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Bear activity at Porcupine __ 3
Lovell Mustangs sweep
Sheridan 9
AIIred to sing in Love/I 13
Lovell officers promoted 17
LOVELI, WYOMING " VOLUME 107, NUMBER 6 IttUI'ISDAY, JUL.Y 19, )012 " 75
PATti CARPENTER
Chase Huish of Arizona celebrates Bryon Day with
his grandparents Glen andPam Hopkinson on July
14. See more Byron Days photos on page 14.
Fires ignite east of Lovell
BY DAVID PECK
The fire season in north
Big Horn County is heating
up thanks to dry, hot weath-
er, wind and thunderstorms,
which have sparked fires on
the Bighorn National Forest
and Bureau of Land Man-
agement land east of Lovell
in recent days.
Medicine Wheel/Paint-
rock District Ranger Dave
Hogen said a fire in the Til-
lett's Hole area just north of
the Medicine Wheel was de-
tected Thursday afternoon,
likely sparked by Wednes-
day's lightning storm.
"We were able to put
people on it Thursday after-
noon and evening," Hogen
said. "It's in rough, steep,
timbered terrain, and it was
a 1 to 1½-hour hike into the
area with a lot of saw work."
Hogen said the fire was
initially working its way
up into the crowns of trees,
then spotting 200 to 300
yards ahead, sending "50
cent piece embers skyward,
making it a "messy burn."
"They've been trying to
find all of them (hot spots)
and put them out, which is
challenging in thick, downed
timber," Hogen said. "Until
yesterday (Monday), there
was still a risk of it turn-
ing into something big, but
by Monday afternoon it was
Hogen said the fire crew
was performing gridding,
systematically searching for
embers and hot spots. In the
end, the fire burned just two
acres.
Two 20-man crews
fought the fire from the Wy-
oming Hot Shots and a crew
from the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest of North-
east Oregon. Local rang-
er district personnel also
fght the blaze.
...... "We responded quick-
ly and had the right people
available to respond," Ho-
DAVID PECK
A frefighting Huey takes off from Phyllis Bronkema's feld east of Lovell
Tuesday morning after refueling as members of the Bronkema/Walker family
and fire crew members look on.
gen said, noting that the Or-
egon crew was working in
the Ten Sleep area when the
call came.
..... :
A fire on BLM land just
to the east of Big Horn Can-
yon near the Montana-Wyo-
ming border was ignited by
lightning on Monday night,
BLM Public Affairs Spe-
cialist Sarah Beckwith said
Tuesday.
The Trout Creek Fire
was burning grass and
sagebrush and also getting
into juniper, Beckwith said,
and by Tuesday night had
spread to an estimated 600
acres.
After the fire was spot-
ted Monday evening, BLM
and Forest Service person-
nel responded to the site of
the fire some 20 miles north-
east of LoveU and less than
a mile south of the Montana
state line with three helicop-
ters, two heavy air tankers,
the Worland Fuels Crew (22
firefighters) and one BLM
engine from Cody, Beckwith
said.
Resources Tuesday in-
cluded two helicopters, the
BLM Worland Fuels Crew
and the BLM Cody engine.
There are no structures
immediately threatened,
Beckwith said.
HELICOPTER LANDING
After fighting the Trout
Creek Fire, one helicop-
ter had to make an emer-
gency landing about a mile
east of Lovell Monday night
due to high winds and light-
ning that came with a se-
vere thunderstorm moving
through the area.
The Helicopter Ex-
press Huey landed in a field
owned by Phyllis Bronke-
ma around 8:30 Monday
night after dropping wa-
ter and flying firefighting
crew members to the fire.
It was attempting to fly to
the North Big Horn Airport
north of Cowley when the
flight crew made the precau-
tionary landing near U.S.
Highway 14A and the lane
to Bronkema's home.
After being fueled, the
helicopter lifted off around
8:30 Tuesday morning.
DAVID PECK
Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn, complete
with unifoima, was a good port participating in the
fund-raising dunking booth Saturday afternoon in
the Byron Town Park. Here, he hoists himself back
onto his precarious perch.
Pioneer Day features old
favorites, a few changes
BY DAVID PECK
There will be a couple of new wrinkles added to the
Pioneer Day lineup this year, but all of the traditional fa-
vorite activities will return for the 2012 celebration this
weekend in Cowley.
One of the highlights Saturday will be the dedication
of a historical plaque at the Big Horn Academy building
(now the school district offices) by the Daughters of Utah
Pioneers organization.
"We've been blessed with a lot of historical buildings,
and a few years ago the Daughters of Utah Pioneers put
a plaque on Town Hall, denoting it as a historical build-
ing," said Roland Simmons of the Pioneer Day Committee.
ey'll do the same thing at the Big Horn Academy Sat-
ttrday at 1:30 p.m."
The detailed history presented on the plaque explains
that the Big Horn Academy building was constructed of
native sandstone in 1916. Stones for the building were
hauled from hills five miles north of Cowley, shaped at the
site and set in place without the benefit of power equip-
ment, the plaque notes.
The new academy opened its doors for students in Sep-
tember of 1919, with some 85-95 students coming from sur-
rounding communities. The academy was discontinued in
1924, and the building was sold to the school district, then
used as Cowley High School until 1983. After being used by
a private business for several years, it has gone back into
the hands of School District No. 1 and after an extensive
remodeling project in 2011 is now the District One admin-
istrative building, also housing the Rocky Mountain Ele-
mentary School Preschool.
Simmons pointed out one schedule change in the Pio-
neer Day lineup from past years. The adult dance and min-
gle, formerly held on Saturday night following the night
program/variety show, has been moved to Friday night fol-
lowing the ice cream social. The social will run from 7 to 9
See 'PIONEER DAY' page 8
Three wild mustangs removed in first week of gather
the Montana border. So far,
three young horses have
been captured in bait traps
and removed from the range.
M1 three are being held
at Britton Springs Corrals,
which is located on Crooked
Creek Road near the Wyo-
ming/Montana border. All
of the horses will be made
available for adoption to
pre-screened individuals at
a future date. The BLM has
stated that none of the hors-
es will be slaughtered.
Two young stallions
BY PATTI CARPENTER
The Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) be-
gan gathering and remov-
ing excess wild horses last
week from the Pryor Moun-
tain Wild Horse Range lo-
cated north of Lovell across
COURTESY Lore GRAHAM
TWO young stallions identified as Kokopelli and Jumping Badger were the first
to be captured and removed from the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range last
week as part of an effort by the BLM to reduce the population of horses living
on the range.
identified as Kokopelli and
Jumping Badger were the
first to be gathered and re-
moved from the range. The
two were gathered on July
11 and 12 from the Cotton-
wood Springs and Layout
Creek trap sites. Jumping
Badger is 3 years old and Ko-
kopelli is 2.
The third horse gath-
ered on July 16 is a female
and is being held in a sepa-
rate paneled enclosure away
from the males. She was
gathered at Bad Pass and
she is known on official BLM
records as Leisel. Accord-
ing to records kept at the
Pryor Mountain Wild Mus-
tang Center (PMWMC), she
is a yearling offspring of the
stallion Bristol and the mare
known as Greta.
The BLM issued a re-
port this week stating
that, "the female horse
is in poor body condition
due to natural hardships
on the range. The BLM
is evaluating the horse's
condition and determin-
ing the need for veterinary
care."
Lori Graham, director
of the PMWMC in Lovell,
and other wild mustang ad-
vocates visited the horses
at Britton Springs Corrals.
Graham said the female
looked "beat up, like maybe
the other horses on the range
had been picking on her."
Graham said she thought
the male horses 'looked good
See 'HORSE GATHER'
page8
