It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, October 9th. I’m Mac Watson.
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With no zoning regulations, Fremont County is in the dark about a potential $66 billion data center plan and has little say in how it might take shape. Energy Reporter Emma Jane Jackson reports that one commissioner says, “It’s mind boggling ... we can’t have any involvement.”
“Since Fremont County has no zoning whatsoever, there's really no role for the commissioners or the planning department to play here. It's going to go to the state, to the DEQ and the Industrial Siting Council. One of the county commissioners, Clarence Thomas told me that zoning has been a conversation over his 20 years on the county commission. For the most part, people don't want it, but they've also never had something like this happen. And what Thomas is now pushing for from the planning department is more clarity on the project and their options as far as if it's too late to zone now.”
Aethel Energy is nearing completion on a small, 1-megawatt data center about 60 miles northeast of Riverton. The larger project would include several buildings, possibly phased in as separate campuses, and run on about 500 megawatts of natural gas power generated on site.
Read the full story HERE.
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A mother of nine in Clark, Wyoming, took matters into her own hands when a mountain lion was seen hanging around the family's popular corn maze and pumpkin patch. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Bridget Gallagher shot the mountain lion after one of her sons’ hounds picked up its scent.
“They spotted it. Her son really quickly brought his hounds out, and they managed to hunt this mountain lion and get it in a tree and shoot it. And she's really happy with that. And her son is going to make a full body mount of the mountain lion for her, and the other cool thing is she's a mom of nine. That's her first mountain line that she's ever gotten. She said she's never even really seen one up close, but it was funny that her grandson, the son of her son, who's the houndsman, remarked, ‘Gee, Grandma, that's an awful small cat.’”
The family runs Gallagher’s Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch, a popular attraction this time of year. In years past, they had problems with grizzly bears coming in to gorge on corn, raising concerns about safety.
Read the full story HERE.
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Because of youth alcohol abuse in Fremont County, some local lawmakers are pushing for a statewide near total ban on parents giving alcohol to their children. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that in Wyoming, it's currently legal for immediate family members to give alcohol to their kids.
“In Fremont County, there's a big problem of family members doling out alcohol at big house parties and the kids getting drunk, so lawmakers, some of them, especially local to Fremont County, are working on keeping those exceptions in place, but capping it at point 0.02% BAC, which is for most people way less than a beer. It's probably enough to take communion, but depending on your weight, it's probably not a full beer. So when deciding whether to charge the adult who furnished the alcohol, they would probably have the kid blow. And if the kid's over 0.02 percent, even if it's his mom, the mom could be charged, cited, even jailed.”
Currently Wyoming law doesn’t punish those who furnish alcohol to people who are under 21, if the alcohol giver is a parent or immediate family member. The law also exempts those performing a church service involving alcohol, underage people in the presence of a spouse or parent over 21, and those administering alcohol for medicinal reasons.
Read the full story HERE.
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A geomagnetic storm hitting Earth's atmosphere this weekend could give Wyomingites a last chance to see an aurora for nearly a decade. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that retired state climatologist Jan Curtis says, “You might want to get up and hope for the best.”
“The latest report from NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center is that multiple coronal mass ejections have been detected emerging from the sun, and they're going to reach between October 9 and October 11, potentially, and when these coronal mass ejections reach and interact with Earth's atmosphere, that's how you get auroras. And if they're strong enough, you can get auroras that project as far south as Wyoming. So potentially there could be auroras in Wyoming's there could be auroras visible in Wyoming's night skies between Friday and Sunday.”
Curtis, a retired meteorologist and former Wyoming state climatologist, describes this as a “deep sky aurora.” It might not be easily visible to the naked eye, but a long-exposure camera could capture incredible color.
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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A Jackson man was seriously hurt and airlifted to a hospital after hitting a bear with his motorcycle near Swan Valley on Wednesday evening. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that one motorist said, “At first, I thought it was a beaver. There was a big chunk of flesh and hair on the road.”
“Marissa Williams was on her way home from Jackson. She commutes four days a week as a nocturnal doula, and she said she's driven that stretch over 400 times, and she's never seen a bear. When she got to the scene, there were tons of vehicles. It was backed up. She was stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes, and she took some photos of the wreckage. At that point, the motorcyclist had already been airlifted, but his bike was still there, and part of the bear was also on the side of the road.”
The Jackson man was riding north on a 2016 Harley-Davidson when he struck the bear. Police say he was not wearing a helmet and did not identify or give a status update on the victim.
Read the full story HERE.
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Even at high elevations, it's been so hot this season that Wyoming hunters aren't shooting elk because they're worried the meat will spoil. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that one hunter said about his pack goats, “I had to stop about every three-quarters of a mile and let them cool off,"
“He did get some opportunity to shoot some elk, but he passed because you know a couple things. The heat was just really getting to his goats, and he didn't want it. He didn't want to overburden them. And then two, he said I just didn't feel like it was ethical for me because if I dropped in this heat all the way up on this mountain, by the time we got that meat, processed and cut up and hung, and and then packed all the way, you know, nine miles back down to the truck, he's afraid it would have spoiled in the heat. So he said, in my opinion, it would have been unethical for me to shoot an elk if the meat was going to spoil before I could even get it home.”
Vance McGahey archery hunted the last week of September and then switched to rifle during the first week of October, frequently at altitudes of 10,500 feet or more.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Cody man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of making terroristic threats in letters to President Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and a local oil field company. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that Marcotte Taggart claims he’s owed more than $2 trillion and would blow up oil wells to get it.
“He wrote a series of letters to this business, six of them in all, each one of them threatening pretty much the same thing, saying, ‘Hey, you know, this is my stuff.’ And he threatens to use the Second Amendment rights multiple times. That he'll use explosives if he has to, and and the like. So basically, he's he's he's saying, "Hey, look, you know, give me this money. He also a couple of times brought up not only would he use explosives to blow up an oil well, but also he could do it at the company's headquarters. So that's why the Cody police were taking this seriously.”
Marcotte Taggart faces four felony charges of making terroristic threats in a series of six letters he sent to a Park County, Wyoming, oil field company in which he claims he owns the company's mineral rights and is owed more than $56 million, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by Cody Police Department Detective Scott Burlingame.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Teton County wildlife guide captured dramatic video of a stampeding herd of bison breaking through a fence at Elk Ranch Flats in Grand Teton National Park. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that photographer Bill Fabian says, “I've never seen so many bison running at that speed for that sustained amount of time.”
“There was a herd of bison on one side of the fence, and they were frustrated, or appeared to be frustrated, that they couldn't get to the others. There's lots of fences going through Grand Teton National Park, but those are man-made boundaries. Those aren't what bison recognize. And then once they started to get to the side of the fence where they apparently wanted to be, the stampede stopped. And when a herd of bison gets going, all it takes is one instigator, and if there's a fence in their way, that fence is quickly going to cease to be an obstacle.”
In February 2025, a pack of wolves caused a stampede in Yellowstone National Park’s Lamar Valley. One panicked bison ran straight at a group of tourists on a winter wildlife tour.
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.
