Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Government & Politics

Politics

Media outlets gasped last week at the socialist movement’s success in the New York congressional 

That success headed west Tuesday, to Wyoming’s southern neighbor of Colorado.

Democratic socialist Melat Kiros, 29, defeated 15-term incumbent U.S. House Rep. Diana DeGette in Tuesday evening’s primary election.

Colorado Public Radio called the ouster “a stunning blow to the Democratic establishment in Denver and continuing a run of leftist victories in major cities.”

Former Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan, a Dvemocrat, told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that he wasn’t surprised at the move by Denver voters, but he doubted the proximity of a House socialist – if Kiros wins the general election – will affect Wyoming much.

“We have our own issues, and we’re certainly more sensitive to certain issues than others,” Sullivan said. “And it doesn’t necessarily divide us or make us closer to anybody else.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Could Deepen 'Don't Colorado My Wyoming' Sentiment"}]

Liz Brimmer, longtime Wyoming politico, agreed in general, but said having a socialist congressional neighbor could galvanize Wyoming even harder into a tendency it already has: spurning anything that looks like Colorado governance.  

“I think Wyoming uniformly and strongly feels, you know, ‘Don’t Colorado my Wyoming',” Brimmer said. “And I think if anything, it deepens that sentiment.”

Brimmer said the ouster speaks of “these times, where there’s no doubt an anti-incumbent strain.” But no one will know all the reasons, nor should presume too much, until the voter data return, she said.

The Republicans saw the anti-incumbent strain surface differently, with newcomers ousting President Donald Trump’s foes in GOP primary elections.

State Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, who is finishing off his final legislative term, voiced fascination with the election outcome.

Brown, a self-described political junkie, lives about 14 miles from the Colorado border.

He said the ouster shows Denver is increasingly dictating the rest of Colorado’s fate, and that the state is growing more polarized.

On the Republican gubernatorial primary side, The 

 a half-point lead for Victor Marx as of Wednesday.

“He’s just as crazy as a democratic socialist on the left,” said Brown.

As for DeGette’s defeat, it’s not as symptomatic as one would think, he added.

“She was running a ‘Hey, I’m the incumbent and I’ve been here 30 years’ (campaign),” he said.

That hurt her. As did a growing divide on the left over Israel’s approach to its many foes — and Congress’ funding of Israeli war and defense efforts, said Brown.

Israel was also a fulcrum in the May primary loss of libertarian-leaning incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky. But the Republican voters took the inverse approach on that one, nominating the candidate who supports funding Israeli war efforts.

Jack Speight, the GOP strategist who helped Wyoming Gov. Stan Hathaway to victory in 1966, told Cowboy State Daily Kiros’ win is alarming.

Speight was a Democrat when he graduated from the University of Wyoming law school. But the allure of capitalism and the prevailing logic of his good friends pulled him to the Republican side, he said in another interview last month.

The socialist victories of 2026 are “sad for this country. It may well affect the results of this fall, and nationwide,” he said. He called it a shift of California transplants into the Rockies, and a symptom of a growing entitlement.

[{"type":"text","text":"Colorado isn’t the only Wyoming neighbor with socialist momentum."}]

Sam Forstag, a smoke jumper endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-New York, won his primary bid for Montana’s U.S. House District 1 on June 2.

Forstag may be less favored than Kiros going into the general election: No Democrat has won that Montana House district this century.

 a “test for left-leaning politicians” who have been arguing for a populist surge in the blue party.

Melat Kiros Getty 7 1 26

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

<title>Win By Colorado Socialist Could Galvanize Wyoming Independence, Says Politico | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Fresh after socialist-backed candidates' success in New York's U.S. House primaries, Colorado Democrats nominated their own socialist House candidate Tuesday. Having a socialist neighbor could galvanize Wyoming's independence even more, one politico said. 

Win By Colorado Socialist Could Galvanize Wyoming Independence, Says Politico

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Around Wyoming

After months of uncertainty over the future of one of Wyoming’s most ambitious health-care experiments, the Hoskinson family is announcing that their clinic, which they’d hoped to turn into the “Mayo Clinic of the West,” is changing hands.

Monument Health will take over the former Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic, operating it as a multi-specialty clinic and employing providers and staff under a lease agreement for the building and equipment. 

“From the beginning, our goal was to bring Mayo Clinic-level care to the people of Gillette,” the Hoskinson family said in a media statement to Cowboy State Daily. “This transition to a Mayo Clinic Care Network member means that vision is now a reality. We are grateful to Monument Health for stepping in and making sure this community continues to have access to the care it deserves.”

Monument health, which operates five hospitals and more than 40 clinics and specialty centers in 14 communities across western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming, has direct access to Mayo Clinic expertise and resources, a connection that has now been extended to Gillette.

A finalized list of providers is being developed, the Hoskinson family added. They also encouraged patients to continue scheduling appointments as normal.

The clinic is staffed by 15 physicians and a full support team in a state-of-the-art facility. In joining Monument Health, it becomes part of a system that spans 31 specialties, five hospitals and more than 40 clinics and specialty centers across western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming.

“The people of Gillette deserve access to high-quality care close to home, and that is exactly what this clinic has provided,” Monument President and CEO Paulette Davidson said in a statement to Cowboy State Daily. “We are proud to expand our presence into eastern Wyoming and committed to making sure these patients continue to have a place to go for the care they need.”

The Hoskinson family posted on Facebook as well not long after announcement, emphasizing that Monument is “working to retain the care team, so the people who know you and our health history can still be here.”

Charles released a video hailing the agreement, and saying it’s something that “we worked on for a little while.”

“One of the things you learn in business and in life is that sometimes you’re not the best person for the job,” he said in the video. “You may have the vision, and you may have the ability to get it started, but sometimes other people need to finish it to get it done.”

Making that decision was “one of the hardest decisions we had to make.” 

“It’s a tough business, medicine,” Hoskinson said. “And so we said, ‘Let’s find a path where somebody with the same level of passion, enthusiasm, and wonderful track record can come on in and give the people at Gillette Wyoming the best health care in the entire state of Wyoming.'”

The negotiations were tough, he said, because Monument has some of the best people in the United States.

“(They’re) part of that broader Mayo network, and really there is nothing better on the planet,” he said. “So the clinic is not going to go dark. There will be a bit of a transition, but when those lights come back on, (it's) the same mission to make sure that everybody in Gillette Wyoming gets wonderful health care and take care of as many people as we can the best way we can.”

With a Mayo-networked affiliate arriving, that fulfills his original promise, Hoskinson added, to bring a Mayo clinic to the West.

“We never imagined that a Mayo affiliate would actually be the one doing it, but I can live with that,” he said. “And I think a lot of you can, too.”

Much of the artwork on the walls and the special equipment are staying put, Hoskinson said, meaning the “three-Tesla MRI is not going anywhere.”

The 3T MRI is one of the most advanced, widely used diagnostic imaging tools in medicine today.

“(Monument's) a great organization,” Hoskinson concluded. “And to the Monument family, let me be the first in Gillette to welcome you to Gillette... We’ll have more to say after this, and hopefully an open house for people to talk about transition.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Built By A Crypto Tycoon"}]

The move follows a rocky two-year arc for Hoskinson, a $200 million, 70,000-plus-square-foot facility bankrolled by cryptocurrency tycoon Charles Hoskinson. The family has said the facility is the largest family-run clinic in the United States. 

It offered dozens of specialties in addition to primary care, as well as research and regenerative medicine under one roof — all more commonly found in large, urban academic centers than in a small town of 30,000 on the High Plains. 

In a video released after the Hoskinson family announced it would close the clinic, Charles said the economics of American health care and the realities of operating in a small, remote market had killed the operation.

He said the clinic was losing millions every month, even after aggressive attempts to pare back and optimize operations.

Primary care, he argued, is fundamentally under-reimbursed, forcing providers to see 24 to 28 patients daily just to break even. That volume was incompatible with the slower, more thorough care model he wanted the clinic to provide.

“The Hoskinsons have been in medicine for over 70 years since the 1950s,” he said in the video. “They’ve watched the entire health-care industry transform and change from mostly rural and mostly solo practitioners or small groups — excluding cities — working basically with a direct relationship with the patient, direct financial relationship with the patient, to a system that’s become kind of a bureaucratic hellscape.”

Gillette’s clinic easily attracted 20,000 patients, yet still wasn’t close to breaking even, Hoskinson added. 

“I had aspirations to do something in regenerative medicine,” Hoskinson said. “I’m a big believer in network medicine.”

Some day, current medical knowledge and AI enhancements are going to combine and create a high degree of personalized medical care, he said. 

That’s “really going to change things so we can cure stuff,” Hoskinson said.

As the financial picture for the clinic worsened, patients and would-be employees felt caught in the middle.

In one case, a billing specialist who had accepted a role at the clinic, including a $20,000 relocation reimbursement, learned her offer had been abruptly withdrawn for “business” reasons. That left her without a job after she’d given notice and made plans to move.

Patients with complex conditions also began to worry about what it would mean for their care. 

Shawna Langdon, for example, diagnosed with aggressive rheumatoid arthritis after COVID, had come to depend on weekly visits to the clinic for injections, diagnostics and specialist care. Having multiple specialists under one roof so close to home had made it possible for her to manage a disease that otherwise meant frequent exhausting travel — so exhausting she sometimes was unable to make the trip.

Sarah Pierce, whose child has Beckwith-Wiedeman Syndrome, had needed frequent care in Philadelphia. While the clinic didn’t eliminate such travel, it did help to cut down on it by having a knowledgeable ENT in Gillette, making the family’s life significantly easier.

Langdon told Cowboy State Daily she was openly rooting for Monument to take over, knowing it would make her life easier. 

"It is very very welcoming news for me and gives me a lot more comfort knowing they're gonna still be right around the corner," she said Wednesday. " Not just for me either, but for the entire community. We need this."

Hoskinson Health 7 1 26

<title>Monument Health Takes Over Gillette’s Hoskinson Clinic, Which Was Losing Millions | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After a rocky, two-year run for Gillette’s $200 million state-of-the-art Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic, Monument Health has struck a deal to keep the facility open and plugging it into the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Hoskinson was losing millions every month.

Monument Health Takes Over Gillette’s Hoskinson Clinic, Which Was Losing Millions

Wyoming Life

“Ambitious” might be the only word big enough to describe Wyoming’s birthday party for America’s 250th. 

Instead of a single day of fireworks and fanfare, the Cowboy State is building monuments, commissioning new music, and mapping out trail rides that will outlast the holiday itself. 

This year’s Fourth of July is less one-off party and more permanent invitation to explore the Cowboy State’s place in the American story, from one corner of Wyoming to the next. 

From Buffalo to Newcastle, Cody, Dubois, Evanston, Jackson, Gillette, Casper, Cheyenne and more, communities are finding wildly different ways to extend that invitation and have fun doing so.

Runners will wolf down hot dogs on every lap of a 1.776K in Buffalo, for example, while in Cody people can raise a beer stein to toast America with an America 250 Pale Ale. In Newcastle, crowds will gather at the Weston County Courthouse steps to hear President Teddy Roosevelt’s 1903 speech brought to life again. 

In Cheyenne, concertgoers will hear a symphony orchestra piece written just for Wyoming by Hollywood composer Jeff Lippencott, timed to a fireworks display over the Capitol’s golden dome. 

Just down the street, four bronze panels have just been installed to tell the state’s history for at least the next millennium. 

Two C-130 jets from the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing will take to the skies Saturday morning, each going in a different direction. They’ll pass over 16 communities at roughly 1,000 feet and 200 knots for a Fourth of July salute before reconvening in the middle and roaring back into Cheyenne at 1 p.m. for a Capitol flyover. 

In Dubois, the usual tank parade that draws thousands to this tiny mountain town is on, but it will be preceded Friday with some live vehicle demolitions and firepower demonstrations at the National Museum of Military Vehicles — a noisy day any true tank fan should adore. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"We’re All Americans"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Not all of the plans are noisy. "}]

New Mexico transplant Khristin Kaske has come up with her own idea for Cheyenne’s celebration.

She’s repurposed an old archway once used for her wedding into a red, white and blue selfie station for America’s 250th and put the word out: “Hey, ya’ll come!”

“I love to craft, so the decorating corner is just fun,” she told Cowboy State Daily. 

The idea started in November with a fall setup followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas. Kaske enjoyed it so much, she took herself to Hobby Lobby for its big after-Christmas sale and stocked up on decorations for every season.

“Their Christmas is all different colors,” she said. “So I could get stuff for any upcoming holiday.”

She also watches for cool stuff from thrift stores and yard sales, as well as cruising craft-store aisles for clearance items. 

So far she’s done Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day and now, America’s 250th. Next up will be a selfie booth for Cheyenne Frontier Days.

Kaske isn’t home much in the daytime, but she knows the selfie booth is popular. 

“I see lots of footprints out there,” she said. “And when I’m home, I do see people coming over and taking pictures.”

She’s put up a shepherd’s hook with doggy bags so people can bring pets — and so far, her visitors have all been considerate guests, cleaning up after their pets and helping to take care of this free resource. 

That warms her heart, especially for the Fourth, because this is a time when she feels, no matter how crazy, we need to remember that we’re all Americans first, second, and last.

“We still have a lot to be thankful for in this country,” she said. “Doing things just like this, for example. Being able to have the freedom to put up decorations and expressions. I think it’s important to hang onto the reality that we still have a lot of freedoms.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Echoes In Bronze"}]

A similar sentiment has inspired Wyoming’s latest bronze installation, which will be the 99th in Cheyenne’s Capitol Avenue Bronze series.

Four new bronze panels will be placed on the corner of Capitol and 22nd Street, each telling a different chapter of Wyoming’s place in America’s 250 years, according to Cheyenne and Laramie County America 250 Chairman Nathaniel Trelease. 

“The challenge was that Wyoming didn’t exist in 1776,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “So what we decided to do was take America’s founding principles and reflect how they echo in Wyoming history.”

That’s where the installation’s name, "Echoes: Wyoming at America 250", comes from. 

The first panel depicts Wyoming as it was at America’s birth, 250 years ago, with all manner of wildlife hiding in a forest scene. A moose turns its head toward a wolf, which appears to be eating something, while deer scamper and play in a dreamy, far-distant background. There are beavers and birds and more — but it will take considerable time and study to find them all. 

Another panel traces Native American trade routes and the great overland trails that funneled settlers west through Wyoming. A third focuses on the state’s economic development. Mines are started and railroad tracks laid, even as explorers such as Lewis and Clark came to map out the newly added western territories. 

The fourth panel highlights Wyoming’s trailblazing role in women’s suffrage and early civil rights as the first state in the union to allow women to vote. 

In it, Judge Esther Hobart Morris hands a flag with 44 stars to Wyoming Gov. Francis E. Warren, while in the center, Wyoming’s soon-to-be first female Wyoming governor Nellie Tayloe Ross watches women ascend steps to cast their votes. Louisa Swain, the first woman to vote in Wyoming, is depicted casting her ballot, along with a handful of other women lining up right behind her. 

Ross, Warren and Swain are all among bronze statues in the Capitol Avenue Bronze project, Trelease said. And that’s part of what the bronze panels aim to accomplish — tying together the many disparate pieces of Wyoming history scattered along the avenue for one coherent story of how Wyoming has come to matter so much to a country that began its life long before the territory was a state. 

It’s a story that, unlike fireworks and parades, won’t fade with the sunset. It will last at a thousand years or more, Trelease said. 

“This is leaving a visual footprint of where we were in 2026 for the Jubilees that will come in 50 years, 100 years, 150 years,” Trelease said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"250 Years In 76 Objects"}]

While the bronzes will give visitors a history they can see and touch, American Heritage Center’s Paul Flesher is working on a version that people can hold in their hands.

The book, tentatively titled, “Wyoming’s History in 76 Object”, will use photographs of carefully chosen artifacts to tell the state’s history. Some of the artifacts are small. A coal mine whistle, for example, and a battered cowboy hat.

Others are large. Historic landmarks such as Devils Tower, for example, or the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s old Yellowstone supercomputer. 

“We’ll talk about buffalo and horses and cattle and sheep,” Flesher said. “And we’ll hit the railroad, the transcontinental railroad, and we’ll talk about the oldest buildings in the state.”

Each object chosen for the book comes with a 400-word essay, giving just a thumbnail sketch of its history.

“We couldn’t possibly include everything,” Flesher said. “So the question became, what objects best capture the role Wyoming has played in America’s history?”

And which items serve as the best invitation to explore and find out more. The book will debut as an e-book sometime in July, with a print edition to follow.

“The e-book will allow us to continue to make this available for years to come, even after we sell all of the printed copies,” Flesher said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A New Happy Trail"}]

Just as the bronzes and book are meant to last, so, too, the “American Patriot Hymn,” written by Hollywood composer Jeff Lippencott especially for Wyoming. 

The three-movement work weaves narration from John Quincy Adams as well as portions of a poem attributed to Samuel Adams into a sweeping orchestral score meant to capture the grand sweep of Wyoming history.

Lippencott, who lives in Alpine, credits Wyoming’s wide-open spaces for helping inspire his symphonic work, including Grand Teton Suite and Pasturelands.

Even some of the state’s most adventurous America 250 plans are designed to stick around, such as the four-day 250 Trail Ride, which began in Evanston and follows a 500-mile, off-road route to Cheyenne, arriving just in time for the Fourth of July festivities.

Organizers have told Cowboy State Daily that the trail will become official with this ride, and will be available for future trailblazers who want to experience Wyoming in a unique way. 

Taken together — the bronzes, the book, the music, and even the new trail — it all says the same thing. Wyoming doesn’t just want to throw a 250th birthday bash. 

It wants to leave footprints that will still be visible when the next big anniversaries roll around.

Cody parade Chon Kit Leong via Alamy 7 1 26

<title>Wyoming’s Over-The-Top 250th Celebration Comes With Tanks, Flyovers, History | Cowboy State Daily</title>

From C-130 flyovers and tank parades to new monuments and a new state trail, Wyoming’s America 250 celebration isn’t a one-day bash. “We still have a lot to be thankful for in this country,” said one organizer about what's planned across the Cowboy State.

Wyoming’s Over-The-Top 250th Celebration Comes With Tanks, Flyovers, History

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Public Safety

UPDATE 11:50 a.m.: This story has been updated to include more information from the Wyoming Highway Patrol about those injured in the crash.

A commercial tanker truck driver failing to stop for traffic waiting to enter a one-lane construction zone west of Casper on Friday afternoon 

, killing two people and injuring eight others, the Wyoming Highway Patrol reports in a fatal crash summary of the incident released Wednesday.

The crash happened at 1:50 p.m. Friday on U.S. Highway 20/26 near mile marker 58.3, about 45 miles northwest of Casper wit the WHP having identified driver inattention as a possible contributing factor in the crash.

[{"type":"text","text":"As of Wednesday, no criminal charges had been announced."}]

Responding to Cowboy State Daily requests for information about whether any arrests have been made in relation to the crash and if anyone has been criminally charged, the WHP said that the investigation into the crash is active and information about potential criminal charges won’t be released until that’s been completed.

The fatal crash summary says that the westbound 2024 Western Star tanker truck failed to stop at mile marker 58.3 for queued traffic waiting to enter the construction zone before striking a Chevrolet Silverado, Toyota Highlander, Toyota 4Runner, Subaru Outback, Chevrolet Camaro, Ram 1500 and Chevrolet Impala.

[{"type":"text","text":"The crash involved eight vehicles and 17 people."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Two people died, eight were injured and seven escaped injury."}]

A 3-year-old and an adult male in the Highlander were both transported to Banner Wyoming Medical Center via helicopter. Also, a 1-year-old and adult female in the same vehicle were taken to the hospital by ground ambulance, the WHP reports, adding they were treated and released.

Two others were also taken by ambulance to Casper, where they were treated and released.

The driver of the 4Runner and a passenger, an adult female and male, were also hospitalized at Banner Wyoming Medical Center in Casper. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Colorado Couple Identified"}]

The Natrona County Coroner's Office identified the two people killed as James Faris Cox, 74, and Susan Horn Cox, 69, of Golden, Colorado.

[{"type":"text","text":"The couple was traveling to Ennis, Montana, according to a family member."}]

Both were wearing seat belts, according to the Highway Patrol's crash summary.

The Highway Patrol said the weather was clear; the roadway was dry, and neither a rollover nor collision with a fixed object contributed to the crash.

[{"type":"text","text":"The investigation remains ongoing."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Aftermath"}]

Several motorists interviewed by Cowboy State Daily said they at first believed traffic had stopped because of the construction project ahead.

Erin Mills said she was driving toward Riverton after dropping her dogs off in Casper when traffic came to a standstill.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I thought I was waiting on the pilot car,\" she said."}]

Like many others, Mills had already driven through the work zone earlier and expected another routine delay.

Instead, as traffic ahead slowly began turning around, she caught her first glimpse of the aftermath.

"When that camper moved, that's when I could see," she said. "I saw what looked like a shredded vehicle on the left-hand side of the road."

"I didn't physically see it happen," she continued. "I was behind it and saw the aftermath."

From where she was, Mills said she saw a jackknifed fuel tanker and damaged vehicles scattered across the highway.

"It looked like a tanker just plowed through these vehicles," she said, emphasizing she was describing what the aftermath looked like, not what she actually saw happen.

The WHP’s crash summary confirms the commercial tanker struck the line of stopped traffic after failing to stop.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Something Wrong'"}]

Another witness, Krista Nethercott, also believed traffic had stopped because of construction.

"There were these pylons on the right-hand side that kind of tell you there's construction," she said. "But there wasn't anything alerting you to slow down. There wasn't a flagger."

After several minutes, she stepped out of her vehicle because, she said, "I just felt like there was something wrong."

When she walked forward, she realized the line of stopped vehicles was the result of a catastrophic crash.

"That's when I could see there were cars on both sides of the road," she said.

A funeral director, Nethercott immediately ran toward the wreckage to make sure someone had called 911 and to offer assistance.

[{"type":"text","text":"Working alongside another bystander, she checked on James and Susan Cox."}]

"The gentleman was immediately deceased," she said. "The lady probably lived a couple minutes."

[{"type":"text","text":"She recalled that both appeared to have been wearing their seat belts."}]

Their pickup was so badly crushed, she said, that rescuers ultimately needed specialized equipment to remove the couple.

"If the woman had lived longer, I don't think this gentleman and I could have ever taken her out of the vehicle," she said. "That's how crushed it was."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Before Help Arrived"}]

Because the crash happened in a remote stretch of western Natrona County, Nethercott estimated it took about 30 minutes before ambulances and firefighters reached the scene.

"It seemed like it was a long time to see paramedics," she said. "But considering you're out in the middle of nowhere, I don't think they could have gotten there any quicker."

Long before emergency crews arrived, however, strangers had already 

 Nethercott estimated roughly 10 motorists got out of their vehicles to help.

Some searched for fire extinguishers. Others comforted injured victims. One man who identified himself as working at a pediatric clinic checked on a young child who remained safely secured in a five-point car seat while the child's injured father tried to comfort him.

"There were people left and right getting out of their vehicles and trying to find anything that could be used," Nethercott said. "Whether it's water, an emergency medical kit or a fire extinguisher."

[{"type":"text","text":"The Natrona County Fire District later praised those bystanders."}]

"Crews would like to send a heartfelt thank you to all the bystanders who assisted victims immediately after the crash, while waiting for help to arrive, as well as while responders were on-scene, offering shelter during the passing of a thunder cell, emotional support and minor patient care," the agency said in a statement.

"The true spirit of the 'Wyoming Way' was in full force this day,” the statement adds.

Although there was little anyone could do medically for Susan Cox, Nethercott said they made sure she wasn't alone. 

"We told her help was coming,” she said. "We don't know what happens when people are unconscious, but we wanted her to know somebody was there."

The cause of last week’s double fatal crash in remote Natrona County was due to a commercial tanker truck driver who failed to stop for traffic in a construction zone, the Wyoming Highway Patrol said Wednesday. The investigation is active.

CSD Staff

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