Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
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GILLETTE - Justin West stopped bull riding in 2010. He'd recently had a bad fall, and doctors told him that if he had one more accident he would likely be paralyzed. A few years later, he was in the Big Horn Mountains for his brother's birthday. They were riding snowmobiles when they came up on what they thought was a 5-foot drop. It turned out to be a 40-foot drop. "I closed my eyes, and all I thought about was, I'm dead," he said. Miraculously, West survived the fall. But he knew instantly tha...
CASPER — If you’re a ghost on the grounds of what formerly was Fort Caspar, you might very well be a young soldier who died during the Battle of Platte Bridge in 1865. You liked playing checkers and maybe smoking a cigar and thinking of a pretty girl back home, all the way on the other side of the Mississippi River. You could also be a child who drowned in that same vicious river while trying to get to what is now Oregon or Utah or Montana. You might, if you’re really aware, be in awe that people who now use that same river for recre...
Six fatal crashes so far in Campbell County this year GILLETTE (WNE) --- So far in 2024, 21 people have died in 18 fatal crashes in Wyoming. A third of those crashes, which resulted in six deaths, happened in Campbell County. In 2023, there were 11 fatal crashes in Campbell County. In 2022, there were seven. 2021 had four fatal crashes, and 2020 had eight. Campbell County Sheriff Scott Matheny said when it comes to these crashes, “it randomly spikes and sometimes it doesn’t.” The first crash wasn’t until Jan. 30, then there was another one abo...
The United States Postal Service has decided to move Casper’s processing and distribution center to Billings, Montana. The decision comes as part of the USPS’s Mail Processing Facility Review, which it says will help modernize and streamline postal services. The Casper location will be reworked into a local processing center. Local processing centers are limited to sorting “letters and flats to individual mail carrier routes in the regional area,” the USPS Office of the Inspector General’s website says. Since the postal service has also deci...
Woman arrested for aggravated assault after allegedly hitting motorcycle with her car GILLETTE (WNE) — A 63-year-old woman was arrested for aggravated assault after allegedly chasing a motorcycle throughout town and intentionally hitting it with her car Sunday afternoon. She and a 53-year-old man have been in an ongoing dispute over the ownership of two motorcycles, said Police Deputy Chief Brent Wasson. Sunday afternoon, the woman sat outside the man’s room at the Arrowhead Motel and waited for him to leave. The man left his motel room and...
Minor killed at Casper mall CASPER (WNE) — A minor is dead following a stabbing just before noon Sunday outside Eastridge Mall in Casper. “The two people most directly involved are in custody,” police lieutenant Scott Jones said, adding that additional individuals who may have been involved have been identified, questioned and may face “further action.” The victim, who is under the age of 16, will not be publicly identified until after an autopsy is performed Tuesday by the Natrona County Coroner. He died shortly after law enforceme...
GILLETTE - Fond memories come to the surface when Terry and Janet Tharp think back to moments they experienced as children at what's now called the Medicine Lodge Archaeological Site. Growing up in the late 1950s and 1960s near Hyattville, the now married couple said the site wasn't called that yet. It was simply a ranch - an area where Janet was taken for picnics on a school field trip and the home of children Terry went to school with. "The kids that lived there on that ranch, they would go...
ROCK SPRINGS - Public acceptance of tattooing has increased in the last two decades. Even teachers, lawyers, doctors and politicians have tattoos. In 1976, the first tattoo convention was held in Houston, Texas. The event provided an opportunity for artists to see work from other artists all around the world or to have the chance to display their own work and be seen by their peers. The inaugural tattoo expo in the Lone Star State was a place for artists and outcasts alike to meet and to be respected as well as appreciated. After the first-ever...
Wyoming became one of the first states in the nation to ban red flag gun laws when Gov. Mark Gordon signed new legislation into law last week. Senate File 109 – Prohibit Red Flag Gun Seizure Act says no local government, agency or police department can implement or enforce any rule that keeps a Wyoming resident from firearms or ammunition unless that gun owner meets certain criteria. It also bans using funds from Wyoming or the federal government to implement red-flag gun seizures. “What we’re doing is we’re prohibiting law-abiding citizen...
Cheyenne police investigating fatal shooting late Saturday CHEYENNE (WNE) — A man was found dead Saturday night, an “apparent victim of multiple gunshot wounds,” the Cheyenne Police Department announced on Facebook Sunday morning. The identities of the victim and the suspect have yet to be released; however, in a news release sent out Monday morning, the decedent was identified as a 38-year-old male. “The preliminary investigation shows that a loud physical and verbal disturbance occurred between the 38-year-old man and a woman at the apartme...
A pair of greater Sandhill cranes forage in a field Tuesday southeast of Powell. Sandhill cranes are known for their dancing skills. Courting cranes stretch their wings, pump their heads, bow, toss foliage and leap into the air in a graceful and energetic dance....
CASPER — Wildfire seasons are becoming longer, more destructive, and with an annual federal cost of $2.5 billion and growing, more expensive than ever, U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) and federal officials said during a Senate committee hearing last week, where leaders discussed the findings of a solemn report from the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission. The ampleness of the commission’s inaugural report, at 340 pages, speaks to the scope of the challenge, which leaders concede poses an outsize threat in the West, where fires hav...
State’s unemployment rate steady at 2.8% CASPER (WNE) — Wyoming continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation according to new numbers from the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services and federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Research & Planning section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services reported Monday that the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged from January to February at 2.8%. Wyoming’s unemployment rate was lower than its year-ago level of 3.1% and much lower than the current...
JACKSON — A new state bill signed into law requires law enforcement to notify the Wyoming Department of Family Services if they receive a report of a vulnerable adult. The law, House Enrolled Act 6, states that if law enforcement receives a report that a vulnerable adult is “suspected of being or has been abused, neglected, exploited, intimidated or abandoned, or is committing self neglect, law enforcement shall notify the department concerning the potential need of the vulnerable adult for protective services.” Gov. Mark Gordon signed the bill...
POWELL — The Bureau of Land Management released a draft Thursday of an updated sage grouse management plan that places species protections back on track after several years of disruptions to the historic 2015 sage grouse plan. That was then credited for halting plans for costly protections for the species under the Endangered Species Act. Following 2019 court orders overturning Trump administration changes to the historic collaborative plans, the BLM has been managing sage grouse habitat according to those adopted in 2015, the agency said. H...
JACKSON — Several bills signed into law by Gov. Mark Gordon aim to safeguard pension funds for state employees across Wyoming. Government employees receive pensions through the state of Wyoming, and the Legislature controls how much of their salary they can contribute for retirement. David Swindell, executive director of the Wyoming Retirement System, said there was catching-up to do to ensure funds will be healthy for employees in 30 years. The promise of a pension is the No. 1 recruitment and retention tool used to fill positions across t...
Wyoming Life Flight now authorized to carry whole blood on air ambulances CASPER (WNE) — Casper-based air ambulance service, Wyoming Life Flight, announced on Thursday that it is now authorized to carry and administer whole blood on its air medical transport services. The organization, which serves the whole state, said in a press release that, “Each unit of whole blood provides red blood cells, platelets, plasma and clotting factors for superior outcomes for patients suffering from trauma or hemorrhagic shock” and that having whole blood...
Mar. 4 – Two VIN checks. Paper service. Traffic stops. Fall. Three house watches. Life Flight. Citizen dispute. Two business checks. Assist other agency. Three EMS pages. Fire. Mar. 5 – Seven VIN checks. Five business checks. Three traffic stops. Two house watches. Welfare check. Suspicious circumstance. Fraud. Traffic complaint. Broken bone. Fall. Five EMS pages. Mar. 6 – Three VIN checks. Two paper services. Three traffic stops. Welfare check. Four business checks. Two EMS pages. Fire page. Mar. 7 – VIN checks. Two fingerprints. Four traffic...
Three Cheyenne police officers on leave after suspect is killed CHEYENNE (WNE) — A call to the Cheyenne Police Department for a domestic dispute ended in the police killing the suspect Friday evening, CPD said in a news release Monday afternoon. The man was identified Monday as 47-year-old Cheyenne resident Patrick Flores. The shooting occurred Friday, March 8, when police officers were dispatched to calls for a domestic disturbance with a firearm, which the agency said was around 6:18 p.m. Dispatchers told police that he was “shooting the fir...
PINEDALE - Two local women are alive and well thanks to the work of the Sublette County Sheriff's Office Unmanned Aircraft Systems drone pilots Sgt. Travis Bingham and Deputy Scott Campbell, other SCSO deputies and volunteers with Tip Top Search and Rescue. In two separate incidents about 23 days apart, two adult women – both with intellectual or developmental disabilities – disappeared from their homes ill-equipped for the snow and ice. One woman traveled three miles across Pine Creek, the New...
TORRINGTON - What has started out as a hobby has grown tremendously in popularity. Over the last few years, the number of drone operators has grown and the demand for drone services has steadily increased. "An unmanned aircraft system (UAS) is an unmanned aircraft (known as a drone) and the equipment necessary for the safe and efficient operation of that aircraft," according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website. Kevin Parish has taken an interest in operating drones, and he recen...
POWELL - Unlike most high school kids, environmental photojournalist Julia Cook spent much of her free time in the basement of the Draper Natural History Museum stripping rotting meat from the skeletons of various animals; bears, wolves, mountain lions. A half-dozen years later, you can still find her there volunteering to do work many would turn their nose up to. "Sometimes it is a bit smelly," Cook said during a recent lecture at the museum. Cook was an intern with the Wyoming Game and Fish...
SHERIDAN — Sheridan County residents, law enforcement officers and supporters from all walks of life gathered Friday in Sheridan to honor the life of fallen Sheridan Police Department Sgt. Nevada Krinkee. Krinkee was shot and killed Feb. 13 while attempting to serve a trespass warning on William Lowery. He leaves behind his wife, Karla Krinkee, and their infant daughter. Hundreds of people of all ages lined Main Street and Coffeen Avenue Friday to show support as a procession of family and first responder vehicles traveled to the Sheridan C...
BUFFALO — If its methanogenesis technology is successful, a new company could bring a second life to some of the Powder River Basin’s tens of thousands of coalbed methane wells. The Denver-based clean energy and climate tech company Cowboy Clean Fuels was recently awarded $7.8 million in state funding to pursue commercial scale development of a technology that will produce so-called renewable natural gas and capture carbon emissions using existing coalbed methane infrastructure, though not everyone is as optimistic as the company and its fun...
Jackson, Teton officers remember slain sergeant in Sheridan JACKSON (WNE) — Jackson and Teton County law enforcement officers joined a convoy of police cars from across Wyoming in a procession Friday to honor a Sheridan policeman who was killed in the line of duty. Sgt. Nevada Krinkee, a 33-year-old husband and father, was shot and killed Feb. 13 while attempting to serve a trespass notice. Six members of the Jackson Police Department joined the somber procession in Sheridan. Eight members of the Teton County Sheriff’s Office also traveled to...
