Looking to the future
The first issue of the Sublette Examiner hit the newsstands on April 5, 2001, featuring a front-page photo of a new mother cow and her calf taken by Deanne on the ranch where Rhonda still lives. The June 27, 2023 Sublette Examiner, will be the last one printed, ending with Volume 23 Issue 26.... more
Letter to the editor: Parade route update
The GRRPA would like to thank all who supported our position and who provided input on the discussion with the town council and Main Street Committee. GRRPA extends its appreciation to the town council and Main Street Committee for their consideration and resolution.... more
Letter to the editor: Rendezvous Parade direction change – the facts
The decision was based on the following factors: Safety for all the parade participants while creating less impact on businesses and residents and the inclusion of senior citizens at the Sublette Center. ... more
Don’t fall into the cracks created by Medicaid changes
Medicaid provides health coverage to 83.1 million Americans or more than 20 percent of the population, including low-income adults, children, pregnant women, elderly adults and people with disabilities. In Wyoming, there were more than 83,000 people receiving health insurance through Medicaid at the start of 2023. Health coverage helps people fulfill needs that might not otherwise be met. It plays a vital but also complicated role. After all, it’s difficult to keep up with expectations, especially when the rules are regularly rewritten.... more
Letter to the editor: Gov. Gordon should act on designation now
In 2008, Kniffy Hamilton, the supervisor of Bridger-Teton National Forest, designated “The Path of the Pronghorn” in the section of this important migration corridor that went through Bridger-Teton National Forest. After this designation, many optimists thought that the BLM, private landowners and the state of Wyoming would take steps to continue the designation, which would offer this thousands-of-years-old migration a degree of protection from development and overuse. That did not happen.... more
Letter to the editor: No more politics, please
Political pressure has further stalled the State of Wyoming’s attempt to protect the Sublette pronghorn migration corridor, which includes The Path of the Pronghorn. This world-famous migration route was publicly proposed by Wyoming Game and Fish in 2019, accompanied by maps and data. The Bridger-Teton National Forest federally designated the northern portion of the Path of the Pronghorn in 2008.... more
Living – Life – Large
Wyoming, the Cowboy State, where the Code of the West is an integral part of daily life. Wyoming offers vast expanses of territory to meander with freedom, unless you’re a wild, free-roaming horse. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is being pressured by and conceding to the Stock Growers Association to eliminate the protected wild horses from federal land.... more
Ask Flora – May 2023
Did you know that 70 percent of the food that we eat benefits from pollination? Plants cannot produce a fruit or a seed without fertilization – pollinators are a vital part of this process. Pollination helps the plant to produce viable seeds, increases production and promotes more variety within our food supply, with better nutritional qualities. Plants like fruit trees, berries, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, melons and flowers depend on pollinators.... more
Guest column: Conservation?
While we may not all agree on what conservation is, or the best way to promote it, we have a pretty good idea of what it is not. This is what it is not: It is not an expansive and exclusive ecotourist resort along the Upper Hoback River. In the name of conservation, Mr. Ricketts is taking the fragile Upper Hoback River and overlaying it with a high-end resort that will offer among other things, a wellness center with a doctor, a European spa, exercise facilities, a beauty shop. ... more
Mothers don’t get enough credit
Motherhood is one of those things that we’re never quite prepared for. We think we are, because we’ve read books, listened to podcasts and chatted extensively with other moms, but until we’ve experienced a 4-year-old throwing up on top of our sleeping head at 2 a.m., we just can’t quite grasp what it’ll really be like. ... more
Living – Life – Large
We have become so lethargic and slothful that we don’t even want to carry cash in our pockets.... more
Letter to the editor: Look up, Wyoming!
Light pillars aren’t formed the same way as the Northern Lights. Light pillars occur in freezing temperatures when flat, hexagonal ice crystals form lower in the atmosphere than they usually would. When this happens, the crystals form a collective, giant mirror that can reflect light sources like city or car lights. Even though it looks like the light pillars are beaming up into the sky, the opposite is true. Light traveling up into space is actually being reflected back down to Earth by the ice crystals. We see it as multiple columns of light. ... more
Legislative Update – Nov. 22
Hello Sublette County, this is Albert Sommers reporting to you from interim work of the 66th Legislature.... more
Vern: 'No Name'
My name is Vern McWilliams and I’ve been in and around the cattle, horse and general ranching lifestyle for 60 years.... more
Eiden: Investigating SCUF's spending
As I researched expenditures versus income in Sublette County, I found that we’re spending far more than we make and while a few of our county commissioners find it acceptable to continually use our reserves, that is not sustainable. ... more
Roscoe: Legislative Update — Special Session summary 2021
On Oct. 26, both houses of the Wyoming Legislature convened for a special session.... more
Lawton: A community of river guides copes with loss
The Grand Canyon boating community — devoted to each other and to the Colorado River — was shocked to learn this fall that we’d lost two of our own.... more
Legislative Update – Oct. 27-28
Hello Sublette County, this is Albert Sommers reporting to you from Cheyenne and the Special Session of the Wyoming Legislature.... more
McWilliams: Take it or leave it
Take it or leave it. I had just completed some marvelous carnie feat that allowed me to present to this girl that I had known since first memory, one of the finest pieces of jewelry that we, me or her, had ever seen before.... more
Marston: This rancher has radical ideas about water
If Jim Howell, a fourth-generation rancher in western Colorado, has a guru, he’s Allan Savory, the champion of intensive cattle grazing even on semi-arid land.... more
Legislative Update – Oct. 21
Hello Sublette County, this is Albert Sommers reporting to you on Thursday, Oct. 21, prior to a Legislative Special Session.... more
Gordon: Government should be limited with as few regulations as possible
From Gov. Mark Gordon.... more
Woodruff: Let's redefine those bucket lists
What did we learn this summer and fall? We learned that people who’d been cooped up, thanks to COVID-19, flocked to our national parks and forests. Once there, many were eager to empty their bucket list of must-do activities in the outdoors.... more
Wellington: Please don't pet the wildlife
“I can’t believe that person is getting that close.”... more
Sniffin: Here was the time when I missed the best part of America the most
The rain was falling in sheets. The wind was howling. The temperature was 40 degrees and I could see my breath. My raincoat was soaked through and my umbrella was inside out. It was late at night and I was standing on a street corner in Cardiff, Wales, waiting for a bus.... more
Barrasso & Lummis: IRS wants to spy on your bank accounts
Democrats in Washington are planning a far-reaching Big Brother initiative to squeeze every last penny out of everyday Americans. They need more money to pay for their reckless spending programs. Their targets are middle-class families in Wyoming and across the country.... more
Barrasso: Biden and Democrats are the party of chaos
For eight months, the Democrats have been in control of the White House and Congress. In that time, America has veered from calamity to calamity.... more
Sniffen: Yellowstone Part 2 – Wow, what a place!
“Like No Place on Earth” was the official slogan for Wyoming’s tourism division a few years ago. I liked the slogan but thought it referred more to Yellowstone National Park than anywhere else in the state.... more
Babbitt: Chaco Culture National Park is under siege
It is not an exaggeration to say that New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park is under siege. A surge of oil and gas development threatens this ancestral site, recognized as one of the architectural marvels of the world and revered by Native Americans who consider it a living presence.... more
Sniffen: Liz vs Harriet could be a big-time heavyweight boxing match
Donald Trump made a big Cowboy State splash this past week when he anointed Harriet Hageman as his choice to run for Wyoming’s lone Congressional seat against three-termer Liz Cheney.... more
Pyne: Welcome to Yosemite, the new Pyrocene Park
The Pleistocene epoch that began 2.6 million years ago sent ice in waves through Yosemite.... more
Legislative Update – Sept. 7
Hello Sublette County this is Albert Sommers reporting to you from interim work of the 66th Legislature. On Sept. 1, the Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce met in Casper, and I am a legislative member of that taskforce.... more
UW game day ‘back to normal’ – so much fun for the Cowboy State
And by the way, the Pokes won last Saturday! But there was so much more going on besides a football game.... more
Surdam: Mask up and vaccinate
Dr. Dan Surdam, MD, is an emergency medicine physician at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center and Amy Surdam, FNP, is the COO of Stitches Acute Care Clinics and Lt. Col. in the Wyoming Army National Guard.... more
Hageman: Biden's land grab
One thing that can be safely said about the Biden administration is that when you think they could not become even more extreme, they make clear that you underestimate them at your peril.... more
As Lake Powell dwindles, wonders are revealed
On May 9, protected by neoprene, I bobbed around in a flooded canyon in Utah’s Lake Powell.... more
Barrasso: Biden must pull Stone-Manning BLM nomination if he's serious about domestic terrorism
This originally ran as an op-ed in the July 19 edition of USA Today.... more
Hey Phoenix Zoo, that ferret is from Wyoming
This past spring, I noticed that Wyoming’s black-footed ferret is a rock star at the Phoenix Zoo. In fact, you might think the elusive little critter was native to Arizona.... more
My dad’s been doin’ my thinkin’ long enough – True stories with Vern
True stories with Vern.... more
This could tear your clothes – True stories with Vern
The latest installment in stories from Vern.... more
Lummis: Why I'm founding the Financial innovation Caucus
Wyoming has always boasted pioneers.... more
Double clutch it, Bill – True stories from Vern
When the siren went off in the little town where I went to school, just like in any other small metropolis, the volunteer fire putout crew sprang into action.... more
Barrasso: MAP Land Act will make accessing Wyoming's federal lands simpler and safer
From Sen. John Barrasso.... more
Balow: Addressing our school funding crisis
From Wyoming State Superintendent Jillian Balow.... more
Buchanan: Dangers of the "For the People Act"
I write today to offer my opinion on recent legislation before Congress.... more
Celebrating Wyoming's history of remarkable women leaders
Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso... more
Open government is key to honest government
When government fails, it’s the rare public official who says, “Oops. My fault.”... more
Gilliland: SF103 bad for Wyoming's economy
On Thursday, Feb. 25, SF103 a 90/10 license allocation and fee increase bill was filed by Sen. Larry Hicks.... more
Funding Wyoming's K12 educational program
House Rep. Albert Sommers provides context and corrects the record.... more
Nesvik: Presidential suspension on mineral development bad for Wyoming's wildlife
Brian Nesvik is the director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. He has worked on behalf of Wyoming wildlife and people for over 25 years.... more
As Wyoming Legislative session resumes, committees begin advancing critical bills
From Rep. Eric Barlow and Sen. Dan Dockstader... more