From 1989 to 1994, I was a member of the Wyoming Travel Commission. Gov. Mike Sullivan appointed me to the post. I was chairman of that wonderful entity in 1992-1993.

The Director of Tourism was a wonderful man named Gene Bryan, a true legend in the travel business here in Wyoming. His life is full of great Wyoming stories. He even recently wrote a detailed book about the history of tourism marketing for the state.

But that’s another story for another time.

During my time on the Travel Commission, there was a bright young guy in Cheyenne who handled international travel for the Commission. It was the now famous author CJ Box. Coincidentally 28 years later, he is now vice-chairman of the state’s current version of the Travel Commission.

But that’s another story for another time.

Box and I formed a company to promote international travel as a result of that, which was called Rocky Mountain International.  Around 1997, I sold my interest to my partner, CJ Box.

I had founded it  in the early 1990s and well, we did some amazing things. Box did some even more amazing things after I sold him my interest.

But that’s another story for another time.

I took the money from the sale of my interest and bought a newspaper in Maui.  Wow, was this going to be fun!

My wife Nancy and I loved going to Hawaii and we thought a Wyoming-Hawaii connection could be just about the best thing ever.

The editor of our Maui newspaper was a part-time protestant minister named Ron Winckler.

Our adventures in the People’s Republic of Hawaii, were, well, partly good and mainly bad.

But that’s another story for another time.

Ron is a friend of mine on Facebook. He just posted the most amazing item, which I would like to repeat here:

“So, this is about is my mother-in-law, Charlotte. She`s 95, having been born in 1924.

“We were talking a couple of days ago. I asked about her childhood in San Diego. She brought up a man that used to come to her mother`s diner. She remembered his name, ‘Daddy’ Hayes and his age, almost 100-years-old.

"Daddy Hayes drove a horse-drawn wagon and collected scrap. He was born into slavery. Daddy Hayes, also told her that as a young adult, he had been present at President Abraham Lincoln`s Gettysburg Address in 1863.

“In 2019 I was talking on the phone with a woman who once talked with a former slave who actually heard Lincoln speak!

“Beyond amazing!”

Now that’s another story I can read about any time.

Amen, Brother.

* * *

How many old-timers are there in Wyoming these days?

When I wrote a column some 18 months ago about the oldest people in Wyoming, we had folks ranging from 104 to 107 all over the state. Today, we are not sure if there is anyone over 102?

If you know of someone over 100, please let me know at bsniffin@wyoming.com.  I would like to include them in a future column.

Wyoming’s second four–year college had an exciting weekend recently when it welcomed 54 new freshmen back to ground level after they spent three weeks bonding in the towering nearby mountains.

Wyoming Catholic College, entering its 15th year of existence since its incorporation in 2005, welcomed its 13th freshmen class during convocation and matriculation ceremonies Aug. 25-26.

The Catholic school is unusual in many ways. One of the most distinctive is its outdoor program.  Each fall, all the incoming freshmen go on a 21-day wilderness expedition in the mountains.  This year the freshman women went into the Wind River Mountains near Lander and the men traveled into the Teton Mountain Range outside of Jackson.

Another unusual aspect is that all the students take the same liberal arts-based curriculum through their four years at WCC.  The program is based on the Great Books and on Catholic Theology.

A third unique aspect of the college is its horsemanship program. All students are required to learn to ride and it is an integral part of their learning.

The student body now has 179 students who come from all over the USA.  Enrollment should surpass 200 students within a few years with an ultimate goal of no more than 400.

There are 19 members of the faculty with Dr. Kyle Washut of Casper the acting dean. The school contributes about $4 million a year to the Lander area economy, according to Paul McCown, the controller.

The school uses buildings all over Lander for its housing and activities. Main location is in downtown Lander where it leases three large two-story buildings.  It also uses a classroom building that formerly housed students of Central Wyoming College. A former Legion Hall has been re-named Frassati Hall, and serves as a dining room and student union.

Most religious activities are at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, but the College also has its own small chapel inside the Baldwin Building at 306 Main Street.

The idea of a four-year Catholic college in Wyoming was first conceived by former Wyoming Bishop David Ricken, now of Green Bay, WI.  He mentioned the idea during a summer program on Casper Mountain in the early 2000s called the Wyoming School of Catholic Thought.

Bishop Ricken was joined by Casper College professor Dr. Robert Carlson and Casper priest Fr. Bob Cook in figuring out how to bring the school to reality.

They, along with a committee that included Ray Hunkins of Cheyenne, entertained 49 different statewide proposals for where to locate the college before settling on Lander, Wheatland, and Cody. The final choice was Lander, partially because a ranch was donated to the effort by Francine Mortenson, in memory of her late husband Chris.  Chris Mortenson had been a prominent real estate developer in San Diego and had purchased their Lander ranch from Johnny and Jeanne Lee some years earlier.

The Lander community also raised $300,000 in donations, which a group called the Cornerstone Committee gave to the school with no strings attached. The local Knights of Columbus donated $100,000 of that total.

In 2007, the school had hired a small faculty and enrolled its first class of 35 students. It took just two years from its first public mention to when students were taking classes. On May 14, 2011, history was made when 30 of those original students received the first diplomas from Wyoming Catholic College.  Wyoming could honestly say it now had two four-year college campus programs.

Folks at the college are not shy about referring to some amazing coincidences (miracles?) or at least, answered prayers, which have occurred along its amazing journey to reality.

The school does not participate in any federal student loan programs and refuses to be beholden to anything from the federal government. It survives on student tuition and a large national base of donors. Without any alumni or even an established donor base to draw upon, the college succeeded because of thousands of people believing in the need for such an institution.

By 2011, with the help of millions of dollars in donations from more than 10,000 families across the country, the college achieved its goal of providing graduates with a high-quality education.

Fr. Cook, the first president of the college, liked to point out that although the first name of the college is Wyoming, it was truly a national college with students from 37 different states by 2011.

Although just about everything involving WCC is conservative in nature, what it provides for its students is a “liberal, classical education” based on the Great Books.

Current president Dr. Glenn Arbery says that all students take the same courses. “Our mission is to form the whole person, physically, mentally, and spiritually. We want our students to take away as much as they can carry of the great wealth of the tradition of Western civilization. We need young people confident in their faith and capable of independent thought, and we know that each of them will have the ability to think clearly and to speak effectively. They will be leaders out in the greater world,” he says.

The college received its full accreditation last fall. 

From Day One, perhaps the most interesting things about the college, among many unique aspects, has been the outdoor leadership program.

WCC originally teamed up with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in Lander to provide an outdoor education course for incoming freshmen that educates them on the outdoors, teaches them leadership plus bonds them together as they continue their studies for four years.  In recent years, the school had enough faculty and graduates that it now provides its own leaders for these expeditions.

It is easy to write a column about the nuts and bolts of the college but the key thing anyone discovers when involved with WCC is the quality of the students.

My wife Nancy and I know these are the finest young people.  Incredibly smart and pure of heart, they are almost impossibly optimistic.  When you deal with these future leaders, you know the future is in good hands.

As a disclaimer I should point out that I was on the original local committee that helped get the college started.

This is a true Wyoming success story.  This is the story of how a miracle can occur out on the frontier, even in pessimistic times.

President Arbery reminds that the college is always looking for donors and this would be a wonderful time to give.  The college web site is www.wyomingcatholic.edu and its mailing address is Box 750, Lander WY 82520.

In the next few weeks, thousands a little children in Wyoming will be marching off to school.  Especially for those parents of kindergartners, it is a poignant time.  It sure was for me back in 1976 when our daughter Amber marched off to her first day of school.

Here is a column that I wrote about how I felt about that event. The column won a national award and was originally published in our newspaper, the Wyoming State Journal in Lander. It was included in my first book, The Best Part of America, which was published in 1993. Here is the column. I hope you like it:

 It’s been five years of diapers, dollhouses, skinned knees, pony tails, Barbie dolls, tricycles, sparklers, double-runner ice skates, Big Wheels, kittens, and hamsters.

Today, I’m sending our youngest child out into the great unknown. She will leave our nest and find out there’s much more to life than just that which she has learned from her folks.

For five years now, she’s believed that anything I told her was true. That all facts emanate from Dad. I’ve been her hero as her life has revolved around her mother, two older sisters, and me.

Now it is somebody else’s turn. Today, we trust an unknown teacher to do what is right for this little girl. This five-year-old, who is so precious to us, yet is just like any of thousands of other little five-year-olds here in the Cowboy State.

I suppose there are scores of other little girls with blond hair and blue eyes right here in Lander.

But, please, I’d like you to take a little extra care with this one.

You see, this is our baby. This is the one I call “pookie” when she’s good and “silly nut” when she’s bad. This is the last of my girls to still always want a piggyback ride.

And, this little girl still can’t ride a bike. And she stubs her toe and trips while walking in sagebrush. She’s afraid of the dark and she doesn’t like being alone.

She’s quite shy. But she is a friendly little girl, too. She’s smart, I think. And she wouldn’t hurt a flea.

I’ll tell you what kind of kid this is.

Twice in the past month, she’s come crying because the cat had killed a chipmunk. She buried both chipmunks, side-by-side. She made little crosses for them too.

This is the child with quite an imagination.  For example, she calls the stars “dots.”  And once when we were watering the yard, she assumed we were washing the grass.

She told us that telephone lines were put there so birds would have a place to sit.

She’s just five years old.  I’m trusting her care in someone else’s hands and I’m judging that they will be careful with her. She’s a fragile thing in some ways and in other ways, she’s tough as nails.

She’s not happy unless her hair is combed just right and she might change her clothes five times a day. She likes perfume, too.

She also likes to play with toy race cars and Tonka Trucks.

This is the one who always called pine trees “pineapple” trees. And when we visited our old home state of Iowa and she saw the huge fields of corn, she said “what big gardens they have here.”

And like thousands of other little girls here in Wyoming she’s marching off to her first day of school this week.

I know how those other parents feel.

There is tightness in their chests. Their world seems a little emptier. The days are a little longer.

And when our little girl comes home, waving papers and laughing about the great time she had at school . . . when she tells us about the stars and pine trees . . . and how the farmers raise crops, well . . . she’ll have grown up a little bit, already.

And I’ll have grown a little older, too.

While a lot of media attention is focused on next year’s race for Wyoming’s open U. S. Senate seat, the real action might occur for the Cowboy State’s lone House seat.

Most pundits believe that current Rep. Liz Cheney will seek that U. S. Senate seat against already announced Cynthia Lummis and a host of others, including possibly GOP mega-donor Foster Friess.

It might be wishful thinking, but a lot of Republican leaders are sure hoping that Liz stays in the House.  Jean Haugen of Lander was excited that if Lummis and Cheney both win, the Equality State would have two women in its three-member delegation.  That would be worth bragging about, she exclaimed.

Personally, I believe the even bigger prize that Liz Cheney wants is to be the country’s first female president.  Now that is an aspiration. And don’t count her out.

But first, everybody has to get by this next campaign.

The topic of this column is a potential future House Race like none we have ever seen before. If Liz jumps . . . and that is a big IF, then we will see one heckuva donnybrook in the race for her House seat.

The names I am hearing are some familiar ones and some not so well known.

For example, Cheyenne Attorney Darin Smith ran before and really got to know the state again last summer when he was Foster Friess’s campaign manager.

Another guy, who was referred to as “Bush’s banker guy,” out of Jackson, is heavy hitter Bob Grady.  He has a big resume nationally and although not known statewide, he is very well known among the state’s bigwigs. Economist and expert on just about everything, Jonathan Schechter, of Jackson, says Grady “is all in.”

Up in Park County, GOP worker Geri Hockhalter says she keeps hearing good things about current Supt. of Public Instruction Jillian Balow as an ideal replacement for Liz in the House.

Republican go-getter John Brown of Lander mentioned a lot of the same candidates but also said: “Hell, Frank Eathorne (current state GOP chairman) might even throw in his hat . . .”

Several of my sources mentioned the ubiquitous Jon Downing, who had headed up the Contractors Association, the Mining Association, and the Liberty Group. Most recently he has been working for Vice President Mike Pence.

Another candidate who ran before is Tim Stubson of Casper. His name came up a lot, along with Cheyenne legislator Affie Ellis. Rep. Chuck Gray (R-Casper) is also a possibility.

State Rep. Tyler Lindholm (R-Sundance) sure has been looking a lot like a candidate lately, based on his Facebook postings and penchant to get into the news. Check out his spiel on gun control on the Cowboy State Daily.  One of the best explanations I’ve heard.

Former legislator Randall Luthi recently moved back to Wyoming to work in state government.  Was this a way to get back into the action so he could run?

Former State Sen. Jayne Mockler of Cheyenne is impressed by State Rep. Tara Nethercott. “Brilliant, competent young woman,” she says.

Two names from last year’s GOP primary came up, Harriet Hageman and Sam Galeotos of Cheyenne.  Consensus was that Harriet might do it, Sam probably not.

Several of my sources mentioned political operative Bill Novotny of Buffalo. He certainly knows how to run a campaign and has incredible knowledge of who’s who in each county.

Novotny, though, sent me this: “Hope all is well in Lander.  I understand you are sniffing around for a story on the U.S. House race.  Here are three folks you shouldn`t overlook:

“Majority Floor Leader Eric Barlow.  He has the conservative bona fides and the legislative skills to make a real argument for the job.  Won a contested race for leadership against a conservative darling while maintaining his libertarian leanings.  

“Superintendent Jillian Balow.  Track record of winning in contested primary and general election races.  Scared everyone out of the field on her reelection.  Popular, tenacious, and has the ability to clean up messes.

 “Rep. Cyrus Western.  Intelligent, hardworking, and ability to deliver on campaign promises.  Lots of new legislators haven`t passed a bill. He passed the Dayton-Ranchester gas line bill on his first try.  Don`t count him out.

On the Democrat side, the expectation is that frequent candidate Gary Trauner of Jackson will run for either the Senate or the House.

Last year’s governor candidate Mary Throne was also mentioned by a number of people. Although she lost to Mark Gordon in the general election, she made a lot of friends on both sides of the aisle during her campaign. She was recently appointed to the Public Service Commission so that might rule out a run.

Pete Gosar of Laramie was also mentioned, as was Milward Simpson, who currently heads the Nature Conservancy in Wyoming.

Scotty Ratliff of Riverton suggested Rodger McDaniel of Laramie, Rich Lindsey of Cheyenne, and Michelle Sullivan of Sheridan.

It is early and these are just a few of the names that have bubbled to the top. Stay tuned. It’s going to be a fun political year in Wyoming!

Man has always wanted to fly. And seeing Wyoming from a bird’s eye view is just about the best way possible to appreciate this beautiful state.

         And looking down right now is just about as good as it can possibly get. The green valleys are glistening with new growth while our purple mountains bask in the sunshine with still enough pearly white snow to sparkle in the distance.

         Our lakes are as blue as our blue skies. And no skies in America are as blue as Wyoming’s.

         Ah, what a sight.  Just love seeing Wyoming from the air. Nothing like it in the world.

         I write these words as a person who piloted his own airplane for 30 years.

         Legendary flight instructors Les Larson and Larry Hastings taught me to fly in 1976.  I bought an airplane with local accountant named J. Ross Stotts.  The plane we bought was an old Piper P-28 that had been owned by the late Mable Blakely. She was famous as one of the original “99s,” the name given to the first women pilots in the country.

         That plane was heavy but fast – it was like landing on an aircraft carrier. Later I flew Cessna 182s, which landed like a leaf falling from a tree. 

         I loved flying. Every bit of it.

         As a little boy, my first flight was in a two-seater.  I was jammed between my dad and my Uncle Dick Johnson, both big men. We took off and flew all over the hills and valleys of northeast Iowa. I can remember how my stomach felt as we turned and climbed and soared. I even remember the smell of the hot oil coming from the engine.  When we landed on a grass strip I recall saying to myself, “Someday that is going to be me, flying my own airplane.”

         It was 19 years later when I became a pilot.

         I was part of a small newspaper company that had newspapers in Lander, Greybull, Cody, Green River, and Gillette.

         Wyoming is so doggone big; there is just about no way to make it smaller. But flying an airplane instead of driving a car definitely works.  Flying from Lander to Greybull took a little over 30 minutes. It was a three-hour drive.

         That view of flying over Boysen Reservoir and looking down on Wind River Canyon, well, it was spectacular. To the northwest, the Absaroka Mountains were high and rugged. The airport at Greybull was a piece of cake. The runway is wide and long because of all the old converted bombers being used as fire-fighting tankers that were based there. Plus Greybull gets very little wind.

         Cody, on the other hand, always had a nasty crosswind that blew down from Rattlesnake Mountain right about the time you thought you had your landing in the bag.  “Oops” or words to that effect usually accompanied my landings at Cody.

         Later on we got involved with ownership of newspapers in Montana and South Dakota.  Thus, we flew over the entire state of Wyoming on these journeys. It was fun flying around the southern tip of the Big Horn Mountains.  Huge herds of domestic sheep could be seen. Outlaw Canyon near Buffalo was spectacular.

         I fell in love with buttes during these flights.  The Pumpkin Buttes southwest of Gillette were probably my favorite although Pilot Butte near Rock Springs comes close. One of the Rawhide Buttes outside of Lusk is sure an odd piece of rock. Looks more like a pyramid.

         The historic Oregon Buttes on South Pass were so significant in our history. When those 500,000 Oregon Trail emigrants reached these buttes, they knew they had crossed the Continental Divide and were more than halfway home.

Crowheart Butte southeast of Dubois is a landmark that you can see from a long ways off.

         And flying over Devils Tower is unforgettable.  What a monolith!  I learned to love the Wyoming Black Hills from flying over them so many times.

         I rarely flew directly over the top of mountains. But I could look out the window and see the jagged peaks of the Wind Rivers or the impressive canyons of the Big Horns.

         Flying over Elk Mountain and Kennaday Peak between Rawlins and Laramie could be frightening.  Crazy odd winds along that route, known on the ground as the Interstate 80 Snow Chi Minh Trail.

         Here is part of a wonderful poem that I love, which talks about the love of flying. It is called High Flight by John Gillespie McGee Jr. Its final lines go like this:

“Up, up the long delirious burning blue,

“I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.

“Where never lark, or even eagle, flew;

“And, while silent, lifting mind I’ve trod

“The high untrespassed sanctity of space.

“Put out my hand, and touched the Face of God.”

What is on your ‘Cowboy State Bucket List?”

         By definition, the term “bucket list” stands for those places you want to visit or those things you want to do before you die.

         For some time now, I have annually been publishing my own version of this list and have gradually been checking a few off my list.

         In a land of 97,000 square miles full of mountains, canyons, rivers, historical trails and outposts, Native American sites, and modern marvels, it is easy to compile such a list.

         And yet, there are so many more places to see it seems like my list is getting longer rather than shorter.

         For example a dinosaur dig or a buffalo jump have zoomed to near the top of my list.  Our family had never been to either and Wyoming has some of the best in the country.  The dinosaur digs near Thermopolis is of the most prominent dino dig in the country.  The Vore buffalo jump near Sundance is amazing.  I also want to get out in the Red Desert and see the one on the summit of Steamboat Mountain between Rock Springs and Farson.

Among the things that I wanted to do, and did do, included finally seeing Sybille Canyon between Laramie and Wheatland and driving the back road over the Snowy Range Mountains between Saratoga and Laramie. 

Also, I finally took that Red Desert back road from Rock Springs to South Pass and visited Boars Tusk and the Killpecker Sand Dunes. On my earlier list was a visit to Bill, Wyoming, which I managed to do one Sunday afternoon while listening to a Bronco football game on the radio.

         Also finally I drove that fantastic Wild Horse Loop from Green River to north of Rock Springs above White Mountain. We also re-visited the fantastic petroglyphs just south of Dubois. Amazing.

         But I still have not made it to some very important events. So here goes my Cowboy State Bucket List for today:

• Am hoping to take a closer look at Vedauwoo area outside of Laramie.  I have driven by it hundreds of times. It is time for a closer look.  Also, to spend some time at Curt Gowdy State Park.

         • Between Jeffrey City and Muddy Gap is an odd rock formation I call Stonehenge. Locals call it Castle Rock.  Reportedly it has names written in it including John Sublette.  Sometime this summer I hope to have it finally checked off.

         • I want to spend more time in extreme western Wyoming from Afton to Evanston. Lots to see there.

         • Our family lived on Squaw Creek for 23 years outside of Lander and our view looked out at the imposing Red Butte.  Hope to climb it this summer.

         • If Fossil Butte is not on this list, my friend Vince Tomassi will scold me about it.  He serves incredible meals every Thursday night in Kemmerer-Diamondville at Luigi’s.  Perhaps a tour and dinner, Vince?

         • In 1993, I spent a very nervous time hunting a bighorn ram in the Double Cabin Area northeast of Dubois.  Would love to go back for a more relaxed trip this time around. There were petrified forests above timberline and a place that included a meadow full of vertical rocks standing on end.

         • I still need to take the time to tour all the new parts of UW with a knowledgeable guide and see first-hand all the new buildings and new programs.

         • Some 48 years ago, I photographed what looked like a horrible scar on Togwotee Pass where the area was clear-cut. Would like to go back to those areas and see if the timber has recovered or not.

         • Historian Phil Roberts says he will give me a tour of the “breaks” north of Lusk?   I flew over that area by private plane many times and looked down in awe at this rough country.

         • A tour of Wyoming’s giant coalmines makes sense.

         • On the Wind River Reservation, I finally visited the Arapaho Ranch and also visited the mountains at the extreme north end of the rez. Saw the Legend Rock petroglyph site in that neighborhood –fantastic.

         To wrap this up, my friend Tom Hayes does not like the term “bucket list” and calls his a “leap list” for a list he does every leap year to plan their visits over the next four years.   

         Jim Hicks always offers perspective on these kinds of lists when he says he always wanted to break par, then he always wanted to break 80. “Now I just want to be able to get out there and play,” he concludes.

         So that’s my Cowboy State bucket list.  What’s yours?