Wyoming
Fire crews on Elk Fire in Wyoming brace for strong winds
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
Wyoming
Measles confirmed in Teton County, Wyoming, as summer crowds flock to parks – East Idaho News
JACKSON, Wyo. (WyoFile) — After confirming a case of measles in an unvaccinated adult in Teton County, Wyoming, health officials are warning the public about possible exposure at locations in Grand Teton National Park and Jackson.
The news comes as summer crowds flood the region with tourists from around the world.
The public may have been exposed between June 17-25 at several locations in Teton County, according to the Wyoming Health Department. They include restaurants in Grand Teton National Park’s Colter Bay Village on June 17-18; a Colter Bay convenience store on June 20 and the Target in Jackson on June 25.
“We are asking people who may have been exposed to watch for measles symptoms for 21 days past the exposure date and consider avoiding crowded public places and high-risk settings such as daycare centers,” State Health Officer Alexia Harrist said in a press release.
Monitoring is especially critical for people who have not been vaccinated with the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, according to the health department.
It marks Wyoming’s second confirmed case of the highly contagious infection in 2026. Wyoming went 15 years without a confirmed case of measles until last year.
Resurgence
Health officials confirmed Wyoming’s first 2026 case in May. An adult patient in Fremont County who did not have a confirmed vaccination status caught the disease, according to the Wyoming Department of Health.
Measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 — indicating no endemic transmission for 12 months or more. But it re-emerged in recent years primarily due to declining vaccination rates and increased public health skepticism. Those trends spawned during the COVID-19 pandemic and have persisted during the second Trump administration.
The neighboring state of Utah is one of America’s 2026 measles hotspots, with 499 cases reported so far this year.
RELATED | Anguished parents. Doctors in tears. Utah’s long measles outbreak takes a toll
A vaccination rate of 95% is necessary for community immunity to prevent measles outbreaks, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
In 2025, Wyoming’s proportion of kindergarten students who had completed the MMR vaccine was 93.6%, the CDC reports. That rate is higher than Colorado, Utah and Montana for the same year.
However, it’s declined overall since 2012-13, when Wyoming’s kindergarten vaccination rate was above 97%. It fell to 90.2% in 2020-21 before inching back up to the current 93.6%.
A measles case had not been reported in the state since 2010 until July 2025, when the health department confirmed measles in an unvaccinated child from Natrona County. By year’s end, 13 more cases were confirmed. The majority involved unvaccinated children and adults.
Along with being extremely contagious, measles can cause severe complications like pneumonia and brain swelling and can leave lasting impacts on the immune system. One to three out of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from complications, according to the CDC.
RELATED | The US is on the verge of losing its measles elimination status. Here’s why that matters
RELATED | Measles is not the only disease on the rise. Mumps also may be making a comeback
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GILLETTE, Wyo. — As the Aug. 18 primary election approaches, County 17 is introducing candidate questionnaires to help voters make informed decisions at the ballot box.
Every candidate in the primary field was sent the same three questions and given a limit of 500 words, which could be distributed among their answers as they saw fit. To ensure a fair and direct line to the community, all responses are published exactly as submitted, without edits or alterations.
Candidates were asked:
- What are the most crucial challenges your constituents are facing?
- If elected, how will you address these challenges?
- What qualities or qualifications do you possess that have prepared you to meet these challenges?
Questionnaires are being published on a rolling basis online through Aug. 11. They will be accessible via the County 17 Election Tracker.
Scott Smith (R), Wyoming state treasurer
What are the most crucial challenges your constituents are facing?
Everywhere I go many Wyoming citizens are concerned that our government is selling out our state lands to the highest bidder for crony capitalism. Some are concerned about Data Centers, Commercial Wind Generators, or nuclear waste storage. The biggest concern is the resources these outfits are taking, secondly, they are concerned about health issues related to living nearby, and lastly they are concerned with cost associated with these projects being passed onto the taxpayer.
If elected, how will you address these challenges?
One of the things that many people don’t know is that the State Treasurer sits on the State Land and Investment Board. (SLIB) The same issues that concern our citizens are the same reasons that I have decided to run for this office. The SLIB has voted to lease state lands to a hydrogen plant in Converse County that would take eight gallons of our valuable water to produce one gallon of hydrogen jet fuel using wind and solar generation to power the plant. These same elected officials have sold off $100 million of our state lands to the federal government. I believe that some things are not for sale. As Treasurer you can count on me to count the cost and listen to the people in the public testimony. If we are going to accept some of these projects the citizens need to have the benefit, like lower utility costs.
What qualities/qualifications do you possess that have prepared you to meet these challenges?
My bachelor’s degree is in Business Administration with an emphasis in management and marketing. I will be a leader in the state treasurer’s office that creates a positive work environment that will allow our investment team to create higher returns on the people’s money that the state invests. I would like to work with the legislature to use these interest earnings to buy down the people’s property taxes to alleviate part of the burden inflation has caused on the average citizen. My day job, I work as a bookkeeper and work with numbers day in and day out and have corrected some inefficiencies to help small businesses become more profitable. I plan to do that within the state office and make those profits available to the legislature to reduce the tax burden for the people. I have also served in the Wyoming House of Representatives for Goshen County and I have served on the Appropriations Committee and I am familiar with the massive state budget.
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