It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, September 14th. I’m Mac Watson.
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Javier De Luna Chavez survived kidney failure, years of dialysis, and a transplant but didn't survive a crash on the 10% grade of Teton Pass. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that his widow says he fought too hard for life to become another name on the list of people killed on Teton Pass.
“He passed away in a fatal accident on September 2nd, when he was riding in an F250 coming down the pass, it began to pick up speed before launching into the air and then rolling, killing De Luna and injuring the driver. His widow, Aveline De Luna, says she is now pushing for changes to be made to the past. She would like more signage and brake checks. She is going to talk to WYDOT as they make changes in the fall that they had already planned to make this pass safer.”
Avilene De Luna, watched her husband, Javier, fight for his life over the course of a decade. Then he became the third fatality on the steep 10% grade of Wyoming Highway 22 in less than two months.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 74-year-old Worland man attacked a 22-year-old FedEx driver out delivering packages last week because the truck was kicking up too much dust. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the older man jumped onto the moving truck and reached through the open window to get at the driver.
“It's the very definition of that escalated quickly. Apparently, there was too much dust kicked up by the FedEx truck, and this individual decided that he had had enough of that. And within a couple of seconds, it went from him just swearing about the dust on the road to launching himself onto the vehicle, thrusting his arms through the open window, and just trying to pummel the guy. And the whole tussle landed around a minute. The driver was injured by the other individual, and that guy, he fell off the truck, and he got multiple injuries, which he needed stitches for. But when the when authorities came to interview him, he tried to say it was the driver's fault for the whole thing. And even when he appeared in front of the judge to plead guilty to it, he still tried to say it was the driver's fault, and this all stemmed from dust.”
Maurice Behrnes pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor battery Thursday after attacking Juan Esquivel while he was delivering packages in the Worland area.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming Border Patrol is a hit on social media thanks to viral videos with millions of views lampooning Colorado. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports the internet sensation has turned the Laramie apparel company into a media brand.
“You have a company that's started by three guys, and they sell mostly T-shirts with really simple slogans, and it's a basic idea. But what makes it so interesting is that they said, "Let's make some funny videos to help us sell these T-shirts. Well, the videos are so funny, and they've done so well that they are now on the verge of making more profit from their content than from their apparel. It's built around these two Wyoming border patrol agents. You've got Agent Buford, who is the portly lawman with outsized confidence in an entirely arbitrary application of the law, and then you've got Rip, the stoic enforcer who will pull over moving vans with California license plates by throwing a rattlesnake at their windshield. You know, so just really ridiculous parodies, and these characters are so lovable.”
The company now says content revenue for the Wyoming Border Patrol’s AI adoption force videos is on pace to surpass apparel sales.
Read the full story HERE.
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A tour inside Hell’s Half Acre reveals an otherworldly labyrinth of stone, an alien landscape shaped by millions of years of wind and water. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that it's a rare perspective of the sharp canyons because the public generally isn't allowed on the valley floor.
“It's hard to put into words what Hell's Half Acre is like. It's just this labyrinth of rock formations, layers of rock, spires of rock. It's easy to lose track of each other down there. The tour guides went ahead of us, some of us, and we lost sight of them, and we couldn't find them anywhere. Turns out they had somehow circled back around us, went back up to the top, and weren't even down there anymore. And we're still looking for them, and they couldn't find us either. That's why they went up to the top. Just everywhere you turn, there's a different rock formation that is inviting like imagination, storytelling. They look like weird human figures or weird alien children, or you know, just old fossilized-like prehistoric skulls and teeth and toes and just all kinds of different shapes and figures down there. It was really amazing.”
From the highway, Hell’s Half Acre doesn’t look like much. But looks are deceiving as the badlands area is much larger than it feels. It’s 320 acres, part of a 960-acre federal land grant given to Natrona County in 1924.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily News continues now….
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This 36th season for Natrona County's football coach Steve Harshman could be his last if voters elect him as the next education chief. Cowboy State Daily’s Jeff Welsch reports that Harshman ranks second in Wyoming history for football victories. No. 1 and No. 3 on the list have stadiums named after them.
“If you look at any Mount Rushmore of Wyoming high school football coaches, you know, without a doubt, Steve Harshman is on it. You know, right there behind Todd Dayton of Cokeville, who has an incredible record over 42 years, and Steve Harshman won his 257th game in 36 seasons Friday night, and so he's definitely a legend. For a guy who would sort of have that three cloud, three yards in a cloud of dust, sort of persona about him. He has been extremely adaptive over the years when he's needed to, and every time he's done some kind of dramatic shift, whether it's changing the offense, not practicing as hard as they used to, it's always paid off, and that's actually what appears to be happening this year.”
Last month, Harshman won the Republican nomination for state superintendent of public instruction. Given that “Wyoming” and “Republican” are all but synonymous, and that Harshman has a distinguished legislative record of public-schools advocacy, it’s a virtual lock that he’ll win the general election in November and accept a full-time job in Cheyenne come January.
Read the full story HERE.
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Cam Sholly is stepping down as Yellowstone National Park superintendent after eight years that included dealing with COVID-19, massive flooding and record crowds. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Sholly says his departure has nothing to do with a rumored conflict with the Trump administration.
“He actually likes the direction that Trump and Bergham have taken the Park Service. He says basically what it boils down to is he's already had an eight-year, he's had a 30-year run with the Park Service, eight-year run as a superintendent of Yellowstone. He said, you know that that's about that's long enough. There was a lot of stuff that happened during his tenure. COVID hit during his tenure, which was subsequently followed a year later by the most visitors Yellowstone has ever had in a year, and then a couple years after that, they had those gigantic floods, and then then they had the you know the the you know almost mass shooting in 2024, and then they had that guy go missing, and then you know they've had they've had the Grizzly attack and and the the bison tossing the guy in the air.”
Sholly tells Cowboy State Daily that his next chapter won’t be working for the government. The 56-year old will take over as chief operations officer for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation which is based in Washington, DC.
Read the full story HERE.
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The U.S. Postal Service confirmed to Cowboy State Daily it's closing the mail pickup site in Jelm, Wyoming, on Sept. 30th. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that without a quick alternative, locals will have to make a 60-mile round trip to Laramie for mail.
“I talked to the owners and they said, "Whoa, this blindsided us too. We thought that they were working to get cluster boxes in before that date, and they basically are pushing more toward that than keeping the mail in a little hub. I talked to Representative Harriet Hageman's office. She didn't go into the drama or potential bureaucracy much, but she did say that she's disappointed in the timeline USPS gave, and she's working really hard to keep rural delivery services for Wyomingites.”
The contracted delivery point at Woods Landing Resort has served as a centralized mailbox site for about 120 customers, as Jelm hasn’t had a postmaster since 1965.
Read the full story HERE.
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Although the Guinness-verified world's largest Bigfoot won't likely replace Mount Rushmore as South Dakota's top tourist spot, a gigantic Sasquatch is drawing plenty of visitors and it’s only 60 miles from Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that two chain saw artists carved the 23-foot tall mythical monster.
“It is a 23-foot statue made out of three types of wood, and part of it is carved. The other part is like these logs, these little logs that are supposed to look like his shaggy coat, and he is sitting down, so I walked up, and his foot, the bottom of Bigfoot's foot, is taller than I am. I'm five five, so that gives you a bit of a scale as to how enormous this thing is. And I talked to people who were there. Jen Brotman was one of five women from the New York, New Jersey area, who were in town for the weekend for a half marathon, and she told me this was a delight on our way to coffee. They were on their way into Keystone for morning coffee when they saw Bigfoot, and like most people, stopped, turned around, and came to see what Bigfoot is all about, and what this place doll's chainsaw art is.”
Bigfoot has occupied his enormous space on the corner of Highway 16A since 2023, and no, the sculpture is not for sale.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
