It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, October 19th. I’m Mac Watson.
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Sue, a 15-year-old fully outfitted palomino gelding, was rescued this past weekend after spending a week lost in a remote area of southwest Yellowstone. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the horse’s owner said, “The only things lost were my bridle, my phone, and a little weight on Sue.”
“He wandered off in the Bechler region, which is in the remote southwest corner of Yellowstone National Park. Apparently, they were just traipsing around trying to find him. They crossed the river, and sure enough, there he was, just waiting to be picked up. He was fully tacked when he went missing, and except for his bridle and the phone of his owner, everything was there. So he was in good health, wasn't injured, lost a little bit of weight, which was to be expected, but he was reunited with his family and back home in Idaho's Teton Valley later that day.”
Owner Morgan D’Ambra tells Cowboy State Daily that when Sue got back home, “He literally ran out of the trailer when we got back to our pasture. He couldn’t wait to be back with his brothers.”
Read the full story HERE.
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Police say an 88-year-old Cheyenne man had the gas pedal 99% floored when he plowed into people in Fort Collins, killing one — overriding his truck’s automatic system that tried to stop itself. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports the suspect was charged Friday with vehicular homicide.
“Van Lemaster is being charged for an August 29 crash, where he drove his Chevy Silverado onto the sidewalk into a group of pedestrians. He killed 33-year-old Joshua Douglas and injured six others. A witness standing near Lemaster's truck said that they were trying to get him to stop driving, but he was saying that he just wanted to get out of the commotion. This happened to be a huge parade in Fort Collins that day. He struck a Nissan behind him, and then after striking the Nissan, they heard him rev his engine aggressively, and the tires squeal as he continued driving towards people.”
Lemaster was arrested by Fort Collins police Friday on suspicion of seven criminal charges, including felony vehicular homicide and four counts of vehicular assault.
Read the full story HERE.
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Midwest became the first spot in the nation to play high school football under lights in 1925. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that now grades 6-12 are on the cut list in the Natrona County School District.
“Public schools have to have a certain number of teachers for core classes, and because of the way things are set up currently, it makes Midwest School actually overstaffed with teachers, and then the funding model does not work. Midwest was the first school to have electric lights on its football field. That makes it the first school to have effectively ‘Friday night lights,’ what we now know as ‘Friday Night Lights.’ Steve Harshman, who was running for state superintendent, attended Midwest schools, and he said that ‘we certainly don't want to shut down small-town Wyoming.’”
According to a message sent to parents from the interim principal Walt Wilcox, Natrona County School District leadership is considering closing the secondary grades, starting with the 2027–2028 school year. The mayor of Midwest tells Cowboy State Daily, “This is a town killer.”
Read the full story HERE.
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Last week, a Gillette woman inadvertently handed over control of everything — bank accounts, credit cards, etc. to an online scammer. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports the police couldn't help but a local cybersecurity duo stopped the criminal just in time.
“She gave access, and unintentionally, to scammers who were able to get onto her computer and basically access her checking account, her Cash Apps, and they were even trying to get the deed to her house. She had absolutely no idea what to do. The woman was friends with Nick Boltin's wife, and his wife said, ‘Hey, you have to contact my husband. He's a cybersecurity expert. He'll know what to do.’ He was able to get on and stop them basically in their tracks. It's a very terrifying experience.”
Nick Boltin and his longtime friend, Dan Knievel, are now business partners at White Hat Rescue, a startup cybersecurity firm in Gillette, where the pair of tech nerds are on a mission to out-hack the malicious hackers who target people online.
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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Leland Chapman, son of TV's Dog The Bounty Hunter, said a fugitive he had been tracking in Wyoming and Montana for the alleged killing of a man in 2025 has been arrested. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports Leland says he repeatedly found the man but legally couldn't put him in handcuffs.
“Chapman was hunting Sage Francisco Spang, who the Billings Police Department had been looking for for almost a year, wanted in connection of a July 2025 killing. Chapman says that he spotted Spang in multiple places, including a gas station on September 1, as well as a local bar. Then Northern Cheyenne tribal chief Gene Small told a local news outlet that there were warrants ready for this man's arrest, but they were waiting for a judge to sign off on them. Chapman said on his personal Facebook page that Spang had been arrested. When Cowboy State Daily reached out to tribal officials, they did not comment on Spang's current whereabouts and if he is in custody.”
In a public statement about the case, Chapman said he spent 17 days in July and August, quickly located Spang and repeatedly tried to get authorities to arrest him.
Read the full story HERE.
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After the Laramie County Fire Authority said they were cancelling its trunk-or-treat due to property tax cuts, supporters of Prop 1 mocked the post as "propaganda" and said it is a political stunt. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports critics took the post not just as lamenting earlier property tax cuts, but as a veiled campaign against a deeper property tax cut facing voters on the Nov. 3 ballot.
“it is probably fair to say that the post backfired. I asked the fire chief. He said, no, we weren't trying to propagandize anyone. We were making this announcement. Community engagement, community education is part of our budget, and this recent 25% property tax cut did dig into it. Whereas critics of the post, especially Prop One supporters, supporters of the proposed 50% tax cut for certain qualifying homes, called it propaganda. Now fire departments have been part of the property tax conversation all along because they are hugely funded by property taxes. The fire chief told me that they are working with a 2018-level budget and 2026-level expenses. Diesel prices are a big part of that.”
If it passes, Proposition 1 will change state law so that homeowners can claim an alternate 50% property tax exemption on home structures.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s famous Fossil Cabin, billed as the “world’s oldest cabin,” has been moved to Medicine Bow. But Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that it hasn’t reopened to the public until the town’s insurance company will cover it.
“There's no other cabin like this in the world. It's a one and only. How do you value something like that? And then, you know, the construction. Is it structurally sound? Are fossils going to fall off on people when they go up there? What the guy did was basically built a wooden structure, slathered it with concrete, popped a few fossils into it like bricks, and then it's been sitting out for decades.”
Saving the unusual attraction took roughly eight years. The museum board hopes to have the cabin ready for guests next spring, but unresolved insurance questions mean there’s no firm reopening date.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wheatland ranch family has dedicated the past 30 years to taming about 2,000 wild Wyoming mustangs before they’re adopted. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports getting them “gentled” and ready to ride requires a lot of patience and willingness to land in the dirt.
“They do that on their 800-acre ranch, and what that involves is making the horses to be able to be led, get a halter, and in some cases they do some saddle work as well, preparing them for a saddle. They've done over 2,000 horses during their past 30-some, nearly 30-some years, that the operation has been ongoing.”
The family started taming mustangs back in 1998. The BLM supplied 10 at a time and the Mantles were given 30 days to get the horses to the place where they could be caught, led, and loaded into a trailer.
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.
