Features

Many people have ideas for small businesses, but not many of them quit their day jobs to try something unique, especially when it’s something they know little about.  But that’s exactly what the Pollock family of Casper did in starting Backwards Distilling Company. 

“My son’s an absinth drinker and absinth is hard to come by and he and she were talking…why don’t we just make some make some…and then we all looked at each other and we all stopped and went hmmm.”

This was almost the year of the thoroughbred horse, with California Chrome's run for the elusive Triple Crown. But here's the story of a smaller, scrappier horse that overcame long odds with the help of a Wyoming family. Wyoming Public Radio’s Micah Schweizer has this postcard from a visit with the Spanish Mustang.

Living history comes thundering over the ridge. This is America’s original horse.

Fresh off the 2014 release of ‘Dave and the Gin Mill Gypsies’, Laramie guitarist, singer, and songwriter David Wiatrolik assembles a stripped down trio (Dana Robertson, drums and Luke Woodbury, bass) to perform live at the WPM studios.

The Big Horn Mountain Festival in Buffalo celebrates ten years of roots, bluegrass and Americana music at the Johnson County Fairgrounds, July 11 through 13. Wyoming Public Radio’s Micah Schweizer asked one of the organizers, Paul Jarvis, to remember the festival’s early years.

Kate Northrop teaches in the Department of English at the University of Wyoming. She earned a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. Kate recently received the 2014 Jeannette Haien Ballard Writers Award. Her most recent collections of poems, Clean, was published in 2011 by Persea Books.

Yellowstone Park is celebrating completion of a two year, 29 million dollar renovation of its oldest lodge: Lake Hotel. Now all of the Lake Hotel’s redecorated rooms are ready for guest now. Penny Preston reports people worked through two bitter winters to complete the project.

In 1889, 27 years before there was a National Park Service, construction began on Lake Hotel.  It is Yellowstone’s oldest.  Two years ago, reconstruction started.

“The old hotel had been touched pretty harshly over the years.

In 1986, a large mammoth rib bone was found jutting out of the bank of a creek a few miles from Douglas.  The state archaeologist, Dr. George Frison, did a hasty 4-day excavation at the time.  But a thorough excavation has never been done because the land owners weren’t interested in hosting an archaeology dig on their property.  That left archaeologists with a big question--was LaPrele Creek a mammoth kill site?  But recently the land sold and archaeologists have finally been allowed to dig. 

This Sioux Falls, SD duo is putting the finishing touches on a new album, which includes this song.

For the first time, Laramie’s Snowy Range Summer Theatre is doing a touring show. ‘Swingtime Canteen’ is in Laramie June 19-21 and 26-28 (opening night is free to the public). In between, the show will travel to Riverton on June 22, Rock Springs on June 23, Lander on June 24, and Dubois on June 25. Wyoming Public Radio’s Micah Schweizer spoke with the director, Leigh Selting.

The fifth annual Hyart Film Festival is scheduled for next weekend, June 19-21, at the historic Hyart Theater in Lovell. The festival has culled 160 entries from around the world down to just under 50 films—comedies, drama, sci-fi, horror, and kids movies. Wyoming Public Radio’s Micah Schweizer called the festival’s Creative Guru, Jason Zeller, to find out what movies made the cut.

The Laramie Mural Project will celebrate its tenth public artwork with an outdoor party on Friday, June 13. The Mural Project is collaboration between artists, the University of Wyoming Art Museum and the Laramie Main Street Alliance. Since 2011, it has decorated the sides of downtown buildings with images ranging from migrant farm workers to prairie dogs. 

Casper's Cory McDaniel (guitar) and Amy Gieske (bass) play one from the new record, The Tremors.

The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route is the longest off-pavement cycling route in the world. It runs from Mexico to Canada, paralleling the Continental Divide. We're joined now by one of the people who created the route and who just published a guide book for it.

His name is Mike McCoy, and he live in Victor, Idaho. McCoy says the idea for the route grew out of the work he was doing with the Adventure Cycling Association.

A new album by Jackson Hole jazz singer Nicole Madison jazzes up a '60s pop song and gives it a place among classic jazz standards. The album’s name—‘In My Life’—comes from a song written by the Beatles. Wyoming Public Radio’s Micah Schweizer reached Nicole Madison at home.

Wyoming’s ranking as a bike friendly state continues to drop. The state ranks 36th after ranking 33rd last year and 11th in 2010.  The loss of stature has concerned that Director of Wyoming Pathways…Tim Young.  He’s been speaking with the Wyoming Department of Transportation about the issue.  He joins us to discuss the report.

Steve Frame and his fellow Western Rebel Jim Halsey, aka Jimmy Harper, perform a song written for workers in the western oil fields.

The Stagecoach Bar in Wilson has kept Jackson Hole fed, watered, and entertained since 1942. The historic bar is home to cowboys, hippies, and the famous Stagecoach Band, which has played every Sunday night for over 40 years.

Sixty years ago a group of women in Casper whose husbands were always leaving them for long shifts out on the oil patch got together to commiserate and lunch. The group became known as the Geowives - wives of geologists - and it’s celebrating its diamond anniversary this spring. Wyoming Public Radio’s Irina Zhorov attended the Geowives’ monthly luncheon and has this story. 

IRINA ZHOROV: Bette Faust is one of the charter members of the Geowives, and a Wyoming native who came to Casper in the 1950s.

The 6th annual Cheyenne International Film Festival kicks off Tuesday.  Alan O’Hashi runs the event and he joins us to tell us what is in store.

Author Tamara Linse grew up on ranch in northern Wyoming. She channels that experience in a new collection of short stories, ‘How to Be a Man.’ As Linse explains to Wyoming Public Radio’s Micah Schweizer, the stories grew out of her own struggles with identity and gender.

JenTen Productions documentary film on The Stagecoach Bar in Wilson, Wyoming is playing in Sheridan at the WYO Theater on May 24th at 6:30 PM.

WPM’s Ranch Breakfast show recently had a visit from the Grammy Award-winning bluegrass sextet the Steep Canyon Rangers. Here’s a live performance of an original song from their newest album, Tell The Ones I Love.

The Wyoming Symphony Orchestra in Casper has teamed up with an illustrator for this weekend’s season finale concert. Igor Stravinsky’s 'Petrouchka' was originally written as a ballet about the story of a young puppet brought to life by a wizard. Wyoming Symphony music director and conductor Matthew Savery will tell the audience the story and have the orchestra demonstrate how the music replicates human movement.

Big Boy No. 4014 was delivered to Union Pacific in December 1941. The locomotive was retired in December 1961, having traveled 1,031,205 miles in its 20 years in service.

The journey of Big Boy #up4014 is complete! Watch the arrival in Cheyenne below.

Mosey West, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, plays a song from their newest EP, ‘Bermuda.’

One of the World’s largest steam locomotives is traveling across Wyoming this week.  Union Pacific’s Big Boy number 4014 is being moved to Cheyenne for restoration. UP spokesman Mark Davis says 25 so called Big Boys were once used to carry heavy loads over mountains. This one was built in 1941.

“It’s a 132 feet long and weighs about 1.2 million pounds.  They were a heavy load locomotive.”

Davis says the locomotive will arrive in Laramie around eight tonight. There will a public ceremony in Cheyenne tomorrow at 1 PM.

Now until August 31, take a photo of you (and your friends) at a Wyoming music festival, use the hashtag #wyofest and post it to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. We'll collect all of the photos taken this summer and feature them on our website!

June 7: Hiwater Hoedown at The Yard. Saratoga, WY: www.facebook.com/theyardsaratoga

The Continental Divide Trail is a 3,000-mile path that stretches from Canada to Mexico, passing through Wyoming and several other states. It was designated a National Scenic Trail in the 1970s, meaning that a mile-wide corridor is protected, for the entire length of the trail.

But the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, which maintains the trail, says the trail still faces threats from nearby development. We’re joined now by the Coalition’s director, Teresa Martinez. She says protecting the trail’s view shed is particularly crucial in Wyoming.