Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"Oh good. Door Dash is here...."}]

Darwin 4 23 24

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

<title>🚧 Daily Darwin: Tuesday, April 23, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Oh good. Door Dash is here....

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Wyoming Life

very special to Hope and Raleigh Henderson are doing well in the couple’s Evanston home.

The boy and the girl born early Tuesday, March 3, arrived into the world the natural way — and weighing 18 

 a state record for Utah and for Wyoming,” Hope Henderson said. “I’m not sure though.”

Wyoming Department of Health Operations Manager Lindsay Mills reports they are, when comparing births of twins over the past five years.

Mills said a search of records over the past half-decade shows the largest twin births came in at 8.59 pounds and 7.05 pounds in 2024, or a combined nearly 16 pounds.

The Henderson babies were born in Ogden, Utah, at Arrivals Birth Services run by Chris Miller, a certified professional midwife (CPM). 

The arrival of the twins wasn’t just special because of their weight, which was well over 9 pounds each. Their birth required the couple to go out of state due to a Wyoming law that governs how twins can be born and who can be present.

Henderson, also a CPM, spent time with Miller training as a midwife. 

 now runs her own business called Born With Hope Midwifery in Evanston.

After learning she was pregnant with what the couple thought was their third child, 

 Henderson and her husband planned to follow their past practice used to bring her first two children into the world. They would just have the birth in their own home.

Then at her 20-week ultrasound, Henderson learned 

 having fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. Henderson said since the babies had their own placentas and were completely separate, it represented a “best-case scenario” to go ahead with a home birth. 

But they were confronted with a state law that does not allow midwives in Wyoming assist in the birth of twins at a home.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Utah Midwife"}]

 So, Henderson turned to Miller in Utah, a state that does allow twin births using midwives. And Henderson knew that Miller has helped bring many sets of twins into the world during her 54-year career.

“I reached out to her and told her that I was having twins, and she’s been awesome,” Henderson said. “That’s kind of where we started. All the scans looked good, and they obviously grew plenty.”

Miller, 82, said she can’t remember how old the oldest set of twins are that she helped bring into the world because that was a long time ago in California. But her oldest set of twins in Utah, where she has practiced for the past 45 years, are now 45.

 more than 4,000 babies to birth during her career.

When Henderson contacted her, Miller said they had a conversation and then they followed through with the protocols, standards, and monitoring through the prenatal visits that are important to track a healthy and normal pregnancy.

“Always the safety of the mother and the baby are the most important thing that we consider,” Miller said. “If anything falls out of that norm, we usually refer out or at least get second opinions.”

Miller said her birth center at Arrivals Birth Service is 3,000 square feet and “looks like somebody’s home.”

It has all the monitoring equipment for the baby and mom that one would find in a hospital outside of an operating room, she said.

Henderson said the last few weeks of her pregnancy were tough in terms of being able to do the things moms need to do around the home.

“I got pretty big,” she said. “I could barely do anything, but I still went into labor naturally at 40 weeks and two days.”

The birth pangs started on Monday evening as a snowstorm was hitting Evanston and eastern Utah. The couple called Miller and then headed to Ogden through the snow which turned to rain in Ogden.

The couple’s son, Clay, was born first at 1:23 a.m., weighed 9 pounds, 4 ounces and was 20 1/2-inches long. Their daughter, Leah, was born at 1:34 a.m. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Water Birth\u2028"}]

Henderson said she chose to do a water birth in a pool, and her son was born normally, headfirst, but Leah decided to come out feet first.

“Chris helped quite a bit to get her out and everything,” Henderson said.

Henderson said having the babies in the water helped her with mobility and positioning and alleviates some of the weight and pressure.

Miller said the fact that Henderson is a midwife herself helped make the prenatal care and birthing process smooth.

“I think that anybody in the medical field probably would say that (the birth of) twins are not routine,” she said. “I am not saying they are either. Hope took really good care of herself, she was a really good candidate, and the birth went really well.”

Looking back at their family histories, neither Henderson nor her husband have any kind of genetic leaning to twins of any kind, whether fraternal or identical. Her mother’s family had 11 siblings and she has more than 80 cousins — none have had twins.

Henderson said her husband is excited to have a boy in the family after their previous two children were girls and foresees a “little bit of male energy” among all the girls in the household.

One joke in the family after the couple learned they would have fraternal twins is that Leah, who floated above her brother in the womb, “will hover over him for the rest of his life.”

 twin and a more passive twin,” Henderson said. “We’ll see how that goes.”

She doesn’t expect the new additions to her family to impede her midwife role for other women in Wyoming. She said she typically assists with 24 births a year and travels to Jackson and across the region to help her patients with birth.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Midwife Calling\u2028"}]

Henderson first thought of becoming a midwife after witnessing them at work in Peru as she did her mission experience with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She said she witnessed a lot of moms who 

After returning home, she enrolled in the Midwives College of Utah and earned her bachelor’s degree.

As a midwife, she wanted to have the babies naturally, but also understands that birth complications would have changed her decision. 

Henderson said moms with conditions such as gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia — which involves high blood pressure — would not be recommended for a non-hospital or home birth.

Henderson said although she got big, she tried to eat healthy and recalls eating a lot of soups, and also a craving for steak.

Her example of bringing twins into the world naturally, will likely be an experience she draws on as she talks to her clients about home births, she said.

“I think we just need to normalize what birth is,

“Our bodies are meant to give birth, if you eat well, take care of yourself, you can have a really good birth experience.”

While the Henderson twins may be a record for Wyoming, they are nowhere near the Guinness World Record for twin birth weight. 

That goes to a Fort Smith, Arkansas, mom who on Feb. 20, 1924

 gave birth to fraternal twins who weighed more than 27 pounds.

Mary Ann Haskin brought Patricia Jane Haskin (13 pounds, 12 ounces) and John Prosser Haskin Jr. (14 pounds) into the world. Both were healthy.

“Either child would be considered of extraordinary weight, according to Dr. B. Wayne Freer, the attending physician, and 

nurse who witnessed the weighing of the children at their birth,” the Fort Smith Times Record reported on Feb. 20, 1924. “They are the largest twin babies they have ever ‘met’ in professional experience or have ever read of.”

Big Babies Cuddle 3 6 26

<title>🚧 Big Babies! Evanston Couple’s Twins Weigh In At More Than 18 Pounds | Cowboy State Daily</title>

An Evanston couple is celebrating the latest additions to their family — fraternal twins who together weighed more than 18 pounds. The big babies were brought into the world naturally by 82-year-old midwife Chris Miller who has more than 4,000 babies to her credit.

Big Babies! Evanston Couple’s Twins Weigh In At More Than 18 Pounds

Jake nichols 720

Jake Nichols

Entertainment

When Rocky Balboa opts for the isolation and desolation of frigid Siberia while training for his revenge fight with the Soviet’s indestructible prizefighter Ivan Drago, it’s actually Wyoming that plays the part of the Russian wasteland. 

Rocky chopping trees, Rocky sawing wood, Rocky climbing a mountain in knee-deep snow. It’s all in Jackson Hole.

“Rocky IV” is considered by some to be one of the lesser movies of the franchise but its training montage (every film in the series has one) is probably the best of the bunch. 

It stands out for its use of juxtaposition, alternating shots of nature Rocky and his rural routine edited against the great Soviet goliath utilizing the latest in applied science.

But equally impressive is the western Wyoming landscape which looks every bit the notorious Russian icebox. Just as cold, maybe. But in real life, way more expensive.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"1980s Movies Montage"}]

Of course, every movie made in the 1980s has to include the requisite ’80s montage featuring fast-paced edited video clips looped over a pounding synthed-up, saxophone-infused soundtrack.

“Rocky IV” is no exception with its seven-minute training segment showing the Italian Stallion getting all swole by conquering the harsh Siberian elements.

Rocky’s low-tech, old-school methods are contrasted with his opponent, Drago, who exercises in a state-of-the-art training facility complete with frequent syringes of performance-enhancing cocktails.

Drago jogs in his space-age onesie on an indoor flat track while Rocky postholes across the frozen tundra in three feet of snow. Drago is draped in synthetics and hooked up to more health monitor electrodes than a coma victim. Rocky sports a bitchin’ shearling bomber jacket in 20-below windchill temperatures.

It's 1985, at the heart of the Cold War, and the message is clear. Drago’s hi-tech gym is no match for Rocky’s all-American ranch workout. Hard work and desire wins out over Drago’s drugs and dumbbells. Raw versus rocket science. USA beats USSR. 

Stallone would say in later years, he was originally looking for a primitive hairy beast of a man to play “Drago.” But when the relative unknown Dolph Lundgren auditioned for the role, Stallone knew he had to rewrite the script.

“Drago represents the future. He’s science. He’s evolved a thousand years where man should be. Perfect, intelligent, flawless. Whereas Rocky is awkward. He’s smaller, he’s flawed,” Stallone said in 2021. 

“It takes it into an almost android concept where the fight is now technology against humanity. Science against natural evolution. Audiences had never seen anything like that before.”

As montages go, many rate “Rocky IV” the best. It’s hard to top the original with Stallone taking on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art three at a time in his old school Converses. “Rocky II” reprises the scene with a gaggle of street urchins following behind the Pied Piper of pugilism.

Songwriter Vince Dicola’s “Training Montage” for “Rocky IV” is not quite “Gonna Fly Now” — used in Rocky I and II — but the Russian front never looked so good.

In “Rocky III,” Stallone high fives and hugs Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) as the two heavyweights train at the beach, and there’s Rocky beating his meat in a walk-in cooler in “Rocky Balboa.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"But the “Rocky IV” montage has it all."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sly Comes To Jackson"}]

Astute viewers then and now may have caught the Teton Range in the background and correctly placed Rocky in the Rockies, but most have no idea that is not Siberia.

Veteran production designer Bill Kenney and set decorator Rick Gentz outdid themselves by recreating an entire Siberian outpost, complete with Soviet-looking villagers gawking at Balboa as he jogged by in knee-deep snow. 

An estimated 40 locals got parts as stand-ins and extras. In fact, that’s 

.  Jeff Wordeman’s uncle who plays a very Russian-looking villager with his arm around another stand-in posing as his wife.

The snow and cold was real. Some on the set in March 1985 recall shooting in below-zero weather; temperatures that caused film and audio equipment to simply freeze up.

The isolation had to be somewhat carefully manufactured. Rocky’s adopted Siberian outpost was actually a set built just north of historic 

 in Grand Teton, a national park that sees nearly four million visitors a year.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Where Was Rocky?"}]

The shots of Rocky climbing a mountain, raising his fists on the summit and shouting “Draaaaago!” were actually shot on Cody Peak (10,759 feet) at the popular Jackson Hole Mountain Ski Resort.

Filmed just after the resort closed for skiing that winter, a stuntman double was flown by helicopter to the top. The helicopter then circled the peak to get all the juicy footage. Stallone, it turns out, is deathly afraid of heights. Go figure, the star of “Cliffhanger” wouldn’t be caught dead on a mountain.

 more or less accurately tracks down shooting locations for “Rocky IV” that are purported to take place in Russia.

Rolfe tromps around Mormon Row, looking for that precise angle at the Tetons that would give away the location of a 30-year-old movie set now surrendered to the sagebrush.

Rolfe did manage to deduce the location of the scene where Rocky runs through a river. That took place at the Snake River Bridge in Wilson, some 20 miles from his supposed log cabin

But the money shot of the montage is the Siberian equivalent of running to the top of the museum steps in Philly. In “Rocky IV,” Balboa scales a craggy mountain peak and then challenges Drago right then and there with a yodeling rebel yell.

After riding the tram to the ski resort’s summit, Rolfe figured out some of Rocky’s closeups were shot up there but the famous shout from the mountaintop was done at nearby Cody Peak — a strenuous mile hike from where the tram lets off. 

“We saw amazing scenery … and got a great workout,” Rolfe narrated in the video.

While Rolfe admits he did not climb to the top, he confirmed Cody Peak by matching up angles using Jackson photographer Tristan Greszko’s “Low Earth Orbit #02” on Vimeo.

In the Hollywood age of CGI (computer-generated imagery) there is almost no reason to pack up cameras and crew and schlep out to Wyoming to get that thirst trap shot of the Tetons. 

, the popular Amazon Prime series “Outer Range” makes ample use of a Tetons backdrop all the way from New Mexico. Producers found it easier (and warmer) to simply use editing magic to move mountains.

Of course, there are times directors want the authentic thing. Quentin Tarantino found no suitable substitute for Jackson Hole’s snow and general western vibe when he had Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz don thick fur coats and ride through a buffalo herd in “Django Unchained,” filmed in 2012.

The crew spent a reported half-million dollars renting a hundred rooms at nearby Snow King Resort for a week during filming. Temporary sets were also constructed at Bar BC Ranch where the crew filmed for about five days. 

The western classic “Shane” was also filmed in Jackson Hole. The homestead cabin was actually built very near where Rocky’s Siberian village was constructed. That cabin was eventually moved and the rest of the set burned down in a wildfire in the 1990s. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Whiter, Brighter, Better"}]

Incidentally, during a 2021 re-editing of “Rocky IV” (“Rocky vs Drago — the director’s cut”) Stallone remembered getting off the plane at Jackson Hole Airport and seeing all that white, WHITE snow.

For the remake, he asked his editors to juice up the original blueish-looking snow scenes from 1985, wanting them to appear more blindingly white.

“When I was there it just seemed brighter. The snow was whiter. When you see fresh snow like this there is a reason you put on sunglasses,” Stallone said.

Today, no monument marks the spot atop Cody Peak where Balboa called out his Russian nemesis. The Philadelphia Museum of Art has its Rocky steps and Rocky statue. Cody Peak has a 

And the Siberian village is all but forgotten on the lonesome plains north of Jackson, the Hollywood graveyard of “Shane,” “Spencer’s Mountain,” and other classics shot in the picturesque valley.

“We got ripped off! Rocky wasn’t roughing it in Russia. He was chilling in a fancy Jackson Hole ski lodge,” James Fisher posted on the Facebook site “Film Locations Then and Now.”

Maybe so, James, but calling Wyoming Siberia makes up for all the times Wyoming has been portrayed by New Mexico, Canada and everywhere else that wishes they were anywhere here.

Rocky iv jackson john bryson getty

<title>🚧 Remember When: Rocky’s Siberian Training Site In “Rocky IV” Happened In Wyoming | Cowboy State Daily</title>

When Rocky Balboa opted for the isolation and desolation of frigid Siberia while training for his revenge fight with the Soviet’s indestructible prizefighter Ivan Drago, it’s actually Wyoming that plays the part of the Russian wasteland. The filming happened 40 years ago outside of Jackson.

Remember When: Rocky’s Siberian Training Site In “Rocky IV” Happened In Wyoming

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

Miracle, the last surviving cub of famous Grizzly 1063, has had a rough year. Its two siblings were cannibalized by a male bear in May, and then the cub separated from its mother at an unusually young age in June.

 by wildlife agents for hanging around the busy Colter Bay area of Grand Teton National Park. The cub was set loose in a remote area of the park, the National Park Service reported at the time.

Wildlife agents didn’t directly handle the yearling during the procedure, so its sex remains undetermined. 

Sources who talked to Cowboy State Daily about the cub referred to Miracle as both “he” and “she.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Young To Be Alone"}]

Now at the tender age of about 18 months, the young bear is facing its first winter alone. 

Fans are hopeful that Miracle will find a suitable hibernation den and make it through until next spring.

Grizzly cubs don’t typically separate from their mothers until they are at least age 2. That means Miracle would have been on track to spend another winter with its mom and split from Grizzly 1063, also called Bonita, sometime during summer 2026.

It’s not known for certain why Miracle separated from Bonita early. Some speculate the split might have resulted from the trauma of Miracle’s two siblings being

Large male grizzlies will sometimes kill cubs that aren’t theirs in hopes of putting the mother back into heat so they can mate with her.

While it’s unusual for cubs to split from their mothers that young, bear experts previously told Cowboy State Daily that it’s not unheard of, and the cubs sometimes survive to adulthood.

This isn’t the first time that wildlife photographers and grizzly watchers have cheered on a Grand Teton cub that ended up alone too soon.

Similar hopes were held for Spirit, the last cub of Wyoming’s beloved Grizzly 399.

Spirit was roughly the same age as Miracle is now when Grizzly 399 was struck and killed by a vehicle south of Jackson in October 2024.

Spirit was reported fleeing the scene of the accident, and hasn’t been seen since.

There was some expectation that Spirit might emerge from hibernation. But as spring wore into summer, many observers said it was probably time to 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Roadside Romp"}]

Bill Beverly works at Lake Lodge in Yellowstone National Park. When he has time, he likes to travel to Grand Teton, where 1063 and Miracle live.

He told Cowboy State Daily that he recently came upon a “bear jam” in Grand Teton when Miracle appeared close to the road.

Beverly stopped to watch Miracle and take some photos, and said the young bear appeared to be energetic.

However, he’s worried that Miracle isn’t focused on gobbling down enough food to put on fat for the looming winter.

“He was just running around, almost playing like a cub,” he said. "It got me concerned that he’s not eating really well. He looked pretty big, but I have a feeling that could be mostly fur.

“About this time of year, grizzlies should have their noses down and be eating as much as they can."

Famed wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen has followed the Teton grizzlies for years, and was largely responsible for making Grizzly 399 famous through his photographs of her and her numerous cubs over the years.

He previously told Cowboy State Daily that he blames the deaths of Miracle’s siblings on the Park Service for hazing the then-intact grizzly family away from Colter Bay.

 from their mother, giving the male grizzly the opportunity to strike, Mangelsen argued.

The Park Service reported that 1063 and the cubs weren’t separated during hazing operations.  

On Friday, Mangelsen told Cowboy State Daily that Miracle has a decent chance of making it alone.

“I think since Miracle has been orphaned from her mom, since early summer, she has a better chance than average to survive the winter,” he said.

“She has likely learned a lot about being alone, I would guess,” Mangelsen added. "But she is still pretty compromised without her mom to help going to find or make a den. She has pretty limited knowledge about winter and hopefully will rely on instinct for digging or finding a den."

Wyoming photographer Jorn Vangoidtsenhoven said he hopes Miracle will reunite with 1063 before winter sets in.

He told Cowboy State Daily that he’s seen older cubs reunite with their mothers after temporary separations.

“It’s definitely possible at that age (1.5 years) for a lone cub to find a den and make it through the winter,” he said. "That being said, part of me hopes Miracle will reunite with 1063 prior to the winter, just like Pepper reunited with Felicia up on Togwotee Pass a few years ago when Pepper was that age and separated.

“1063 staying away from Miracle through the summer mating season may be a deliberate plan to keep him/her safe from boars (male bears)."

Jackson photographer Savannah Rose said she admires Miracle’s resourcefulness.

“There have been cases where grizzly yearlings make it on their own just fine. Of course, ideally, she (Miracle) would have a mother, but she would be going off on her own next year anyway,” Rose said.

“She’s done a great job managing to survive by being as low key as possible and I see no reason why this bear can’t survive despite the odds being against her,” she added. “Although this is a grizzly bear, black bears boot their cubs at one year, so it’s not like it’s wildly unheard of for young bears to make it out on their own."

Julie Argyle is postmaster at Lake Village in Yellowstone and also enjoys following the Grand Teton grizzlies.

She told Cowboy State Daily that she’s staking her hopes for Miracle on the natural resilience she’s seen in all wildlife.

“I would just say animals are resilient, and they surprise us all the time,” she said. "I would think that instincts would lead it to den and we can hope that this little cub has gotten all the nutrients it needs to make it through the winter."

Miracle 3 10 3 25

<title>🚧 After Siblings Cannibalized, Grizzly 1063’s Last Cub Faces First Winter Alone | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After its two siblings were cannibalized by a male bear earlier this year, the last surviving cub of famed Grand Teton Grizzly 1063 separated from its mom unusually early. The cub, named Miracle by fans, is still surviving and facing its first winter alone.

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, April 23, 2024

More in Daily Darwin

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Daily Darwin: Monday, March 16, 2026

Daily Darwin: Sunday, March 15, 2026

Most read