Cheyenne, Wyoming. Railroads and rodeos, cattle and Colts, mining and military: A decidedly rugged history has long played out here in this town once called Hell on Wheels that lies 6,200 feet high on the edge of the Great Plains. And now…art Mecca?
Howdy from Cheyenne mural by Jordan Dean.
This truly modest-sized state capital of 65,000 souls in the least populated state in the Union has launched what in a larger urban environment might be an equally modest project. But here, Cheyenne’s compact 19th-century grid-platted landscape is being transformed into nothing less than a walkable outdoor gallery of huge and captivating murals covering old frontier-era brick walls to go along with block after block of delightful street corner statues.
Cheyenne’s art explosion becomes immediately apparent as you drive into town and bright murals pop right and left off of downtown business façades. Truly wacky and cool, The Buffalo by muralist Jordan Dean shows a blue bison in shorts playing guitar while an eagle soars above and various other critters fill the scene. It takes up most of the wall of a tall building behind the popular Paramount Cafe. Elsewhere in town, there are walls filled with kraken, cherubim, and comic book figures, as well with horsemen, of course. Some are spray painted, some graffito style. There’s a handy app to guide you to them all too.
A dozen years ago, art gallery owner Harvey Deselms was inspired to add some wildlife statues downtown. In a true community effort, he and others collected donations to put up a few works at a time along the city’s historic 17th Street. Eventually they added humans to the bronze mix as well. And of course, a cowboy.
The scrap metal Iron Horse by Lyle Nichols at the Depot Plaza in downtown Cheyenne is a non-bronze … [+]
Ultimately, a task group was formed, and taking cues from a popular arts program in Sheridan Wyoming, the city began commissioning works for the Capitol Avenue Bronze Project. In the last two years, the program has really taken off and was officially dedicated this past June.
While Jackson Pollock may have been born in the opposite corner of Wyoming, we’re talking here mostly of more traditional straight up figurative representations. And bronze statues have a long tradition in the West, after all. In addition to the state’s rich wildlife being honored, so too are historic figures, both pioneers and indigenous, such as Shoshone leader Washakie holding a pipe by sculptor Guadalupe Barajas and Arapaho leader Yellow Calf immortalized by sculptor Tanner Loren.
Cheyenne is small enough to wander all downtown, and as you take in the popular view that stretches from the capitol building to the historic and handsome Union Pacific train depot, you could literally trip over most of the works.
Most pieces are less than a few feet tall, including their stone pedestals created by local masons. Some are stoic, some are whimsical. Quite a few are colorful as well (remember, the Greeks painted their statues too). Most are unrubbed so far, but that will change as people can’t help but touch figures like Hare Raising, artist Tim Cherry’s cute little hare that’s standing upright.
You’ll encounter a Noah’s Ark of other animals too: bronze mule deer, bear, moose, cougars, sheep, fox, mustangs and draft horses, and of course, bison. A delicate meadowlark perched in a thicket and sculpted by Cliff Hollestelle goes by the charming title of Meadow Maestro.
Detail from The Buffalo by muralist Jordan Dean
And you couldn’t ask for a better introduction to Wyoming state history. Depicted by sculptor Loren, a Lewis and Clark Expedition member named John Colter was more famous for an 1807 winter journey into what became known as Yellowstone and the Tetons. Union Army officer Granville Dodge went on to become chief engineer for Union Pacific, and, just as sculptor Barajas depicts him in surveying mode, was responsible for plotting Cheyenne.
A great number of Cheyenne works honor many firsts among women. One of the early city bronzes, sculptor Veryl Goodnight’s A New Beginning has stood in front of the Depot Museum since 2011. Holding a bag in one hand and an umbrella in the other, a woman is in full Victorian splendor, but decidedly modern nonetheless. She represents Wyoming having been in 1869 the first state to grant women the right to vote.
Sculptor Joel Turner has honored a number of Cheyenne’s leading late-19th and early-20th century women as Wyoming gained statehood. Given that in 1870 she became America’s first (albeit briefly-serving) justice of the peace, his Esther Hobart Morris looks very determined. So too does early suffragette Therese Jenkins in another work. In 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first woman to serve as governor of a U.S. state; Turner shows her standing proper in an elegant blue dress.
One of Cheyenne’s dozens of quirky fun fiberglass boots sits across from The Wrangler boot shop on … [+]
Yet more Turner works depict early photographer J.E. Stimson who chronicled the Union Pacific and much early city history; architect George Rainsford for whom a whole historic district of Victorian homes is named; and WWII Admiral Francis X. McInerney who stands tall in his blue uniform, his rows of insignia painted brightly.
Cheyenne was a pioneer in aviation. On one street corner, sculptor George Lundeen’s dashing early aviator leaning on a propeller blade honors the Murray brothers of early airmail pilots.
And then there’s the Cheyenne’s Big Boots project of eight-foot-tall fiberglass boots, covered in colorful and often whimsical images of town history. With some thirty in all, you can’t miss them placed outside of civic buildings and businesses. One in front of the library depicts, naturally, book stacks. Right in front of the Wyoming State Museum, junior high kids created one covered in historic license plates. Another shows famous gunman and outlaw Tom Horn whom Steve McQueen portrayed in one of his last movies. A PDF is available to preview Big Boots works.
Cheyenne’s days in early aviation are commemorated in bronze.
Cheyenne is a boom town once again. A booming art town.
For much more on public art in the city, visit Arts Cheyenne.
Nov. 19 (UPI) — A county district judge in Wyoming blocked two state laws that limited abortion access, ruling that they violated the state’s constitution.
Teton County Judge Melissa Owens said the laws — Wyoming’s Life Act and the Medication Abortion Ban — violated a woman’s personal autonomy in making her own medical decisions.
In her ruling, Owens said that Wyoming state legislators had “enacted laws that impede the fundamental right to make health care decisions for an entire class of people, pregnant women.”
She went on to describe the laws, which restrict abortions at the earliest stages of development, did not distinguish between pre-viable and viable fetuses, imposing “unreasonable and unnecessary” restrictions.
Owens had already blocked the laws from going into effect after they were passed last year while court cases challenging the provisions played out in court. The laws are permanently banned, but the state is expected to appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court.
Jay Jerde, a state special assistant attorney general, told the court last year that Wyoming’s constitutional amendment does not apply to abortions but addresses women’s health in illness. Jerde said the woman is making decisions about her health and the health of the fetus.
But Owens rejected the premise, saying that the “uncontested facts establish that the abortion statutes fail to accomplish any of the asserted interests by the state.
“The state did not present any evidence refuting or challenging the extensive medical testimony presented by the plaintiffs,” she said.
A Wyoming judge has struck down the state’s overall ban on abortion and its first-in-the-country explicit prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy – in line with voters in further states voicing support for abortion rights.
The Teton county district judge, Melissa Owens, has ruled three times since 2022 to block the laws while they were disputed in court.
The decision on Monday marks another victory for abortion rights advocates after voters in seven states passed measures in support of access.
One of the Wyoming laws that Owens said violated women’s rights under the state constitution bans abortion except to protect a pregnant woman’s life or in cases involving rape and incest. The other made Wyoming the only state to explicitly ban abortion pills, though other states have instituted de facto bans on the medication by broadly prohibiting abortion.
The laws were challenged by four women, two of whom are obstetricians, as well as two nonprofit organizations. One of the groups, Wellspring Health Access, opened as the state’s first full-service abortion clinic in years in April 2023 after an arson attack in 2022.
“This is a wonderful day for the citizens of Wyoming – and women everywhere, who should have control over their own bodies,” said the Wellspring Health Access president, Julie Burkhart.
Currently, 13 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and four have bans that kick in at or about six weeks into pregnancy – before many women realise they’re pregnant.
Nearly every ban has been challenged with a lawsuit. Courts have blocked the enforcement of some restrictions, including bans throughout pregnancy in Utah and Wyoming. Judges struck down bans in Georgia and North Dakota in September 2024. Georgia’s supreme court ruled the next month that the ban there can be enforced while it considers the case.
In the Wyoming case, the women and nonprofits who challenged the laws argued that the bans stood to harm their health, wellbeing and livelihoods – claims disputed by attorneys for the state. They also argued the bans violated a 2012 state constitutional amendment saying competent Wyoming residents have a right to make their own health care decisions.
As she had done with previous rulings, Owens found merit in both of these arguments. The abortion bans “will undermine the integrity of the medical profession by hamstringing the ability of physicians to provide evidence-based medicine to their patients”, Owens ruled.
The abortion laws impede the fundamental right of women to make health care decisions for an entire class of people – those who are pregnant – in violation of the constitutional amendment, Owens ruled.
Wyoming voters approved the amendment amid fears of government overreach after approval of the federal Affordable Care Act and its initial requirements for people to have health insurance. Attorneys for the state argued that health care, under the amendment, did not include abortion. The Republican governor, Mark Gordon, who signed the abortion laws into effect in 2022 and 2023, did not immediately return an email from the Associated Press on Monday seeking comment.
Both sides wanted Owens to rule on the lawsuit challenging the abortion bans rather than allow it to go to trial in the spring. A three-day bench trial before Owens was previously set, but will not be necessary with this ruling.
The recent US elections saw voters in Missouri clear the way to undo one of the country’s most restrictive abortion bans.
Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana. Nevada voters approved an amendment in support of abortion rights, but they will need to pass it again in 2026 for it to take effect. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York. Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota, meanwhile, defeated constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place.
The abortion landscape underwent a seismic shift in 2022 when the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade. The 2022 ruling ended a nationwide right to abortion and cleared the way for bans to take effect in most Republican-controlled states.
As the days get shorter and colder, winter pests, including invasive species, are settling into homes across the United States as they seek shelter ahead of winter.
While pests like rodents and cockroaches are well-known by homeowners, others can be just as troublesome, often with less awareness about the threats they pose and their impact on existing ecosystems.
Some species, such as ticks and red fire ants, can be a health concern.
These guys can rapidly take over new environments, disrupting nature and causing concern for both entomologists and pest control. Some species are less harmful than others, but it’s important that homeowners to be informed about each one. This awareness helps prevent unnecessary alarm and ensures homeowners are prepared if a species does become a threat.
Bugs commonly overwinter indoors to stay toasty and dry. Some are driven in by easy access to food sources. Be on the lookout for the ones that can be dangerous, if not downright repulsive, to keep you and your loved ones safe this winter .
Gallery Credit: Kolby Fedore, TSM
A study using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 2017 to 2021 determines which states have the highest rates of driver fatalities on freeways.
Gallery Credit: Kolby Fedore, Townsquare Media
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