Update 12:55 p.m. Friday

The Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office has announced updates to evacuation orders and road closures.

From the Sheridan County Government Facebook page:

UPDATE UPDATE
Ready Set Go area and New Road Closures just announced

Working with the team managing the Elk Fire, the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office has changed the evacuation levels in a few areas and added some new areas. Areas that are now in “Go” or “Set” will see law enforcement presence and will be contact by law enforcement.
New areas in “Go” include:
Eaton’s Ranch
New areas in “Set” include:
West of Beckton Road from Dayton, continuing south to the intersection of Beckton Road and Big Goose Road. This also includes the area west of Rapid Creek Road.
New area in “Ready”:
The area west of Bear Gulch Trail to Big Horn Road to Beaver Creek Road to Owl Creek Road and then directly north to Soldier Creek Road and then west to Beckton Road.
New road closures, with access only to locals:
Beckton Hall Road at the intersection with Big Goose Road
Bighorn Road at intersection of Beaver Creek Road
Big Goose is closed at the intersection with Beckton Road

Stay vigilant and respect law enforcement as they work the area.

_______________________________________

Original Report

Fire crews in Wyoming battling the Elk Fire in the Bighorn National Forest are bracing for strong winds.

Fire officials said in a Friday morning update the wildfire is now estimated at 51,115 acres with 0% containment. The fire started by lightning on Sept. 27 and has caused numerous road and school closures and evacuations.

There are currently 528 personnel assigned to the fire, which is being managed by Rocky Mountain Area Complex Incident Management Team 3.

‘Families in crisis’: Dayton remains on edge as Elk Fire burns in Wyoming

Here’s the full text of the Friday morning update:

Key Messages: A Red Flag Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service for Friday at noon until Saturday at 6:00 p.m. The forecast includes temperatures in the upper 70s to low 80s and relative humidity in the teens. Winds are forecast to shift from the southeast to southwest and west during the day, gusting up to 30pmh in the afternoon. Overnight tonight, the winds are expected to shift to be out of the northwest and gusting up to 50mph; this is associated with the passage of a cold front. With this anticipated hot, windy weather, it is likely that there will be an increase to the size of the fire.

With an anticipated increase in fire activity due to critical fire weather today through Saturday, please keep all county and local roads clear. If you stop to look, you could stop first responders.

Current Situation: After having previously used a bulldozer to create a fireline, fire crews utilized an Unmanned Aircraft System to implement a successful burnout operation west of the Horseshoe Subdivision yesterday. By intentionally placing fire on the ground between the fireline and the main fire, fire managers were able control the rate at which the vegetation was burned under calmer conditions. This tactic was utilized to lessen the chance of fire advancing upon structures in the future. Overnight, crews continued burning vegetation to increase the distance between structures and the southeast side of the main fire.

Today, crews will continue preparing structures to be defensible from fire in the Little Bighorn Canyon. Along the eastern side of the fire, crews will continue to extinguish areas of heat along established firelines. This same work will be done in the vicinity of yesterday’s burning operation. Around the perimeter of the fire, crews will use a variety of structure preparation techniques, including the removal of vegetation near structures, constructing fireline, and placing hose and sprinklers where possible.

Firefighter and public safety remain the top priority. The tactics used to suppress the fire will be determined by the terrain, fire and weather conditions, and medical response time with a focus on only implementing plans and tactics that have a high probability of success.

Closures and Evacuations: In advance of the forecast weather, additional evacuation levels were added yesterday afternoon by the Sheridan County Sheriff; all previous evacuation levels remain in place. Please contact the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office at 307-672-3455 or Sheridan County Emergency Management at 307-752-2174 for more information.

US Highway 14 remains closed from Dayton to Burgess Junction. For additional road closures, please visit the Sheridan County Emergency Management website at Sheridan County (sheridancountywy.gov).

ELK FIRE INFORMATION

Fire Information Phoneline: 307-303-7642
Time: 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bighornnf
Email: 2024.elkfire@firenet.gov
InciWeb: http://inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident…/wybhf-elk-fire-2024

RELATED Q2 COVERAGE

Elk Fire in Wyoming reported at nearly 50,000 acres

New evacuations ordered at Elk Fire in Wyoming

Elk Fire at 32,000 acres, Dayton, Wyoming residents remain cautious

Elk Fire in Wyoming estimated at more than 25,000 acres

Secretary of State Chuck Gray is raising alarms about a private elections group that attended a meeting of Wyoming county clerks last week.

At the meeting of the Wyoming Association of County Officers held in Rock Springs, there was a booth and a staff member from the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL).

On Wednesday, he sent a letter to Wyoming’s 23 county clerks expressing his concerns.

“I was deeply troubled by the presence of CTCL at the Wyoming Association of County Officers meeting in Rock Springs last week,” Gray writes. “Despite many in the media who have claimed there is no presence by these groups in Wyoming, CTCL’s presence in Rock Springs only demonstrates that they are targeting Wyoming.”

Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese was at the meeting and said CTCL’s presence was rather innocuous. She said the group’s representative did not offer her help or any money, and appeared to be serving in a strictly informational role.

“I don’t think this girl said or had anything to do with any of us that would be out of line,” she said.

Freese also finds it interesting Gray felt the need to put out a public letter about the issue when he had already expressed concern to the clerks about CTCL being at the meeting.

“It’s a little bit surprising when he already had discussed it and we know his concerns,” she said.

What’s It About?

CTCL is connected to Meta founder Mark Zuckerburg, who gave $350 million to the organization to help with public election administration during the 2020 election.

The group used this donation to pay out $332 million in donations to provide thousands of local elections offices COVID-19 “relief grants.”

In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said the money was intended to “support election officials with the infrastructure they need to administer the vote — including voting equipment, PPE for poll workers and hiring additional poll staff.”

The grants became colloquially known as “Zuck Bucks.”

Although the CTCL grants in the 2020 election were nominally nonpartisan, many accused the group of focusing its main efforts on areas won by President Joe Biden in battleground states to help draw a higher voter turnout, which historically tends to benefit Democrats more than Republicans.

As he also mentioned in a 2023 letter sent to the clerks, Gray believes these kinds of “deeply disturbing” grants could expose Wyoming to funding streams supported by foreign actors. He pointed out that liberal donor Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, who lives in Wyoming, gave to groups that then gave money to CTCL.

There is no evidence CTCL spent any money in Wyoming in 2020, but Gray urged the clerks in his letter to let him know if any private groups solicit them with money to run their elections, which is legal in Wyoming.

Freese said she already receives significant information on how to run elections from various governmental groups and doesn’t believe a group like CTCL could sway her.

CTCL appears to have broadened its focus this election year, offering “Rural and Nonmetro Election Infrastructure Grants,” for more rural areas. The grants are only eligible in jurisdictions like Wyoming that haven’t banned private funding of election administration.

During the 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions, bills were brought that would have banned private funding of elections in Wyoming. Neither gained much traction.

“Given the evolving tactics of groups like CTCL and their history of influencing election administration across the country, as well as Wyoming’s lack of a statutory ban on private funding of election administration, Wyoming is particularly vulnerable,” Gray writes.

Freese and Marissa Carpio, a representative of the Equality State Policy Center, said their groups had a neutral stance on these bills. Their only concern was that the legislation could inhibit private groups like Rotary clubs and schools from offering facilities to use as polling places.

“Where they worry is the cost burden on those county clerks,” Carpio said.

Influence

Zuckerburg’s actions drew a rash of criticism from Republicans like Gray alleging that he and his wife were trying to influence the final results of the election.

Democrats have pushed for more federal funding in elections for years, which are largely funded at state and local levels. The GOP has largely opposed these proposals and introduced legislation that would prohibit nonprofits from giving direct funding to election offices.

Gray himself isn’t above taking advice and influence from private groups.

A trove of emails obtained through a public records request provided to Cowboy State Daily earlier this year by watchdog group Documented show that Florida-based think tank Foundation for Government Accountability lobbied Gray on various elections and ESG (environmental, social and governance) topics in early 2023, which resulted in nearly identical legislation brought before the Legislature.

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.

As the Elk Fire grew to nearly 50,000 acres in northern Wyoming Thursday, people in nearby Dayton are worried.

“We’ve got families in crisis. We have students that either need to help their families pack and get ready to evacuate – we have a lot of staff members who are actually in the fire department, up there, fighting,” said Jeff Jones, Dayton schools superintendent.

The wildfire was started by lightning on Sept. 7 near Dayton and is burning through rugged forest land. It has resulted in numerous evacuations and school closures in the area.

People from all walks of life are coming together to protect places, including the Mountain Inn Bar.

“It’s actually the last retail place before you get up onto the mountain … It’s my life. It’s – it’s the only thing I have,” said Denise Townsend, who bought the bar about a decade ago with her late husband.