Creative solutions needed
There was a story in the Star-Trib a while back quoting "administration officials" claiming huge amounts of America's oil and gas reserves on public land are inaccessible to producers "because of environmental and other restrictions."

Lessons from dad
My father's father abandoned his family when my dad was very young. He just walked away one day and never returned.

Pork-barrel politics
I watched David Letterman interview Sen. John McCain on the “Late Show” a while back.

Mother knew best
My mother was born Shirley Rose McCumber on Oct. 24, 1919, in a dusty little nowhere town on the Kansas prairie. Her father was a feisty Irish bricklayer of local pugilistic renown, her mother a homemaker.

Snake bitten
Putting up hay is the most physically demanding work I have ever done.

The devil’s music
My wife and I went to a movie a while back.

Branding time
In the late 1870s, what is now Wyoming was an empty vista of rolling prairies covered with waving grass.

A sight to behold
Francis Parkman was a Boston-born, Harvard graduate. Fascinated by stories of the Plains Indians, he came west in 1846 at the tender age of 23.

Coyote control
A while back, the Star-Trib ran a piece titled "Coyote control helps antelope."

FARPs in Wyoming
A recent article in the Star-Trib contained the following quote: "As homes and shopping malls proliferate, the United States loses about 6,000 acres of open space every day -n four acres per minute."

Governed by children
In these United States, we practice democracy: government "of the people, by the people and for the people."

Next stop …
My wife's family comes from the Lander/Riverton area. In fact, she has ancestors who came into the Lander Valley back in the 1860s.

One and only Bob Meer
Shirley Basin and the Shirley Mountains are located about 40 miles due south of Casper. Both the basin and the mountains were named for John Shirley, a freighter who used teams of horses and wagons to haul supplies to people living in the area during the late 19th century.

The Sage Grouse War
A Sage Grouse War is being waged throughout the West in general, and Wyoming in particular.

How sweet it was
The old Sweetwater Dance Hall is gone.

Let’s do lunch
Lots of folks are fascinated by the movie business: the glamour, the fame, the clamoring paparazzi, the adoring fans and the obscene amounts of money.

Wyoming rules to obey
Lots of new folks are coming to Wyoming, and I thought it would be neighborly to offer a few observations that might serve to smooth their way into the local culture.

Pronghorn is a symbol of Wyoming
Of all the animals inhabiting Wyoming, my favorite is the pronghorn.

Do we really need these gadgets?
Aldo Leopold generally is considered the "Father of Wildlife Management."

Ol’ Ed pulled the wool over their eyes
Wyoming has had 31 governors since statehood. I have known the five who most recently occupied this chair n Stan Hathaway, Ed Herschler, Mike Sullivan, Jim Geringer and Dave Freudenthal. Ed Herschler was the one I knew best.

What’s in a name?
A while back, I was musing about street names, which goes to show you how bored I was at the time.

The wisdom of Jaimie McPheeters
My all-time favorite book is “The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters.” It was written by Robert Lewis Taylor, who, in 1959, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Letters for his efforts.

Teddy Roosevelt goes hunting
There is a story about our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, I have always loved.

Lords and cow servants
If you have not read Helena Huntington Smith's book, “The War on Powder River,” you might want to consider doing so.

Babe’s Cadillac and the calves
As a young man, I worked on the Grieve family ranches west of Casper. At that time, the family owned the UC, the Diamond Ring and the Dumbell Ranches.

The legendary Billy Mack
P.J. McIntosh came from Canada in the late 19th century to take up residence along the lower reaches of the Sweetwater River. There, he and his wife, Lois, raised six children.

Cabin Creek
Back in the mid-’50s, when I worked on the UC Ranch and thought I was a cowboy, there were fewer fences than today. The consequence was huge communal pastures.

Stuck in the mud
I was fooling around in the back country the other day and got stuck. The two-track road I was following had a mud hole that turned out to be deeper than anticipated, and I bogged down.

50 years gone by
Recently I received correspondence announcing Natrona County High School's graduating Class of 1957 will celebrate its 50-year class reunion this August. Wow, how did half a century slip by without me noticing ... and who is that grey-haired old guy I see in the mirror every morning?

Junk gets in the way
Experts say we all should walk for at least a half-hour every day. That is good advice, and I try to follow it.