Wyoming
How A Wyoming Couple Resurrected The Legendary Brooks Lake Lodge
When Barbara and her husband the late Richard Carlsberg bought Brooks Lake lodge in 1987, its entryway and lobby were still propped up on jacks from an abandoned 1983-84 restoration.
To get to the lodge in the first place, the couple had to first break their own trail through fresh powder on a 5-mile road that has a 1,000-foot increase in elevation.
The road typically gets 5 to 6 feet of snowpack in a given winter season, which made their October trip to see the lodge a rough go, Barbara told Cowboy State Daily, But it’s one that she still remembers as if it were yesterday, even though she no longer owns the lodge. She sold it in 2000 to Max Chapman, who’s owned it for the last 24 years as it’s continued to grow a reputation as a truly one-of-a-kind Wyoming experience.
“Dr. Hoppe, the Minnesota dentist we purchased the lodge from, must have just run out of money,” Barbara said. “That’s the only thing we could figure out.”
When Barbara and her husband toured it, the lodge itself was just a shell of what it had once been. The only thing Hoppe had completed was the bar and a restroom connecting to the bar.
The lodge was just one step away from complete ruin, Carlsberg said, with its entry way floating on jacks and other structural issues. Roofs on some of the cabins, meanwhile, had already given way to time and the elements.
But at least the Carlsberg’s knew next to nothing about running a lodge of this nature.
Despite all those challenges, the couple bought the lodge anyway.
They saw beyond the run-down and neglected property. Because along with that was a shining gemstone of a lake in the backyard set in a ring of mountains — the same lake that had once caught the eye of its namesake, Bryant B. Brooks, Wyoming’s seventh governor.
It was love at first sight, Barbara told Cowboy State Daily.
“We were smitten,” she said. “Absolutely.”
After The Honeymoon, The Real Work Begins
The lodge took an entire year of sweat equity — and millions of dollars — to get to anything like a functional state so it could open again.
“We had to put rooms and bathrooms in — everything,” she said. “It had been gutted.”
The couple did find some serviceable lodgepole pine furniture, built by hand once upon a time, but they had to buy all new beds for the cabins, as well as many other furnishings.
Barbara found a Wyoming artisan to craft new light fixtures for the lodge using discarded pipes.
“We had to build up staff housing, too,” she said. “Because that was kind of nonexistent. So, we probably ended up with as much staff as we had guests that first season.”
They opened for winter 1988, Carlsberg recalled, and then faced a steep learning curve after that.
It took about five years for the lodge to break even, but the couple never stopped working to return the lodge to its former glory. They just kept adding something to it every year, restoring one or another lost piece of history.
Eventually, they even found one of the Yellowstone busses that used to take guests from Lander to Brooks Lake Lodge and then on to Yellowstone National Park, Carlsberg said.
“That took us three years to restore,” she said. “And it was a labor of love, too.”
Celebrating Wyoming
One of the things that surprised the Carlsbergs once they got Brooks Lake Lodge open is just how much the lodge seems to mean to the rest of Wyoming.
“People were so grateful that we had brought the lodge back into existence,” Barbara said. “We didn’t find out until after we bought it that it was much-loved by Wyoming people.”
In fact, when the couple held a grand reopening ceremony, they planned a big reception not knowing at all what to expect. It attracted dignitaries from across the Cowboy State, including then-Gov. Mike Sullivan.
“He came up and did some speeches and it was a big party,” Barbara recalled.
Barbara added that she also believes, as was expressed in a previous Cowboy State Daily article about the lodge’s history, that the lodge is not something that people buy because they want to make a lot of money.
It’s just a special piece of history, and its owners are stewards of that. They restored that stewardship, which has been carried on and expanded under Chapman’s watch.
“You want it to break even, you want it to pay for itself,” she said. “And we realized at the time that we probably could get it to that, but as far as making any large profits out of it, we knew that wasn’t going to happen.
“The benefit of it is just owning that gorgeous place and having a staff,” she added. “I do miss the staff — and all the snowmobiling.”
Figuring It All Out
Just after the Carlsbergs bought Brooks Lake Lodge in summer 1988, a third of Yellowstone National Park was wiped out by a devastating wildfire.
“That’s how I can remember all these dates so well,” she said.
Richard was one of the guides who led people on trails in the Shoshone National Forest and Bridger Teton Forest that are accessible from Brooks Lake Lodge year-round.
“He really challenged people on those rides,” she said. “People got to do things they never thought they could ever do. And it was just a wonderful time in our lives.”
Barbara, meanwhile, focused on running the lodge. One of the decisions she made was to open the lodge to the public for lunches — an idea she drew from the couple’s many trips to Europe over the years.
“My husband loved to hunt, and he’d been hunting in Spain,” Barbara recalled. “And, believe it or not, we stayed with our hosts in their home. So we just thought, you know, what a lovely way to entertain, and so that is how we entertained at the lodge.”
The public lunch became something of a command appearance for the snowmobiling public, with as many as 150 people coming to it on any given day.
“We couldn’t believe how popular it was,” Barbara said.
Even The KGB Loved It
Wranglers and other workers came from all over the world to work at Brooks Lake Lodge, Barbara recalled, and so did guests.
The most unusual guest Barbara recalled was the time the head of the former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s KGB came to Brooks Lake Lodge.
“We had some attorneys from the Los Angeles area, which was where we were from, who were trying to work with the Russians on the rule of law,” Barbara said. “And they had become friends with this man, and I kept thinking, the head of the KGB!? But guess what, he ended up at Brooks Lake Lodge.”
That was a week when all sorts of interesting people showed up wanting rooms at the same time, Barbara said — some of whom she concluded must have been bodyguards for the KGB director.
Regardless of how strange it all seemed at the time, hospitality at Brooks Lake Lodge is nonpolitical, then as now.
“We gave him a cowboy hat and we had campfires and did singalongs with him,” Barbara said. “You know, we gave him the whole Western story and he loved it.”
Barbara has many other precious memories of the lodge from the dozen years the couple owned it, including the lodge hosting her own daughter’s wedding.
“I probably never would have sold it if my husband hadn’t died,” she said. “But I didn’t want that to just be my whole life, and it would have had to have been.”
Today, Barbara lives on a ranch in nearby Moran, but she remains smitten by the beauty of Brooks Lake Lodge, and she’ll never forget the memories made with her husband in a place ringed by mountains, set with a beautiful gemstone of a lake in the backyard.
Renée Jean can be reached at Renee@CowboyStateDaily.com.
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.
Related
Scroll down for a list of fireworks restrictions across Wyoming.
I usually don’t buy fireworks for the 4th of July. I go places to watch them. But since this year is the 250th anniversary of our nation, I was going to purchase a small arsenal and have a blast, pardon the pun.
But this has been a very dry year, as happens now and then in the cycles of weather. So I figured I’d wait until things were wet again and just hold my personal celebration a little late.
Many towns across Wyoming have canceled their July 4th fireworks due to the drought. They don’t want you firing off any either.
Based on 2026 reports, several Wyoming towns and counties have canceled or significantly restricted Fourth of July fireworks displays due to high wildfire risks, drought conditions, and Stage 1 fire restrictions.
Canceled/Restricted Public Displays (2026)
- Gillette/Campbell County: The CAM-PLEX fireworks show was postponed, and the county is maintaining a Stage 1 fire restriction due to extreme drought.
- Douglas: The Volunteer Fire Department canceled the 4th of July fireworks show due to fire concerns.
- Newcastle: Fireworks show canceled due to high fire danger, according to a June 27 report.
- Pine Haven: Canceled its Fourth of July fireworks display, according to a June 27 report.
- Riverton: Passed a resolution banning personal fireworks within city limits on July 4, with only a limited, designated area for public displays at the Honeycutt Softball and Saban Baseball Complex.
- Teton County: Fireworks have been historically canceled, and fire officials are urging residents to only attend official, professional displays due to extreme fire danger (confirmed for 2026).
City-Wide Personal Fireworks Bans (2026)
- Cheyenne: Consumer fireworks are prohibited within city limits, despite the county lifting restrictions, with only small novelties allowed.
- Casper: Fireworks are prohibited within city limits and in unincorporated Natrona County.
Key Locations Under Restrictions (2026)
- BLM Land: Fireworks are prohibited on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming.
- Weston County: A county-wide ban covers Newcastle and Upton due to high drought conditions.
Even little Chugwater, Wyoming, population 175, has banned fireworks inside its little town limits.
At the State Capital in Cheyenne, however, they will go right ahead with a fireworks display, right over the capital building itself. Dry weather be dammed.
Weird Fireworks Names You’ll Find In Wyoming
Just some of the odd names we found while shopping.
Gallery Credit: Glenn Woods
Media outlets gasped last week at the socialist movement’s success in the New York congressional Democratic primary elections.
That success headed west Tuesday, to Wyoming’s southern neighbor of Colorado.
Democratic socialist Melat Kiros, 29, defeated 15-term incumbent U.S. House Rep. Diana DeGette in Tuesday evening’s primary election.
Colorado Public Radio called the ouster “a stunning blow to the Democratic establishment in Denver and continuing a run of leftist victories in major cities.”
Former Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan, a Dvemocrat, told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that he wasn’t surprised at the move by Denver voters, but he doubted the proximity of a House socialist – if Kiros wins the general election – will affect Wyoming much.
“We have our own issues, and we’re certainly more sensitive to certain issues than others,” Sullivan said. “And it doesn’t necessarily divide us or make us closer to anybody else.”
Could Deepen ‘Don’t Colorado My Wyoming’ Sentiment
Liz Brimmer, longtime Wyoming politico, agreed in general, but said having a socialist congressional neighbor could galvanize Wyoming even harder into a tendency it already has: spurning anything that looks like Colorado governance.
“I think Wyoming uniformly and strongly feels, you know, ‘Don’t Colorado my Wyoming’,” Brimmer said. “And I think if anything, it deepens that sentiment.”
Brimmer said the ouster speaks of “these times, where there’s no doubt an anti-incumbent strain.” But no one will know all the reasons, nor should presume too much, until the voter data return, she said.
The Republicans saw the anti-incumbent strain surface differently, with newcomers ousting President Donald Trump’s foes in GOP primary elections.
State Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, who is finishing off his final legislative term, voiced fascination with the election outcome.
Brown, a self-described political junkie, lives about 14 miles from the Colorado border.
He said the ouster shows Denver is increasingly dictating the rest of Colorado’s fate, and that the state is growing more polarized.
On the Republican gubernatorial primary side, The Associated Press was showing a half-point lead for Victor Marx as of Wednesday.
“He’s just as crazy as a democratic socialist on the left,” said Brown.
As for DeGette’s defeat, it’s not as symptomatic as one would think, he added.
“She was running a ‘Hey, I’m the incumbent and I’ve been here 30 years’ (campaign),” he said.
That hurt her. As did a growing divide on the left over Israel’s approach to its many foes — and Congress’ funding of Israeli war and defense efforts, said Brown.
Israel was also a fulcrum in the May primary loss of libertarian-leaning incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky. But the Republican voters took the inverse approach on that one, nominating the candidate who supports funding Israeli war efforts.
Jack Speight, the GOP strategist who helped Wyoming Gov. Stan Hathaway to victory in 1966, told Cowboy State Daily Kiros’ win is alarming.
Speight was a Democrat when he graduated from the University of Wyoming law school. But the allure of capitalism and the prevailing logic of his good friends pulled him to the Republican side, he said in another interview last month.
The socialist victories of 2026 are “sad for this country. It may well affect the results of this fall, and nationwide,” he said. He called it a shift of California transplants into the Rockies, and a symptom of a growing entitlement.
Look North
Colorado isn’t the only Wyoming neighbor with socialist momentum.
Sam Forstag, a smoke jumper endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-New York, won his primary bid for Montana’s U.S. House District 1 on June 2.
Forstag may be less favored than Kiros going into the general election: No Democrat has won that Montana House district this century.
The New York Times called Forstag’s candidacy a “test for left-leaning politicians” who have been arguing for a populist surge in the blue party.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
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