It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, September 21st. I’m Mac Watson.
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Gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Bextel has been accused of trespassing, barred from building on her land, and locked in a legal war with Wyoming Game And Fish. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Bextel says she's a political target, while her neighbors say she violated a hunting easement.
“The trespassing was called in before her run for office, and it was charged before her run for office. But how it looks from her end, she wasn't summoned to court on the trespassing allegation until the CheckGate controversy had reached a fever pitch, so it was charged before CheckGate. But on her end, what she's seeing is she's summoned to court right after CheckGates, and then in the civil case, the state started filing some pretty strongly worded arguments. Quote, Since Eric Barlow won the primary, I am now no longer allowed to build on my own property. End quote.”
Bextel told Cowboy State Daily in a text-message interview that she bought the land to build a fish camp for her family, including a “little Florida room” to keep mosquitos away from her daughter, who has a genetic disorder.
Read the full story HERE.
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The crowd at the Boulder Bar on a Sunday in September offers an eclectic sample of rural Sublette County: rancher, fishing guide, washed-up rodeo rider and retired rig mechanic. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that Donna Steele doesn't like people who show up late.
“When I first get greeted. She says to me, ‘You're the son of a bitch from the newspaper, aren't you?’ I said, ‘Yeah, that's me.’ And she told me, ‘Well, you're the son of a bitch we've been waiting for for four days,’ and it felt like such a perfectly Wyoming greeting. But coming from Donna Steele, it felt more like a warm welcome than a reprimand, and that gives you a sense of just what this community is like because that's really kind of how it feels. They're blunt, they're terse. They'll tell you how they feel.”
For more than half a century, the Steeles had been taking the measure of men passing through the Boulder Bar and serving drinks since they took over this family business in 1972. Donna tells Cowboy State Daily that this is the kind of place where you might see a deer nose through the bar and come up to the pool table, but it's also one of those places that was a second home for many of the hard drinking rig hands that would come in there, and start notorious bar brawls.
Read the full story HERE.
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Jackson Hole has never lacked for luxury, but its newest $400 million private enclave takes stealth wealth to a whole new level at Teton Village. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean scored a rare tour inside the Hoback Club’s 25 newly opened private club condos.
“Memberships there start at 150,000 a year. So they are definitely catering to the upscale luxury crowd there in Jackson Hole. It's marketed as a money-making opportunity for these billionaires, because the way they've designed these residences, you can walk off a two- or three-bedroom suite and rent that out at the you know nine to $20,000 a night for month night minimum stay. So you know every time you do that, that's 36,000 bucks.”
The Hoback Club is described in the Wyoming Engineering & Surveying Society’s annual Project of the Year awards as a 250,000-square-foot private, ski-in/ski-out residence club that cost more than $400 million to build. That makes it “one of the largest and most expensive places ever constructed in Wyoming,” the project overview submitted to the Surveying Society states.
Read the full story HERE.
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Tourists experienced a rare sight this past weekend when up to 19 grizzlies had a feeding frenzy on a carcass north of Yellowstone National Park. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that while usually solitary, bears can be semi-social when the right feeding opportunities arise.
“A biologist was able to put that in context. Basically said that yes, especially this time of year, a nice big fat juicy carcass, probably an elk or a bison, something big, will draw in numerous grizzly bears, you know, for feeding. And the reason that they're being polite is for a couple reasons. Even though bears don't really live together per se, they live in proximity to each other. So there's already kind of an established hierarchy. Usually, the biggest, most dominant males are the ones that will go in and feed first, and then after that, the smaller bears will come in and get their share.”
The spectacle unfolded late Sunday north of Yellowstone National Park, Florida resident Janet Zaloga said.
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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After years in decline and die-off, the once-stunning Aspen Alley corridor in southern Wyoming’s Sierra Madre Mountains is making a comeback. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that one area rancher says within five years, “We'll have aspen so thick it'll be hard to walk through there.”
“This year, there are one and a half to two foot saplings growing up. They seem to be doing extremely well. Within five years, they should be up, up or over 10 feet tall. And Aspen Alley will get back to its glory days. There's that saying that you know there's the people who plant trees knowing they'll never sit in their shade. That's what's happening at Aspen Alley. It's long-term planning.”
Dennis Faerber, owner of the Aspen Alley Ranch, is eagerly watching dozens of two-foot-high saplings growing in the once-dense aspen grove, adding that when he bought the 520-acre ranch, the famous Aspen Grove was on its last legs.
Read the full story HERE.
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After hauling another 500-plus pounds of garbage out of a public campsite, Bridger-Teton National Forest officials are fed up with whomever keeps trashing the spot. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports it’s happened at least five times and is now the focus of a federal investigation.
“Bridger Teton National Forest spokesperson C J Adams says that this is a federal crime because it happened on federal land. This investigation right now is being done by park officials. The punishment is only a misdemeanor with a hefty fine. Adams says this is a recurring problem. He mentioned that people are going out drinking; they're picking up beer cans. He warned about illegal activity when people go out and enjoy the you know nature and paradise that is Wyoming. Oftentimes, they forget that just because you're out in a remote rural rural area doesn't mean it's lawless country.”
The 500 pounds of garbage has included alcohol cans and bottles, food waste and fireworks. There also have been burned tires, and even pieces of a red car left behind.
Read the full story HERE.
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Nonresidents wanting to fulfill their dreams of a Wyoming elk hunt should be willing to shell out a median of $8,000 for a guided hunt, while high-end adventures can hit $30,000. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that outdoorsman Guy Eastman says Wyoming is the sweet-spot for big-game hunters.
“I reached out to Guy Eastman, who of course you know the Eastman's Hunting Journal and TV show. So what Guy told me is Wyoming kind of hits it kind of hits a trifecta of sweet spots. We’ve got good, solid trophy potential. We've got some of the best, most remote wilderness in other rugged country in the lower 48. So all those things come together to kind of make Wyoming a really desirable spot for folks to you know to come out here and sink 8000 or more into an elk hunt.”
The median price for a guided elk hunt in Wyoming is $8,000, Tennessee outdoorsman and number cruncher Micheal Gifford tells Cowboy State Daily.
That’s compared to roughly $6,700 for a Montana elk hunt, $6,000 in Colorado, and $5,400 in Idaho.
Read the full story HERE.
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A city-wide power outage didn't stop bidders in this weekend’s Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale from ponying up more than $1 million during one of the nation’s premier Western art events. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the biggest spender was a bidder who bought nine pieces for more than $135,000.
“Literally after they sold the first piece of the 107 pieces that were on the runway that night, the power went out. There was a citywide power outage throughout Cody. The tent was in complete darkness, so everyone was scrambling trying to figure out how to get the auction back on track. They got some industrial-sized generators to get the lights back on, but it took an hour before the sound system was fully back on. So auctioneer Troy Black was using a portable speaker that someone had in their car that happened to be charged, and people on the runway, myself included, were escorting the paintings with flashlights so people could see what they were bidding on. So it was an interesting night.”
Between Friday night's live auction and Saturday morning's Quick Draw auction, one of the nation's premier Western art events brought in just over a million dollars.
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.
