Good going, Dick, Rulon, Christy and Kenny and sorry to hear about Jerry’s passing. These are all Wyoming folks who have been in the national news in recent weeks.

         How could I have missed all this? Oh yeah, we were wintering someplace 1,246 miles away. But as soon as we got home, there appearing on TV and in magazines (which piled up while we were gone), were national news stories involving Wyoming folks. It was at a level that seemed out of proportion for a state with just 565,000 people. So here goes: 

         • It sure felt good to settle into my favorite recliner in front of the cable TV. 

         The Showtime Network was featuring its documentary The World According to Dick Cheney. The film largely mirrors much of Wyoming resident Cheney’s own book In My Time, but most folks are hearing this story for the first time.

         The unrepentant Cheney says he would do it all again – meaning the Iraq war, et al. 

         The show has been heavily promoted. And although reportedly not viewed in a favorable light by Cheney himself, I thought it treated him pretty well. The former vice-president voluntarily spent 20 hours in front of the camera.

         Many of Cheney’s critics cannot comprehend how the former mild-mannered Congressman could turn into whom they called Darth Vader while Veep to President George Bush. 

It has always made sense to me that both Cheney and Bush reacted to the 9/11 tragedies in a way that any normal person would react. You would be forever changed. And you would stop at nothing to prevent another tragedy of that type from occurring again on your watch.

         • Later that evening, here comes Afton wrestler Rulon Gardner chatting up Olympic wrestling to Jay Leno. 

         Rulon is a legendary gold medal winner and did very well offering good reasons why the recently announced decision to eliminate wrestling should not happen. He claimed the marathon and wrestling were the first two Olympic sports. “How could you cancel one of those? he asked.  

         • While I was watching TV, a pile of magazines was on my lap vying for attention.

         In the Forbes Magazine annual issue about billionaires, it was interesting to see Jackson Hole’s Christy Walton listed as the 11^th richest person in the world with wealth at $28.2 billion. She is the widow of John Walton who was killed in the crash of a small plane in Jackson in 2005.

         • There were big stories about Wyoming folks in Sports Illustrated.

         Taking up an entire back page was an article about the amazing Kenny Sailors, the Wyoming basketball star who invented the jump shot.

         Kenny is 92 and still going strong.

         He led Wyoming to its only national championship win in 1943 and was featured in LIFE Magazine for his invention of that most common shot.

         He always said he invented it because, at 5-10, he could not have shot over his 6-5 older brother without it.

         People forget, which SI reminded, that Sailors was renowned as the best ball handler in the country. He was called “dazzling” in that LIFE profile.

         • Another big story in Sports Illustrated was the death of one of the most prominent sports franchise owners in the USA.

         Jerry Buss, owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, was referred to in that magazine as the “best owner” in all of professional sports. He won 10 NBA titles while owner.

         Few people know he grew up in Kemmerer, where it was reported he and his mother once had to stand in food lines. He also attended the University of Wyoming. His net worth at his death was $600 million. Not bad for a kid who once wondered where his next meal was coming from.

         • A third story in Sports Illustrated was about a football kicker who is going to try to make the team at UW.

         Nathan Noble is hoping to become the Cowboys kicker at the advanced age of 29. He is a former soccer star who headed off to two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. 

         The magazine reported he consistently booms field goals from 60 yards away. He works out in little Versailles, KY. He is reportedly moving 1,200 miles to Laramie and hopes to walk on.

         Stay tuned on this one. This story was worth three pages in Sports Illustrated. It will be interesting to see how this plays out here in the land of high plains and strong winds.

         For some reason, “moose have been in the nooze” this winter in my part of Wyoming. There have been some good news stories, some crime news, some locked antler battles and even two moose rescue stories.

                  • My favorite is about Lander’s “town moose” which was roaming throughout the town during February and early March.

This character was a young female that soon found herself joyfully cruising the back yards, nibbling on brush and plants. She was very happy until she made a wrong turn and found herself one morning in a playground at Baldwin Creek Elementary School.

         Police and Game and Fish folks said enough was enough.     

         Officer Chuck Carr and Brian DeBolt, the G&F large carnivore coordinator, sedated her and hauled her a long ways away to the South Pass area. One officer was quoted as saying: “The poor gal. She really wasn’t causing any trouble. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

         While schools in other parts of the country are worrying about armed killers, here in Wyoming, we are dealing with lost Bullwinkles. We have a lot to be thankful for.

         Not sure, but this young critter looked a lot like the wandering moose I took a photo of in the desert between South Pass and Farson last summer. Could this be the ultimate wandering moose?

                  • Perhaps that moose was a descendant of Lander’s most famous town moose who spent the winter of 1986 wandering the streets and backyards for finally heading back to the mountains come spring.

         She was so ubiquitous in our town that our local newspaper held a contest to name her. Winning name was “Rosie of the Popo Agie.” She pretty much liked to hang around the river, hence her name. Quite a sight to see a moose almost any time you wanted to.

                  • My first experience with a Wyoming moose occurred back in 1971 when a pressman at our newspaper named Stan Rice told me about a huge bull on the Loop Road above Lander. He said he would arrive at Grannier Meadows each evening about sundown.

         Sure enough, we went up there and snapped some wonderful photos of this monarch. All summer, we would take our relatives and friends up there to see this amazing animal.

         Stan warned me about putting the photos in the paper, as it might alert hunters to an easy kill. But darn it, the photos were great. 

Sure enough, the monarch was slain that fall.

• Last fall, two local Fremont County people and two Gillette guys were arrested for wantonly killing four moose and leaving them to rot near Hudson.

Wyoming folks like their guns but they really love their wildlife. Poaching and killing wild animals in such a wasteful manner is not taken lightly. These folks are facing some serious charges.

•My friend Carol Hickner was hiking above Sinks Canyon recently when a moose charged her and chased her down the hill.

She felt she barely escaped with her life. An unreal experience. Glad she was fit enough to get away.

• Perhaps the most amazing Moose Nooze to come out was when Rob Weller encountered a calf moose all tangled up in barbwire.

The calf was going to die unless someone rescued it.

Not sure what to do but sure that its mother was watching from somewhere near, he still decided to try to free the young fellow.

He took some photos of the tangled up calf, which showed just how desperate its situation was.

Ultimately, Weller took the chance and the cut the calf loose.

The calf lumbered off to its mother who had suddenly appeared and they loped off together. Whew, not sure I would have been willing to do that. Good work.

 • Perhaps the most dramatic thing in nature is when two bucks, two bulls or two rams battle each other to impress their potential mates. The action is fierce and looks deadly. And it is deadly. Last fall Jackson game warden Jerry Longobardi investigated a report of two moose that had been battling and apparently died during the effort. 

One moose had a broken neck and the other had a broken jaw. They were huge but because they were discovered shortly after they died, some 600 pounds of meat were harvested and donated. The huge locked antlers were taken by the G&F to be displayed later. Photos of the event are available on the Wyoming G&F web site.

         It was a cold, brisk evening on Bourbon Street when we visited New Orleans March 2. In fact, it was their chilliest night of the year. We were bundled up like Wyoming people know how to do, while the locals were shivering and barely covered.

         It was our first trip to The Big Easy and we were interested in how the place looked like after suffering two unimaginable catastrophes in the last seven years.

         Here in Wyoming, we try to imagine how we would survive catastrophes of the size of a Hurricane Katrina or a BP oil spill.

         Perhaps if Yellowstone blew up a little (a lot would obliterate us and there would be no recovery) or some kind of horrible forest fires or drought? Maybe a major earthquake? 

         Not sure what could happen to a place with just 565,000 people spread out over 98,000 square miles that could equal a monster hurricane hammering a small area of 1.3 million people.

         But here we were and the locals seemed just fine, albeit shivering.

         We tested the famous and super sweet Hurricane drinks at Pat O’Brien’s and then wandered around between the bars, restaurants, loud music and the tourist traps. We finally dined at 11 p.m. Cannot honestly ever remember eating that late back in Wyoming. 

         I was actually surprised that NOLA (which stands for New Orleans, Louisiana) is that big a city. Lots of skyscrapers and wow, is Lake Pontchartrain a big lake or what? It is vast at 24 by 40 miles.

         Most of the hurricane damage to New Orleans seemed to be out of our eyesight so it could be easy to assume their recovery is complete.

From there we headed to a reunion on Biloxi, MS where my older brother Tom would celebrate his 70^th birthday with three siblings from Wyoming, Colorado and Iowa.

         Evidence of the hurricane was more evident there. Hulks of former casinos spanned the horizon. There are swathes of flat land where formerly expensive homes once existed. Nobody is rebuilding them.

         We stayed at a 32-story high-rise casino called the IP. Our group played their excellent golf layout. Shell Landing is a wonderful course except for exceptionally deep bunkers with super-fine sand that encouraged my ball to bury itself.

         Temperatures were in the high 60s and our four-brother foursome got its money’s worth by the number of strokes it took to get around 18 holes.

The birthday brother won over $500 on the slot machines, which was referred to as “recycled losses” provided by his younger brothers, Bill, Pat and Jim.

         It’s time for me to start an organization called Buffets Anonymous. We just ate ourselves silly at the casino, which featured delicious seafood, including crawfish.   Are you really supposed to bite off their heads and suck out their innards?

         After three days the partying was over and we drove back across the giant bridges and causeways to our motorhome to Melissa, a little town north of Dallas.

         We made a side trip to tiny Glenmora, LA, which is where my mom and dad were married 70 years ago.  It was the site of Camp Claiborne, where my father was stationed before being deployed overseas in World War II.

         I called my 88-year old mother, who lives in Lafayette, CO, and told her where we were, which pleased her greatly. We were unable to locate the soda pop factory where she and dad lived in a second floor apartment nor the town’s old picture show. We took photos of its Main Street and water tower and emailed them to her.

         This was a trip full of memories, not just of being with brothers or visiting my mom’s wedding site. It was also of huge bridges and one long stretch of I-10 that was on stilts for 20 miles because of the enormous swamp covering that area. 

         There was an area between Glenmora and Alexandria that had over 20 large nurseries – and they were busy. The first week of March is planting time in that part of the world. I couldn’t help comparing it with the snow and cold in Wyoming.

         We have been “wintering” in Texas for about two months. It’s been a wonderful time, especially being with daughter Amber and her husband Craig and grandkids Daylia, Braley and Emery

         But it is time to leave. Too many people here.

And I am just about getting used to rush hour traffic. That is a sure sign it is time to head back to Wyoming.

         It’s easy appreciating the energy conversion efforts by Texan T. Boone Pickens.

         His campaign to increase the use of natural gas powered vehicles is having some big effects across America and in Wyoming, too.

         Another champion of natural gas-powered vehicles has been Gov. Matt Mead who recently had his new state-authorized GMC Denali converted to run on compressed natural gas. A good example. A lot of state vehicles are making that switch, too.

         So why would Wyoming be logical place to use more natural gas? Because we are the second largest natural gas producing state in the country. It makes all the sense in the world, especially here. Plus natural gas costs considerably less than gasoline or diesel at the pump.

         Pickens was the speaker at a Rotary Club meeting in downtown Dallas on Feb. 27, which I happened to be attending. 

His latest campaign is to convert all the “heavy” trucks in America from diesel to natural gas. So far, the campaign has had some victories.

         A California effort to convert all trash trucks to liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been a huge success and now Pickens says that 50 percent of all trash trucks in the country have been converted.

         “It even makes the drivers of the trucks sexier,” Pickens exclaimed. 

         He said, with a chuckle, he talked to one trash truck operator who says his wife says she loves him more because he no longer smells of those terrible diesel exhaust fumes.

         Pickens says that if heavy trucks made the conversion, it would save three million barrels of oil a day, which is how much America is importing from Arab countries. “And when we quit importing oil from them, we should bring our soldiers home, “ he says.

         When it comes to pollution, he says one heavy truck equals 325 cars. He said FedEx just announced a national effort to convert its fleet. UPS and Wal Mart are next, he contends.

         He quoted some history for the large crowd. He recalled when heavy trucks switched from gasoline to diesel in 1972, “they did it because diesel was cheaper.” 

Cheaper operating costs will drive this switch again, he predicts. He says that it took five years before the gas-to-diesel switchover was evident.

He had been in Washington, D. C. the previous day speaking before a crowd of 2,000 people organized by outgoing Energy Secretary Stephen Chu. He had also been in D.C. lobbying for a tax break amendment for folks wanting to facilitate conversions from diesel to natural gas.  

         He was unable to generate Republican enthusiasm for the amendment to the transportation bill, getting just six GOP votes to go with 45 Democrats. He needed 60 votes to get it through. Maybe this plan was “too simple,” he said.

         Pickens says he has been spent the last four years trying to get enthusiasm for switching to LNG. Wyoming’s two senators, Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, voted against the amendment, which followed what most conservative national groups supported.

         National conservative groups encouraged senators to oppose the amendment and let the private sector deal with it without government interference or help.

         Pickens is unfazed and his struggle continues.

         The overall problem in Washington is “a lack of leadership,” he concludes, taking a stab at President Barack Obama. “We are the only major country without an energy policy.”

         His campaign to convert 8 million heavy trucks will be dictated by economics, he says. Right now, a gallon of LNG costs $1.50 per gallon less than diesel. And the gas mileage is the same, he said.

         All those semi trailer trucks driving through Wyoming every day on I-80 are spewing out vast amounts of diesel exhaust into our previously clean air. It would make a significant difference to have them burning LNG rather than diesel. The constant Wyoming winds pretty much hide the current pollution but it is real.

         After his talk, Pickens was asked why gasoline prices stay so high?

         He blamed it on the same Saudis that he contends want to keep sending two billion barrels of oil to the USA each year.

         They need to keep the price of oil above $100 per barrel to support their people for “social commitments,” he said.   He said over half of the people in Saudi Arabia live off the government wealth and their leaders need to control prices to keep their people happy.

         “Of course, we are coming around to that here in the USA, too,” he quipped.

         Some months ago in this space, we repeated a fantastic rumor about a Machu Picchu-type place deep in the Wind River Mountains. The story was far-fetched, and it just could not be verified.

         This rumor claimed that melting glaciers had revealed a thousands of years old Indian village near Wyoming’s tallest mountain and a team of college folks from a Utah university was secretly excavating it.

         Great story. Almost Indiana Jones-like. It would have really put Wyoming on the map.

         Alas, we reported that it was not true.

         University of Wyoming Professor Richard Adams read my column and offered a possible explanation:

 “As usual on Sunday mornings, I read your column in the Laramie Daily Boomerang.  I was startled to see you mention a Machu Picchu in the Wind River Mountains.

“I suspect that you may be combining references to an archaeological site that I found in 2006. I`d like to tell you my story.”

Adams has done lots of archaeological work in the state over the past 25 years and this find caps his career.

The site he described is not quite as dramatic as my apparently mythical Wyoming Machu Picchu, but it is pretty darned amazing. It offers tremendous significance to studies about early Wyoming peoples. But mysteries abound, and the findings create as many questions as answers.

Machu Picchu, by the way, is an amazing and abandoned sacred village high in the South American Andes Mountains that is viewed as one of the world’s great mysteries.

Here is Adams’ story about what I was calling Wyoming’s Machu Picchu:

“My crew discovered the High Rise Village site August 12, 2006 in the Wind River Range south of Dubois.  I was collaborating with retired Dubois outfitters Tory and Meredith Taylor.  They had taken my volunteer crew to a standing wooden wickiup near Ross Lake.  We examined the viewshed for more archaeological sites and found what we call High Rise Village.

“The village is a prehistoric site between 10,500 and 10,800 feet above sea level. It contains the remains of about 60 house structures. Some of the houses even have the remains of wooden superstructures. 

“Artifacts within these structures consist of chipped stone debris, projectile points, scrapers, manos, metates, and even pottery.  I have dated several hearths inside the structures and they range from only a couple hundred years old to a whopping 4,000 years old. 

“The site is positioned next to a big horn sheep migration corridor (shown to me by John Mionczynski) in a large stand of white bark pines.  The combination of sheep meat and pine nuts supported the Shoshone people who lived there in the late summers.  No one wintered there.

“From 2007 to 2010, I conducted research at the discovery site financed with my own money.” 

In 2010, Adams hosted the first High Altitude Archaeological Summit at the High Rise Village.  David Hurst Thomas (curator of North American Archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History), Robert Bettinger (University of California, Davis), Robert L. Kelly (Chair, Anthropology Dept, UW) and others visited the high altitude location in the Wind Rivers. 

Thomas and Bettinger are the only two other researchers who have found villages in alpine settings in North America. 

Adams says: “I wanted us to all get together and compare notes.  Thomas lectured about high altitude village sites at the Dubois museum in 2010, and then again at UW last spring. 

The High Rise Village site is now well known.  The State Historic Preservation Office nominated the site to the National Register of Historic Places.  A story about it was the cover story in an issue of The American Archaeology Magazine in 2010.

The reason the site is associated with Utah is that Adams could not continue to finance the research, so he offered the project to a colleague, Dr. Chris Morgan, at Utah State University.  He procured funding (through USU and the National Science Foundation) to continue working the site.  He and his crew (including Dubois resident Carlie Idecker) did field work at High Rise in 2010 and 2011. 

So, not only is the rumor of my Machu Picchu solved, but also now Wyoming folks know about a 4,000 year old village that resided above 10,000 feet about the time of the building of the pyramids and some two centuries before Christ. 

Now that is a mystery that needs further study. Thanks to Adams for his good work and for letting me know the “rest of the story.”