David Madison

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

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

Clair McFarland

Jimmy orr

Jimmy Orr

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

CHEYENNE — Velma Wilson felt a wash of emotion that nearly had her in tears when she walked through the gates of the new Morning Star American Indian Village at Cheyenne Frontier Days on Friday.

A turquoise jewelry maker from the reservation in northern Arizona, Wilson said she wasn’t expecting to find a completely rebuilt, reimagined and elevated campus dedicated to Native American culture.

“When I first came in this morning, I was really moved,” said Wilson, who has been a fixture at the village for 26 years. “I got emotional, because this is so amazing and the (transformation) is almost unbelievable.”

As the new $10 million Morning Star American Indian Village celebrated its grand opening Friday on the first day of the 2026 Cheyenne Frontier Days, Wilson said that she and other Native Americans appreciate the transformation more than most visitors.

“You look around and what this is now and it’s really like, you know, it’s like somebody appreciates you,” Wilson said. “For years here, the Indian Village seemed like an afterthought, which is kind of what (American) history has been.”

She described setting up her booth in previous years “in a shed that was falling apart, so when it rained, water came through our roof. We had to put plastic on all our stuff to protect it.”

Then she made a grand, encompassing sweep of her arms and said that she's overwhelmed by the facility that includes new vendor spaces, rows of teepees and a grand centerpiece dance arbor that Wilson said honors her culture.

“It’s like, I can’t believe this is for us,” she said. “I was skeptical at the beginning when they were building this, but all my skepticism just all went away when I came in here.”

[{"type":"text","text":"It’s easy to see why."}]

Rebranded the Morning Star Indian Village, the winding walkways, brick vendor booths and meaningful artwork have created a new destination for Cheyenne and CFD.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than A Tourist Trap"}]

In Native American culture, the Morning Star is a powerful force, representing new beginnings, said “Yellowstone” actor and frequent visitor to the Indian Village, Mo Brings Plenty.

He was the emcee of the village’s Friday grand opening, weaving humor and passion into his appreciation for the new Morning Star Indian Village.

“Years ago, this began with cowboys and Indians,” he said. “And today, what I love about this place is it maintains its tradition. We still have cowboys and Indians.”

The centerpiece of the village is an impressive dance arbor — a sunken, circular arena lined with 36 huge 18-inch fir posts that look like they’ll be there for another century.

It’s a fitting place for Native American dances, ceremonies and for family, said Wyoming state Rep. Ivan Posey, who’s an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe.

“Oh, this is beautiful,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “I walked through here this morning, and it’s impressive.”

He explained that the arbor is a circle for a reason; it symbolizes unity and family. During the grand opening ceremony, Posey performed a traditional cedar healing ceremony.

He also echoed Wilson in saying the new village “was probably a long time coming, but it’s here. This arbor is a great piece of work. It’s going to transcend those songs and dances to people … and give us an ability as tribal people to share that.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘You Got To Dream Bigger Than That’"}]

The vision for Morning Star began with Jackson resident and businessman B. Wayne Hughes Jr. and his wife, Molly, through their Hughes Foundation.

They came to Cheyenne Frontier Days officials and said, “What can we do to help you guys?” said CFD CEO Tom Hirsig. “So, they walked around and we said, ‘Well, there’s things we want to do.’”

Upgrading and rebuilding the Indian Village wasn’t one of those things, he added.

“Then they went to the Indian Village and they said, ‘This is what we want to help with. We want to improve this Indian Village,'” Hirsig said. “Wow, that’s exciting, because that’s something that really wasn’t in our plan, to put a lot of money into the Native American village.”

Cheyenne Frontier Days put together a $1 million makeover plan and took it to the couple.

“Wayne looked at us and said, ‘You got to dream bigger than that,’” Hirsig said.

That dream turned out 10 times bigger with a $10 million investment into the village.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Felt The Need’"}]

Much of Friday’s ceremony was spent thanking the Hughes Foundation and the couple, who were visibly moved by what the new village means for Wyoming and Native American culture.

“You know, this is a hell of a time to choke up,” said Wayne, who also owns Cowboy State Daily.

Then he pulled out folded sheets of yellow paper and smoothed them with his hand while explaining how he would rather listen to speeches than give them.

“I usually wait until the last minute for this kind of thing, but this might be the last big speech I ever give,” he said as the crowd laughed. “Hopefully, it will be. I’m going to see if I can get through it.”

He told the several hundred gathered in a circle in and around the dance arbor that it’s humbling to see the results of years of planning and hard work by a lot of people.

“You know, walking into this place and seeing the dreams and the visions of everybody involved come to fruition is truly a blessing,” Wayne said. “And Molly and I are blessed to be here.

“We’re blessed to be citizens of Wyoming, and I just want to welcome all of you.”

He also recalled that day four years ago when he toured the Frontier Days grounds looking for opportunities to help.

“I was given a daylong tour of stadiums and barns and bleachers and building displays,” he said. “And along the way, (Wyoming Supreme Court) Justice Lynne Boomgaarden said, ‘Hey, take a look at Indian Village.’”

Being part Cherokee, Wayne said that he “felt the need … to recognize them in a way that they deserved. I was touched by the culture, and the culture touched me.

“Morning Star American Indian Village is now … truly a shining morning star,” he added. “And all the world can visit. It’s yours to share. Share it with your family, share it with your community and to commune with God.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘The Way It Should Be’"}]

Count Kathie Selden as one Cheyenne local who’s more than impressed with the new village.

She lives near the Cheyenne Frontier Days grounds and has been busting with curiosity for months as construction was underway.

“To get in here and see what all they were doing, it’s incredible,” Selden said. “I just walked in and it’s wonderful. I’ve been driving by for months wondering.”

[{"type":"text","text":"She said the village is now appropriate to what it represents."}]

“This is the way it should be, and we should have the support of our community as well as the First Nation community because the First Nations are the ones that this is about,” Selden said.

Her friend Lindi Kirkbride added that before, “the Indian Village seemed kind of stuck in the corner” of the CFD campus.

“Now it’s this kind of showcase, and that’s the way it should be,” she said. “It’s a statement of values rather than just, you know, this is outside everything else going on with the concerts and the rodeo and everything.”

The grand opening of the Morning Star village is just the beginning, Wayne said.

[{"type":"text","text":"“By the way,” he told the crowd. “There’s more to be done.”"}]

Wayne and Indian Village 7 17 26

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

<title>‘The Way It Should Be’: New $10M Indian Village Opens At Cheyenne Frontier Days | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The new $10 million Morning Star American Indian Village opened Friday for the first day of Cheyenne Frontier Days. Visitors said they were astonished by the transformation. "I got emotional, because this is so amazing," a Native American visitor said.

‘The Way It Should Be’: New $10M Indian Village Opens At Cheyenne Frontier Days

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

 to bring a 12-year-old Oklahoma girl back to Wyoming has pleaded no-contest to three felony charges, ending the criminal case short of trial and leaving prosecutors free to seek the maximum possible sentence.

Christopher Steven Gravenmier, 31, entered no-contest pleas Wednesday in Lincoln County District Court to two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and one count of kidnapping.

Lincoln County Attorney Spencer Allred and Deputy Lincoln County Attorney Ember Oakley prosecuted the case.

Rather than agreeing to a negotiated prison term, the plea leaves sentencing open, allowing both sides to argue for the punishment they believe is appropriate.

"We're really pleased with this because we can argue up to the maximum," Oakley told Cowboy State Daily. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Sentencing is scheduled for July 29."}]

If the court orders the sentences to run consecutively, Gravenmier faces mandatory prison terms of 25 to 50 years on each of the two first-degree sexual abuse convictions, along with up to 20 years on the kidnapping conviction — a combined maximum of 120 years in prison.

[{"type":"text","text":"No-Contest Plea "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Several other felony counts were dismissed as part of the plea agreement."}]

Although a no-contest plea differs procedurally from a guilty plea, it has the same legal effect in a criminal case.

"'No-contest' is legally the same as a guilty plea," Allred said. "No-contest pleas basically mean the defendant does not contest the charges against him, but it acts the exact same way as a guilty plea. He's still convicted of those counts. It's procedural. He says, 'I don't contest those charges,' but it acts the same way as a guilty plea."

By entering the plea, Gravenmier gave up his constitutional right to a trial, and the case now moves directly to sentencing.

[{"type":"text","text":"Taken From Home"}]

 April 22 when the girl, who had been reported missing from Oklahoma days earlier, called her grandmother from a Wyoming gas station and said she had been abducted.

Investigators initially encountered Gravenmier after the girl said she had borrowed his cellphone. But once she was safe, authorities say she identified him as the man who had brought her to Wyoming.

The girl told investigators she had communicated with Gravenmier for months on Snapchat before he drove from Kemmerer to Oklahoma. She alleged he told her he knew where she lived, prompting her to leave home with him because she feared what might happen if she refused.

Prosecutors allege Gravenmier drove the girl back to Wyoming, where he sexually abused her during the trip and after arriving in Kemmerer. Charging documents also allege he threatened her, attempted to prevent anyone from tracking her cellphone and warned her not to report what had happened.

Gravenmier was arrested later that day and charged with multiple felony counts. Several of those charges were dismissed as part of Wednesday's plea agreement.

[{"type":"text","text":"Police Station"}]

At the police station, Gravenmier admitted to investigators that he had driven to Oklahoma and picked up the girl several days earlier.

The affidavit says agents noticed that he became "very emotional" during questioning and appeared nervous, grabbing at his shirt, wiping his face and developing a noticeably dry mouth.

[{"type":"text","text":"After requesting an attorney, the interview ended."}]

While investigators obtained search warrants for his home and vehicle, Gravenmier remained at the police station.

The affidavit states he was crying, slumped over in his chair and told agents he was "really sorry for what happened."

Gravenmeier and Lincoln County courthouse 4 30 26 1

<title>Wyoming Man Accused Of Kidnapping, Assaulting 12-Year-Old Oklahoma Girl Pleads No Contest | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Kemmerer man accused of driving 16 hours to Oklahoma to bring a 12-year-old girl back to Wyoming pleaded no-contest to kidnapping and two sex abuse charges and now faces up to 120 years in jail. The affidavit said he told police he was "really sorry."

Wyoming Man Accused Of Kidnapping, Assaulting 12-Year-Old Oklahoma Girl Pleads No Contest

A routine drive over Teton Pass turned into a white-knuckle spectacle Wednesday when the RV appeared to lose its brakes and barreled downhill, weaving through traffic before somehow reaching the bottom without crashing.

The frightening descent was captured on video (without audio) by Jeff Bernhard, who was traveling from Victor, Idaho, to Jackson when the motorhome suddenly came flying up behind his vehicle in the oncoming lane.

"My driver's exact words were, 'Oh, shit, here it goes again,'" Bernhard told Cowboy State Daily. "It was kind of surreal."

Watching through his phone, Bernhard feared he was witnessing another deadly crash.

"It was hard to film, honestly," he said. "I had an eerie feeling that I've had a few other times where it feels like someone's about to die. I'm just so grateful that's not how this turned out."

The video shows the motorhome racing downhill, passing slower traffic while the driver appears focused entirely on keeping the vehicle on the roadway.

[{"type":"text","text":"Remarkably, everyone walked away unharmed."}]

Bernhard said the motorhome continued through Wilson, crossed the bridge into Jackson and eventually pulled safely off the road. Later that day, he saw what appeared to be the same motorhome traveling south of Jackson.

"I was concerned after we left that maybe his brakes caught on fire or something," he said. "But that doesn't appear to be the case."

Cowboy State Daily has asked the Wyoming Highway Patrol whether troopers responded to the incident, whether the driver suffered a mechanical failure and whether the agency is investigating.

[{"type":"text","text":"Still Fresh In Drivers' Minds"}]

Bernhard's reaction reflects what had happened on the same stretch of highway about a week earlier.

On July 7, a dump truck hauling asphalt descended Teton Pass after losing its brakes. 

 the truck crossed into oncoming traffic, struck five vehicles — including two pickup trucks, a motorcycle and a Subaru — before overturning.

The crash killed Nicholas Besobrasow, 66, of Idaho, and David Page, 57, of California. Four other people were injured.

Survivor Caleb Batista told Cowboy State Daily he 

 thrown off the mountainside after the truck hit his motorcycle.

Another witness, Dumitru Cebotari, described seeing smoke pouring from the truck while its engine screamed down the grade, realizing almost immediately the driver could not stop.

[{"type":"text","text":"For Bernhard, Wednesday's video looked frighteningly familiar."}]

"That was where his mind went — and mine too" he said, in reference to the earlier tragedy. 

[{"type":"text","text":"A Mountain That Demands Respect"}]

Drivers who regularly travel Teton Pass often describe it with two seemingly contradictory words: beautiful and intimidating.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bernhard is one of them."}]

"It's a beautiful area," he said. "But driving and towing especially can be really consequential."

The pass carries thousands of commuters between Victor and Jackson, along with commercial trucks, RVs, motorcycles and tourists unfamiliar with steep mountain driving. Its long downhill grade and tight switchbacks leave little margin for mechanical problems.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bill Sniffin knows that firsthand."}]

A veteran motorhome owner with more than 50,000 miles behind the wheel of RVs and the author of numerous columns about driving them, Sniffin said he immediately recognized the danger when he watched Bernhard's video.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I've had that experience,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Even experienced drivers, he said, don't take Teton Pass lightly."}]

"I've gone down Teton Pass before, and it is scary to death," Sniffin said. "In my case, I'm driving a 32,000-pound rig and towing a car, and the traffic is terrible, and the hairpin turns. You're literally white-knuckle. Your life is passing before your eyes."

[{"type":"text","text":"When Brakes Aren't Enough"}]

Sniffin said many larger diesel motorhomes are equipped with what's known as a Jake brake — an engine braking system that slows heavy vehicles on long descents without relying heavily on conventional brakes.

Smaller motorhomes often don't have that equipment because of the added expense, forcing drivers to depend much more on their service brakes.

"I used to have a smaller rig that didn't have Jake brakes," Sniffin said. "It was terrifying because you could start smelling your brakes when you came down a pass. When that happened, you knew you were borderline. You had to stop and let them cool down, and if there was no place to stop, you were in trouble."

Sniffin emphasized he has no way of knowing what happened to the motorhome in Wednesday's video.

But he said long mountain descents have a way of exposing problems that may never reveal themselves on flatter highways.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's very lucky that there wasn't a horrible collision,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Another Reminder"}]

Whether the motorhome suffered brake failure or another mechanical problem remains unknown.

But for commuters who travel Teton Pass every day, Wednesday's close call served as another reminder of how quickly a routine drive can become an emergency.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It demands more respect than what most people give it,\" Bernhard said."}]

"You've got to think twice. Unfortunately, you've got to kind of know how scary it is. Otherwise, people just sort of hope for the best."

[{"type":"text","text":"On Teton Pass, that difference can come down to only a few seconds."}]

Teton pass video 7 17 26

<title>Holy Cow: Motorhome Appears To Lose Brakes On Teton Pass, Motorist Captures Video | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A routine drive over Teton Pass turned into a white-knuckle spectacle Wednesday when an RV appeared to lose its brakes and barreled downhill, weaving through traffic before somehow reaching the bottom without crashing. One motorist captured the video.

Holy Cow: Motorhome Appears To Lose Brakes On Teton Pass, Motorist Captures Video

Outdoors

Wildlife

Wind turbines kill thousands of Wyoming birds and bats every year, but a wildlife official says that emerging technology might help lower the kill count.

In 2025, wind turbines killed 1,160 large birds, such as raptors and waterfowl, Wyoming Game and Fish habitat protection program supervisor Will Schultz told the state Game and Fish Commission on Wednesday.

Turbine blades also killed 9,152 small birds, such as meadowlarks, and 13,423 bats, Schultz said.

Fast-spinning turbine blades aren’t always the most deadly, he added.

“A lot of the mortality for birds and bats happens at very low wind speeds, because they’re flying around and they’re not paying attention to those blades,” Schultz said.

The official tallies might not represent all the birds and bats killed by wind turbines, he said. The deaths are recorded by people, usually private contractors, who occasionally walk around underneath turbines and count carcasses.

Sometimes, dogs are brought in to help make the counts more accurate, Schultz said.

Wyoming’s bird and bat losses are generally considered to be within the acceptable range by region-wide standards, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Can Game And Fish Do?"}]

Game and Fish doesn’t have the authority to approve or deny permits for wind power projects, Schultz said. That rests with the seven-member Industrial Siting Council under the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

Game and Fish works closely with project permit applicants, usually long before ground is broken, he said.

Biologists determine what effects a project might have on Wyoming’s birds, wildlife, fish and plants, Schultz said. And they can offer guidance on how to lessen the effects on wildlife and the environment.

Game and Fish can also advise the Industrial Siting Council about what permit conditions might help save wildlife and conserve the ecosystem, he said.

Once a wind farm is up and running, Game and Fish can also help monitor its effects on wildlife and offer ideas for mitigation, he said.

Commissioner John Masterson asked Schultz if Game and Fish has the authority to tell a wind energy developer, “You have way exceeded the acceptable number of raptors that have been killed, you have to shut down until we figure that out.”

Schultz said in such an instance, Game and Fish could bring its concerns before the Siting Council, but only the council has the authority to shut a wind farm down.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mitigation Efforts"}]

Technology might help stem the tide of bird and bat deaths, Schultz said, adding that it’s been a common practice to post people with binoculars on wind farms.

Those people can watch for birds, particularly raptors, and shut turbines down, which allows for eagles and hawks to fly through safely, Schultz said.

Increasingly, a technology called IdentiFlight makes it unnecessary to post people on site, he said.

The system uses cameras to monitor bird traffic and can automatically shut down and restart turbines as needed, Schultz said.

In some cases “painting one blade of a wind turbine black” help birds see it before it’s too late, he said, adding that hundreds of hours of work and research have gone into wind farm risk mitigation.

Anti-Wind Farm Activist Remains Skeptical

Laramie resident Anne Brande, founder of the Albany County Conservancy, has lobbied against wind farms for years.

She wasn’t at Wednesday’s Game and Fish Commission meeting, but told Cowboy State Daily that she appreciates the department’s efforts to mitigate bird deaths.

She’s particularly concerned about golden eagles.

Wyoming has a significant resident population of the large raptors that favor wide-open country, where they can hunt rabbits and prairie dogs.

The state’s population of golden eagles is also thought to 

 when many of them migrate in from the north.

Golden eagles’ preferred habitat puts them at greater risk of hitting wind turbine blades, Brande said.

And the secondary effects of power lines spreading out from wind farms also isn’t considered, she said.

Golden eagles can be easily disturbed by too much human activity and new structures, which might cause them to abandon their nests, Brande said.

The eagles are also a key “indicator species” of how well Wyoming’s ecosystems are doing, she said.

“If every single golden eagle nest is valuable, can we afford to screw up?” Brande added.

She thinks the number of eagles, other birds and bats killed by wind turbines are undercounted “big time.”

While systems such as IdentiFlight might help, Brande said she’s skeptical whether that will be enough to make a real difference.

Golden eagle death 5 27 22 scaled

<title>Wyoming Wind Turbines Killed More Than 23,000 Birds And Bats Last Year | Cowboy State Daily</title>

More than 23,000 birds and bats were killed by wind turbines in Wyoming in 2025, according to a report presented Wednesday to the state Game and Fish Commission. “They’re flying around and they’re not paying attention to those blades,” said an official.

Wyoming Wind Turbines Killed More Than 23,000 Birds And Bats Last Year

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

 shook things up enough in Yellowstone National Park on Thursday morning for people 

The epicenter of the 7:20 a.m. earthquake was along the Grand Loop Road, south of Canyon Junction, at a depth of 6.53 kilometers. That’s just over 4 miles beneath the surface.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), at least 14 people reported feeling the earthquake within 30 miles of the epicenter. Its intensity was low, and there were no reports of damage.

The USGS categorized the earthquake as a III “Weak” on the Modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) scale. That means the quake’s energy would be noticeable but not much stronger than the vibrations caused by a large truck driving by.

It's not even the largest earthquake in Wyoming this week. A magnitude 3.5 earthquake was detected west of Rock Springs on Tuesday.

[{"type":"text","text":"Epicenter Experience"}]

Becky Benson of Mandan, North Dakota, was standing on Grizzly Hill in Yellowstone’s Hayden Valley when the earthquake occurred.

“There's a bison carcass out there,” she told Cowboy State Daily. "We were hoping to see wolves, so we were waiting for the fog to lift

Benson was looking through her spotting scope when she heard “what sounded like an explosion" that echoed through the valley.

[{"type":"text","text":"Everything went quiet. Then, the earth under her feet began to move."}]

“You could see some of the water down in the Yellowstone River swaying back and forth,” she said. “When it started to slow down, you could hear the rumbling going throughout the entire valley.”

The shaking would have been enough to knock Benson over, had she not grabbed onto something to steady herself. In this case, that was her nearest friend.

After “a little more than a minute that seemed like forever,” the shaking stopped.

A magnitude 3.3 earthquake in Yellowstone on Thursday was felt by people as far away as 30 miles. One tourist, who was standing at the epicenter of the quake, said the earth under her feet shake and she heard a loud explosion. "We were shocked by the sound of it."

CSD Staff

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