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The morale of the story is clear: When something doesn't appear to work, always force it...

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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>🚧 Daily Darwin: Wednesday, November 29, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, November 29, 2023

 The morale of the story is clear: When something doesn't appear to work, always force it...

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

Yellowstone National Park has a new wolf matriarch. 

Wolf 1090F has reached the age of 11 years, 9 months, an almost unprecedented age for wolves in Yellowstone, and fans say she’s still going strong.

That makes her the oldest living wolf in the park. She’s surpassed the age of the 

, who died at roughly 11 years, 8 months old on Christmas Day 2024, a few days after a fight with members of a rival wolf pack.

Not only is 1090F the oldest living wolf, she’s among the oldest wolves ever in Yellowstone.

Biologist Doug Smith, who led the wolf program in Yellowstone National Park for nearly three decades, told Cowboy State Daily that the longest-lived wolves he recalls reached “12, maybe 13, so she (1090F) is close.”

“The average age of death (for a wolf) is about 5 to 6 years, so she’s about double the normal lifespan. Somewhat remarkable, and it’s not an easy life,” Smith said.

It wasn’t unusual that Wolf 907F died from injuries she suffered during a pack-on-pack brawl. Yellowstone wolves fight frequently.

The average lifespans for wolves can vary, according to location and circumstances, biologist Robert Crabtree told Cowboy State Daily.

“There’s a lot of talk about “average lifespan, but it doesn’t make any sense unless you understand the mortality rate of a particular population,” said Crabtree, the founder, chief scientist and president of the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center.

In Yellowstone, the mortality rate is driven in large part by fights between rival packs, which can turn deadly, he said.

“Yellowstone has a strong incidence of wolves killing wolves,” he said.  

It’s not certain why that is, Crabtree said, but one factor could be the relative “instability” of prey populations, such as elk and bison.

And also, game herds there move around quite a bit, he added.

“The prey migrates. The wolf packs’ territories overlap and they are strongly defended in areas of higher ungulate density,” he said.

In other places where pack-on-pack fighting is less common, wolves might routinely live 12 years or longer, Crabtree said.

Under the right circumstances, wild canines can live about as long as domestic dogs, he said.

“One coyote I caught was 16.5 years old,” he said.

The Mollie’s pack has been around a while, it’s thought to be the first pack established after wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone in the mid-1990s, wildlife photographer Sylvia Borgonovo told Cowboy State Daily.

They are also “very big wolves,” she added. Another female from the pack, 779F, is thought to be about 136 pounds, she said.

Despite her age, 1090F also appears to be huge, said Borgonovo.

“Any Mollie’s pack wolf looks bigger than other wolves,” she said.

Last winter, she captured some dramatic photos of 1090F, as her pack moved in on the Junction Butte Wolf pack, although there wasn’t a full-on fight that time.

“I saw the Mollie’s come running in, and they were pushing off the Junction Butte pack. I was just lucky to be right there at the time,” she said.

Borgonovo said she mostly follows the Junction Butte and Wapiti Lake wolf packs, but she’s still in awe of 1090F.

“To have lived this long, that’s pretty damn good,” she said.

Wolf 907F, a one-eyed pack leader, was one of Yellowstone’s most famous wolves.

Although 1090F has surpassed her age, it’s not certain whether she’ll beat 907F’s level of popularity, Borgonovo said.

“It could end up being the case,” she said.  

Geriatric old wolf 1090 3 1 10 26

<title>🚧 Nearly 12 And Huge, Yellowstone Wolf 1090F Earns Title Of Oldest In Yellowstone | Cowboy State Daily</title>

At the age of 11 years, 9 months, Wolf 1090F has earned the title of the oldest living wolf in Yellowstone, which is remarkable considering the average lifespan of a wild wolf is 5 or 6. Like other members of the pack known as Mollie’s pack, she’s huge.

Nearly 12 And Huge, Yellowstone Wolf 1090F Earns Title Of Oldest In Yellowstone

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Joe Meek was a teenage runaway who had joined Capt. William Sublette’s Rocky Mountain Fur Co. as a hired hunter and trapper in the spring of 1829. 

As the Christmas season came upon them, the tall Virginian had already been attacked by Indians, became lost in the wilderness, and had come close to starvation. 

Years later, Meek shared his story with Frances Victor, author of his biography “The River of the West.” about how as a greenhorn he had been lost along the Yellowstone River in the middle of winter. 

It had happened when Blackfeet Indians attacked the camp while Meeks was out hunting. 

The 19-year-old had returned just in time to see Sublette and his men fleeing from the attack. 

It was bitter cold and Meek was suddenly alone with only his mule for company. 

“The ground was covered with snow, blotting out the trails,” author Stanley Vestal said in his book “The Merry Mountain Man.” 

“Joe didn’t know straight up about that tangled country,” he wrote.

The teenager had no food with him and had not seen any sign of game all morning. 

Even if he had seen anything, after witnessing the number of enemy Blackfeet about, Meek would have been too afraid to fire his gun. 

“Keep your nose open, old gal,” Vestal recounted about what Meek told his mule. “Thar’s red skin hyar abouts.” 

When Meek had surveyed his surroundings and realized his predicament, he broke down in tears. He then gathered himself together and knew that bawling would not save him. 

Too afraid to light a fire and knowing he would freeze to death if he tried to sleep in the snow, Meek said that he instead spent the night stumbling through the unknown countryside tied to his mule so that the two stayed together. 

By morning, he had covered 30 miles and he saw neither his friends nor any game. 

“The bears were already slept snug in their winter hideouts; elk and deer and sheep had left the high ground for better grazing below,” Vestal wrote. “The cold kept small game snuggled in their holes and forms, and nary a bird flew over big enough to eat.”

By the end of the first day, Meek shot an old ewe and risked a fire, figuring he would rather be scalped than starve to death. 

By the fourth day, Meek made it to the hot springs at Yellowstone and was warming himself in the boiling water of Colter’s Hell when a war whoop startled him.

Fortunately for the teenager, it was two fellow trappers who were delighted to see him. 

By surviving the winter wonderland on his own, some of the green had rubbed off the teenage greenhorn. He was treated as an equal by the men and had earned the title “Old Joe."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Holiday Season "}]

Two days later, Meek and his two companions found Sublette’s camp in the Absaroka Mountains. 

The mountain men were heading for the plains along the Big Horn River and were also starving. The snow was deep and the animals had all gone down to the lower country. 

“Within a few days, the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. lost a hundred head of mules and horses, which fell exhausted one by one in the drifts and could not get up again,” Vestal wrote. “When the train had floundered past, Meek or some other would go back, shoot the fallen animal and butcher it for food.”

Despite the hardships, no men were lost and they finally made it to the Shoshone River, where the sulphureous waters earned it the name of “Stinking Water.” 

They pushed on and found the comfortable camp of Milton Sublette and his trappers. 

The Sublettes cached their furs and took the men to their winter quarters along the Wind River, the name they had given the headwaters of the Big Horn River. 

Even with all the hardships, Meek said that this new frontier held him. 

As he hunkered near the fire to warm his hands and prepared to celebrate Christmas, he wasn't ready to go back to civilization.

The fires crackled in the camp, lending its light to the wilderness, and cast a dim glow on the snow that surrounded the camp. The mountain men were hungry, their traps empty.

They stripped the cottonwood tree for nutrients for themselves and their pack animals. They were afraid to use their guns for fear of the hostile Blackfeet that had pursued them. So, the geese flew safely overhead, out of reach.

Their stomachs growled, and they melted snow to drink.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Green Dusted Off"}]

Captain Sublette had donned a pair of snowshoes and prepared for the long journey home. 

It was Christmas 1829 in the Wind River Country, a wild and untamed land, and he was leaving his trappers to head back to St. Louis for supplies and provisions for the next rendezvous. 

The group of men had just crossed the Bighorn Mountains into Wind River Valley, having had altogether a successful fall hunt despite the attacks and hunger gnawing at them. 

Despite the severity of the weather and difficult mountain traveling in the winter, they made some important explorations in this formidable wilderness. 

The snow was so deep that the men had to keep in advance and break the road for the animals, according to Meek. 

To make their condition still more difficult, there were no provisions in camp, nor any prospect of plenty, for men or animals, until they should reach the buffalo country beyond the mountains.

Meek, as usual, had no underwear or even a shirt. 

Like most of the mountain men, he wore only a beaver fur cap, buckskin breeches, moccasins, and his capote, which was a blanket coat with hood attached.

A shirt served no purpose in the mountains, except to dress himself up at rendezvous, according to Vestal. 

It was nearly Christmas 1829 when the camp first arrived on Wind River, and the cold was intense. 

They had traveled from present-day Cody, and would soon head to the plains where the buffalo roamed. 

While the men celebrated Christmas as best they might under the circumstances, Captain Sublette started to St. Louis with one man, Harris, on snowshoes with a train of pack dogs.

The snow was too deep for the horses and mules, so they were left behind in camp with his hungry mountain men. 

As Meek ate the little game they were able to kill and tried to stay home, the green fell off him and he became a full-fledged mountain man, a small Christmas gift to a teenager who had found the adventure he had run away from home to find. 

Joe Meek and the Yellowstone River Getty Images 1215755955 12 24 25

<title>🚧 How Christmas 1829 Turned Joe Meek From A Greenhorn Into A Mountain Man | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Then a teenage runaway, Joe Meek survived a brutal winter stretch lost along the Yellowstone River before finding Capt. William Sublette’s mountain men right before Christmas 1829. Though young, he’d impressed them enough to call him one of their own.

How Christmas 1829 Turned Joe Meek From A Greenhorn Into A Mountain Man

David Madison

Business & Tourism

Economy

A recent report from Wyoming’s lead economist, Wenlin Liu with the Department of Administration and Information, offers a mixed bag of good and bad news for Wyomingites. 

While tourism and employment numbers are strong, sales tax revenue is down and housing affordability sits at a 40-year low. In fact, Liu calls the housing market in Wyoming “overpriced,” and Zillow reports that low inventory prompts about 11% of homebuyers to pay more than list price to close deals.

Liu, who’s the chief economist for the Economic Analysis Division in Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that Wyoming’s labor market remained healthy in the fourth quarter of 2024, with job growth exceeding that of the previous two quarters.  

“Total employment increased 1.2% — 3,300 jobs — compared to the previous year,” said Liu. “The state's unemployment rate was up slightly to 3.5%, which was still much lower than the U.S. rate of 4.1%.

“Although there was a moderate contraction in oil and gas drilling in Wyoming, the state's labor market continued to progress, albeit at a slower rate compared to the previous three years.”

Looking at the percentage change in Wyoming employment by industry from the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, construction jobs in Wyoming went up by 4.9%. But mining jobs dropped by 2.8% and information jobs saw a 4.3% decline. 

“Wyoming’s total personal income increased 5.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter of 2023,” Liu said.

U.S. personal income increased 5% during the same period, as total earnings in the state grew 6.4% annually in the quarter, while dividends, interest and rent grew 2.3%. 

“Earnings in nearly all sectors demonstrated expansions from a year ago, led by professional and business services (24.4%),” while the overall construction industry grew by 7.2% annually,” according to Liu’s report. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Home Prices Rise"}]

Despite increased earnings, home affordability remains a problem because personal income is not keeping pace with rising home prices, according to Liu’s analysis.

Single-family home prices statewide increased 8.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to one year ago, which is the fastest increase since the third quarter of 2022. 

As of the end of February, Zillow listed the median home price in Wyoming at $411,667, with around 11% of buyers ultimately paying over the list price. 

Meanwhile, the national average price appreciation decelerated to 4.5% between 2024 and 2024. 

“Additionally, single-family building permits for new privately-owned residential construction in Wyoming were 38.6% higher than the previous year, while multi-family units advanced by 22%,” reported Liu, who declared the overall housing market to be “overpriced.”

“The principal reason for this is the tight inventory for sale, which has been increasing, but is still about 25% lower than the pre-COVID period,” wrote Liu. “Most existing homeowners are tied to extremely low interest rates, significantly reducing their motivation to sell their properties.”

What Liu is seeing is “the slowest existing-home sales since the 2008 financial crisis.”

He goes on to predict, “Overheated valuation will exert downward pressure on prices,” but because homeowners don’t want to give up their low-interest mortgages by selling, this creates a supply constraint and that could stabilize home prices. 

Liu ends his housing analysis on an up note, stating, “Home affordability is expected to improve over time through gradual income increases, reduced interest rates, and flattening home prices.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sales Tax Down, Tourism Up"}]

Total taxable sales in Wyoming decreased by 4% to $6.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the previous year, and Liu attributed this weak performance to contractions in the mining industry and utilities.

Taxable retail sales expanded by 2.1% reversing the decline observed in the previous quarter, but Liu still described taxable sales in Wyoming as “weak.”

However, Liu saw strength in the tourism data. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park welcomed an increased number of visitors. 

Yellowstone’s “recreational visitations” jumped by 12.3% compared to the previous year to 397,568. The visitor bump was smaller for Grand Teton, showing a 4.6% increase to 360,084 visits. 

Still, lodging sales for the fourth quarter were 15.8% lower than a year ago in Teton County, while the state as a whole experienced a decrease of 6.9%. Liu attributed this dip to a downward trend in what hotels are able to charge per night.

So even while visitation to Wyoming’s two big national parks has gone up, lodging prices appear to have declined. 

Digging into the lodging data from Teton County is important, because on an annual basis, lodging sales in Teton County account for more than half of the state’s total.

“Farm earnings in Wyoming demonstrated a robust trend for most of 2024,” reported Liu. “In the fourth quarter of 2024, earnings were 7.3% higher than the previous quarter, and 22.3% higher than the prior year.” 

Liu’s analysis cited a 2025 Cattle Survey conducted by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

It showed inventory of all cattle and calves in Wyoming totaled 1.22 million head, down 3%, or 40,000 head from the previous year. 

Mineral severance taxes generated in the fourth quarter was 6.2% higher than the previous quarter, but was 10.5% lower than the previous year.  

"Despite moderate improvements in recent quarters, mineral revenue remained among the lowest since the second quarter of 2021, attributing to the significant decline in oil and natural gas prices, as well as coal production,” wrote Liu in a summary of his findings. “Primarily due to the change in interest rates, the state's investment income distributed to the state general fund in the fourth quarter was 3.9% lower than the amount from the same quarter a year earlier.”    

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Tariff Talk Cooling? "}]

When Liu initially published his fourth quarter analysis at the end of March, it wasn’t clear how the Trump Administration planned to proceed with reciprocal tariffs. 

In the opening line of his report, Liu predicted, “The global economy is venturing into uncertain waters.” 

On Thursday, he told Cowboy State Daily, the Administration’s decision to pause reciprocal tariffs was good news for Wyoming and the world. 

Uncertainty persists, but if the Administration’s enthusiasm for tariffs cools, then Liu said the future state of the world economy might not be as precarious as he predicted in March.

“U.S. economic policy is creating instability due to a barrage of tariffs and threats of tariffs, leading to heightened trade tensions,” wrote Liu. “Markets are unsettled, and both business and consumer confidence are declining. The world economy is looking increasingly fragile.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":" "}]

Homes in Cheyenne neighborhood 4 10 25

<title>🚧 Wyoming Housing Market ‘Overpriced,’ With 11% Of Buyers Paying Over List Price | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming’s chief economist is reporting that it’s still tough for homebuyers in the state with an “overpriced” market. And Zillow reports a lack of available homes to buy also has about 11% of homebuyers paying more than list price.

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, November 29, 2023

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