Sheridan County

The town of Ranchester’s population is 1,176, but it's been rapidly growing. That growth means the town hasn’t yet had to make big changes due to property tax cuts, but the mayor doesn’t want to see more.

Last year’s huge wildfire season likely ignited the coal seams, which are like unattended campfires simmering. Counties will look to federal dollars to help manage them, but it’s unclear if that funding will still exist.

“Even though you can't necessarily see an exact landscape or a mountain form or something like that, when you look at it, it feels like Wyoming." Whitney Western Art Museum Assistant Curator Ashlea Espinal says of Neltje’s painting “My Heart Tumbles.”

Sheridan County judge Darci Phillips appointed Holly Jennings to fill a lone vacancy on the Sheridan County Commission last week. This comes after the commission had previously rejected three candidates that were put forth by the county GOP.

A Sheridan County judge will choose who fills a vacancy on the Sheridan County Commission after the remaining four commissioners rejected the three candidates put forth by the Sheridan County Republican Party late last month. The decision also drew the ire of Secretary of State Chuck Gray and the county’s GOP.

Kamryn Michelena, a senior at Arvada-Clearmont High School, joins 16 other students across the country as part of the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD)’s National Student Leadership Council for the 2023-24 school year.

The training exercise is scheduled for a day in late October and will include officials from the city and county as well as ones from surrounding counties to better plan and prepare for a hazardous materials situation caused by a derailment. There have been several in Wyoming in recent years, including earlier this year in a Sheridan rail yard, of a coal train near Arvada, and in a rail yard in Cheyenne.

Sheridan County Prevention is in the process or working towards applying for a grant next year from a national organization that would help with their suicide and substance abuse prevention efforts and that would also increase community involvement in them. The grant also requires that a more comprehensive effort be taken to focus on the general health and well being of the community, an initiative that's to be called "Healthy Sheridan County."

Ted Waddell is the featured guest of a reception on March 7. Works on display will include illustrations from his "Tucker the Bernese Mountain Dog" children's book series, which are written by his wife, Lynn Campion. It's free and open to the public. The event is part of the museum's 18th Illustrator Show, which includes other works from Waddell that are on display until April 23.

The visitor facility is owned by the U.S. Forest Service and was operated by them until closing in 2012. It was briefly reopened in 2019 and is now being leased to Sheridan County Travel & Tourism to operate this summer. It's one of two visitor centers in the Bighorn National Forest.