Renée Jean
Renée Jean is the business and tourism reporter for Cowboy State Daily and is based in Cheyenne. Previously, Renée spent seven years covering energy and agriculture in North Dakota and Montana. She has won many writing awards over a 30-year career, and has written magazine articles for Guideposts.
Latest from Renée Jean

Nuclear Regulators Talk Plant Timelines, Safety At Packed Kemmerer Meeting
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission had a full house in Kemmerer on Tuesday to open public discussions about its safety review of the proposed TerraPower nuclear plant.
Renée JeanNovember 08, 2023

Rare Jackson Wilderness Inholding Hits The Market For $9 Million
It’s not every day someone can buy a slice of their own wilderness. Especially a wilderness that comes with a cinematic icon nearby. The Granite Creek Ranch is just downstream from where an iconic scene in the 1992 movie “A River Runs Through It” was filmed.
Renée JeanNovember 06, 2023

Nuclear Regulatory Commission In Kemmerer on Tuesday To Discuss New Nuclear Power Plant
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is the federal agency charged with ensuring nuclear plants in the U.S. are safe, is coming to Kemmerer on Tuesday to explain how their particular process will unfold, as well as how the community can engage with the agency.
Renée JeanNovember 05, 2023

Landing National Championship Air Races Could Be $100M Coup For Wyoming
Casper is on the short list to land the famous National Championship Air Races after a 60-year run in Reno, Nevada. Landing the event would be a $100 million shot in the arm for the city and region.
Renée JeanNovember 05, 2023
Inside The Decades-Long Effort To Restore Cheyenne’s Iconic Atlas Theatre
The Atlas Theatre in downtown Cheyenne is one of the capital city’s oldest buildings, but it’s been surviving by its bootstraps for decades as efforts to restore it continue on.
Renée JeanNovember 05, 2023

Costco Really Does Have Everything, Even Gold Bars — And They’re Selling Out
Costco’s recent offering of 1-ounce gold bars turned quite a few heads. The gold bars sold out within a few hours of appearing on the website — faster than toilet paper in a pandemic.
Renée JeanNovember 04, 2023

That Time Elvis Had A Drink At The Virginian Bar In Medicine Bow, Wyoming
Margaret Parr started working at The Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow when she was 11, including tending bar there before she was old enough to drink. One of her customers was a young Elvis Presley.
Renée JeanNovember 04, 2023

Rocky Mountain Power Gets Heat From Wyoming Legislature On Nearly 30% Rate Hike
In another day of marathon hearings on Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed rate hikes of nearly 30%, the company was questioned over heat its getting from the Wyoming Legislature.
Renée JeanOctober 31, 2023

Built On An Old Graveyard, Sweetwater County Library Is Wyoming’s Most Haunted
Built on an old graveyard, the Sweetwater County Library in Green River embraces a haunted history that includes finding old bodies, reports of apparitions, moving objects, and other unexplained happenings.
Renée JeanOctober 30, 2023

Why Michael And Karmin Pace Take 600 People To Cheyenne Frontier Days Every Year
A trip in his early 20s started a lifelong love affair with Wyoming and the West for Pace-O-Matic founder Michael Pace. That’s why his company flies 600 people to Wyoming every year for Cheyenne Frontier Days.
Renée JeanOctober 29, 2023

The Virginian Hotel Has been A Wyoming And Western Icon For More Than A Century
The Virginian Hotel, inspired by the famous Owen Wister novel "The Virginian," is a Wyoming and Western Icon that’s been run by four generations of the same family for more than a century.
Renée JeanOctober 29, 2023

On The Road With Renee: An Epic 24,000-Mile, 100-Day Marathon Wyoming Road Trip
Now that the snow is flying, Cowboy State Daily writer Renée Jean’s epic 24,000-mile, 100-day summer road trip is over. She turned out dozens of uniquely-Wyoming stories featuring hundreds of local people.
Renée JeanOctober 29, 2023

Haunted Wyoming: Spirits At Gillette Bagel Shop Make Themselves Known In Loud And Obnoxious Ways
A pair of Gillette restauranteurs say strange things started happening at the bagel shop they owned after a family friend died, including unexplainable loud banging and a visible ghostly handprint.
Renée JeanOctober 28, 2023

UW Student Dressed As Eagle Pleads For Birds During RMP Rate Hike Hearing
University of Wyoming student Maggie Immen showed up dressed as an eagle for Thursday’s Wyoming Public Service Commission meeting to draw attention to eagles and other birds that are killed by wind turbines.
Renée JeanOctober 27, 2023

BLM Backs Off Approval Of Albany County Wind Transmission Line
In response to a lawsuit claiming the agency didn’t give proper public notice of its plans to build a wind transmission line through Albany County, the BLM has backed off and agreed to give it a closer look.
Renée JeanOctober 26, 2023

Part Of Huge Electricity Rate Hike Is To Pay For Washington State Carbon Tax
The Wyoming Public Service Commission got an earful Wednesday that Cowboy State residents shouldn’t be on the hook to pay a state of Washington carbon tax on a gas-fired power plant.
Renée JeanOctober 26, 2023

Wyoming Could Still Meet Deadline To Issue Digital Stable Token By End Of Year
Wyoming Stable Token Commission’s new executive director recommends using Ethereum for initial development of its stable token as the race is on to issue at least one Wyoming stable token by the end of the year.
Renée JeanOctober 24, 2023

Cheyenne Book Lovers Buzzing For Return Of Barnes & Noble With A New Local Focus
Cheyenne book lovers have been buzzing for the reopening of the Cheyenne Barnes & Noble book store, which will happen Wednesday with a new focus on catering to local tastes and trends.
Renée JeanOctober 24, 2023

Foodies Flock To Rawlins For Wyoming’s Most Fabulous Food Trucks
Wyoming’s fast-evolving food truck culture was the main attraction for 1,000 foodies who flocked to Rawlins for the recent Wyoming Food Truck Festival.
Renée JeanOctober 23, 2023

Wyoming People: Riverton’s Cupcake Lady Doesn’t ‘Do Anything Average’
Sweet Surprises owner Ronnie Roemmich made a name for herself as Riverton’s Cupcake Lady by not doing “anything average” at her bakery, which scratch makes everything from quiche to cappuccino.
Renée JeanOctober 22, 2023

Cheyenne’s Iconic Downtowner Hotel Rises From Central Plaza Ashes
Balconies were falling off the Central Plaza Hotel and concrete corners crumbling away when Corey Lynn and Carter Ward bought it. But today is a new day and Cheyenne's 88-room Downtowner is a new hotel.
Renée JeanOctober 22, 2023
