Biologist Ken Mills sensed a shrewdness and smarts in Wolf 840M, a gray male canine that lived longer than any of the other 1,500-plus Wyoming wolves that have been ID’d and tracked since the species was reintroduced to the state three decades ago.
First captured and collared as a 1-year-old living west of Cody in the Ishawooa Pack in April 2012, Wolf 840M had a way of escaping detection and threats for the dozen-plus years that followed.
“Super savvy wolf,” Mills said, summing up an animal that lived 13 years and a few months.
That’s longer than any research wolves from Yellowstone National Park or Minnesota have survived. Only one wild wolf on record — Idaho’s B7, the last animal introduced into the U.S. from Canada in 1995 — lived longer, making it to at least 13.75.
Advertisement
The teeth of Wolf 840M, pictured here, were in remarkably good shape for a 13-year-old wolf. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)
Just two months after being caught in a trap on the east end of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Wolf 840M, like many young adults, boogied west toward the Tetons. His travels terminated along the mighty mountain range’s western slope, in a sliver of wolf habitat overlooking Teton Valley, Idaho.
There, wolves share the landscape with traps: Wolf trapping is permitted on the west side of the Wyoming-Idaho state line, an invisible boundary that splits the territory used by Wolf 840M’s Chagrin River Pack. (Appreciative U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists let a local resident who reported the west slope Teton wolves name the pack. The person chose to name the pack after a Cleveland, Ohio river.)
“When he was collared, he was caught in a trap,” Mills said. “So he knew what traps were.”
Wolf 840 beds in the snow along the west slope of the Teton Range in February 2024. The animal, which died a few months later, lived to be over 13 years old — record longevity for a Wyoming wolf and a few months short of the documented wild wolf record. (Ken Mills/Wyoming Game and Fish Department)
That learned experience and recognition of a life-threatening device — traps killed some of Wolf 840M’s packmates — might have extended his life, Mills said.
Mills learned from experience that Wolf 840M was equally adept at avoiding remote game cameras.
“I’ve been running cameras up there since 2013, and I didn’t get photos of him for a decade, until 2022,” the longtime Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist said. “I’d have parts of the pack coming through and he would not be there.”
Advertisement
The camera-trap sighting three years ago was a shocker.
Wolf 840, then 11 years old, ambles slowly by a remote camera trap in July 2022 that wolf biologist Ken Mills set along the west slope of the Tetons. (Ken Mills/Wyoming Game and Fish Department)
Wolf 840M’s first tracking collar died in 2017, five years after he was collared up the South Fork of the Shoshone as a yearling. So by 2022, he would have been 11, already well beyond the typical wolf’s lifespan.
The next winter in 2023, Mills’ contracted capture crew was flying and collaring wolves west of the Tetons when they came upon an animal moving unusually slowly.
“When they were chasing him, he just kind of ambled on downhill,” Mills recalled. “When I got the [dead] collar back, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I can’t believe he’s still alive.’”
By this point, Wolf 840M was at least 12. Remote camera footage from around this time — his avoidance skills had evidently waned — showed that he moved around with an old dog’s gait. It wasn’t even a lope.
Advertisement
“Very arthritic,” Mills said.
At age 12 in this June 2023 footage, Wolf 840 walks with a stiff gait that suggests bad arthritis. The veteran lobo lived to be 13 years and a few months, which is older than any other Wyoming wolf ever documented. (Ken Mills/Wyoming Game and Fish Department)
It’s unclear if Wolf 840M fed himself on the deer and elk herd that dwells on the Tetons’ west slope in his twilight years, or if he relied on packmates. But Mills’ best guess is that his mate, Wolf 1309F, did the heavy lifting, providing for the pack.
“Based on the capture crew’s observations from when they caught him, and the camera footage I have, I’m not sure he would have been able to be fast enough [to catch prey],” Mills said.
The old wolf did still have some spunk, however. He bred 1309F in 2022 and 2023, siring litters at 11 and 12 years old.
Best biologists can tell, Wolf 840M succumbed to old age. Wyoming Game and Fish’s contracted pilot picked up a mortality signal flying last July. Mills went to investigate the site and quickly found the carcass.
Advertisement
“The pilot was 9.5 yards off,” Mills said of the impressively accurate coordinates he trekked toward marking the remains. “She’s nuts.”
The decomposed remains of Wolf 840 reabsorb into the Earth on the landscape that sustained the animal for a dozen years. (Ken Mills/Wyoming Game and Fish Department)
By the time Mills got to him that summer, keeled over right next to a small spring, Wolf 840M’s remains were pretty well melted back into the ground in the west slope Teton territory, where he spent almost his entire life.
That’s a pretty remarkable landscape for a wolf to exist at all, let alone to survive until 13 years and change.
“They’re on the edge of a human-dominated landscape,” Mills said.
The Jedediah Pack, farthest left, includes wolves that are genetic decedents of Wolf 840M. The late lobo, which lived to be 13, was the longtime breeding male in the Chagrin River Pack, which formerly occupied the territory. (Wyoming Game and Fish Department)
Wolf 1309F — Wolf 840M’s former mate — even sometimes crosses Teton Valley, Idaho, passing by towns like Victor and navigating subdivisions, a highway and the Teton River to access hunting grounds in the Big Hole Mountains.
Mills repeated his earlier observation.
“Super savvy wolves,” he said. “Most people don’t know they’re there.”
CASPER, Wyo. — Two Wyoming residents died and a third was injured in Arapahoe, Wyoming, on Friday after their vehicle went airborne and struck a pole, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
The crash was reported around 10:39 p.m. May 8 near Goes In Lodge and Mission roads south of Riverton. According to the WHP’s investigation, the Dodge passenger vehicle was driving at a high speed north on Mission Road and failed to make a left-hand curve, driving off the road.
“The Dodge drove up the roadway embankment toward Goes In Lodge Rd and vaulted approximately 154 feet,” the WHP said. The Dodge rolled end-over-end about three times, struck a utility pole while airborne and came to rest on its wheels, where it caught fire.
23-year-old Wyoming residents Kalvin Yellowbear and Rosario Lopez were killed in the crash. Another passenger was injured. No seat belt use was indicated for the deceased.
Speed and other factors are under consideration by investigators, the report said.
Advertisement
There have been 40 highway fatalities so far in 2026, the WHP said, compared to previous years to-date:
34 in 2025
27 in 2024
46 in 2023
This story contains preliminary information as provided by the Wyoming Highway Patrol via the Wyoming Department of Transportation Fatal Crash Summary map. The information may be subject to change.
County 17 publishes letters, cartoons and opinions as a public service. The content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of County 17 or its employees. Letters to the editor can be submitted by emailing editor@oilcity.news.
Dear Gillette,
I am writing this letter because I am fed up with being forced to make impossible decisions just to live and work in Gillette.
We are constantly told that Campbell County is a great place to build a life, but the reality on the ground is exhausting. We are facing a double penalty here: a dwindling, high-cost economy and an almost non-existent dating scene. I am tired of having to choose between paying outrageous rent for a basic apartment or moving away from friends and community because I cannot find a genuine, long-term partner.
Advertisement
The dating pool in Gillette feels more like a shallow puddle. Many of us are doing everything right — working hard, staying stable — yet we are coming up empty-handed due to limited public social spaces and transient culture that isn’t conducive to long-term relationships.
It is disheartening to see the “Wyoming Advantage” disappear while we are stuck in a dating desert. Rising costs and limited supply make housing a heavy burden, with residents struggling to find affordable options. Skyrocketing fuel, utility and grocery prices have put families under extreme financial pressure.
I am tired of sacrificing my personal happiness and financial stability to live here.
We need more than just industrial growth; we need quality of life that allows us to find love and build a future here, not just by a paycheck.
Kevin McNutt Gillette
Advertisement
Related
Advertisement
Serving Gillette, Wright, Rozet, Recluse, Little Powder, Savageton, and all of Campbell County with unbiased news – never behind a paywall.
More by County 17
Rich Renner always knew he had pretty good neighbors, but he found out just how good when his new rescue dog from California got himself lost in a Wyoming whiteout.
Renner had taken the goldendoodle named Charlie out ahead of this past week’s storm to relieve himself. There was some snow on the ground at the time, but Charlie wasn’t having a thing to do with that strange, cold, white stuff on the ground.
At least not at first.
“I had taken him out to the barn, but he was staying under the overhang,” Renner said. “He wouldn’t go out to the snow.”
Advertisement
Given the dog’s reluctance, Renner decided to shovel a path from the barn to the house to make it a little easier for the pooch to get around.
While Renner was doing that, the dog finally decided maybe the snow wasn’t so bad after all.
“He kind of got the zoomies,” Renner said. “So, he was running around and went around the corner, out of sight. I had boots on, so I followed after him.”
By the time Renner turned the corner, there was no sign of Charlie.
A dog named Charlie a Wyoming couple rescued from a California shelter running off with a whiteout blizzard on the way triggered a 24-hour search. It was a miracle, Charlie’s owners believe, that a newlywed couple in the middle of nowhere found him. (Courtesy Rich and Barb Renner)
A California Dog Meets His First Wyoming Whiteout
At first, Renner wasn’t too concerned. It wasn’t the first time the dog had done a little bit of exploring around the house.
Advertisement
Normally, he came back on his own.
But this time was different. There was a huge snowstorm expected later in the day, and the forecast was for temperatures in the range of 25 degrees.
Charlie is a rescue dog fresh from California, which means the goldendoodle didn’t have much in the way of fat stored in his body. Nor was he yet acclimated to the cold.
Renner followed his dog’s tracks down to a forested edge, and there saw what had captured Charlie’s attention.
“There were deer tracks all over,” Renner said. “Boom, he was gone.”
Advertisement
Renner was at first more worried about the deer than the dog.
He’d just put an AirTag on the dog’s newly arrived collar right before they went outside that morning. The collar also had the couple’s names and phone numbers.
“An hour later, that AirTag pinged at a neighbor’s house about a half mile away,” Renner said. “So I zoomed down there on a four-wheeler and I saw tracks, but no Charlie.”
Renner roamed around on his four-wheeler for about an hour, looking for and calling for Charlie. Then he had to go to work.
“My wife, Barb, stayed home all day and worked off and on and looked for him some, too,” he said.
Advertisement
A dog named Charlie a Wyoming couple rescued from a California shelter running off with a whiteout blizzard on the way triggered a 24-hour search. It was a miracle, Charlie’s owners believe, that a newlywed couple in the middle of nowhere found him. (Courtesy Rich and Barb Renner)
A Long, Cold Night
Once Renner returned home, he and his wife did more searching until about 10:15 p.m. that night using a headlamp to see.
“I thought I’d see his eyes somewhere with that headlamp,” Renner said. “But to no avail.”
By this time, a sick feeling was growing in the pit of his stomach.
He was thinking about how the dog had chased after an animal three times his own size and how sometimes deer had charged, unafraid, at the couple’s older husky.
Maybe Charlie had been hurt. And Wyoming’s famous winter winds were picking up.
Was his California pooch stuck somewhere outside in this Wyoming whiteout, where the temperature was just getting colder and colder?
Advertisement
“It had snowed all day,” Renner said. “It was just a lot of snow.”
That snow covered the dog’s tracks, making him impossible to track.
The AirTag was proving next to useless as well, suggesting the dog had gone somewhere very rugged, some place with little to no data to transmit a signal.
Tuesday night, Renner could barely sleep thinking about Charlie, lost in this heavy snowstorm, with temperatures forecast to get into the lower 20s that night.
“Since we didn’t find him, I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, he’s not going to survive the night,’” Renner said. “I kept waking up a lot and thinking about him. Like, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s he experiencing right now? Where’s he at? Did a mountain lion get him?’”
Advertisement
The next day, Renner and his wife were both exhausted but had not lost hope they would yet find Charlie.
They were looking, their neighbors were all looking. They even hired a drone company to come look for Charlie using an infrared camera.
A dog named Charlie a Wyoming couple rescued from a California shelter running off with a whiteout blizzard on the way triggered a 24-hour search. It was a miracle, Charlie’s owners believe, that a newlywed couple in the middle of nowhere found him. (Courtesy Rich and Barb Renner)
Neighbors Rally As Storm Deepens
The Renners had been putting messages out on Facebook and social media about Charlie, asking for the community’s help to find him.
Renner was amazed at how his neighborhood sprang into action.
It seemed that everyone he knew — and even some people he didn’t know yet — were looking for his pet, who he feared was too skinny to survive another night out in the cold, much less the cold, wet snowstorm that continued into Wednesday.
“Before, I lived in Cheyenne for a lot of years, and you didn’t even hardly know your neighbors,” he said. “You maybe said ‘hi,’ to them when there’s a snowstorm and you’re shoveling your snow at the same time.
Advertisement
“But other than that, we didn’t even know our neighbors.”
Mountain Meadows, though, proved to be a different kind of friendly — the kind that doesn’t smile and wave in passing; the kind that shows up on the doorstep and asks, “How can I help?”
“There were probably six different vehicles or side by sides at different times looking for him Tuesday night,” Renner said. “And then people were passing the word on through Facebook and emails and everything.
“And just everyone was praying for him. I mean the number of prayers that went up for Charlie is just amazing.”
A Blind Date, A Snowy Hike, And A Lost Dog
While a small army of neighbors continued to search for Charlie with drones and side-by-sides, a newlywed couple the Renners had never met were on a surprise date.
Advertisement
Jada, a Laramie native, and Collin Szymanski, from Utah, are newlyweds.
Since Collin is new to Wyoming, Jada has been making a point of showing him some of her favorite places.
That day, she’d decided on a literal blind date, complete with blindfold, to one of her favorite places in Curt Gowdy State Park — Hidden Falls.
The falls are a couple miles from where the Renners live as the crow flies, and maybe 10 miles or more away in twisting, winding, dog-chasing-a-deer miles.
By the time Jada and her husband arrived at the Hidden Falls Trail, snow was picking up speed and Jada was starting to question the idea of hiking that afternoon.
Advertisement
“There was, like, snow everywhere,” Jada said. “I was like, ‘Oh man, I thought it was going to be a little less snow than this.’
“So I unblindfolded him and I was like, ‘Should we still go?’”
The couple are young and in love, so of course the answer to that question was, “Yes!”
As they hiked into the thick carpet of new snow, they soon found themselves with a new-but-stand-offish friend.
“All of a sudden we see this little dog running around,” Jada said. “We’re thinking, ‘Oh well, his owners must have decided to go on a hike in the snow, too.’”
Advertisement
A dog named Charlie a Wyoming couple rescued from a California shelter running off with a whiteout blizzard on the way triggered a 24-hour search. It was a miracle, Charlie’s owners believe, that a newlywed couple in the middle of nowhere found him. (Courtesy Rich and Barb Renner)
The Sound Of Loneliness
When they got to the end of the trail, though, there were no owners around.
That was when Charlie began to howl, a haunting, lost sound.
“You could tell he was so sad,” Jada said. “So we were trying to get to him, but he was a little scared of us.”
Once Jada managed to get close enough to see Charlie’s collar, things changed. The second she said his name, the dog immediately calmed down and came over to them.
It was remarkable, given that Charlie had only had that name for about four weeks. But it clearly meant everything to the dog to hear that one word.
These were friends, Charlie decided, because somehow they knew his name.
Advertisement
An Answer To A Prayer
By noon, with no further sight or sign of Charlie, the Renners’ hopes were dwindling.
Their property backs up to some very rugged country with deep draws and thick timber. It’s a maze of places to get lost.
It’s also a maze full of obstacles and dangers much larger than Charlie — mountain lions, deer, moose. Then there are box canyons easier to get into than out.
Their skinny California dog, chasing a deer in a full Wyoming whiteout, could easily become lost, trapped, or hurt. More and more, it seemed like that’s what had happened.
Just as they were about to give up and call it a day, Renner got a phone call from a man he didn’t know.
Advertisement
“Hey, are you guys missing a dog?” the man asked.
Relief flooded through Renner at those words as the man told him he’d just found a golden-colored dog at Hidden Falls in the box canyon.
Thanks to the collar, which had the Renners’ number on it, he’d been able to immediately call from the canyon.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Renner said, noting that calls from the canyon are usually impossible to make.
It felt like a minor miracle.
Advertisement
Charlie had spent all day and night Tuesday in a snowstorm that got down to about 25 degrees, and had somehow managed to bump into what were the only other hikers on the Hidden Falls Trail, somehow none the worse for his adventures.
Soon, Renner and his wife were headed in their cars to go pick up Charlie from the Szymanskis, meeting halfway between their home and Hidden Falls.
For Rich, who describes himself as a person of faith, all these details add up to something bigger than coincidence.
“I know that God makes things happen,” he said.
Jada felt that as well, considering how things happened.
Advertisement
“Their whole neighborhood had been looking for him,” she said. “He told us he had just been praying so hard. We felt like we got to be the answers to those prayers.”
A dog named Charlie a Wyoming couple rescued from a California shelter running off with a whiteout blizzard on the way triggered a 24-hour search. It was a miracle, Charlie’s owners believe, that a newlywed couple in the middle of nowhere found him. (Courtesy Rich and Barb Renner)
Celebrity Life On A Leash
Back home, Charlie acts as if nothing miraculous has happened at all.
“He’s happy to be home for sure,” Renner said. “He spent yesterday in the barn, and he’s in the barn today.”
But he’s not going outside any more for a while without a leash, Renner said, as he remains just a little too fascinated with Wyoming wildlife, particularly moose, which are 100 times heavier than he is.
Renner is looking into electric fences to keep Charlie and his moxie corralled so that the pooch’s future adventures won’t be quite so harrowing.
“We’re chuckling now, because he’s like a celebrity,” Renner said.
Advertisement
For all the worry and all the searching, what’s really sticking with the Renners is how his Wyoming neighbors were there when needed, crawling the snowy hills in their trucks and side-by-sides, looking for a California pooch with no idea what a Wyoming whiteout really means.
“That’s the real story,” Renner said. “It’s the community, the neighborhood, how everyone just rallied behind this to help.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
