Features Reporter

Jake Nichols

Jake Nichols hosts the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show, each weekday from 6-10AM.

Find Jake Nichols

Envelope

Latest from Jake Nichols

Ranch hand and rodeo cowboy Herschel Clay "Tricky" Riggle was sentenced to death for killing his fiancée and a local ranch hand at a Wheatland café in 1953.

The Wyoming Rodeo Clown Who Gunned Down 2 People In 1953

It was a notorious crime in Wheatland 71 years ago that seems to have been lost to history. Rodeo clown Tricky Riggle gunned down his fiancée and her companion, escaped the gas chamber and continued his act even while in prison.

Jake NicholsJune 29, 2024

Ansel Adams' iconic image titled "The Tetons and the Snake River" with his Forever Stamp inset.

New Ansel Adams Stamp Series Includes Iconic Image Of Grand Tetons

The U.S. Postal Service is honoring legendary American West photographer Ansel Adams with a series of stamps, including his iconic “The Tetons and the Snake River” photo taken in 1942.

Jake NicholsJune 27, 2024

Teton Pass Update Evans Construction is already paving the new detour 6 25 24

Amazingly, ‘Catastrophic’ Teton Pass Failure Fixed In 3 Weeks, To Open Friday

Just three weeks after part of the highway on Teton Pass fell off the mountain, Wyoming transportation officials announced it will reopen on Friday. Considered the lifeline between Jackson and Idaho, the detour will have significantly slower speed limits but no weight limitations.

Jake NicholsJune 25, 2024

Bareback rider Logan Patterson rides during the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo on July 23, 2017, in this file photo.

Rodeo For Dummies: Wyoming’s Favorite Sport Explained For The City Slicker

Summer in Wyoming is rodeo season. Hundreds of thousands of fans attend regular community rodeos, county fair rodeos and, of course, the largest outdoor rodeo in the world. Don't know much about it? Here's a primer.

Jake NicholsJune 22, 2024

Rancher Royal Abbott rides his range in New Mexico with CGI Tetons serving to place his spread in Wyoming.

Amazon Hit ‘Outer Range’ Is Latest Example Of Wyoming Filmed Elsewhere

“Outer Range,” the Western/sci-fi thriller supposedly set in Wyoming, dropped Season 2 last month. While the show’s crew goes to great lengths making sure what viewers hear and see is authentically Wyoming, those who live here might be able to spot the goofs.

Jake NicholsJune 16, 2024

A “catastrophic failure” of Wyoming Highway 22 over Teton Pass on June 8, 2024, saw a huge section wash down the mountain. A long closure of the “lifeline” between Jackson and Victor, Idaho, is expected.

‘Catastrophic’ Teton Pass Failure Had Been Building For Decades

WYDOT is a week into an all-hands-on-deck response to get a temporary fix to a “catastrophic” failure of Teton Pass, but it wasn’t a surprise. It had been unstable and building up to a collapse for decades.

Jake NicholsJune 15, 2024

A lineup of $4 million Pagani supercars navigating construction in Jackson, Wyoming.

Wowzers! 50 Rare $4 Million Pagani Supercars Converge On Jackson, Wyoming

Spotting a rare $4 million Pagani, an Italian-made supercar, isn’t unusual in Jackson, Wyoming, during the summer. But 50 of them were spotted in Jackson earlier this week.

Jake NicholsJune 15, 2024

View from a drone of the collapse of a secton of Teton Pass along Wyoming Highway 22.

Temporary Detour Around ‘Catastrophic’ Teton Pass Failure Will Take Weeks

A temporary detour around the “catastrophic” failure of Highway 22 over Teton Pass is in the works, but will take weeks. In the meantime, the quickest route to get between Jackson and Idaho will take drivers three to four times longer.

Jake NicholsJune 10, 2024

Peter Landsman visiting one of the world's oldest operating chairlifts in Cordova, Alaska.

Jackson Man Spent 25 Years Riding Every Chairlift At Every Resort In North America

By day, Peter Landsman is a lift supervisor at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. On the side, the “Guru Of Gondolas” spent 25 years riding every chairlift at every resort in North America — more than 6,000.

Jake NicholsJune 07, 2024

For 21 years, Andy and Jim Nelson of Pinedale, Wyoming, have been doing their radio show and podcast the only way they know how — the cowboy way.

Wyoming People: Pinedale’s Nelson Brothers Keeping Cowboy Culture Alive For 21 Years

Andy and Jim Nelson are as famous as a couple of horseshoers get in rural Sublette County. The brothers’ western-themed radio show and podcast "Clear Out West" has aired weekly for 21 years.

Jake NicholsJune 01, 2024

The cast consists of 26 school-age youth who had three weeks to rehearse and stage a 90-minute original work.

Champions Of The Outdoors Featured In Original Jackson Musical

Just about everyone in Jackson who has ever hiked, biked or paddled in the backcountry knows of famed conservationists Olaus and Mardy Murie. Celebrated Jackson playwright Andrew Munz has made a musical celebrating them.

Jake NicholsMay 27, 2024

Bob Bing works a hat at the Cowboy Shop in Pinedale.

Cowboy Hat 101: What Your Western Topper Says About You

From cut to color to cost, a cowboy hat tells a story. Buying a new cowboy hat when visiting out West is fun and flirty, but wearing one for real Wyoming cowboys and cowgirls is serious business.

Jake NicholsMay 26, 2024

Other Authors

Wyoming Native ‘Bee Guy’ — Hero Of MLB Game — Gets His Own Bobblehead

Matt Hilton, the pest control technician who grew up in Wyoming and saved an Arizona Diamondbacks game from a swarm of killer bees last month, has been rewarded with a sold-out Topps baseball card and a collector’s edition bobblehead.

Jake NicholsMay 21, 2024

Elmer Lovejoy hauls a load of Crescent bicycles with his Locomobile Steamer in 1897. A year later he would become the first person to drive an automobile in Wyoming, one of his own making.

Laramie Inventor Elmer Lovejoy Built And Drove Wyoming’s First Car

No one in Wyoming had yet seen an automobile in 1898. That all changed when Elmer Lovejoy took a little drive in the car -- that he built -- in downtown Laramie on May 7, 1898. He was going an unthinkable 8 miles per hour.

Jake NicholsMay 19, 2024

A Cub Scout carries a matched set of antlers to the auction stage at a past ElkFest. Workers who prepare the antlers for auction try to match sets whenever possible as they bring in more money per pound.

Huge Wyoming Elk Racks Sell For Big Money At World’s Largest Antler Auction

The 57th annual ElkFest auction -- the world's largest antler sale -- is being held this weekend in Jackson. Last month, more than 100 scouts gathered 8,162 pounds of antlers at the National Elk Refuge. Proceeds are split between the scouts and the National Elk Refuge.

Jake NicholsMay 18, 2024

Thursday is the 38th anniversary of the Cokeville Elementary School bombing, which nearly was the scene of the worst school incident in U.S. history. While the bomb injured 79 people, the only deaths were the bomber and his wife.

Cokeville Bombing: The Miracle That Was Almost The Worst US School Disaster

On May 16, 1986, David Young wheeled a bomb into the Cokeville, Wyoming, elementary school planning to blow it and 154 hostages into oblivion. Many who were there that day say angels saved them from becoming the worst school disaster in U.S. history.

Jake NicholsMay 15, 2024

The iconic bar at the Silver Dollar in Jackson is a throwback to Harold’s Club Silver Dollar Bar in Reno, Nevada.

Drinking Wyoming: The Fascinating History Of Jackson’s Silver Dollar Bar

‘Meet Me at the Wort’ is more than a slogan. Jackson’s Silver Dollar Bar packs history-making stories of gambling, movie stars and unforgettable nights into its 74-year legacy. It’s a go-to spot in a town full of go-to spots.

Jake NicholsMay 11, 2024

Bryce Meredith rocks a UW sweatshirt at an MMA weigh-in.

Former All-American UW Wrestler Bryce Meredith Now An Undefeated MMA Fighter

Cheyenne's Bryce Meredith was one of the toughest, most successful athletes in the history of University of Wyoming wrestling. But he always wanted to punch someone, and that doesn’t go over too well on the mat. So he turned to MMA and he's undefeated.

Jake NicholsMay 11, 2024

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with retired U.S. Army Maj. Drew Dix during a Congressional Medal of Honor Society reception at the East Room of the White House on Sept. 12, 2018, in Washington, DC. The president hosted a reception to honor Medal of Honor recipients.

Medal Of Honor Recipient Maj. Drew Dix In Wyoming Promoting U.S. Patriotism

Fifty-five years after President Johnson awarded Maj. Drew Dix the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Vietnam War, Dix was in Pinedale to promote patriotism. “It starts with family, then schools. Families can’t be looking to the government to raise their kids.”

Jake NicholsMay 04, 2024

Periodic Spring runs hard once it is flowing 5 4 24

Periodic Spring In Star Valley Is World’s Largest On-Again, Off-Again Stream

Periodic Spring in Swift Creek Canyon outside Afton turns itself on, then off, then back on. There's only a few of these in the world and Wyoming's is the world's largest. Scientists have no idea why it happens.

Jake NicholsMay 04, 2024

Beekeeper Matt Hilton removes a colony of bees that formed on the net behind home plate during a delay to the MLB game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on April 30, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Former Wyoming Man Is Hero Beekeeper From Dodgers Game

Matt Hilton, who grew up in Buffalo, Wyoming, is the hero beekeeper who saved Tuesday’s Diamondbacks-Dodgers game from 20,000 Africanized bees. After completing the task to a standing ovation, he was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Jake NicholsMay 02, 2024

Page 23