Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, April 13th. I'm Mac Watson.

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This year marks the 100th anniversary of the legendary Triangle X Ranch in Grand Teton National Park, now led by a fourth generation of the Turner family. Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that the family is entering a moment they just never get used to: renegotiating the lease with the Park Service.

"So the questions are, can they continue to operate as they have been, which is in a very old school way. They don't offer Wi Fi there. They do very traditional dude ranch activities. They take people 12 miles into the back country on horses, and it's all happening at a time when most of the park concessions are becoming more corporate, more modern, more uniform. the way the negotiations look are something like, Okay, we know you need to make a profit so that you can be operative, but also you're on public land, and we're not going to let you just charge whatever you want. And if you start doing better, we're actually going to increase the rate that you have to share with the Park Service."

John H. Turner, a fourth generation, tells Cowboy State Daily that he sees ranch life as a springboard to wider success. Turners have become private pilots, real estate mavens, and lawyers.

Read the full story HERE.

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More than 50 years after a Utah teenager was killed, advanced DNA tech has confirmed she's another victim of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that it's a breakthrough that could solve other cold cases, including in Wyoming.

"There wasn't a full DNA profile of Ted Bundy in a national database, and up until this particular profile was done by the Utah prime lab. There was not one complete DNA profile of Ted Bundy. There were partials, and you'd have to go through the lab in Florida where they were kept. So it was really cumbersome to try to connect the dots to Ted Bundy. However, that has all changed. So now, anybody any state, any jurisdiction, who has a case that might be Ted Bundy, can now test against this DNA. So it's a huge breakthrough."

The Utah County Sheriff's Office announced at a press conference last week that Bundy was responsible for killing 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime in 1974, a crime that went unsolved for 52 years.

Read the full story HERE.

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After more than 40 years on display, the big-game taxidermy collection at the Safari Club restaurant in Thermopolis will be shipped to auction next week. Cowboy State Daily's Jackie Dorothy reports that a potential value hasn't been put on the hundreds of mounts, some of which can't be sold in the U.S.

"These specimens were collected over a long period of time, about 60 years of hunting by Jim Mills, and he started in the 1960s when it was legal to take the big five, to take the rhinoceros, the elephant, the leopard, and all of these rare specimens and bring them to America. This collection really has been an icon here in Thermopolis."

The inventory in the Safari Club has not been done yet on Mills' extensive collection to determine how many pieces are heading to auction, nor has an estimated value yet been established.

Read the full story HERE

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Flaming Gorge is preparing to be drained by up to a third to make up for the "horrible" C