or “stomach bodies,” that grew together.

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s not uncommon for puffballs."}]

“The gastrocarps can fuse together, but on the other hand, it is characteristically irregularly rounded or blobby-shaped, and so it could be a single fruit body.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fairy Rings"}]

States said the best places to find western giant puffballs are low-elevation grasslands or subalpine meadows. He’s found they’re common in sagebrush communities, growing together in what’s called a fairy ring.  

“Fairy rings are a circle of fruiting bodies,” he said. “They’re formed by underground mycelium, the feeding vegetative bodies of the fungus, that kill off the surface vegetation and produce reproductive structures in those circles. There are quite a number of mushrooms that form these rings.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“Fairy ring” comes from European folklore."}]

Many western European traditions ascribed the circular rings of mushrooms to the dancing of fairies, pixies, elves, or witches. The Dutch believe the rings marked the spot where the Devil placed his milk churn.

While that’s been debunked by science, there is something supernaturally frustrating about giant puffballs. According to States, they defy modernity.

“We have been unable to produce large puffballs in culture,” he said. “All these mushroom cultivators would dearly love to do so, but we haven't done it yet.”

Puffballs have historically been used to dress wounds, either sliced or powdered, by cultures around the world. They contain a styptic, a substance that stops bleeding and seals injured blood vessels.

“The genus Calvasia has a chemical compound called calvacin, a natural anti-tumor mucoprotein,” said States. “They’re trying to isolate that and get into the pharmaceutical entourage.”

Many scientists would love to further explore and reap the benefits of giant puffballs, but that has yet to be accomplished in a laboratory setting. It is stated that they have mycorrhiza, which means fungus-root associations, that aren’t fully understood.

Bioprospecting is the concept of developing new chemicals, inventions, and technologies by studying the natural adaptations of flora and fauna. It’s something States knows all about.

“I discovered the mold form of a mushroom called Aspergillus laporus,” he said. “That’s the one being studied so much now for its production of natural lysergic acid diethylamine, or LSD. Who knew?”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Death Or Delicacy?"}]

Giant puffballs, including the western giant puffball, are edible. However, nobody should take a bite without dissecting it first.

Giant puffballs can look similar to poisonous earthballs. Many species of the mushroom genus Amanita, including the deadly destroying angel, don’t grow as large as puffballs but can resemble them in their immature growth stages.

States said the easiest way to determine if your two-foot-wide mushroom is edible is to carve it up, which you’d probably do anyway.

“The tissues will be perfectly white as you cut through them,” he said. “As long as that tissue is white, it's edible.”

One group of puffballs has toxic spores, but they’re easy to identify by their purple color.

A safe, savory slice of western puffball mushroom will look like a slice of white bread, except that it’s two feet across. From there, it can be served however one would like.

Regardless, nobody who finds a western giant puffball should immediately pop a piece into their mouths. It’s always best to check and cook before consuming.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Common Craving"}]

If anyone wants a taste of western giant puffball, or maybe serve one for Thanksgiving in lieu of turkey, they’re not hard to find in Wyoming. States encounters them frequently while exploring Lander.

“I'm here in Sinks Canyon, in the transition zone of the sagebrush foothills into the conifer forest, so I find them regularly every season,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"There’s another thing to be wary of when eating giant puffballs."}]

Some people have reported the mushroom as having a laxative effect. Giant puffballs aren’t closely related to Asia’s shiitake mushrooms, but the end result might have a gastrointestinal impact worthy of the name.

Giant puffballs are edible, but there are tastier fungi to forage in Wyoming. That’s why States doesn’t have them on his menu.

“It has a mushroom-type flavor, but I find them bland,” States said. “Some people like anything that tastes fungusy, but I think there are so many more mushrooms that are much better, so I don't mess with (puffballs) at all.”

Happy Jack Reservoir puffball 2 8 8 216

<title>Wyoming Man Finds Mother Of All Puffball Mushrooms At Happy Jack — And It's Edible | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Wyoming man found a giant puffball mushroom the size of two basketballs near the Happy Jack Recreation Area last week. Mushroom expert Jack States says the edible puffball is best when sautéd with garlic but cautions it could have a laxative effect.

Daily Cartoon 2: Sunday, August 9, 2026

More in Daily Cartoon

Daily Cartoon 1: Sunday, August 9, 2026

Daily Cartoon 2: Saturday, August 8, 2026

Daily Cartoon 1: Saturday, August 8, 2026

Daily Cartoon 2: Friday, August 7, 2026

Most read