Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Monday, October 14th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show with Jake! From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday, Cowboy State Daily's Jake Nichols brings to life the latest news, weather, sports and in-depth conversations that matter to you.

Like a column of soldiers, the now-87,00-acre Elk Fire continues its methodical — and at times seemingly relentless — march southeast following the eastern face of the Bighorn Mountains in northern Wyoming.

Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson has been following this story. He says that it's feeling a little bit like Groundhog Day - every day, the fire keeps growing.

"When you look at the official fire maps compared to a week to two weeks ago, there's I put them side by side, and the one from October 3 shows the Elk fire is pretty much just a big ball there, around west of Parkman and Dayton, and since then, it is just been really active, pushing across the face down southeast… some of those acres are land that they're burning on purpose to take some of the fuels away from the fire to create, they're setting up a fire line… That line is the Red Grade road… it's like their Gandalf moment of the fire there. They stand there, and it's their saying 'You shall not pass this road' for the fire. "

Read the full story HERE.

As of this weekend, 937 firefighters and support personnel are assigned to the Elk Fire. In order to manage - including feeding and housing - nearly a thousand people, a portion of the Padlock Ranch in Dayton has been turned into its own small town, complete with a Main Street.

Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean visited the makeshift town whose sole function is to support the Elk Fire firefighters.

"They've got everything there, you know that you would expect all the administrative functions that go with this camp are on Main Street, and they call it the overhead. And then there's a camp associated with that on the interior, with tents where these people sleep."

Additionally, fire officials have set up what's called a Spike Camp at Antelope Butte. about 12 miles west of the Elk Fire. The spike camp is a spinoff from the main command center camp in Dayton, which gives the crews better logistics to tackle the Burgess Junction area.

Read the full story HERE.

With one last week of balmy weather forecast for Wyoming, the father of a hiker who vanished last month near Yellowstone National Park's tallest peak is organizing experienced mountaineers and hikers to conduct a widescale search in rugged, harrowing terrain.

22-year-old Austin King summitted Eagle Peak on Sept. 17th. He left a note in the registry describing the blinding weather he endured to get there. King's father shared a copy of the note with Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland.

"He talked about taking the wrong way, wrong way up, and having to cross multiple cliffs and the weather and poor visibility… with that and the voicemails that he he left, and he made a few phone calls from the summit, they realized that he got there like 6pm. He was disoriented, he was very cold, and he was already turned around. So that tells everyone, I think, okay, maybe the logical way down this mountain isn't where we should be searching… he said it was the thickest fog he had ever seen in his life."

Superintendent Cam Sholly asked for another extensive aerial search for