Wyoming

What Is That Weird Boulder Dug Up On Historic Wyoming Ranch?

Published

1 year ago

December 22, 2024

What Is That Weird Boulder Dug Up On Historic Wyoming Ranch?

In a trench meant for a sewer line, a Wyoming ranch family found a massive, nearly spherical boulder that was so out of place, it left them bursting with questions.

Scott Coale and his son William, 18, were digging a trench recently on the Hogg Ranch near Meeteetse, a historic homestead that had been in Scott’s family for over 100 years.

A stubborn and unexpected obstacle blocked the ditch they were digging, interrupting their work.

They found they’d struck a huge boulder that by all appearances, shouldn’t have been there.

“We’d been in putting in a sewer line to a cabin,” Scott said. “There’s no rocks here at all. We were having smooth sailing, and then, all of a sudden, the backhoe struggles.”

William got out of the skid steer he was using to backfill and was surprised by what he found.

The Discovery

“I asked him how big it was because it was in the middle of our ditch to run the sewer line,” Scott said. “He tells me that it is as big as the side-by-side. At first, we’re just kind of joking, but then I realize I don’t know if I can get it out.”

Scott called a friend with a backhoe and they tackled the boulder.

“I had some daylight left and got on the side of it and started digging,” he said. “Next thing I know, I got it out the hole with the backhoe. It was this big old round rock. It just amazed us that it was so perfectly round.”

They set the rock to the side and resumed their chores, although distracted as they tried to figure out what they had found. The boulder is about 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide.

“It’s just weird,” Scott said. “The geology of Wyoming is a great thing. You never know what you’re going to find.”

The family was especially surprised to find the giant boulder because the area it was unearthed in is devoid of rocks.

“I’ve never personally seen anything like that,” William said. “We were just digging and then bam, there is this big old boulder in the ground that’s not normally shaped.”

What On Earth Had They Found?

Unsure of what they had unearthed, Scott’s wife Diane posted the find on the Facebook page Wyoming Rockhounder. She asked if they should try to open it and see what was inside.

There was much debate, but the consensus from other rock enthusiasts was that it’s a sandstone concretion.

“I thought it was interesting that people commented about maybe it was a geode or what might be in it,” Diane said. “So, we did a little bit of research and the geodes are found in limestone rather than sandstone.

“The likelihood of us cutting it up and finding a geode is probably pretty minimal, so we kind of want to leave it the way it is.”

That is a good idea, said geologist and owner of Ava’s Silver and Rock Shop in Thermopolis.

Ava Cole has more than 50 years of experience in the field and is familiar with this type of rock.

“There’s quite a few places around Wyoming that have them,” Cole said. “Sometimes there are iron stains in the middle of them, but they’re not worth cutting into — unless you want to sharpen your blade.”

Just A Rock

Concretions are commonly misunderstood geologic structures, according to the Paleontological Research Institution.

Often mistaken for fossil eggs, turtle shells or bones, they are not fossils. They’re rocks. This common geologic phenomenon occurs in almost all types of sedimentary rock, including sandstones, shales, siltstones and limestones.

There may be fossils surrounding the concretions if it’s in shale but not inside the rock itself.

“The concretions that you find in the shale may have fossils in the shale or crystals,” Cole said. “The concretions themselves are just sandstone. There are no fossils in them. The fossils are not in the sandstone layers, they’re in the shale layers.”

These concretions form inside sediments before they harden into rocks in continuous layers around a nucleus such as a shell or pebble.

Rates of this formation vary, but can sometimes be relatively rapid over as short a period as months to years, the Paleontological Research Institution reports.

“There’s a void in the ground,” Cole said. “It’s like a magnetism to them that attracts different minerals until the sand forms tightly around them. There’s some kind of quartz in it, too. It’s microscopic, but they’re not hollow or anything like that. Not like a geode.”

An other-worldly-looking boulder was unearthed in an area known as Death Valley on the Hogg Ranch near Meeteetse, Wyoming. (Courtesy Diane Cole)
An other-worldly-looking boulder was unearthed in an area known as Death Valley on the Hogg Ranch near Meeteetse, Wyoming. (Courtesy Diane Cole)
An other-worldly-looking boulder was unearthed in an area known as Death Valley on the Hogg Ranch near Meeteetse, Wyoming. (Courtesy Diane Cole)

What Do You Do With It?

“I’ve collected them before and sold them, but don’t get much money out of them,” Cole said. “Even if the family wanted to, they probably couldn’t get anybody to cut it because it is a pretty good-sized rock and you’d have to have a big diamond saw to cut it.

“Anything that big [when] you cut it open, it would be futile because what’s on the outside is mostly on the inside.”

Her suggestion is to let it just sit around in the yard – since it’s always nice to have a round circle rock hanging around.

That is exactly what the Coales plan to do.

“It’s going to be a yard ornament,” Scott said. “I want to be able to showcase it in our front yard. I think it’s cool.”

Collecting Your Own Yard Ornament

These concretions are found throughout the Cowboy State and can be collected even on BLM land.

“A lot of people pick them up,” Cole said. “Between Worland and Ten Sleep, on Rattlesnake Ridge, there’s a whole bunch of them, all different sizes and shapes since they’re not always round. They can be like a peanut or anything like that.”

The Coale family are already avid rockhounds. They have interesting formations on their property that they explore and one area on the historic ranch is dubbed Death Valley because, according to William, it looks like the badlands.

That was why they were even more surprised to find this rock in an area where they normally would not be looking.

“I’m the rock person in the family,” Diane said. “We’d always go find petrified wood and stuff ever since I was a kid but I’m pretty excited about this rock.”

This plain, nearly perfectly round boulder has been added to their family collection as the centerpiece.

Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.

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Wyoming

(PHOTOS) Casper Holistic Expo packs the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds

Published

3 hours ago

March 28, 2026

Press Room

(PHOTOS) Casper Holistic Expo packs the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds

CASPER, Wyo. — There was magic, or something like it, in the air on Saturday as the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds presented the 2026 Casper Holistic Expo, Casper’s longest running holistic expo and a hallmark of the beginning of spring in Natrona County.

Countless vendors from Casper and beyond gathered with their goodies to present them to eager customers searching for something a little different.

The holistic expo featured crystal and metaphysical shops, tattoo and body piercing studios, henna and glitter tattoo studios, holistic shops, tarot readings, fortune tellers, magic and so much more. There was truly something for everyone, and Christina Kuhn, the lead organizer, said that nobody who came to the expo would leave disappointed.

“This actually started over 20 years ago,” Kuhn said. “I’ve been doing it for years. My mom did it for seven years before me. And Judy Ick, who actually does our photography, she did it before that. So it’s been a very long, very longstanding and growing event.”

Kuhn said that the Holistic Expo has grown exponentially over the years.

“When Judy passed it down to mom, there were 38 booths,” she said. “After mom passed it down to me, there were 78. Now I think we’re up to, like, 98.”

The booths are as eclectic as the people who run them. There’s magic, mysticism and moonlight; storytellers and palm readers; conversationalists and creators. There are CBD products, organic teas, energy testing, and even fudge.

“Some of this is kind of a special niche,” Kuhn shared, “but some of it is not. We’ve got a chiropractor. We’ve got people that are working with healing modalities. Some of it’s spiritual stuff. We’ve got crafts, too.”

There’s a wide variety of vendors and customers as the Holistic Expo, and Kuhn said she wouldn’t want it any other way. The most important thing they do, Kuhn said, is donate to local nonprofits.

“People can either pay the $5 door fee — anybody that’s 13 or over — or they can donate five nonperishable goods,” Kuhn said. “We started donating that to poverty resistance, and then we did City Park Church. This year we’re donating to the Wyoming Food for Thought Project.”

Kuhn said this was just a simple way to give back to the community, a community she and her business have been a part of for years. Kuhn owns a store in downtown Casper called A Place for Passion, and the Holistic Expo also allows her to bring some merch from her store and put in on display with a variety of other items. It’s a fun way to spend a weekend, she said, and she’s proud to be a part of it.

“Good lord, I’ve been doing this for a long time,” she said. “I helped my mom with it for ages and she wanted somebody that would carry on and keep expanding and doing well with it. Before I was helping run the show and managing it, I was a booth. I started sharing a booth with my mom because I only had a few things and I wasn’t sure how well they’d sell. But then it just expanded and took off, and now here I am.”

Kuhn said it means a lot that she’s able to continue the Holistic Expo for her mother.

“It’s nice to keep expanding something, especially something that contributes so much to the community,” she said. “There are so many people that come out and enjoy everything that they get here. And it’s a big opportunity for them to connect with others, to connect with people that have stuff they want to offer them.”

That, Kuhn said, is her favorite part of the Holistic Expo — meeting people.

“It’s just nice connecting with people and helping them out in any way that you can,” she said. “Everybody’s got their own knowledge, gifts, products that they’re putting out — services, whatever it is. So being able to share that with others is awesome. You’ve got to come check it out. It’s an awesome experience. There’s a little something for everyone.”

The Casper Holistic Expo is happening Saturday until 6 p.m. and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Industrial Building at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds.

Photos from the Holistic Expo can be seen below:

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Wyoming

Wyoming teen discovers rare and ancient megalodon shark tooth off Florida coast

Published

15 hours ago

March 28, 2026

Press Room

Wyoming teen discovers rare and ancient megalodon shark tooth off Florida coast

A 6-inch megalodon shark tooth was found by a Wyoming teen during a dive trip off Manasota Key, Florida earlier this week.

Sixteen-year-old Aiden Andrews and his father Brian were on a guided dive with Fossil Junkies, a local fossil-hunting tour company.

Captain John Kreatsoulas told FOX 13 Tampa Bay reporter Kimberly Kuizon that while finding small megalodon teeth isn’t uncommon, finding one that size is quite rare.

Video captured the moments when Aiden and his father celebrated underwater after making the remarkable discovery.

Popularized by Hollywood monster movies, the Carcharocles megalodon was the largest shark to have ever lived, according to the Smithsonian Institution.

A 6-inch megalodon shark tooth was found by a Wyoming teen during a dive trip off Manasota Key, Florida. Fossil Junkies

Diver wearing an orange mask holding a large fossilized shark tooth. — Aiden Andrews, 16, celebrated with his father after making the remarkable discovery. Fossil Junkies

Scientists believe the largest megalodon reached up to 60 feet in length and weighed up to 50 tons.

And as Andrews can attest — they possessed teeth the size of a human hand.

According to the Smithsonian, megalodon lived between 23 and 3.6 million years ago across all of Earth’s oceans.

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Wyoming

Outdoor Fun Awaits At Local Parks With Izaak Walton League’s Hiking Series From April To September

Published

1 day ago

March 27, 2026

Press Room

Outdoor Fun Awaits At Local Parks With Izaak Walton League’s Hiking Series From April To September

Hiking can be an activity that you enjoy doing on your own, but sometimes you need a little extra inspiration, and a group hike is exactly what you need. If you’re looking for a group to explore the outdoors with, the Charles E. Piersall chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America hiking group may be what you’re looking for.

The mission of the IWLA:

To engage the community in the conservation, restoration, and promotion of environmental protection, we focus on the sustainable use and enjoyment of our natural resources, including soil, air, woods, waters, and wildlife. This commitment is essential for a sustainable future, and activities like hiking help foster a connection with nature

The group is open to all ages, and even your pup can join in on the fun if they’re on a leash. There is a series of hikes planned beginning on April 1. Nope, this isn’t a prank; it is a real chance to meet other outdoor lovers and take in some of the area’s best hiking trails. The hikes are scheduled on the odd Wednesdays from April to September, weather permitting.

Join us to connect with others who appreciate the beauty of outdoor hiking and environmental advocacy hiking. Remember to bring drinking water, snacks, good walking shoes or boots, and a jacket. A walking stick or hiking poles can also be helpful.

Here are the hikes they have planned for this summer.

April 2026

Wednesday, April 1, 6 pm, Morad Park to Paradise Valley:
Wednesday, April 15, 6 pm, Edness K. Wilkins State Park:
Wednesday, April 29, 6 pm, Tate Pumphouse, Golf Course loop:

May 2026

June 2026

July 2026

Wednesday, July 1, 6 pm, Muddy Mountain, North Face:
Wednesday, July 15, 6 pm, Muddy Mountain, Beaver Ponds:
Wednesday, July 29, 6 pm, Casper Mountain, Biathlon:

August 2026

September 2026

16 Types Of Hikes Explained

7 Trails To Hike In Central Wyoming

There’s no doubt about it, the entire state of Wyoming is covered in amazing hiking trails. If you’re visiting central Wyoming here are 7 trails that you should check out. I’ve organized them from easier to harder, ending with Laramie Peak.

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