As fires spread in Wyoming, conspiracy theories grow
As wildfires rage in Wyoming, some conspiracy theories are gathering steam despite the lack of evidence behind the claims.
The claim: All ‘major’ Wyoming wildfires are burning on ‘privately owned’ land near site of rare earth metal discovery
An Oct. 8 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows what appears to be a group of elk running through a burning field.
“WYOMING. Multiple wildfires are ongoing near Wheatland, where it’s reported that there is approximately 2.34 billion metric tons of rare earth minerals,” reads on-screen text in the clip, which includes a screenshot of a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The Instagram post also shows a video of a man speaking to the camera about the fires, saying at one point that “these major fires are all in the privately-owned sectors” of the state.
It echoes claims spread widely by former CBS News reporter Lara Logan and other users on X who suggest the fires are part of a land grab.
The Instagram post received more than 10,000 times in six days.
More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page
Our rating: False
The post is wrong on multiple fronts. The major wildfires in Wyoming are burning national forests, not private land, and they are hundreds of miles from the spot where the minerals were found.
No evidence to support land-grab conspiracy theory
Firefighters in Wyoming have been battling two massive blazes that, as of Oct. 14, have combined to burn more than 160,000 acres. The Pack River Fire, which broke out Sept. 15 with a lightning strike and then merged with another blaze, has burned in excess of 75,000 acres. Another lightning strike 12 days later started the Elk Fire, which has burned more than 85,000 acres.
Fact check: Image doesn’t show Smokehouse Creek fire, it’s an illustration from 2017
Taken together, several elements of the Instagram post promote a baseless conspiracy theory that links the fires to the February discovery of more than 2 billion metric tons of rare earth minerals in the state and suggests they are part of a land grab orchestrated by the government. But there is no credible evidence to support that claim, and a closer look at the details unravels the alleged conspiracy.
While the post does not identify the wildfires by name, it makes clear references to the Elk and Pack Trail fires. The U.S. Forest Service on Oct. 14 listed seven fires in Wyoming on its InciWeb website, and those were the only ones that both involve more than 1,000 acres and were not at least 90% contained.
“For active fires, those are the two big ones,” said Tucker Furniss, an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming and leader of the school’s fire and landscape ecology lab.
Post mischaracterizes locations of fires
The post misleads with its assertion that the fires are “near” both Wheatland, Wyoming, and the lode of minerals found in that area.
The city and the discovery site are both in the state’s southeastern corner. But the Elk Fire is more than 200 miles north-northwest of the lode near the northern border with Montana. Kristie Thompson, the forest service’s public information officer for the Elk Fire, characterized that blaze as “not near” the mining site in a conversation with USA TODAY. The Pack Trail Fire is even farther away, in western Wyoming more than 250 miles northwest of where the minerals were found.
The Instagram post also includes a TikTok video claiming, among other things, that “these major fires are all in the privately owned sectors” of the state. That’s not true. The Elk Fire is burning in Bighorn National Forest, while the Pack Trail Fire is in both the Bridger-Teton and Shoshone national forests.
The TikTok video goes on to claim the “worst of the fires” were burning in the state’s southeast corner. But that’s also false. Two of the seven fires listed on InciWeb were in the southeastern quadrant, the site of the mineral lode. But as of the date of the post, both had been 100% contained for weeks or months.
The TikTok begins with a declaration that “Wyoming’s on fire” and a separate map in the background that appears to indicate dozens of fires across the state. However, a closer look at the map – published by a nonprofit group called the Fire, Weather and Avalanche Center – shows the vast majority of those are classified as “small” at 1,000 acres or fewer and have been contained, as indicated by icons of gray flames. Only one fire in the state’s southeastern quadrant was considered large: a 1,400-acre brush fire 20 miles north-northeast of Laramie, Wyoming, and emergency officials said on Sept. 21 that it, too, had been fully contained.
Other claims in the post also don’t add up. The man in the TikTok says the fires “just so happened to get hit by lightning,” But there is no credible evidence to counter the forest service’s conclusion that lightning caused both. And that’s not an anomaly. Lightning strikes are “a common source of ignition,” Furniss said.
“We know basically every lightning strike, when and where it occurs,” he said. “When there’s a lightning strike and then a fire starts right there, that’s a pretty surefire way to know exactly what caused it.”
Even the clip of elk running near flames in the X post is misleading. It has nothing to do with Wyoming, was taken from a video shared by ABC in 2021 and shows a fire in Montana’s Big Horn County.
USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram and X user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response. The TikTok user did not address the claim in a response to USA TODAY.
Our fact-check sources:
- Tucker Furniss, Oct. 11, Phone interview with USA TODAY
- Kristie Thompson, Oct. 10, Phone interview with USA TODAY
- U.S. Forest Service, accessed Oct. 11, Incident Table (Wyoming)
- Forest Service, accessed Oct. 11, Elk Fire 2024
- Forest Service, accessed Oct. 11, Pack Trail Fire
- Forest Service, accessed Oct. 11, La Bonte Fire
- Forest Service, accessed Oct. 11, Pleasant Valley Fire
- Forest Service, Sept. 29, Daily Update Fish Creek and Pack Trail Fires
- American Rare Earths, February 2024, Technical Report of Exploration and Updated Resource Estimates of the Halleck Creek Rare Earths Project
- Google Maps, accessed Oct. 11, Wheatland, Wyoming
- Google Maps (archive), Oct. 11, 101124 Map from Halleck Creek to Elk Fire
- Google Maps (archive), Oct. 11, 101124 Map From Halleck Creek to Pack Trail Fire
- Fire, Weather and Avalanche Center, accessed Oct. 11, Fire Map
- Albany County, WY Emergency Management, Sept. 21, Facebook post
- U.S. Forest Service – Bighorn National Forest, Oct. 7, Facebook post
- ABC, Aug. 2, 2021, X post
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.
