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Top Wyoming officials OK Kelly Parcel sale to Grand Teton in 3-2 vote – WyoFile

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Top Wyoming officials OK Kelly Parcel sale to Grand Teton in 3-2 vote – WyoFile


After a tense three-hour meeting, the state of Wyoming’s top five elected officials narrowly moved forward with a purchase agreement to sell a prized 640-acre tract known as the Kelly Parcel to the federal government for addition into Grand Teton National Park.

There’s no closing date, but the contract for the $100 million land sale states that the conveyance shall be completed “at the earliest possible date.” 

Efforts to convey the section of school trust land have been ongoing for nearly 15 years. Some $62.4 million — the land’s appraised value — has been secured by the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the balance, $37.6 million, has been pledged by the Grand Teton National Park Foundation. 

The decision to move forward midday Thursday fell to the State Board of Land Commissioners: Gov. Mark Gordon, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Treasurer Curt Meier, Auditor Kristi Racines and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder.

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Degenfelder opposed the sale, favoring a land exchange that would send 100,000-plus acres of developable federal Powder River Basin land to the state.

Gray also opposed the sale. He’s often aligned with far-right members of the Wyoming Legislature who fought the sale, which was initially authorized by lawmakers as part of the budget bill during the body’s 2024 session. 

Gordon, Meier and Racines agreed to move forward with the high-profile sale. The transaction’s completion is dependent on the governor’s approval of the record of decision for the Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Resource Management Plan. 

This breaking news story will be updated.

BEFORE YOU GO If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to WyoFile. Our work is funded by readers like you who are committed to unbiased journalism that works for you, not for the algorithms.

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Wyoming

Drones and robot deployed in Wyoming County standoff; Man dead from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound

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Drones and robot deployed in Wyoming County standoff; Man dead from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound


CASTILE, N.Y. — A tense situation unfolded on South Main Street in the Village of Castile on Friday at 4 p.m. The Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a suicidal man armed with a handgun after a domestic incident.

Deputies established phone contact with the man, who confirmed he had a loaded handgun. Negotiations began, but during the process, the man left the home and fired a shot across South Main Street toward law enforcement.

A SWAT team was called to the scene, and negotiations continued for several hours. South Main Street was closed for nearly seven hours during the standoff.

After the man stopped communicating with authorities, drones were used and they found no activity inside. A robot was then sent in, where the man was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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The name of the man has not been released.



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14th annual Wyoming State Parks 'First Day Hikes' set for January 1, 2025

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14th annual Wyoming State Parks 'First Day Hikes' set for January 1, 2025


(Wyoming) – Wyoming State Parks, Trails, and the Office of Outdoor Recreation are thrilled to invite you to the 14th annual First Day Hikes event on January 1, 2025. First Day Hikes is a nationwide initiative by America’s State Parks that encourages individuals and families to explore the great outdoors. On New Year’s Day, people […]



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Wyoming governor approves $100 million sale of state land to join Grand Teton National Park

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Wyoming governor approves 0 million sale of state land to join Grand Teton National Park


CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming will sell a 1-square-mile (2.6-square-kilometer) parcel of pristine land bordering Grand Teton National Park to the U.S. government for $100 million after Gov. Mark Gordon signed off on a deal Friday that ends the state’s longstanding threats to unload it to a developer.

Under the agreement the federal government will pay the appraised value of $62.5 million for the property, while privately raised funds will supply the rest.

Carpeted by a mix of trees, shrubs and sagebrush, the rolling land has a commanding view of the iconic Teton Range and is prime habitat for animals including elk, moose and grizzly bears.

Gordon, a Republican, announced in a statement that he was approving the deal to add the land to the national park after his office ensured that a U.S. Bureau of Land Management plan for managing a vast area of southwestern Wyoming doesn’t carry too many restrictions on development including oil and gas drilling — a stipulation made by the state Legislature last winter.

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Even so, Gordon criticized the BLM’s overall plan for the arid, minerals-rich area 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Grand Teton as “the Biden administration’s parting shot” at the state.

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“I have been in contact with Wyoming’s congressional delegation and potential members of the incoming Trump Administration to fix the mess an ideological Biden administration is leaving for southwestern Wyoming,” Gordon said in the statement.

Interior Department officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

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Wyoming has owned the southeastern Jackson Hole property, bordered by Grand Teton on three sides and national forest on the fourth, since long before the national park’s establishment in 1929. It is the last and most valuable of four state-owned parcels sold to be annexed by the park in the past decade.

The federal government granted such lands to many states, particularly in the West, at statehood to help raise money for public education. Despite the location and astronomical value of the parcels, they brought in relatively little revenue for the state through grazing leases and other uses.

So over the years, governors have sought to goad federal officials into buying the lands by threatening to auction them off.

The Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners, made up of Gordon and the state’s other four top state elected officials, voted 3-2 in November to proceed with the sale after debating whether to negotiate a trade for federally owned mineral rights elsewhere in the state.

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