Writer

Jackie Dorothy

Jackie Dorothy is a reporter for Cowboy State Daily based in central Wyoming.

Over the past 20 years, Jackie has worked in television, radio and print across Wyoming. In this role, she has won numerous writing and history awards including the Wyoming Governor’s Journalist of the Year and SBA Journalist of the Year.

Jackie is also the podcast host of ‘Pioneers of Outlaw Country’ that explores little known historical stories of Wyoming with entertaining narrative.

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Latest from Jackie Dorothy

The 2B Ranch was one of the neighboring ranches to the haunted Rech Cabin. It is believed that the small clapboard shack was haunted by the ghost of a woman who starved to death after her husband left her at their homestead and a storm blew in.

Haunted Wyoming: The Mysterious Sandwich-Eating Ghost At Bridger Creek In The Big Horn Basin

In the remote Big Horn Basin, cowboys and locals tell of a spooky legend involving a woman’s ghost, eerie lights, and mysterious happenings at the infamous Rech Cabin, where history and the supernatural collide.

Jackie DorothyOctober 05, 2025

In 1894, Laban Hillberry driving his team of cow elk in Big Horn City, Wyoming, He had captured the elk in 1892 on the upper Gooseberry Creek.

Wyoming History: Big Horn Loved A Pair Of Tame Elk, Until A Teacher Got Stomped

Back in the 1890s, a pair of tame elk delighted the townspeople of Big Horn, Wyoming. They even taught the elk how to pull wagons for them. Then one of them stomped the local schoolteacher and the love affair ended.

Jackie DorothyOctober 05, 2025

Terri Craft pauses in the doorway beneath Bee Healthy, her health food store. While upstairs is alive with activity, the basement is seldom visited but it is alive with remnants of the past, including an abandoned tunnel that is believed to have been dug during Prohibition when the building was a former saloon and boarding house.

Haunted Wyoming: Locals Say Spirits Are Restless In Worland's Bootlegger Tunnels

When Worland business owners reported intruders in their locked basement, police found no one — but they also heard sounds in the bootlegger tunnels beneath the town. Locals swear spirits are still restless in the tunnels.

Jackie DorothyOctober 04, 2025

Virginia Broersma came from her studio in Los Angeles, California, for a three-week residency in Ucross, Wyoming. Artists from many different disciplines compete for the chance to practice their chosen art, from writing to composing, at the working ranch thanks to a program offered by the Ucross Foundation. Broersma was given an artist studio where she painted when she wasn’t hiking the property or enjoying the wide-open skies.

Artists From Around The World Compete For Coveted UCross Residency Program

Artists from around the world compete for coveted residency spots in tiny UCross, Wyoming. The town of 26 triples in size with the prestigious program, which has drawn American and international talent for 40 years.

Jackie DorothySeptember 28, 2025

Some modern history sleuths believe Butch Cassidy, right, died when he blew himself up with dynamite in 1900. Nope, says a prominent historan. That was Cassidy's cousin, Robert Parker Heap, left, not the infamous outlaw.

Wyoming History: A Counterfeit Butch Cassidy Blew Himself Up In Laramie In 1900

Some modern history sleuths say Butch Cassidy died when he blew himself up with dynamite in 1900. Nope, says a prominent historian. That was Cassidy's cousin, Robert Parker Heap, not the infamous outlaw, whose real name was Robert Parker.

Jackie DorothySeptember 28, 2025

Terri Geissinger holds up the 1976 National Geographic with the cover story by Robert Redford about his outlaw ride. In 1967, he first sat at the Hole-in-the-Wall bar that now resides at the Hot Springs County Museum. The first time Redford saw the bar, it was still being used in the Hole-in-the-Wall Bar, a saloon that had first opened in the 1890s and welcomed the local outlaws in.

Three Weeks And 600 Miles: Robert Redford’s True Adventure On The Outlaw Trail

Robert Redford’s love of the West, Wyoming and their notorious outlaws was well-known. It led him in 1976 to retrace 600 miles of The Outlaw Trail on horseback, by car and by boat over three weeks for National Geographic magazine.

Jackie DorothySeptember 28, 2025

Master Leather Craftsman James Jackson has been creating works of art in leather for four decades in Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain Region. He has been recognized internationally for his work and his contribution to the Sheridan Design which was pioneered by his mentor, Don King of Sheridan, Wyoming.

Meet The Master Wyoming Leatherworker And Artist Keeping His Western Craft Alive

James Jackson is a Wyoming leatherworker and artist who's famed for being a master of the Western "Sheridan Style." That's not by accident, as he learned it from Don King, a Wyoming-born leatherworking pioneer and legend.

Jackie DorothySeptember 27, 2025

Officially, Riverton is run by its elected City Council. But a lot of this central Wyoming town’s problems are addressed by a bunch of old guys who meet weekly in Scotty Ratliff’s kitchen.

Wyoming Coffee Klatch: Scotty Ratliff’s Kitchen Is Where World Problems Are Solved

Officially, Riverton is run by its elected city council. But the town's problems, and all the world's problems, are really solved by this group of old guys in Scotty Ratliff's coffee klatch.

Jackie DorothySeptember 27, 2025

The Booshway's camp at the 1838 Riverton Rendezvous.

She Wanted A Marker For Wyoming’s 1838 Rendezvous And Created An Outdoor Museum

When a Riverton woman noticed there wasn’t a historical marker memorializing Wyoming’s famous 1838 Rendezvous, she decided to do something about it. The result is an expansive outdoor museum open year-round.

Jackie DorothySeptember 21, 2025

Lovell's Ernie Marsh receiving the National Heritage Fellowship Award at a ceremony in Washington, DC

Wyoming Silversmith Ernie Marsh Presented National Heritage Fellowship Award

Lovell's Ernie Marsh was presented the National Heritage Fellowship Award on Wednesday. The silversmith and bit and spur maker received the highest honor in the nation for folk and traditional arts. He’s one of only five artists from Wyoming to receive the award since its inception.

Jackie DorothySeptember 21, 2025

Scott Ratliff of Riverton, Wyoming, grew up in the saddle and follows the Cowboy Code. When Ratliff discovered that Wyoming did not have a Hall of Fame to honor the cowboys he looked up to, he took action and now 20 to 30 cowboys every year are inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame. After all, Ratliff said, Wyoming is the Cowboy State.

When He Saw There Wasn’t A Wyoming Cowboy Hall Of Fame, Scotty Ratliff Started One

Scotty Ratliff is known as the father of the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame, which sprang from a startling revelation. He was shocked to learn the Cowboy State didn’t have a hall of fame for its legendary cowhands, so he started one.

Jackie DorothySeptember 20, 2025

Wyoming Remembers Robert Redford For His Love Of The Wild West

When Robert Redford was told he couldn’t buy the Hole-in-the-Wall bar in Thermopolis because it was installed in the Hot Springs County Museum, he bought another Wyoming bar. Then he had a replica of the Hole-in-the-Wall bar made for his home.

Jackie DorothySeptember 16, 2025

Other Authors

The historic Fort Fred Steele site in Carbon County, Wyoming.

Wyoming History: That Time Old Jim Gregory Literally Talked A Man To Death

Fort Fred Steele in Carbon County was the setting for a legendary Old West Wyoming showdown. It was 1878 when Old Jim Gregory literally talked another man to death. When a doctor arrived, he looked at the body and said, “This is some of Gregory’s work."

Jackie DorothySeptember 14, 2025

87-year-old Martin Andreen is a self-taught appliance repair man. He repairs both modern and older models, especially washing machines. He is not fazed by circuit boards and modern technology. Andreen has found ways to repair sensors and other new-fangled contraptions that come his way to his shop in Thermopolis, Wyoming.

Meet Mr. Fix-It: 87-Year-Old Martin Andreen Keeps Thermopolis Running

At 87, Martin Andreen is a Thermopolis throwback who's kept the small Wyoming town running for decades as a self-taught appliance repairman. He’s known to locals as Mr. Fix-It, and if he doesn’t know how to fix something, he’ll figure it out.

Jackie DorothySeptember 13, 2025

Mortimore Funeral Home Ends 80 Years of Ambulance Service In Rural Wyoming

After eight decades of ambulance service, Mortimore Funeral Home in Thermopolis is retiring its ambulance operations. In the 1950s, it was common practice to run an ambulance out of funeral homes because they had a big enough car to fit the cot, patient and attendant.

Jackie DorothySeptember 07, 2025

About 1898, Elmer Chatfield with draft horses and work crew near Ten Sleep, Wyoming. He is the one standing and holding his daughter.

Wyoming History: Nobody Crossed ‘Chatty’ Chatfield, The Toughest Cowboy Pioneer

Against a backdrop of lawlessness and frontier legend, Elmer “Chatty” Chatfield may have been the toughest of them all. Even at birth he wasn’t fazed when a windstorm sent a tent pole onto his head.

Jackie DorothySeptember 07, 2025

The Pikes Hot Shot crew out of Monument, Colorado, were grateful for a home cooked meal prepared by the Philp family. It was a gesture of gratitude but also common sense since the ranchers know that the hard work of fighting fires all day would make for a giant appetite.

After Saving Their Herds, Wyoming Ranchers Feed Hundreds Of Firefighters

As the 125,000-acre Red Canyon Fire threatened their herds and livelihoods, Wyoming ranchers scrambled to save them. Then they cooked up a storm to feed hundreds of firefighters also working to save them.

Jackie DorothySeptember 01, 2025

Bill Nye (not the science guy) was a humorist that was as famous as Mark Twain in his day. He founded the newspaper in Laramie and named it Boomerang after his beloved donkey. He captioned this picture of himself: “A thoughtful, scholarly and choice fragment of modern architecture with lines of care about the firmly chiseled mouth.”

Wyoming History: Bill Nye (Not The Science Guy) And His Mule Named Boomerang

Long before there was Bill Nye the Science Guy there was Laramie, Wyoming, newspaperman Bill Nye, one of the leading humorists of the late 19th century. His little orphan mule named Boomerang inspired him when life didn’t seem so funny.

Jackie DorothySeptember 01, 2025

Jess Camilla O’Neal of Dubois, Wyoming, is a songwriter and singer who used music to live. Her new album “The Campfire Sessions” was just released this past week.

Cowgirl To Cancer: Wyoming Songwriter Who Once Opened For Reba Now On Comeback

Jess Camilla O’Neal once opened for Reba McEntire, then a life-altering accident and stage 4 cancer derailed her career. Now the Wyoming cowgirl is making music again and is on the comeback trail.

Jackie DorothySeptember 01, 2025

All 13 cows of the Wyoming State Bison herd in Hot Springs State Park had calves this year, bringing the total number of bison to 30. About 15 will be sold off at a public auction this fall or early winter since the land at the Bison Pasture can only handle so many bison.

Meet Thunder & Lightning, The Bulls That Lead Wyoming’s Iconic State Bison Herd

For more than a century, Wyoming’s official bison herd has roamed the grasslands around Thermopolis. Until this year, the 15-head herd was led by a pair of unnamed, nearly identical bulls. Now they’re officially named Thunder and Lightning.

Jackie DorothyAugust 31, 2025

The National Truck Driving and Step Van Driving Championships was held last weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Wyoming was represented by several drivers including Jessica Smith of Shoshoni. The competition is intense and drivers amp up their skills as the prepare to show off their truck driving savvy.

Wyoming Truck Drivers Among The Best In The Nation

A team of Wyoming commercial truck drivers showed why they’re among the best in the nation over the weekend at the National Truck Driving and Step Van Driving Championship in Minnesota.

Jackie DorothyAugust 26, 2025