Wyoming
The American West: Documenting the Wagonhound
A Frenchwoman from New York came to the Wagonhound, a large ranch outside of Douglas in a snowstorm. Anouk Masson Krantz readily admits she came to Wagonhound carrying not only her cameras, but also a lack of understanding.
Wyoming’s open spaces, the seeming emptiness of the landscape, was the inspiration she sought. She knew at Wagonhound she would find “the power of nature, these amazing landscapes.”
In documenting the lives of the men and women who lived and worked there, she came to understand “all my knowledge about the cowboy around this western way of life, were all sort of misconceptions.” She said, “Once I put my foot through the door, I realized this culture wasn’t dying, but was very much still alive.”
American Indians have deep connections to the high plains of Wyoming and the lands that are now a part of the Wagonhound Land and Livestock, but for myriad reasons they no longer live and hunt there. In the 1800s thousands of people traveled across the landscape. Following Indian trails and the North Platte River were fur trappers and traders, then emigrants, and eventually homesteaders who staked claims and began raising livestock and a few crops.
The high plains roll through this region, becoming less flat, and more rugged as they butt up against the Laramie Mountain Range, with its signature Laramie Peak to the south and Casper Mountain at the northwest end of the arc.
Wagonhound Land and Livestock now encompasses more than 300,000 acres. It is a merging of homesteads carved out by people who came West seeking opportunity and land. Those original settlers filed claims of 160 acres, built cabins, grubbed sagebrush, brought in cattle, horses, and sheep.
Many of them stayed on their land for generations, expanding holdings by buying out a neighbor – or sometimes marrying the neighbor’s daughter. In this country, it is impossible to make a living on 160 acres; there isn’t enough grass for livestock so the homesteads consolidated to larger and larger properties.
By the time she arrived in Wyoming in 2021, Krantz had already learned some things about herself. An early project led to the book The Wild Horses of Cumberland Island. That work gave her “so much inspiration from disconnecting from my concrete, fast-paced competitive life in New York” that she wanted to find “magnificent untouched landscapes.”
She desired big landscapes that were also inhabited by people. “My first thought was cowboys. But that is not easy for a woman from New York and Paris,” she said. “It started with one piece of paper with one phone number of one rancher in Texas. He introduced me to his friends, and they introduced me to their friends.” This led to her second book: American Cowboy.
Then she connected with Art and Catherine Nicklas owners of the Wagonhound in Wyoming. Once again Krantz packed her cameras and headed west, this time to document not a culture of people, but a vast ranching operation.
“Most of the people around the world look at this cowboy culture with misconceptions,” Krantz said, admitting she was in that same mindset. Before spending time on ranches in Texas and Wyoming she believed among other things that the cowboy was someone of the past. “Once I put my foot through the door, (I) realized this culture wasn’t dying, but was very much still alive.”
The cowboys of the Wagonhound have a “connection with this land, freedom, independence,” she said. “These people work very hard. They work together as a community with their families, neighbors. There is so much strength coming from these people.”
While the people are a key part of her work, what really attracted her is the place itself. She says, “It’s the scale of the land, the sky, I think that is what still inspires people from around the world to connect with the American Western landscape.”
And then there is the weather. Krantz quickly learned, “One day it might be sunny, the next day it might be 60 mile an hour winds, or snow.” There are times “where you feel like your hands are going to be froze or you [will be] blown off your horse.”
The isolation of the ranch, combined with the wildlife was surprising. “I had never seen anything like that before,” Krantz said.
Her first photograph was of a long line of elk crossing the road to the ranch. “It was cold and windy. They were crossing. I was just frozen looking at something that I had never seen before and I would never see again, and most of the people around the world would never see. It was magnificent to see that it was still there…the wildlife was still there.”
Krantz experienced one of the worst storms in recent Wyoming history – the Bomb Cyclone that struck in March 2021 dumping nearly five feet of snow over a two-day period in mid-March.
Krantz arrived at the ranch just ahead of the snow that just dumped, and dumped, “and then it’s just quiet.” As soon as she could, she was out in the landscape, documenting the cowboy work, but also observing the wildlife. She watched pronghorn wallowing through snow nearly as deep as they were tall.
Krantz said in the storm “the elk were conserving energy, bundled up on the flank of the mountain. The antelope were the opposite – they were frantic. They would race right, left, right, left, using up all their energy. They didn’t know what to do.”
Watching those animals was a revelation for Krantz. As important, she saw the care the ranch hands had for the livestock while working under such challenging conditions.
“It goes back to this misconception I had, being an outsider. To me the biggest discovery was the land stewardship.” She had seen some of that in her earlier travels but really began to understand it during the two years she spent on the Wagonhound.
As she followed men and women throughout gathering, and branding, and doing their daily chores, she said, “You just learn how they run a ranch. How hard they work. How much it takes to do all this,” she said.
The stewardship involves the use of pasture rotation, which is a “wonderful way to let the earth breathe, rest. What they are doing for our earth is to me mostly unknown to most people.”
Krantz came away from her work in documenting the area realizing the men and women on the Wagonhound, “are probably some of the best stewards of the land that you can find.” She set aside some of her own misconceptions and now knows “how much they do to preserve the land for future generations.”
Spending time on the Wagonhound, gave Krantz an education in Wyoming ranching and land stewardship. The ranch owners want to do that for other people as well.
As reported earlier by Cowboy State Daily, Art and Catherine Nicklas recently donated $2.5 million to the University of Wyoming that will empower the university’s Ranch Management and Agricultural Leadership Program, fueling change and supporting future leaders in ranch management and agriculture statewide.
To see more about Krantz’ connection to the Wagonhound, pick up a copy of her book Ranchland: Wagonhound.
Candy Moulton can be reached at: Candy.L.Moulton@gmail.com
After pursuing big game animals for decades and bagging some real whoppers, Wyoming hunter Owen Miller said record-book scores “are just a number for me.”
These days, it’s more about the experience.
He’s used a rifle and modern compound bow. But he’s grown fond of his traditional recurve bow – a weapon which requires him to get within about 20 yards of his prey.
But when his friends and peers got a look at the sheer size of a cinnamon-colored black bear he killed with that bow in May, they told him that, in this case, the numbers really do matter.
“I have guys pushing me, saying, ‘Dude, you have to get that officially scored. That is a huge bear,’” he told Cowboy State Daily.
By The B&C Numbers
The Boone & Crockett (B&C) scoring system, widely considered the gold standard for hunting trophies, scores bear by skull measurements.
Going by his own, unofficial measurements, his bear’s skull comes in at 21 and 1/16 inches, B&C. That would put it at No. 8 for the all-time biggest black bear in Wyoming, he said.
At his friends’ urging, he’s considering getting the skull measured and recorded by a certified B&C scorer.
Since he shot the bear in the last week of May, the skull has nearly gone through the mandatory “drying period,” he said.
Big game animals’ antlers and skulls shrink as they dry out over the first couple of months after the kill. B&C won’t accept measurements into its official record books unless they were taken after the mandatory drying period.
So, it’s wait-and-see for Miller as to whether his bear will make the record book.
But regardless of the measuring tape’s final tale, his memories from the hunt will be the real trophy.
They Knew That Bear Was In There Somewhere
Miller lives in northeast Wyoming and likes to hunt all over the state. One area in southern Wyoming is his favorite for hunting bears and elk.
Elk hunting seasons are in the fall, while bear seasons are in the fall and spring.
Miller and his brother knew there was a huge, cinnamon-colored male black bear in the area. They and others had seen him a few times.
But he always managed to evade hunters.
Last fall, his brother hunkered down in a tree stand at their favorite bear baiting site, while Miller ventured out to bowhunt for elk.
When he got word that his brother had dropped a bear, he was certain that it was the monster they’d been looking for.
It turned out his brother had taken a different bear.
But there was the spring bear season to look forward to, and his recurve bow would be ready.
-
Owen Miller used a traditional recurve bow to kill this huge cinnamon-colored black bear in southern Wyoming. It’s in the running to be one of the biggest bears ever taken in the state. (Courtesy Owen Miller) -
Wyoming Bowhunter Owen Miller likes getting back to the basics, including using a traditional recurve bow, and arrows with two-edged hunting broadheads. (Courtesy Owen Miller) -
Wyoming bowhunter Owen Miller uses nearly every part of the black bears he hunts. That includes the rendered fat, which he uses for cooking oil and to waterproof leather footwear. (Courtesy Owen Miller)
‘It Gives Me A Headache’
Miller said he became interested in hunting with a recurve bow several years ago, and finally bought one from a friend.
When it was time to practice, he shot the bow nearly every day.
Unlike more modern bows, the recurve doesn’t have sights. It also doesn’t have a compound bow’s pully system, which allows an archer to hold the string back in the ready-to-shoot position for an extended period.
“It’s very traditional. No sights, everything is on instinct. There’s no holding the string back, you have to draw and shoot in one motion. You have to practice a lot,” Miller said.
He’s also picky about the arrows he uses. Many modern arrows have four or more cutting blades.
“It gives me a headache looking at that. It doesn’t look traditional,” Miller said.
Instead, he opts for traditionally triangle-shaped broadheads with two cutting edges.
Gradually, he gained enough confidence in his accuracy with the recurve bow to take it out hunting.
“It took me probably two years before I was comfortable hunting with the recurve. When I’m hunting, my motto is, I want to kill something, I don’t want to wound it,” he said.
He missed a turkey with the recurve bow, but scored good, fatal hits on mule deer, whitetail deer and a couple of black bears.
So, heading out to hunt this spring he felt confident that if he got a clear shot at the huge cinnamon bear, he’d bring it down quickly.
‘Just That Alone Was An Adventure’
Toward the end of May, Miller had a wedding to attend in the same general area as his bear hunting spot.
While he was busy with the wedding, bears came in and gobbled up all the bait before he could get out hunting.
As soon as he could, he resupplied the bait and decided to spend the day in his tree stand.
He wasn’t expecting much to happen. It usually takes bears at least a few days to start coming back to a bait site once it’s been disturbed.
At about 3 p.m., he spotted some movement and wondered if it was the bear he’d been waiting for.
“I realized, ‘That’s not a bear,’ so I got my camera ready. And here comes this huge freaking mountain lion. This thing came right under me, it was sniffing the ladder on my tree stand, but it never looked up,” he said.
The mountain lion kept going, eventually disappearing back into the timber.
“Just that alone was an adventure,” Miller said.
‘I Just Drew Back And Let Him Have It’
Miller figured that the encounter with the mountain lion was enough to have made the trip worthwhile, even if he didn’t see any bears.
But he decided to stay in his tree stand until dark, just in case.
At about 7 p.m. a bear finally showed up, and it was clear right off the bat that it was the cinnamon monster.
“He must have decided that there wasn’t any threat or danger,” Miller said. “He was just sitting there, rubbing his neck on a pine tree.”
Staying as still and as quiet as possible, Miller waited for the bear to get closer and offer a clear broadside shot.
Finally the moment came.
“He just turned his head, and his beady eyes were looking right up at me, so I just drew back and let him have it,” Miller said.
The shot was nearly perfect, right through both of the bear’s lungs, a quick and fatal blow.
A Bounty Of Meat And Fat
The bear probably weighed well over 400 pounds. As darkness fell, Miller set about skinning and processing the huge carcass.
“It was 1:30 in the morning before I got the first load back out to the truck,” he said.
Under Wyoming hunting regulations, black bears are classified as a trophy game species. That means hunters aren’t required to keep the meat.
Miller doesn’t agree with that. He thinks bear meat is delicious, and doesn’t see the sense in letting it go to waste.
It makes for great sausages, burgers and steaks, he said.
“It’s high in fat, so you don’t want to eat it frequently,” he said.
He also kept the fat from the bear, which he rendered down into an oil. It makes for great cooking oil and can also be used to waterproof leather footwear.
As for his next hunting adventure, Miller would like to sneak to within 20 yards of huge bull elk and take it down with his recurve.
“It’s about the challenge,” he said. “I’ve shot so many animals with the compound bow and the rifle. I still use those sometimes, but I’m having so more fun with the recurve,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
The top players in Wyoming American Legion Baseball’s Single-A level have been selected. These are the all-state accolades for the 2024 season. The voting was done by the 17 head coaches around the state. Ten players received a repeat first-team honor. Powell’s Brock Johnson joined some elite company and earned his fifth all-state award this year. Two more players, Carlos Rodriguez of Lovell and Trey Stenerson of Powell received their fourth all-state award.
WYOMING AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL CLASS A ALL-STATE PLAYERS 2024
Here is how the All-State voting turned out. Previous Single-A all-state awards are listed next to a player.
1ST TEAM: (players are listed alphabetically, first by the team, then by their last name)
Jace Lijewski – Casper Drillers
Brandon Nowakowski – Casper Drillers
Jace Jarrett – Cody Cubs (First Team in 2023)
Dominic Phillips – Cody Cubs (First Team in 2023, Second Team in 2022)
Trey Schroeder – Cody Cubs (First Team in 2022 & 2023)
Trey Thomasson – Cody Cubs (First Team in 2023, Second Team in 2022)
Lane Kejr – Douglas Cats (First Team in 2023)
Gavin Oliver – Evanston Outlaws
Carmine Newman – Gillette Rustlers
Lafe Files – Lovell Mustangs (Second Team in 2023)
Tucker Jackson – Lovell Mustangs (First Team in 2023)
Carlos Rodriguez – Lovell Mustangs (4X First Team: 2021-2024)
Brock Johnson – Powell Pioneers (4X First Team: 2021-2024; Second Team in 2020)
Cade Queen – Powell Pioneers (First Team in 2023, Second Team in 2022)
Trey Stenerson – Powell Pioneers (First Team in 2022 & 2023, Second Team in 2021)
Ty Martin – Riverton Raiders
Mac Hibben – Torrington Tigers (Second Team in 2023)
Drew Kramer – Torrington Tigers
2ND TEAM:
Evan Martinez – Casper Drillers
Landon Speiser – Casper Drillers (Second Team in 2023)
Nolan Gorman – Cheyenne Eagles
Teigen Boyson – Douglas Cats
Kash Lenzen – Douglas Cats
Caeden Robertson – Douglas Cats
Ryder Wilson – Evanston Outlaws
Walker Wilson – Evanston Outlaws (Second Team in 2023)
Caisen Schilling – Gillette Rustlers
Ben Lail Jr. – Green River Knights (Second Team in 2023)
Skyler Lee – Green River Knights
Alex Hedges – Lovell Mustangs (Second Team in 2022 & 2023)
Jhett Schwahn – Powell Pioneers (First Team in 2023, Second Team in 2022)
Beau Anderson – Riverton Raiders
Gunnar Lamb – Sheridan Jets
Ayden Desmond – Torrington Tigers (First Team in 2023, Second Team in 2022)
Nolan Schaffner – Wheatland Lobos (Second Team in 2023)
SPECIAL AWARDS
A Player of the Year = Brock Johnson, Powell Pioneers
A Pitcher of the Year = Brock Johnson, Powell Pioneers
A Manager of the Year = Michael Jameson, Lovell Mustangs
A State Tournament MVP = Trey Stenerson, Powell Pioneers
Wyo.High School Sports Pics of the Week July 31-Aug 3
Wyo. High School Sports Pics of the Week July 31-Aug 3
Gallery Credit: Greg Wise, Frank Gambino, David Settle, MaryRose Aragon
Today’s Wyoming sunrise was captured by Bomber Bryan in Daniel. Bomber writes, “From the Circle B in Daniel, Wyoming. Overlooking the Green River.”
To submit your Wyoming sunrise, email us at: News@CowboyStateDaily.com
NOTE: Please send us the highest-quality version of your photo. The larger the file, the better.
NOTE #2: Please include where you are from and where the photo was taken.
NOTE #3: Tell us about your sunrise. What do you like about it?
Historic B.C. water bomber completes its final flight | CBC News
Pedestrian killed on rural road in Bingham County – East Idaho News
Illinois school worker Vera Liddell gets 9-years for $1.5 million chicken wing heist
Ex-Indiana Pacers and Mad Ants wing Pedro Bradshaw signs in Australia
Iowa Libertarian candidate for Congress ready to fight ballot access objection
See it: Tesla crashes into Columbus convention center at 70 mph
Colorado Rockies game no. 116 thread: Zac Gallen vs José Ureña
Fox News Politics: Georgia the whole day through
Death of missing Oregon girl found in stream ruled homicide
At least 2 dead as tornadoes hit Alabama, damage homes across Southeast
Biden to hit campaign trail for Harris in Pennsylvania
Olympics: Paris hands over to Los Angeles in dazzling closing ceremony
Some Uvalde police officers failed to record body camera footage while responding to Robb Elementary, texts reveal
Minnesota murder stats rose under Walz's leadership as he tries to tie violent crime trend to Trump: data
In first interview since dropping out, Biden says Trump danger to US
-
News1 week agoVideo: Biden and Harris Greet Americans Released From Russia
-
Politics1 week agoHouse Freedom Caucus chair ousted by Trump-backed challenger in Republican primary showdown
-
Movie Reviews1 week agoIt Ends With Us Movie Reviews: Strong First Reactions Get Shared Online
-
News1 week agoKamala Harris raises more than double the donations of Donald Trump
-
Politics1 week agoWatchdog claims victory over Pentagon animal testing as lawmakers demand accounting of taxpayer funds
-
Politics1 week agoBarack Obama's political career kicked off in the Illinois State Senate, evolved into a two-term presidency
-
Politics1 week agoGeorgia activist steals the show after being introduced by Trump at Atlanta rally: 'Incredible'
-
Politics1 week ago'F— the White women': Black activists tied to VP Harris could derail Dem 'unity' message with past rhetoric