Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, June 18th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Community Foundation, who asks you to give back to the place you call home. "5 to thrive" is YOUR opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. Support the community nonprofits you care about with a gift through the Wyoming Community Foundation. Visit wycf.org to learn more.

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Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken had just finished a meeting Monday night with emergency dispatchers in Saratoga, Wyoming, when he jumped in his car and saw an alert for three 17-year-old hikers lost on Medicine Bow Peak.

The mountain, the highest in the Snowy Range, lies about 35 miles west of Laramie. It also was 35 miles southeast of where Bakken was. Knowing his deputies were busy, the sheriff told Cowboy State Daily's Justin George that he decided to drive out to the mountain, set up a command post and wait for search and rescue members to show up.

"The Carbon County Sheriff at the time, Alex Bakken, was at an emergency dispatch meeting in Saratoga. He saw the call, and he decided to respond to it… and it was just him and another person, and they decided to hike up themselves at 830 so in full uniform, He went up with this, with the flashlights, pretty steep trail, lots of snow, and it took them about, you know, well, over an hour, but they found them and they reached them. The stranded teens were apparently using their flash or their cell phone in order to sort of create a signal that they were able to see, and so the sheriff and this other volunteer then hiked down the mountain with them and were able to sort of get them into search and rescue vehicles to get them back safely."

The teens had started their hike at about noon but had drifted far off the trail trying to detour around deep snow. Bakken said they had been smart enough to not hike alone but had not planned to be out on the mountain at night. All three were wearing shorts and the temperature was dropping into the 40s.

Read the full story HERE.

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When pro-wolf activists on the second annual Hogs For Hope ride arrived in Daniel, Wyoming, on Saturday morning, they were greeted by a large banner across the front of the Green River Bar declaring "Cody Roberts Days."

Daniel-area resident Roberts has been at the center of a worldwide controversy that exploded over reports that he ran over a wolf with a snowmobile and then captured the animal in February 2024. So the banner was an in-your-face moment for this small town to those protesting Wyoming's wolf management policies, according to Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz.

"Hogs for Hope… that's that motorcycle rally that the gentleman from Texas, he organized one last year. And they ride their motorcycles up and then go through Daniel kind of in protest to what happened with the wolf there, as well as trying to push for reforms in Wyoming's wolf policy… last year we were there, it was got kind of raucous… this year it was a lot quieter. They kind of buzzed through town, and it sounded as if there were only 15 or so people gathered at the Green Room. River bar there, the caravan didn't stop… Somebody did put a banner on across the top of the Green River bar saying, you know, Cody Roberts days… it's