Man Spends 30 Years Photographing Wyoming’s Disappearing Ranches

The Sweeney family of the Quaking Aspen Mountain District in southwest Wyoming had suffered through typhoid fever, tragedies from tick bites and the ups and downs of Cowboy State ranching. As the children left home one by one, a bachelor son remained on the family ranch until he, too, was gone. *

A new family now owns the ranch, and the Sweeney family would have been lost to history except for a veterinarian and his camera.

“I was practicing veterinary medicine for 30 years in Wyoming,” Larry Friedman said. “I got very interested in photography as I was about ready to quit practice and relax a little bit because the pressures of medicine can get to people.”

He had discovered a passion for photography beginning in 1977, and he became a common sight around Sweetwater County at the ranches and homesteads he visited. 

'Exploding Tree' Warning From Subzero Cold Snap Reaches Into Wyoming

A subzero snap of winter temperatures is expected to hammer the Midwest and reach into northeast Wyoming starting Friday. That’s led to a surge of warnings for people to watch out for “exploding trees.”

That’s not something someone just made up, even if it’s a bit of an exaggeration. Extreme cold can cause trees to explode, and it’s likely to take many people by surprise when it happens.

“It can make you jump if you’re not expecting it,” said Shane Smith, former director of the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens. “It's pretty rare, but it does happen and could happen across a lot of the country as this Arctic front moves in.”

‘Exploding' Trees

The concept of an exploding tree conjures images of a tall tree spontaneously bursting with a massive cloud of wood chips and debris.  The real phenomenon, called “frost cracking,” isn’t that dramatic, but has impressive results.

Wyoming Lawmaker Unveils Bill To Make Ivermectin Over-The-Counter

A Wyoming House Representative from Cheyenne wants to make it legal in the state to sell the controversial drug ivermectin over-the-counter.

Rep. Gary Brown, R-Cheyenne, this month unveiled House Bill 13, which would allow people in Wyoming to buy ivermectin without a prescription.

Used in some cases as a horse dewormer, ivermectin garnered controversy during the COVID-19 pandemic when President Joe Biden’s U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discouraged its use with slogans like, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Serious y’all. Stop it.”

A group of doctors sued federal agencies in 2022, saying they waged a pressure campaign against them to block them from prescribing the drug.

The FDA settled that lawsuit in 2024.  

If it becomes law, Brown’s bill would also specify that the state doesn’t classify the drug as a dangerous substance.

Brown told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that after watching other states pass this change in recent years, “I became really interested in it.”

Senator From Wyoming Not Seeking Reelection

Jacob Burg, 12/22/25

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) announced on Dec. 19 that she will not seek reelection next year after serving in the Senate for a single term, citing exhaustion from long weeks working on Capitol Hill.

“It’s an incredible honor to represent Wyoming in the U.S. Senate, and throughout my time here, Wyoming has been my one-and-only priority,” she wrote in a statement posted to social media.

Lummis said it was a blessing to work with Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and then-Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), while she was still in the House, and with Barrasso and Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) while junior senator of Wyoming since 2021.

Tattoo Regret: Wyoming Residents Pay Big Money For Tattoo Removal

Think before you ink.  

That’s the advice of cosmetic laser technicians across Wyoming who erase bad memories of customers who impulsively got tattoos and later regretted them.

“A lot of people will come in and say they are embarrassed by their tattoo,” said Rachel Watson, a technician at Sterling Skin Care Casper. “I tell them don’t be embarrassed, because they were young and dumb, but now have grown up and are trying to get a job and can’t have tattoos.”

Watson treats as many as 25 clients a week. Some of them have been unlucky in love and want tattoos bearing the name of a former spouse or partner eliminated. Others are just dissatisfied with how the tattoo looks.

In the case of face and neck tattoos, some say those hold them back from getting jobs or socializing. Many are also impulsive.

Sheridan Man Builds Premium Fly-Fishing Rods — And Teaches Others To Make Them

Jackie Dorothy, 12/06/25

Joey Puettman of Sheridan turned his passion for fly-fishing into a career building premium fly fishing rods. Over the past 20 years, Puettman has also taught more than 3,000 people how to fly fish and build their own rods.

It all began when Joey Puettman was 9 years old and broke his dad’s fly-fishing rod.

Desperate, Puettman tried to fix it and, when that failed, he blamed his little brother.

Puettman would eventually confess, and his parents responded by buying him a Cabela’s fly rod building kit.

It was a simple kit and Puettman had to use a heavy dictionary as a tensioner for his thread as he wrapped that first rod on his mom's kitchen table. 

Wyoming Shoshone Dancers Showcase Culture In Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

Six-year-old Shoshone tribal member Ethanial Austin Brown  of the Wind River Indian Reservation performed at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year as a fancy feather dancer with his grandfather George Abeyta.  [both pictured here]

His performance made the highlight reel for the parade, and his grandfather could not be more proud of “Baby E,” as Brown is known as on the powwow circuit.

He danced hard on the on the asphalt for 2-and-a-half miles,” Abeyta said. “He just stopped and danced his little heart out up to 30 times along the route.” 

The pair had been invited this year by Native Pride Productions to perform in New York City over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Record Setting Runner Pardoned

President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned a record-setting mountain runner prosecuted by the National Park Service and convicted by a federal judge for trespassing on a trail that was “closed for regrowth” last September in Grand Teton National Park.

The pardon of Michelino Sunseri comes after Wyoming Republican U.S. House Rep. Harriet Hageman said she was investigating the case as a possible instance of overzealous prosecution.

"We are thrilled that Michelino's nightmare is over, but we're not done fighting against unconstitutional regulations that give low-level park officials the power to criminalize harmless conduct," said Michael Poon, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation, which defended Sunseri. "We are ready to help other Americans who face criminal prosecution for breaking park rules that were illegally created."

It's The Rut And Wyoming Pronghorn Bucks Are Battling To Build Their Harems

This story has been updated as of Oct. 1, 2025, at 2 p.m. to reflect what we know at that point:

As the country edged closer Tuesday to a federal government shutdown, Walt Schweitzer worried about the two-party checks issued to young grain farmers, which can’t be cashed without the signature of the U.S. Farm Service Agency.

Farmers who use crop proceeds to collateralize FSA direct operating loans must split those checks for grain sold to the local elevator. Those checks will go uncashed as long as FSA signatories are furloughed, said Schweitzer, president of Montana Farmers Union. There were 1,142 Montana farmers with FSA direct operating loans last year. The money they’ve borrowed to pay for seed, fertilizer and other farm basics totaled $118.6 million. 

“It’s frozen funds,” Schweitzer said. “These are people that are living on a shoestring, the young farmers.”

Wednesday marks the beginning of a new federal fiscal year, but without a federal budget passed by Congress and no agreement on a short-term funding bill, it appeared agencies would begin the new budget year without money to function. 

Ballerina Needed Nerves Of Steel To Attend Boot Camp And Pursue Dreams

jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.

To excel as a ballerina, Skylar Lippincott, 17, of Thermopolis, Wyoming said you must learn to ignore the pain and push yourself beyond your limits. 

“It's a big misconception that ballet is easy,” Lippincott said. “It looks easy but it's so complex because you have to be paying attention to what your body is doing and counting your music at the same time.”

In the Cowboy State when most female athletes are in rodeo or pursuing volleyball and track, Lippincott said that being a ballerina requires nerves of steel and should not be discounted since it is a tough sport. 

“A lot of people don't know how difficult it is on your body,” Lippincott said. “It's definitely a full-time commitment that you have to dedicate your entire life to.” 

The Fountain Hotel

The Fountain Hotel, a luxury playground for the rich visiting the Yellowstone National Park, was built in 1891 as the largest hotel in the park. It was also believed to be haunted by guests that never left.  

According to Annie Carlson a research coordinator at Yellowstone, the hotel was a ‘cut above the rest.’ which was located just north of Fountain Paint Pot in the Lower Geyser Basin. The three-story structure cost $100,000 to build and could accommodate 350 guests. It boasted 143 rooms, steam heat and baths that used the hot springs water. 

“The hotel was fancy given its rustic surroundings, and guests would wear their finest clothes to regular evening balls,” Carlson said. 

Bomber Discovered In New Guinea Jungle

By David Madison, 09/27/25

Before Wyoming World War II hero Sgt. Thomas L. Cotner left to serve in the Pacific, his mother hosted a dinner party at Club La Vida in Evansville, a restaurant and night club known for its roulette wheel. 

The event was noteworthy enough to earn coverage in the local newspaper, which reported the dinner was to honor Tom, who had just finished training at an air base in Illinois. 

Tom’s brother and fraternal twin, Ted Cotner, was also in the Army Air Corps and would be stationed at Hickam Field in Hawaii, where on Dec. 7, 1941, he saw his first action.

Ted Cotner’s commander praised the young airman for his heroic response to the Pearl Harbor attack.

Loneliest Mail Carrier In The Nation

Tebra Morris drives 300 miles a day to deliver one of the longest and most remote mail routes in the nation, where she often travels longer distances between mailboxes than most postal carriers do for their entire routes.

The unofficial motto of the U.S. Postal Service proclaims: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” 

The line is lifted from a Charles W. Eliot poem, which in turn references the writings of Greek historian Herodotus 2,500 years ago on the courier service in the ancient Persian Empire.   The average Persian postal carrier in 500 B.C. had more people on his route than Tebra Morris does today. 

Great American Outdoors Act

With a key component of the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act set to expire at the end of this month, the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources is set to meet Friday in Grand Teton National Park to consider whether to continue funding infrastructure in national parks. 

The committee includes Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman. It’s scheduled to hold an oversight hearing at 10 a.m. at the Jenny Lake Visitor Center in Grand Teton National Park. Several people are scheduled to speak before the committee, including Grand Teton Superintendent Chip Jenkins and Julie Calder, chair of the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board. 

Act Included Two Funding Streams

The main topic will likely be the Legacy Restoration Fund section of the Great American Outdoors Act, which was signed into law by President Trump in 2020. The Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF) authorized $1.9 billion per year for five years. That included $1.3 billion for the National Park Service, and the rest for other federal land-management agencies.

Wyoming’s Zero-Tolerance Wildfire Policy Leaves No Room For ‘Let It Burn'

Wildfire is recognized to have a cleansing and renewing role in nature, but allowing it take its natural course is considered too risky in Wyoming.

Most state and federal agencies in charge of public lands have a standing policy to go after every blaze with everything they’ve got, as soon as possible. 

“The State of Wyoming, we do not have a let burn policy, we have a put-out policy, immediately,” Wyoming State Forester Kelly Norris said during a recent interview with Cowboy State Daily Show with Jake Nichols. 

“The Bureau of Land Management has that same policy, obviously private lands have that same policy,” she added. 

In remote areas of vast National Forest land in Wyoming, the U.S. Forest Service has a more leeway to allow natural fires to burn. 

However, that can have dire consequences if a fire escapes a wilderness area, as did the massive Pack Trail Fire in northwest Wyoming in October 2024, Norris noted. 

A slurry bomber airplane, under contract with the Wyoming State Forestry Division, helps fight the Muddy Fire near Casper. (Courtesy Russell Haynes, Wyoming State Forestry Division)

Wyoming Will Lose More Than An Hour Of Daylight Before Fall Officially Starts

Andrew Rossi, 09/02/25

The last of summer isn’t for another three weeks, but it’s taking a shockingly large chunk of its daylight before it goes. Between now and the autumnal equinox on Sept. 22, Wyoming will lose more than an hour of daylight. 

“We lose an average of 55 minutes a month after the equinox,” said Max Gilbraith, planetarium coordinator at the University of Wyoming. “In the next 18 days, we will lose about an hour and 10 minutes of daylight.”

The loss of daylight will go hand-in-hand with the first bites of winter. Cooler nights, lower humidity, and the first snowfall of the season are all possible before summer’s officially over.

“The first half of September is the period of the year when we lose daylight the fastest,” Gilbraith said.

Wyoming Lawmakers Drafting Legislation To Ban Cloud Seeding For 10 Years

After nearly four hours of educational presentation and passionate testimony, a legislative committee voted Thursday to draft legislation that could halt cloud seeding programs in Wyoming, ban geoengineering, and deliver a message to Congress.

The message the Joint Agriculture, State & Public Lands and Water Resources Committee voted in favor of drafting and potentially sending to Congress remained unclear to the public as the vote happened Thursday.

No lawmaker had read it aloud or described it ahead of the vote.

Wyoming Newspapers Saved

People in eight Wyoming communities have been cheering this week as they learned their local newspapers were saved.

This is not just good news for them locally and also for all of Wyoming.

The term “desert” gets used out here in the frontier when we lack things that people are used to seeing in bigger cities. When medical care is limited, the situation is often cited that we live in a medical desert. 

Well, this past week, we heard about eight towns (Torrington, Wheatland, Guernsey, Pinedale, Bridger Valley, Lusk, Evanston, and Kemmerer) becoming “news deserts.” 

Even in a depressed condition, local newspapers provide key information. About government meetings, births and deaths, little league team victories, lots of stuff about the local school systems . . . the list is almost endless.

There is no definite formula – each town and each newspaper is a little different from each other. But for centuries, people in this country have relied on their local papers for critical news.

Darin Smith Interim U.S. Attorney for Wyoming

A Wyoming state senator representing Laramie and Platte counties hand-delivered his resignation letter early Monday morning, then was sworn in as the interim federal prosecutor for the state hours later.

Darin Smith’s family announced his swearing-in as interim U.S. Attorney for Wyoming via social media Monday afternoon.

President Donald Trump on July 30 nominated Smith, a Republican, as his pick to fill the position permanently. To win that title, Smith will have to clear a U.S. Senate confirmation process.

In the meantime, his state Senate seat is vacant.

Smith hand-delivered his resignation letter to Gov. Mark Gordon’s office early Monday, Gordon’s spokesman Michael Pearlman confirmed to Cowboy State Daily.

“And the governor notified the state party that he had submitted his resignation,” Pearlman added.  In vacancies in which the incumbent state legislator resigns, the governor plays a role in the verification and replacement process – of notifying the political party to which the legislator belongs.

Story Of Green River Heroism Takes Bizarre Turn With Phony AI Court Cases

A Wyoming judge has sanctioned a lawyer for citing fake AI cases in a lawsuit over what caused a nearly fatal house fire in Green River. A woman and her son were saved by Ryan Pasborg, [pictured right] who was given the nation's highest honor for heroism for his actions.

The Jetson Plasma Iridescent Hoverboard sells for $148 at Walmart and allows riders to zip around on two wheels.

It’s powered by a lithium-ion battery and on Feb. 1, 2022, one at the Wadsworth home in Sweetwater County allegedly experienced a “thermal runaway,” causing it to burst into flames and burn down the home, according to a lawsuit filed in Wyoming District Federal Court. 

Ryan Pasborg was running late for work as he drove past the Wadsworth family home on Highway 374 in James Town in rural Sweetwater County around 4:30 a.m. and saw smoke and flames coming from a bedroom window. 

He then rushed inside and saved Stephanie Wadsworth and her 4-year-old boy Weston. 

Stephanie suffered “devastating burns covering 35%” of her body, according to court documents.

Weston was also severely burned, but survived, while Pasborg was honored for his heroism.