Brent Bien, Wyoming gubernatorial candidate, speaks to supporters at KFC in Rock Spring. SweetwaterNOW photo by James Riter.
ROCK SPRINGS — Retired Marine Corps Col. Brent Bien brought his second campaign for Wyoming governor to Sweetwater County April 1 and 2. He outlined a sweeping conservative platform that calls for eliminating residential property taxes, abandoning electronic voting machines, halting wind energy expansion and overhauling public education.
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Bien, a University of Wyoming engineering graduate and combat veteran, told the crowd he first entered the race after Gov. Mark Gordon shut down the state during the COVID-19 pandemic and the legislature failed to act during a subsequent special election.
“This was never a bucket list thing for me,” Bien said. “But I do understand the value and worth of our freedom, an I am willing to go to the mat for it.”
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Taxes and Spending
Bien argued Wyoming has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, and called for the states first full budget audit since 1989. He proposed eliminating the residential property tax, cutting fuel tax, and reducing the sales tax by 1%. He estimated the total combined reduction at roughly $1.1 billion annually.
He said Wyoming’s approximately $34 billion in reserves generate nearly $1.9 billion in interest annually. Bien said that the interest alone is enough to cover essential services without touching the principal.
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“Everybody in here deserves to know the final resting place of every tax dollar.” he said.
Energy
Bien is sharply critical of what he described as production restrictions under the current administration, saying Wyoming oil output has fallen between 65% and 70% and mining activity has dropped 18% under Gordon. He pledged to streamline permitting for oil, gas and coal development and said he would oppose all new wind energy projects in the state.
“My answer is unequivocally no,” he said of new wind proposals.”I’ll do everything to stop all that.”
He also called for eliminating carbon capture subsides and said he wants to reorient Wyoming’s energy policy back toward the industries he said build the state, coal, oil, gas and trona mining.
Elections
Bien said he would not vote to certify a Wyoming election so long as the state uses electronic tabulation machines. He said the official vote should be determined exclusively by hand tabulation of all cast paper ballots.
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“It’s the government’s job to gain the trust of the citizenry, not the other way around,” he said.
Public Lands and Agriculture
Bien raised concerns over what he called the rewilding of Wyoming, describing biodiversity conservation contracts that pay ranchers to take land out of agricultural production under nondisclosure agreements. He identified Fremont County as a focal point of those efforts.
He said he would defend Wyoming’s water rights, oppose surrendering additional allocations under an expected renegotiation of the Colorado River Compact and push for wolves to be delisted so Wyoming hunters can manage predator populations without outside intervention.
Education
Bien said Wyoming spends roughly $22,000 per student annually, about twice neighboring Idaho, yet produces test scores he called unacceptable. He called for a full audit of education spending, reinstatement of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools by executive order and elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion curricula. He also said he wants daily physical education required through the senior year of high school.
“Until we’re number one in this nation, we should never accept anything less,” he said.
Wyoming jumped in nationwide child well-being rankings in a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The 2026 Kids Count Data Book ranked Wyoming 12th based on family and community stability, economic support, health and education. That’s up 11 spots from 23rd in the 2025 report.
Even with the higher 2026 scores in most areas, the state has room for improvement, said Micah Richardson, associate director of policy at the Wyoming Women’s Foundation — the Casey Foundation’s Wyoming partner organization.
For example, despite its high marks in economic well-being, 10% of Wyoming children live in poverty, Richardson said. In the education realm, 70% of eighth graders are not proficient in math. And 9% of the state’s children don’t have health insurance.
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“We know that there are improvements to be made,” Richardson said.
About the report
Kids Count, which is in its 37th year of publication, aims to shine a light on progress and deficiencies related to child well-being, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. That way, state leaders and policy experts can track what strategies are making a difference. Most of the new report compares data between 2019 and 2024.
Along with the cumulative ranking, the report ranks states individually in the four categories. And for the first time this year, the report gave comprehensive scores to each state on a scale from 0 to 1,000. By that measurement, Wyoming scored 654, higher than the national average of 547.
Of the four categories, Wyoming performed best in economic well-being, nabbing the No. 3 spot. The state’s standing in this area improved since the last report, and its comparatively strong numbers put the state behind only Minnesota and New Hampshire.
That ranking is based on indicators that measure how financially secure or insecure children are — including the number of children who live in poverty. This data found that 21,000 Wyoming children, or 17%, have parents who lack secure employment, while 31,000 children, or 25%, live in housing with a high cost burden.
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Ten Sleep School second graders in Nikki Erickson’s class talk with partners in September 2025 during a lesson on how sand is formed. Ten Sleep is a top-performing school. (Katie Klingsporn/WyoFile)
The state also ranked high in the family and community category, sitting in the No. 7 spot. That category measures indicators including the number of children in single-parent families (28% in Wyoming); children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma (4% in Wyoming) and children living in high-poverty areas (less than .5%), according to the report.
Though Wyoming ranked relatively high at 17th place in education, its score fell since the last report. Education indicators found that 52% of Wyoming children ages 3-4 are not in school; 64% of the state’s fourth graders are not proficient in reading and 18% of high school students aren’t graduating on time.
Since 2019, there has been a 5% increase in fourth-graders who are not proficient in reading and a 7% increase in eighth-graders who are not proficient in math, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The state performed worst in the health category, where it ranked 39th. Health indicators found that 10% of Wyoming babies were born with low birth weight, 12,000 children did not have health insurance and 29% of kids ages 10-17 are overweight or obese.
Wyoming’s rate of child and teen deaths has fallen, which is a crucial sign that recent state actions around mental and behavioral health are having benefits, Richardson said. But the state’s rate of 31 deaths per 100,000 is “still too high,” she said.
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Wyoming needs to create policies that support young community members’ mental health needs, she said. ”As a frontier and rural state, solutions are needed that span our geography and ensure children and families can access the care and services they need.”
Takeaways
The report illustrates some areas of weakness that state leaders can focus on for improvements, resources or policy solutions, Richardson said. One of those is early childhood education, which research shows boosts school readiness and long-term academic success.
Craft time for preschool students at the Evanston Child Development Center on Jan. 25, 2023. (Katie Klingsporn/WyoFile)
“I would love to see more at the state level being focused on child care and early childhood programming,” Richardson said. “I would like to see in the next few years the Legislature really adopting this as a family issue, a community issue and a workforce issue more than they have currently.”
After-school support is another area outside of the realm of traditional school that could give kids a boost in education, she said.
Good data collection is crucial for communities to track and understand issues and how policies affect them, Richardson. With federal cuts and other issues challenging data collection in recent years, she said, it’s important to prioritize the practice.
“I just can’t emphasize enough how important data collection continues to be,” she said.
JACKSON, Wyo. — Wildflowers are emerging across the valley, including Wyoming’s state flower: the Indian paintbrush.
The Indian paintbrush, also known as “Prairie Fire,” is native to the western Americas and became the Wyoming state flower in 1917. Contrary to its name, the flower of the paintbrush isn’t a flower at all. The petal-like bracts are actually modified leaves.
Indian paintbrush has been used by many different Native American Tribes in a number of ways, from condiments to medicine to hair gloss. Paintbrush has a high selenium content, which can also make it toxic if consumed in high amounts.
These plants are hemiparasitic and suck water and nutrients from perennial grasses and other plants through their roots despite their ability to also photosynthesize. They rely on pollinators like hummingbirds for reproduction.
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Multiple North American Tribes share an origin story for the Indian Paintbrush. Legend has it that a young boy was on a quest to paint the sunset but couldn’t find any way to capture the colors until he found a bed of Paintbrush. He left his paintbrushes behind, which is why Indian Paintbrush flowers are found in every color of the sunset: red, orange, yellow, pink and blue.
As summer creeps into the valley, these plants can be found around town and in Grand Teton National Park through July.
Beartooth Basin, located at nearly 11,000 feet of elevation in northern Wyoming, is North America’s only ski area open exclusively during the summer months.
Situated just 5 miles from the Montana border in the Beartooth Mountains outside Red Lodge, the basin symbolizes everything that bucks the direction of the nation’s mainstream ski industry.
The low-frills mountain describes itself as “backcountry skiing with a lift.” There is no base lodge, ski school, rental shop, or slopeside lodging.
The ski area runs on a single generator. An old repurposed service truck with “Little League” emblazoned across the front serves as a combination lift-ticket office, snack shack, and lost-and-found department.
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The dirt parking lot is small and full of potholes, people lounging in camping chairs, and plenty of smiles in the best spirit of ski-bummery.
“It’s just a really small, unique operation,” co-owner Justin Modroo told Cowboy State Daily. “When we’re rolling, it can really be quite smooth and fun and enjoyable.”
In an increasingly transactional society, where metrics and profit margins often seem to drive every business decision, skiers say Beartooth is heartwarming and surprising as an operation that looks beyond those concerns simply for the love of their sport.
A line full of happy customers at Beartooth Basin. (Courtesy Beartooth Basin)
A skier drops off the top cornice in 2017. (Courtesy Beartooth Basin)
A snowboarder rides the upper Poma lift at Beartooth Basin. (Courtesy Beartooth Basin)
How It Works
Operating for only a handful of weeks each summer and catering to a diehard niche of skiers and snowboarders, everything about Beartooth Basin is about skiing at its most basic level.
What little profit the mountain generates, if any, is reinvested into operations, which unsurprisingly are not cheap.
As long as there is enough snow, the basin opens around Memorial Day each year, relying on the high-alpine Beartooth Highway to be cleared before operations can begin.
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Once open, the ski area remains operational as long as conditions allow. In 2019, it stayed open until July 4. This year, the goal is June 21, the summer solstice.
Two aging Poma surface lifts serve the ski area, making the ride uphill sometimes as nerve-racking as the trip down. Riding a Poma lift involves placing a small plastic disc beneath your hips and hoping your legs can hold on long enough as you’re towed to the top.
“It’s just simple, basic uphill travel to get people up the hill so they can go back down and have fun,” Modroo said.
The basin’s twin Poma lifts are relics dating back to the 1980s, and breakdowns are not uncommon. Located atop a mountain pass with no maintenance facility on-site, the ski area faces significant challenges when equipment fails.
This year was no exception.
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The main drive on the upper lift failed earlier this month, forcing the mountain to close for roughly two weeks.
Modroo described the situation as “pretty rough,” requiring the lift to be transported more than 90 minutes to Billings, Montana, for repairs.
Now fixed and with the Beartooth Highway cleared of a late-season snow, Beartooth opened at 9 a.m. Sunday.
An old Little League bus serves as the lift ticket office, concessions stand, and lost-and-found. (Courtesy Beartooth Basin)
Some of the runs at Beartooth Basin are as steep as 50 degrees. (Courtesy Beartooth Basin)
A ski patrol dog surveys the steep slopes. (Courtesy Beartooth Basin)
Modest Amenities, Five-Star Skiing
As minimal as the amenities may be, the basin offers some of the most remarkable skiing in North America.
The runs are short but steep, reaching grades of nearly 50 degrees in some sections. According to Modroo, there’s always an opportunity “to get puckered,” ski slang for experiencing fear on the slopes.
Despite competing professionally on the World Freeskiing Tour and skiing some of the most challenging terrain on the planet, Modroo still describes the basin’s terrain as “mind-boggling.”
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Professional ski legends such as Tanner Hall, Karl Fostvedt, and Sander Hadley have also skied its slopes.
“People that go up there for the first time are always blown away — just absolutely blown away,” Modroo said. “Even if they’re pro skiers, even if they’re not skiers. It doesn’t get close to boring.”
Many of the runs resemble narrow snow corridors bordered by massive boulder walls. The snow is almost always slushy, creating a forgiving surface to navigate moguls that can grow as large as a small car.
From the top cornice, skiers are treated to sweeping views of the Beartooth Mountains. It is easy to become lost in the beauty of the landscape without ever feeling the need to make a turn.
Whether you’re an expert skier or simply trying to survive your way down the mountain, it is hard not to feel like a rock star as soft, mashed-potato snow sprays from beneath your skis and glitters in the high-elevation sunlight.
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And despite it being summer skiing, conditions at 11,000 feet can quickly shift back to winter. Fresh June powder is not uncommon.
The ski area is staffed by professional ski patrollers and lift operators, but this crew is a special breed. They sacrifice a month of their summers to work long, unpredictable hours in an extremely rugged environment.
Aside from operating snowcats, the staff are true jacks-of-all-trades, doing whatever is necessary to keep the mountain running.
Cody native Dean Madley drives snowcats at the basin and has been skiing the mountain since childhood.
“The Beartooth Pass skiing community is filled with some of the most committed skiers and snowboarders anywhere, extending their seasons into the summer months,” Madley said. “The lift-access operation at Beartooth Basin is never easy and always unpredictable, but it is run by some of skiing’s most passionate people.”
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Leo Wolfson sends an air on July 4, 2019, at Beartooth Basin. (Courtesy Leo Wolfson)
The Basin’s History
The Basin began its operations in 1962 when Austrians Pepi Gramshammer, Eric Sailer, and Anderl Molterer founded it as a summer training ground for alpine ski racers.
Over time, it became known as the Red Lodge International Ski and Snowboard Camp. When new owners took over, the ski area opened to the public for the first time in 1986.
Since, the basin has earned a reputation for providing a raw, untamed skiing experience rooted in a passion for high-alpine summer skiing and snowboarding.
One of Modroo’s favorite Beartooth memories came in 2006, when he timed an avalanche-control blast to coincide with a drop from the top cornice to a landing roughly 15 feet below. As chunks of snow cascaded down the mountain behind him, Modroo linked perfect turns through the terrain.
The basin regularly uses avalanche-control explosives to reduce risk, and videos of the resulting slides frequently generate attention on social media because of the massive amounts of snow tumbling down the mountain.
Even those pale in comparison to some of the larger airs riders have been sending at the Basin this summer.
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The summer of 2020 was particularly memorable because Beartooth Basin became the first ski area in North America to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Modroo remembers that summer fondly, describing the mountain at the time as “the happiest place on Earth.”
A few years ago, Modroo and the other owners announced they were putting the ski area up for sale. They have yet to receive a serious offer, and Modroo said they are only interested in selling to someone who shares their vision.
He admits he does not really want to part with the mountain he has frequented since his days as a young ski racer, and hopes to retain a minority ownership stake if a buyer eventually emerges.
“For me, it’s just a labor of love, and I enjoy it,” he said.
Although Modroo dreams of someday building a tram from the base of the Beartooth Highway to the ski area, allowing access throughout the winter, such a project is unlikely anytime soon.
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And that’s probably OK.
The basin is already a diamond in the rough — rugged, beautiful, and fleeting.
