Wyoming
From the Pillage People to Viking Festivals, Vikings Are Everywhere In Wyoming
You’re apt to see a Viking anywhere these days, even landlocked Wyoming.
Perhaps even especially Wyoming, where Viking re-enactors and other disciples of Viking lore and legend say the ancient warrior’s code of honor resonates with Wyoming’s own Cowboy Way.
“The Viking code of ethics is about, you know, taking care of people and community. And not just protecting your community, but making sure you bring everybody in and along,” TA Ranch family member Katie Giles told Cowboy state Daily. “And being honest, you know, having loyalty and inclusivity.”
Katie recently helped her mother, Kirsten Giles, plan a Viking-themed Fire and Ice Festival at the TA Ranch near Buffalo, which saw unexpectedly high attendance.
“I had had a lot of medical problems, and it was a bad year for me,” Kirsten told Cowboy State Daily. “And because we are Norwegian, I said the best thing we could do is put (2023) in a boat, light it on fire, and send it to Valhalla.”
That set fire to the family’s imagination as they decided they should just do it. The Fire and Ice Festival was born.
Going into it for the first year, they weren’t sure what kind of activities they could put on, nor how many people might attend. Turns out, all they had to do was mention anything Viking. The response was overwhelming.
“People just came crawling out of the woodwork,” Kirsten Giles told Cowboy State Daily. “You cannot believe the resources that called us and said, ‘I do this, and I’m in Wyoming.’ Nordic heritage is very strong in Wyoming.”
A Fan In Every Corner Of The State
Not only is Nordic heritage strong in the Cowboy State, fans are popping up all over the place, doing all sorts of unexpected creative and interesting things.
There’s a Viking band in Gillette called the Pillage People, while a group in Jackson put on a Viking-themed play earlier this year.
Gillette is also home to Big Lost Meadery, which makes a popular Viking drink — mead.
Blame the popularity of these Middle Age marauders on the History Channel series “Vikings,” said Cheyenne couple Chris and Jennifer Lawson.
It spawned a sequel, “Vikings: Valhalla,” as well as all sorts of other popular Viking-related shows. There’s “The Last Kingdom” series on Netflix, for example, where Uhtred, son of Uhtred of Bebbanburg, tries in vain over five seasons to regain the lands he lost after Vikings stole him as a boy and raised him as one of their own.
“Hollywood does really drive a lot of the interest in these things,” Jennifer said.
For the Cheyenne couple, it was an interest in history that drew them to various re-enactment groups. Vikings just turned out to be their favorite, and then through genealogy, Jennifer discovered Norse heritage in her husband’s background.
“Sometime in the late 1700s, Chris had a family that migrated into Denmark,” Jennifer said.
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Wool yarn died with natural dies like those Vikings would have used, along with a number of other items that represent the Viking Age. (Renée Jean, Cowboy State Daily) -
Combs like this handmade one are the most common artifacts found in Viking burial sites. (Renée Jean, Cowboy State Daily) -
A traditional silver necklace and bone flutes like Vikings would have worn and played. (Renée Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Raid Or Trade
That kind of sealed the deal on their interest in all things Vikings. The couple are now working on setting up a Viking re-enactment group in Wyoming, dedicated to the accurate portrayal of everyday Vikings — down to the smallest of details.
“We do simple crafts, you know,” Jennifer said. “There’s metalworking, there’s leatherworking, woodworking — anything that the Vikings would have been able to do back in their time, we try to recreate it.”
Chris is researching farming implements that would have been in use for the time, as well as how archery was used in combat.
One reason he’s researching farming implements is because most Vikings were actually farmers.
“That was (Scandinavian’s) main way of life,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “The word ‘Viking’ isn’t actually a people. It’s a job, an action. A Viking was someone who basically went out exploring or raiding and trading.”
Whether it was raid or trade was a decision made on the fly a few minutes before reaching port, Chris said.
“If they came up to a town or city that was well-fortified they would trade,” Chris said. “But if it was a little hamlet out of nowhere with no defense, they were going to raid.”
Part of the fun of a re-enactment group for Chris and Jennifer has been the chance to do deep dives into Viking history, figuring out the puzzle of how they made everyday items.
The couple has made all of their own clothing and equipment based on the available archaeological records, keeping everything as true to the Viking Age as they can.
That includes using natural dies that Vikings would have had available.
“I think the easiest one is woad,” Jennifer told Cowboy State Daily. “You see that in a lot of the Scottish movies with blue war paint on their faces.”
Woad is the name of a plant whose active ingredient is similar to indigo.
“You basically dry out the plants, then crush it up to a powder,” Jennifer said. “Then you put it in some water, but you have to get it to a very basic level for the pH.”
The way the Vikings did that back then was to use well-ripened urine.
“It’s chemistry,” Chris said.
These days, however, the Lawsons don’t use urine to dye their clothing. There are other substances that can achieve the same effect.
“Actually, some of us would have liked to try that,” Chris said. “But everybody else was kind of squeamish about it.”
In The Pink With Beetles
There’s also a beetle that makes a pinkish dye, which the couple has grown, and they can use things like onions to create the color yellow.
“Every time you see someone portraying a Viking in movies or anything, they’re always wearing very drab clothing and a lot of fur,” Chris said. “That wasn’t the case. We actually get some very vibrant colors with our natural dyes.”
Tunics can be bright fire-engine reds, and yellows, too, can be quite vibrant and bright.
“The brighter the color, the higher up in status you were,” Chris said. “Because you could afford the fancier dies.”
But re-enactors aren’t the only ones finding Viking popularity a great platform for something fun.
The Pillage People in Gillette are a merry band of educators who play what Kirsten Giles described as Nordic punk.
Making Viking Music For The Modern Age
Steve Oakley, the leader of the band, told Cowboy State Daily that the Pillage People began when Big Lost Meadery asked the high school band leader if he could put together something Viking-ish for a dinner it wanted to hold.
Oakley found several teachers who played one or another instrument that would work for a Viking-style band. At first, the gig was just once a year. But people enjoyed their take on Viking music so much, they started getting more invitations to play. Now they play about once a month at Big Lost, as well as other places.
“We’re basically a cover band,” Oakley said. “We play stuff no one else plays.”
That means a lot of things like Irish folk songs and other European ballads. But now that their following is growing, they’re actually thinking about writing some original stuff.
That will probably be a sort of modern-day take on Viking tunes, Oakley said.
“That’s the one thing we do that no other band covers,” he said. “So, I’m sure we’ll go that route.”
The band doesn’t try to stick with old-time instruments, however. Instead, they have adapted today’s instruments to yesterday’s Viking sensibilities.
“We try to put a modern spin on it,” Oakley said. “We very rarely play the same thing the same way twice. All the musicians in the group are really talented, so depending on how we are feeling that night, we change things up all the time.”
The group doesn’t practice a lot, either. They just get together and wing it.
“Our performance is our practice,” Oakley said.
He also was surprised and impressed by the number of Vikings who attended the recent Fire and Ice festival in Buffalo.
There’s just something irresistible about the culture. So irresistible in fact, that Oakley found himself jumping in on the battle horn blowing competition, which he ended up winning.
“I wasn’t planning to participate, but I watched a lot of people try to do it,” he said. “So I had to jump in, just to prove it could be done.”
Renee Jean can be reached at: Renee@CowboyStateDaily.com
Much of Wyoming outside of Yellowstone and Grand Teton also struggles with emergency response time.
By Katie Klingsporn, WyoFile
Wyoming’s U.S. Sen. John Barrasso is pushing legislation to upgrade emergency communications in national parks — a step he says would improve responses in far-flung areas of parks like Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
“This bill improves the speed and accuracy of emergency responders in locating and assisting callers in need of emergency assistance,” Barrasso told members of the National Parks Subcommittee last week during a hearing on the bill. “These moments make a difference between visitors being able to receive quick care and continue their trip or facing more serious medical complications.”
The legislation directs the U.S. Department of the Interior to develop a plan to upgrade National Park Service 911 call centers with next-generation 911 technology.
Among other things, these upgrades would enable them to receive text messages, images and videos in addition to phone calls, enhancing their ability to respond to emergencies or rescues in the parks.
Each year, rangers and emergency services respond to a wide range of calls — from lost hikers to car accidents and grizzly maulings — in the Wyoming parks’ combined 2.5 million acres.
Outside park boundaries, the state’s emergency service providers also face steep challenges, namely achieving financial viability. Many patients, meantime, encounter a lack of uniformity and longer 911 response times in the state’s so-called frontier areas.
Improving the availability of ground ambulance services to respond to 911 calls is a major priority in Wyoming’s recent application for federal Rural Health Transformation Project funds.
Barrasso’s office did not respond to a WyoFile request for comment on the state’s broader EMS challenges by publication time.
The bill from the prominent Wyoming Republican, who serves as Senate Majority Whip, joined a slate of federal proposals the subcommittee considered last week. With other bills related to the official name of North America’s highest mountain, an extra park fee charged to international visitors, the health of a wild horse herd and the use of off-highway vehicles in Capitol Reef National Park, Barrasso’s “Making Parks Safer Act” was among the least controversial.
What’s in it
Barrasso brought the bipartisan act along with Sens. Angus King (I-Maine), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.).
The bill would equip national park 911 call centers with technological upgrades that would improve and streamline responses, Barrasso said. He noted that hundreds of millions of visitors stream into America’s national parks annually. That includes more than 8 million recreation visits to Wyoming’s national parks in 2024.
“Folks travel from across the world to enjoy the great American outdoors, and for many families, these memories last a lifetime,” he testified. “This is a bipartisan bill that ensures visitors who may need assistance can be reached in an accurate and timely manner.”
The Park Service supports Barrasso’s bill, Mike Caldwell, the agency’s associate director of park planning, facilities and lands, said during the hearing. It’s among several proposals that are “consistent with executive order 14314, ‘Making America Beautiful Again by Improving our National Parks,’” Caldwell said.
“These improvements are largely invisible to visitors, so they strengthen the emergency response without deterring the park’s natural beauty or history,” he said.
Other park issues
National parks have been a topic of contention since President Donald Trump included them in his DOGE efforts in early 2025. Since then, efforts to sell off federal land and strip park materials of historical information that casts a negative light on the country, along with a 43-day government shutdown, have continued to fuel debate over the proper management of America’s parks.
Several of these changes and issues came up during the recent National Parks Subcommittee hearing.
Among them was the recent announcement that resident fee-free dates will change in 2026. Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth will no longer be included in those days, but visitors won’t have to pay fees on new dates: Flag Day on June 14, which is Trump’s birthday and Oct. 27, Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday.
Conservation organizations and others decried those changes as regressive.
At the hearing, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), assured the room that “when this president is in the past, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth will not only have fee-free national park admission, they will occupy, again, incredible places of pride in our nation’s history.”
Improvements such as the new fee structure “put American families first,” according to the Department of the Interior. “These policies ensure that U.S. taxpayers, who already support the National Park System, continue to enjoy affordable access, while international visitors contribute their fair share to maintaining and improving our parks for future generations,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in an announcement.
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
Wyoming
Evacuations spread from fires in South Dakota, Wyoming due to strong winds from coast-to-coast storm
CLIMATE TECH: As wildfires grow stronger, faster, and more expensive, a California-based startup is taking a high-tech approach to fight these fires using autonomous drones designed to extinguish flames before they turn deadly. Founder & CEO Stuart Landesberg joins FOX Weather to discuss Seneca’s firefighting drones.
Large, fast-moving fires are causing evacuations in South Dakota and Wyoming due to the impacts of a coast-to-coast storm.
The FOX Forecast Center said winds have been gusting up to 70 mph in the Pennington County, South Dakota area, which has caused the wildfire to spread rapidly.
COAST-TO-COAST STORM CAUSES TRAVEL ISSUES DUE TO HURRICANE-FORCE WINDS, HEAVY RAIN ACROSS NORTHWEST
The blaze, known as the Greyhound Fire, is approximately 200 acres in size. The fire is burning two to three miles south of Keystone and is moving east, according to the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office.
The Greyhound Fire in South Dakota spans 200 acres.
(FOX Weather / FOX Weather)
Highway 40 and Playhouse Road are closed as crews work to contain the fire.
People living along the highway between Playhouse Road and Rushmore Ranch Road have been evacuated, officials said.
TWO KIDS WAITING FOR THE BUS CRITICALLY INJURED DUE TO STRONG WINDS IN IDAHO
Crews are asking anyone in an evacuation zone to leave the area. Officials are advising people in the area to check the Pennington County Public Safety Hub.
A grass fire has caused evacuations in the Winchester Hills section of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
(FOX Weather / FOX Weather)
People in the Winchester Hills area of Cheyenne, Wyoming, have also been evacuated due to a grass fire.
The FOX Forecast Center said winds are gusting up to 75 mph in the area.
The National Weather Service has issued a Fire Warning and says there is a shelter at South High School for evacuated residents.
Check for updates on this developing story.
The University of Wyoming filed a lawsuit this week seeking $2.5 million from an energy company it partnered with to research enhanced oil recovery.
The university in 2024 signed a contract with Houston-based ACU Energy to advance research at the university’s Center of Innovation for Flow Through Porous Media, according to the university’s complaint filed Monday in Wyoming’s U.S. District Court. ACU Energy agreed to pay the university $15 million over the six-year research period. The company, according to the complaint, was to pay the university $2.5 million annually with two payments each year.
While the university kept up its end of the bargain — by assembling a research team, training research members and incurring costs to modify laboratory space — ACU Energy “failed to pay the University even a cent owed under the Agreement, leaving $2,500,000 outstanding in unpaid invoices,” the complaint alleges.
ACU Energy did not respond to a WyoFile request for comment before publication.
The company notified the university in February that it was terminating the contract, and the university notified ACU Energy in May of its breach of contract, according to court filings. The university asked the court for a jury trial.
Enhanced oil recovery refers to methods used to squeeze more crude from reservoirs that have already been tapped for primary production, extending the life of an oilfield.
The university commonly accepts money from private businesses in return for lending resources and expertise to advance research. The Center of Innovation for Flow Through Porous Media is part of the university’s Research Centers of Excellence in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences.
The Center of Innovation for Flow Through Porous Media, led by Mohammad Piri, a professor of petroleum engineering, bills itself as “the most advanced oil and gas research facility in the world.” The center conducts research at the university’s High Bay Research facility, which “is funded by $37.2 million in state dollars and $16.3 million in private contributions, with an additional $9.2 million in private gifts for research equipment,” according to the center’s website.
The center has received donations from oil industry heavyweights like ExxonMobil, Halliburton and Baker Hughes.
Piri was tapped to serve as “principal investigator” for the UW-ACU Energy partnership, according to the university’s complaint. As of press time, ACU Energy had not filed a response to the lawsuit.
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