Wyoming

The American West: Documenting the Wagonhound

Published

2 years ago

August 11, 2024

The American West: Documenting the Wagonhound

A Frenchwoman from New York came to the Wagonhound, a large ranch outside of Douglas in a snowstorm. Anouk Masson Krantz readily admits she came to Wagonhound carrying not only her cameras, but also a lack of understanding.

Wyoming’s open spaces, the seeming emptiness of the landscape, was the inspiration she sought. She knew at Wagonhound she would find “the power of nature, these amazing landscapes.”

In documenting the lives of the men and women who lived and worked there, she came to understand “all my knowledge about the cowboy around this western way of life, were all sort of misconceptions.” She said, “Once I put my foot through the door, I realized this culture wasn’t dying, but was very much still alive.”

American Indians have deep connections to the high plains of Wyoming and the lands that are now a part of the Wagonhound Land and Livestock, but for myriad reasons they no longer live and hunt there. In the 1800s thousands of people traveled across the landscape. Following Indian trails and the North Platte River were fur trappers and traders, then emigrants, and eventually homesteaders who staked claims and began raising livestock and a few crops.

The high plains roll through this region, becoming less flat, and more rugged as they butt up against the Laramie Mountain Range, with its signature Laramie Peak to the south and Casper Mountain at the northwest end of the arc.

Wagonhound Land and Livestock now encompasses more than 300,000 acres. It is a merging of homesteads carved out by people who came West seeking opportunity and land. Those original settlers filed claims of 160 acres, built cabins, grubbed sagebrush, brought in cattle, horses, and sheep.

Many of them stayed on their land for generations, expanding holdings by buying out a neighbor – or sometimes marrying the neighbor’s daughter. In this country, it is impossible to make a living on 160 acres; there isn’t enough grass for livestock so the homesteads consolidated to larger and larger properties.

By the time she arrived in Wyoming in 2021, Krantz had already learned some things about herself. An early project led to the book The Wild Horses of Cumberland Island. That work gave her “so much inspiration from disconnecting from my concrete, fast-paced competitive life in New York” that she wanted to find “magnificent untouched landscapes.”

She desired big landscapes that were also inhabited by people. “My first thought was cowboys. But that is not easy for a woman from New York and Paris,” she said. “It started with one piece of paper with one phone number of one rancher in Texas. He introduced me to his friends, and they introduced me to their friends.” This led to her second book: American Cowboy.

Then she connected with Art and Catherine Nicklas owners of the Wagonhound in Wyoming. Once again Krantz packed her cameras and headed west, this time to document not a culture of people, but a vast ranching operation.

“Most of the people around the world look at this cowboy culture with misconceptions,” Krantz said, admitting she was in that same mindset. Before spending time on ranches in Texas and Wyoming she believed among other things that the cowboy was someone of the past. “Once I put my foot through the door, (I) realized this culture wasn’t dying, but was very much still alive.”

The cowboys of the Wagonhound have a “connection with this land, freedom, independence,” she said. “These people work very hard. They work together as a community with their families, neighbors. There is so much strength coming from these people.”

While the people are a key part of her work, what really attracted her is the place itself. She says, “It’s the scale of the land, the sky, I think that is what still inspires people from around the world to connect with the American Western landscape.”

And then there is the weather. Krantz quickly learned, “One day it might be sunny, the next day it might be 60 mile an hour winds, or snow.” There are times “where you feel like your hands are going to be froze or you [will be] blown off your horse.”

The isolation of the ranch, combined with the wildlife was surprising. “I had never seen anything like that before,” Krantz said.

Her first photograph was of a long line of elk crossing the road to the ranch. “It was cold and windy. They were crossing. I was just frozen looking at something that I had never seen before and I would never see again, and most of the people around the world would never see. It was magnificent to see that it was still there…the wildlife was still there.”

Krantz experienced one of the worst storms in recent Wyoming history – the Bomb Cyclone that struck in March 2021 dumping nearly five feet of snow over a two-day period in mid-March.

Krantz arrived at the ranch just ahead of the snow that just dumped, and dumped, “and then it’s just quiet.” As soon as she could, she was out in the landscape, documenting the cowboy work, but also observing the wildlife. She watched pronghorn wallowing through snow nearly as deep as they were tall.

Krantz said in the storm “the elk were conserving energy, bundled up on the flank of the mountain. The antelope were the opposite – they were frantic. They would race right, left, right, left, using up all their energy. They didn’t know what to do.”

Watching those animals was a revelation for Krantz. As important, she saw the care the ranch hands had for the livestock while working under such challenging conditions.

“It goes back to this misconception I had, being an outsider. To me the biggest discovery was the land stewardship.” She had seen some of that in her earlier travels but really began to understand it during the two years she spent on the Wagonhound.

As she followed men and women throughout gathering, and branding, and doing their daily chores, she said, “You just learn how they run a ranch. How hard they work. How much it takes to do all this,” she said.

The stewardship involves the use of pasture rotation, which is a “wonderful way to let the earth breathe, rest. What they are doing for our earth is to me mostly unknown to most people.”

Krantz came away from her work in documenting the area realizing the men and women on the Wagonhound, “are probably some of the best stewards of the land that you can find.” She set aside some of her own misconceptions and now knows “how much they do to preserve the land for future generations.”

Spending time on the Wagonhound, gave Krantz an education in Wyoming ranching and land stewardship. The ranch owners want to do that for other people as well.

As reported earlier by Cowboy State Daily, Art and Catherine Nicklas recently donated $2.5 million to the University of Wyoming that will empower the university’s Ranch Management and Agricultural Leadership Program, fueling change and supporting future leaders in ranch management and agriculture statewide.

To see more about Krantz’ connection to the Wagonhound, pick up a copy of her book Ranchland: Wagonhound.

Candy Moulton can be reached at: Candy.L.Moulton@gmail.com

Source link

Wyoming

Casper veteran David Giralt joins race for Wyoming U.S. House seat

Published

7 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Casper veteran David Giralt joins race for Wyoming U.S. House seat

CASPER, Wyo. — David Giralt, a Casper-raised military veteran and conservative Republican, has announced his candidacy for Wyoming’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The congressional seat is being vacated by Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman, who launched a campaign in December for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by retiring Sen. Cynthia Lummis. […]

Source link

Wyoming

Rivalries and Playoff Positioning Highlight Week 11 Wyoming Girls Basketball Slate

Published

19 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Rivalries and Playoff Positioning Highlight Week 11 Wyoming Girls Basketball Slate

It’s Week 11 in the 2026 Wyoming prep girls’ basketball season. That means it’s the end of the regular season. 3A and 4A schools have their final game or games to determine seeding before the regional tournament, or if a team is locked into a position, one last chance to fine-tune before the postseason. Games are spread across four days.

WYOPREPS WEEK 11 GIRLS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE 2026

Every game on the slate is a conference matchup. Several rivalry contests are part of this week’s schedule, such as East against Central, Cody at Powell, Lyman hosting Mountain View, and Rock Springs at Green River, just to name a few. Here is the Week 11 schedule of varsity games WyoPreps has. All schedules are subject to change. If you see a game missing, please email david@wyopreps.com.

CLASS 4A

Final Score: Laramie 68 Cheyenne South 27 (conference game)

CLASS 3A

Final Score: Lyman 40 Mountain View 26 (conference game)

Submit a Score to WyoPreps

CLASS 4A

Final Score: Evanston 41 Riverton 39 (conference game)

Final Score: Natrona County 42 Kelly Walsh 38 (conference game) – Peach Basket Classic

Final Score: #4 Thunder Basin 64 Campbell County 32 (conference game)

CLASS 3A

Final Score: #1 Cody 77 Worland 33 (conference game) – 5 different Fillies with a 3, and Hays led the way with 34 points.

Final Score: #2 Lander 49 Lyman 34 (conference game)

Final Score: #4 Wheatland 51 Douglas 40 (conference game)

Final Score: #5 Powell 48 Lovell 42 (conference game)

Final Score: Burns 56 Torrington 43 (conference game)

Final Score: Glenrock 78 Newcastle 30 (conference game)

Submit a Score to WyoPreps

Read More Girls Basketball News from WyoPreps

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-25-26

WyoPreps Girls Basketball Standings 2-23-26

WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 10 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-18-26

WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 9 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-11-26

WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 8 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-4-26

WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 7 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 1-28-26

Nominate A Basketball Player for the WyoPreps Athlete of the Week Honor

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 1-21-26

WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 5 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 1-14-26

WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 4 Scores 2025-26

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Rankings 1-7-26

WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 3 Scores 2025-26

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Rankings 12-24-25

WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 2 Scores 2025-26

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Rankings 12-17-25

WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 1 Scores 2025-26

CLASS 4A

Rock Springs at #2 Green River, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

#4 Thunder Basin at #5 Sheridan, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

#1 Cheyenne East at #3 Cheyenne Central, 6 p.m. (conference game)

Jackson at Star Valley, 6 p.m. (conference game)

CLASS 3A

#3 Pinedale at Mountain View, 4 p.m. (conference game)

#1 Cody at #5 Powell, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

Buffalo at Glenrock, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

Submit a Score to WyoPreps

CLASS 3A

Newcastle at Buffalo, 12:30 p.m. (conference game)

Glenrock at Rawlins, 3 p.m. (conference game)

Torrington at #4 Wheatland, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

Submit a Score to WyoPreps

Wyoming Boys 4A Swimming & Diving State Championships 2026

4A Boys State Swim Meet for 2026 in Cheyenne

Gallery Credit: David Settle, WyoPreps.com

Source link

Wyoming

Political storm in Wyoming as far-right activist caught handing checks to lawmakers

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Political storm in Wyoming as far-right activist caught handing checks to lawmakers

Controversy has engulfed Wyoming’s state legislature after a conservative activist was photographed handing checks to Republican lawmakers on the state house floor, in an incident that has highlighted intra-conservative divisions and the role of money in the Cowboy state’s politics.

The political storm started on 9 February, when Karlee Provenza, a Democratic lawmaker, took a photo showing Rebecca Bextel, a conservative activist and committeewoman for the Teton county Republican party, handing a check to Darin McCann, a Republican representative, on the legislative floor. Marlene Brady, another Republican representative, stands in the photo’s background, a similar piece of paper pinched between her fingers.

“You have a person from the richest county in the country coming down to Cheyenne to hand out checks on the house floor,” Provenza said. “I have never seen something so egregious.”

Questions around the checks were soon swirling, and answers weren’t forthcoming. When asked what Bextel gave to her, Brady told a reporter for local outlet WyoFile: “I can’t remember.”

Then Bextel herself addressed the incident. “I raised $400,000 in the last election cycle for conservative candidates, and I will be doubling that amount this year,” Bextel wrote on Facebook on 11 February. “There’s nothing wrong with delivering lawful campaign checks from Teton county donors when I am in Cheyenne.”

Since then, it has emerged that the checks came from Don Grasso, a wealthy Teton county donor, who told the Jackson Hole News and Guide that he wrote the checks for Bextel to deliver to 10 Freedom caucus-aligned politicians. Grasso said the checks were intended as campaign contributions, and were not tied to specific legislation. It is unclear how many checks were ultimately delivered, but two of four confirmed recipients include the speaker of the house, Chip Neiman, and John Bear, the former head of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.

The Wyoming house has formed a legislative investigative committee, and the Laramie county sheriff’s office said they’d open a criminal investigation.

Bextel declined to answer questions from the Guardian. Brady, McCann and Bear did not respond to requests for comment.

Neiman said he considered the criticism a “wraparound smear campaign”. He said: “It never once crossed my mind that this was bribery.

“These legislators, myself included, are now guilty until we can prove that we’re innocent. How is that right in this country? Isn’t that a little bit backwards?”

The scandal has highlighted long-standing divisions in Wyoming’s Republican party, which in recent years has seen a growing divide between old school, more moderate conservatives and a harder-right Freedom Caucus.

Several former Republican lawmakers forcefully condemned their colleagues for accepting the checks, and a local Republican party branch called for the lawmakers’ resignations.

Ogden Driskill, a Wyoming Republican senator, told the Guardian he does not consider Bextel’s actions to be illegal, but that “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should”.

Bextel has spent years pushing against housing mitigation fees in Wyoming, and Driskill noted that she distributed the house floor checks just days before a bill she had publicly supported was set to be heard. Bextel was registered as a member of the press, not as a lobbyist when she delivered the checks.

“Ethically and morally, it’s bankrupt to a massive degree,” Driskill said.

Neiman said that he and other legislators who received checks have supported similar bills in the past: “Bribery is paying somebody to do something they would not otherwise do.”

Nationally, the 2024 election cycle saw record-spending from the mega-wealthy, as well as dark money groups. Wyoming followed the trend, in a tense red-on-red primary season.

For those gearing up to campaign this year, Teton county, the richest in the US, and Bextel’s picturesque home turf, is an essential stop. Its extreme wealth gives it a foothold on the national level as well. Palantir chief executive Alex Karp and Donald Trump attended an annual Republican leadership fundraiser at Jackson Hole in 2024, and JD Vance attended the same one in 2025.

Bextel pulls dollars from Teton county into the Freedom Caucus side of Wyoming’s conservative split. She hosted no-press-allowed meet and greets earlier this year benefitting leading candidates for Wyoming’s governor and open US House seat.

In an interview with the Open Range Record, a media network she co-founded, Bextel said controversy around the checks was solely because she was making “even playing field” in Wyoming against the state’s more moderate Republicans, who she calls “George Soros” candidates. She said that she will be sure to keep raising money – just away from the legislative floor.

“I guess I’m gonna ask all the gentlemen and gentleladies to step outside the Capitol while I hand them a check,” Bextel said. “Let me be clear: I’m doubling down.”

But it’s not just wealthy local donors putting their weight behind the factions. Last election cycle, out of state groups spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on anonymous and often inaccurate mailers.

“These actors, especially from the far right, they like to push the bounds of the norms,” said Rosa Reyna Pugh, an organizing and advocacy consultant at Western States Center, an Oregon-based non-profit focused on democracy in the western United States. “They like to see what policies they can kind of push, and see where they can play a piece,” Reyna Pugh said.

While Neiman and Driskill fight politically, they do agree on one thing: summer will bring an expensive and brutal campaign season.

“You’re going to see more dark money than you’ve ever seen. We’ve done absolutely nothing to enforce it. Our secretary of state has not even made a slight attempt to deal with it,” Driskill said. “You’re going to see lots and lots of outside money and I think you’re seeing it on both sides.”

As national questions swirl around pay-to-play politics and profiteering in the Trump administration, Provenza wants better for the Cowboy State.

“We should not be aligning ourselves with how the federal government is conducting itself or how federal elections conduct themselves,” Provenza said. “We owe something far better and more honest to the people of Wyoming than that.”

Source link