On the heels of one of the warmest and driest winters on record, parts of Wyoming show “significant fire potential” this spring and summer, according to a national forecast released on April 1.
The U.S. has set or is approaching records for the number of wildfires ignited and the acreage burned by March, and Wyoming firefighters and district managers have already responded to blazes across the state. While the National Weather Service forecasts rain and snow for parts of Wyoming this week, many firefighters in the state are nervous about the potential for huge, quickly spreading conflagrations this summer.
“I certainly don’t ever remember a winter quite like this winter,” said J.R. Fox, Campbell County’s fire warden. “Everybody’s definitely nervous about what the fire season will bring.”
The new report, published by the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, rated areas of southern Wyoming as having significant fire potential in April, June and July.
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The report identifies “above,” “below” and “near normal fire outlooks” across the country and has been produced in some form by the organization since 2002.
Wildland fire managers in Wyoming say the season’s meager snowpack and high temperatures have left an unprecedented and volatile range of fire conditions across the state. A team of scientists recently determined that the record-shattering heatwave that gripped the West in March would be “virtually impossible” without climate change.
Some firefighters are making tough decisions about when and how to use limited resources, while others are reaching out to communities earlier than they ever have before, urging fire-smart behavior.
“From my 40 years of being here, we’re six plus weeks ahead of time” in terms of fire conditions, said Liz Davy, a co-founder of the Greater Yellowstone Fire Action Network. This March, her organization, which helps areas around Yellowstone prepare for and respond to wildfires, started reminding communities early how best to protect property from wildland fires.
Homeowners should remove firewood from on or underneath porches, sweep up dead leaves and trim vegetation around their property, including grasses and shrubs near structures, Davy said. The Greater Yellowstone Fire Action Network also helps communities and homeowners make evacuation plans in case of a wildfire, and Davy is considering taking such steps this spring.
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“I’ve never packed a go kit, but this year I’m kind of thinking about it,” she said.
Some areas of Wyoming have already dealt with wildfires. The Kane fire in Big Horn County was discovered on March 22 but behaved like an “August blaze,” reported the Cowboy State Daily. There have also been a few small starts in Natrona County, said Brian Oliver, chief of the Natrona County Fire District.
In a typical year, Oliver said Natrona County would usually be able to contract out some of its firefighting crews and equipment to other jurisdictions during the spring, a valuable source of income for his department. But now, with the risk of fire so high—on March 26, Natrona joined 10 other counties in Wyoming under fire restrictions—Oliver doesn’t see this as an option.
“I think we’re gonna need everybody here at home,” he said. “The fires this year have the potential to go big and be very dangerous very quick.”
Springtime can be when homeowners and ranchers, accustomed to receiving snow during March and April, use fire to maintain their property or prepare fields for the growing season. But Oliver said he and his department have asked ranchers and some subdivisions to put aside their plans to burn.
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Even in areas of Wyoming where snowpack has been closer to average, fire managers are nervous about the coming season.
“The lower elevation snow is significantly less than normal and it’s disappearing earlier than normal,” said Shad Cooper, Sublette County’s fire warden. Cooper said the county has increased its social media messaging about fire danger and stepped up evacuation planning “because we’re seeing fire activity much earlier than normal.”
Last month, Sublette County sent resources over to Lincoln County, where an agriculture burn had gotten out of control, Cooper said.
On the heels of 2024’s record-setting wildfire season in Wyoming, state lawmakers allocated new resources to firefighting during this year’s legislative session. State Forestry will now oversee two 10-person firefighting crews capable of deploying anywhere in Wyoming; lawmakers also improved state firefighters’ benefits.
“That increase in capacity is gonna directly support local response [and] statewide needs,” Cooper said.
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With summer still a few months away, firefighters cautioned that it was too soon to know for certain how this year’s season would unfold. Still, the whole state should already be mindful of fire risks, said Jerod DeLay, Wyoming’s assistant state forester and fire management officer.
“Be aware of your surroundings and be mindful of the conditions out there,” he said. “Have a plan for wildfire, because wildfires could wreck your plans.”
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Jake Bolster
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Jake Bolster reports on Wyoming and the West for Inside Climate News. Previously, he worked as a freelancer, covering climate change, energy, and the environment across the United States. He holds a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University.
At the mouth of Sinks Canyon near Lander, Wyoming, the tiny community of Borner’s Garden had thrived in the late 1800s.
It consisted of a schoolhouse, post office, and a few homesteading families. One of these families were John and Lena Borner who were raising their six children in this rural community that had been named after John’s fruit trees and large garden.
Their son Frank Edward remembered as a small boy hiding behind his mother’s skirts. His dad was gone and a woman had ridden up to the porch of their cabin. He later learned that she was his Aunt Calamity Jane.
Jan Cerney wrote about the incident in “Calamity Jane and Her Siblings: The Saga of Lena and Elijah Canary.”
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“He recalled that his mother Lena asked her what she was doing there and what she wanted,” Cerney wrote. “Lena told Calamity to leave and never come back. Apparently, at that time, Lena had had it with her sister Martha.”
Martha Jane Canary, more widely known as Calamity Jane, was Lena’s big sister and her uncouth ways were not always welcome in Lena’s quiet home.
Another time, Cerney said that Hannah was the child who mimicked Aunt Calamity’s swear words, distressing John Borner to the point that he again told Calamity to never come back.
John Borner had first met Martha Canary, later known as Calamity Jane, in South Pass when he was a freighter. This acquaintance led him to meet her younger sister, Lena, who married and had six children with. Borner was often frustrated with his sister-in-law and thought she was a bad example for his children. (Courtesy Wyoming State Archives)
Future Brother-in-Law
Bill Wilkinson, a great-nephew of Martha Jane said in an interview to author Ellen Crago Mueller that his Aunt Calamity Jane was at the mining camps on South Pass in Wyoming around 1870-71.
It was while here that she first met freighter John G. Borner, her future brother-in-law.
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Borner had been badly hurt and broken his leg according to family accounts. He was taken to the rooming house where Martha Jane Canary was working, and the young woman set his leg.
Jean Mathisen, in a December 1996 True West article, “Calamity’s Sister,” said that Canary asked Borner if she could make the trip to Salt Lake for him to check on her brother and sister, Lena and Elijah, known as “Lige.”
“She supposedly made two trips in the next six weeks and brought Borner’s customary load of goods to South Pass,” Mathisen wrote. “After his leg healed, Borner resumed his trips to Salt Lake and made the acquaintance of Lena and Lige Canary.”
John Borner was born in Saxony, Germany, in 1835 and, after immigrating to America, had been injured in the Civil War. Borner later came and joined the Wyoming gold rush at South Pass in 1869.
In 1872, Borner, Ernest Hornecker and Jake Frey moved to an area known as Chief Washakie’s horse pasture, near the mouth of Sinks Canyon at the base of the Wind River Mountains.
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The men squatted on what was then Indian land and took up claims. Chief Washakie knew the men according to Mathisen and had encouraged them to settle in the valley to help provide protection for his Eastern Shoshone band from his enemies, the Sioux and Arapahos.
By the next year Borner was building on his own claim in a rich meadowland near the Popo Agie River.
The Borner’s Garden schoolhouse was also a community hall and, occasionally, the home to Calamity Jane when her brother-in-law, John Borner, would not allow her to stay with his family. He felt that she was a bad influence on his children, especially when one of his young daughter’s started mimicking her aunt’s swearing. (Courtesy Lander Museum)
Building A Home
“It was John Borner that brought Lena, Calamity Jane’s sister, to this country to be a companion of the Indian agent on the reservation,” Jack States of Lander told Cowboy State Daily.
States’ father went to school at Borner’s Garden and had shared with States’ the tall tales that swirled around the family of Calamity Jane. States said that at times it is difficult to separate fact from fiction, but it is well known that Martha Canary spent a lot of time at Borner’s Garden and Lander to be near her sister.
Although Borner had originally brought Lena Canary to the area as a companion at Fort Washakie, romance had blossomed between the by-now eighteen-year-old girl and Borner, who was over twenty years her senior, and the job was short-lived. John Borner and Lena Pauline Canary were married in 1875.
Lander Museum Director Randy Wise said Borner’s Garden where Borner brought his young wife was a beautiful area below the canyon proper.
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“According to the historic documents, it was one of the few places in the whole state where you could actually grow apples and plums,” Wise said. “They grew currants and gooseberries and things like that up there.”
The Borners became the parents of seven children over the next nine years: May Rebecca, Tobias (Tobe), Frank Edward, Theresa Theodosa, Hannah, Bertha Pauline and William Frederick.
“At its height, there might have been maybe 40 people living in Borner’s Garden,” Wise said. “It was never a formal town and just one of many little communities that dotted the region.”
Calamity Jane, birth name Martha Canary, spent most of her 20s in South Pass, Lander and Fort Washakie. Her little sister had married an acquaintance of Calamity’s, John Borner, and had homesteaded in a community known as Borner’s Garden. The couple were often concerned that Calamity Jane would be a bad influence on their children but she still continued to visit her nieces’ and nephews’ despite their parent’s concerns.
Aunt Calamity
Accounts differ as to whether Borner and Lena’s infamous sister got along, although a younger brother of Ernest and Mart’s, Albert Hornecker, remembered that Calamity would travel by in a buggy on her way to visit her sister Lena when she knew Borner would be gone.
Tobe Borner related in the September 1941 Basin Republican Rustler that his father had no use for Calamity and felt she was a poor influence on his growing family. However, Tobe also said that Martha Jane was present at his birth in May of 1877, so she continued to visit despite the misgivings of her brother-in-law.
According to Mathisen, old-timers in Lander, the community that grew up on the site of old Camp Brown, stated that Calamity Jane and her sister Lena ran a laundry together in a small log building that sat on Main Street, between Second and Third, in early-day Lander.
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“Calamity spent a fair amount of time in Wyoming and this part of Wyoming in particular,” Wise said. “When Calamity was sober, she would help her sister at the laundry in town.”
John Borner’s dislike to Calamity continued to grow, mostly because of her drinking and swearing. Cerney said that Calamity wasn’t afraid of Borner and visited her sister when John Borner wasn’t around. The Hornecker neighbors saw Calamity pass by in a buggy on her way to the Borner place when John Borner was not home. Tom Bell, a local Lander historian, told Cerney that Calamity often stayed at the Borner School when she came to visit her sister since she was not welcome in the Borner home.
Borner’s Garden was once a small community located at the mouth of Sinks Canyon near Lander, Wyoming. One of its most infamous residents who came and went as she wished was Calamity Jane. Her little sister was Lena Canary Borner who had raised her six children on the family homestead. (Courtesy Lander Museum)
A Ghost Community
Tragedy visited the Borner family in October of 1888. Lena Canary Borner, 31, passed away after suffering ill health for two years from injuries she had sustained from being kicked by a cow.
Her obituary in the October 17, 1888, issue of the Fremont Clipper stated, “She was one of the most industrious women in the valley and one whom all her acquaintances held in the highest respect. Her pride was in her children and her home.”
Heartbroken and tired of fighting with his neighbors and former friends over irrigation pipes, John Borner moved his family to Greybull the following spring. He had built a cabin at what would someday be the site of Greybull, Wyoming, and later added corrals and barns.
In 1888 the Wyoming Territorial Legislature authorized a Poor Farm for the soon-to-be state. The trustees bought Borner’s ranch, and in the spring of 1889, Borner loaded up his wagons along with his children and moved to his new land claim. He had 100 head of cattle, a herd of horses, and a herd of mules he had acquired from the government.
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A special June 6, 1974, edition of the Greybull Standard stated that Borner was “a prosperous and very intelligent rancher from the Lander County. He picked Greybull as the site of his new home because of his belief that it was an ideal location. Two rivers flowed into the Big Horn within the space of a mile, the Greybull River and Shell Creek. Between the mouths of these two streams, he felt should be an ideal site for a town.”
He never remarried and his children adored him. Aunt Calamity Jane would occasionally visit but had mostly gone on her way to create myths about her life. She passed away in 1903 when she was 51.
At Borner’s Garden, only memories of Calamity Jane and her sister’s family are left. The schoolhouse that Calamity Jane stayed in was moved to the Lander museum and the old homes have fallen down long ago.
“She had quite a lively career when she left this place,” States said. “We have a number of stories from people who knew her when she was here but that part of the history sort of borders on fantasy.”
Contact Jackie Dorothy at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com
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John Borner had first met Martha Canary, later known as Calamity Jane, in South Pass when he was a freighter. This acquaintance led him to meet her younger sister, Lena, who married and had six children with. Borner was often frustrated with his sister-in-law and thought she was a bad example for his children. (Courtesy Wyoming State Archives)
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
Former Wyoming offensive lineman Caden Barnett recently revealed that he met with the San Francisco 49ers at his pro day, along with several other interested teams, according to Justin Melo of Sports Illustrated.
“There were a few teams at pro day. I met with a few scouts,” Barnett said. “I met with the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, and Arizona Cardinals at pro day.”
Barnett is projected as a late-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. While the 49ers currently do not hold selections beyond the fourth round, he could remain an option as an undrafted free agent if he goes unselected.
The 49ers are widely expected to address the offensive line during the 2026 NFL Draft. Key needs include competition for a starting left guard, along with long-term successors at offensive tackle and center.
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Barnett (6-3, 316) spent five seasons at Wyoming, appearing in 47 games for the Cowboys. He primarily played offensive tackle early in his career before transitioning to guard for his final season.
The offensive lineman impressed at his pro day, turning in a performance that included a 5.05-second 40-time and a 31-inch vertical jump.
Barnett earned career-best marks from Pro Football Focus in 2024, posting an 80.0 overall grade, along with 82.0 in run blocking and 70.4 in pass protection. Those figures declined slightly in 2025, when he recorded an overall grade of 71.3, a run-blocking grade of 73.2, and a pass-blocking grade of 65.8.
In 2025, Barnett started all 12 games at right guard, logging 792 offensive snaps. He allowed just one sack, 18 total pressures, and was flagged for four penalties over the course of the season.
PARK COUNTY, WYO. — The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation hosted its first educator workshop through the National Park Service’s Japanese American Confinement Sites Education Program, bringing teachers, scholars, and site leaders together to deepen understanding of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Watch the story below:
Educators learn lessons of justice and memory at Heart Mountain workshop in Wyoming
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More than 14,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned at the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, located between Cody and Powell, from 1942 to 1945 during World War II. Now, educators are working to make sure that history is no longer forgotten.
For Shirley Ann Higuchi, chair of the foundation and a lawyer from Washington, D.C., that history is deeply personal. Higuchi said she did not learn about her family’s connection to Heart Mountain until her mother revealed it on her deathbed, after years of silence.
Isabel Spartz/MTN News
Shirley Ann Higuchi looks at a photo of her parents, who met while imprisoned at Heart Mountain, at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.
“On her deathbed, she said she wanted her memorial money to go to Heart Mountain, and that was the first we heard of it,” said Higuchi. “We later found out that she was secretly sending money back to Heart Mountain to dream of something being built here.”
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Her parents met while incarcerated at the camp and later married after reuniting at the University of California, Berkeley.
“I wouldn’t be standing here because my parents would have never met each other unless they had their rights and liberties taken away from them,” said Higuchi.
Isabel Spartz/MTN News
Their time at Heart Mountain was an experience, Higuchi said, that shaped generations of families who rarely spoke about what happened.
“I think the incarceration itself was incredibly traumatic, and the only way they could move forward is to put the whole history behind them,” she said.
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That silence extended beyond families and into classrooms, she said, where the history was often omitted entirely.
“With the Japanese American story, it’s been hard to tell this because part of the government’s plan was to suppress the information, and to be quite frank, it worked very well,” said Higuchi. “Where this is one of the worst constitutional violations ever, it wasn’t even taught in law school.”
Isabel Spartz/MTN News
The foundation has made significant progress in educating the public about what happened at the site, and Saturday’s workshop at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center aimed to continue this effort.
Funded in part by a $750,000 federal grant matched by the foundation, the three-year initiative will expand education efforts nationwide. Plans include training K-12 teachers, hosting seminars for graduate students, and launching a digital platform to share stories and research.
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The event also brought together representatives from other former incarceration sites across the region, including locations in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Utah, to collaborate on how to tell the story more effectively.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law professor Eric Muller was one of the participants. He has studied Japanese American incarceration at the site for decades, and said the history remains widely misunderstood.
Isabel Spartz/MTN News
Two dozen people attended the workshop.
“This is one of the major historical injustices in this country’s history, and I don’t think that it is well understood enough,” said Muller. “It’s not focused on sufficiently, I think, in educational curricula.”
For educators like brothers Allen and Jason Doty, both Wyoming social studies teachers, the workshop offered a rare opportunity to engage directly with a local historical site.
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Allen Doty, who teaches in Meeteetse, said textbooks often present a limited view of the topic.
“I’m a big advocate of place-based education. This is a great local example of me being 60 miles away,” said Allen Doty. “This was more for me to get a better understanding from it from a more multi-person perspective so that when I’m presenting it to students, I’m able to use primary sources and secondary sources that are effective. Basically for me, this is a good refresh for best practices of a local resource.”
Isabel Spartz/MTN News
For Jason Doty, a teacher from Moorcroft, it’s a place that has had a profound impact on his life growing up in the Powell area. He said the proximity of Heart Mountain makes the history especially powerful for students, even though it is several hours away.
“For us as teachers in our discipline in social studies, we can go, ‘Here’s what happens when things break down, and people make decisions during wartime without giving people consideration of their rights and protecting their constitutional rights specifically,’” said Jason Doty. “This happened here … There were 10,000 people plus that were interned here against their will. They weren’t convicted of anything. They were just forced into that situation.”
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Both educators said the workshop provided tools to help students connect with the human stories behind the history, which is something they believe is essential to teaching it effectively.
“Kids connect on a personal level with this kind of stuff, and you can provide them, like, hey, actual people experience this. Here’s their story,” said Jason Doty. “There’s always more to learn. There’s always more personal stories.”
That personal connection drives Muller’s work as well. As a professor, he has brought law students from across the country to the site, believing that standing on the ground where history unfolded creates an understanding no classroom can replicate.
Isabel Spartz/MTN News
“The students, when they come here, they recognize the enormity of what happened to Japanese Americans. They can feel that Wyoming wind blowing on their own faces that would have blown through the barracks that Japanese Americans lived in,” said Muller. “There is a depth of feeling and thought that happens at this place that just can’t be replicated in a classroom anywhere else.”
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Organizers said that impact is exactly the point. By equipping teachers with knowledge and resources, the foundation hopes to reach thousands of students and ensure the lessons of Heart Mountain endure.
“This seems like it was long ago and far away, but it really wasn’t that long ago, and it certainly wasn’t far away. It was right here,” said Muller. “I think that this history reminds us of the speed with which society can transform and the speed with which things, government programs, and policies that would have been unthinkable can become thinkable and actually can come to life in ways that ultimately society will come to regret.”
For Higuchi, preserving this painful chapter of American history is not just a mission, but a responsibility she carries forward with resilience, determined to ensure future generations never forget.
“As an independent museum, we are able to tell the truth, tell the history accurately, and to have objectivity,” said Higuchi. “We want to have a global impact on what happened here because of the significance that this experience has for this country in terms of not doing something like this again.”
