Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
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Ian McCreary—who grew up in Oregon—remembers being in the 6th grade and getting up around 4 a.m. to go fishing for steelhead trout with his father on the Santiam River. “[I would] get to school at 11 [a.m.], get to class and my teacher would say ‘Where were you?’ I would say ‘I was fishing’ and she did not like that response at all,” said McCreary. “I pretty much grew up fishing in the [Pacific] Northwest.” McCreary has lived in the Platte Valley for nearly five years, moving...
At Encampment K-12 School, an empty fish tank sits in the main lobby. Soon, however, it will be home to more than 200 trout eggs. Encampment will be one of more than 60 schools taking part in the “Trout in the Classroom,” a program administered by Wyoming Trout Unlimited with the help of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD). “Schools are getting around 250 eggs because there is quite a bit of die-off,” said Ian McCreary, Wyoming Trout Unlimited State Coordin...
Photo by Liz Wood Instructor Rusty Hessler, of Country Kickup Casper, teaches the Wagon Wheel line dance to 30 participants at the Saratoga Resort & Spa Saturday night. Left to right, Danielle Bangs, Tracey Schneider and Peggy Huntley follow along. People came from Saratoga, Riverside, Encampment, Elk Mountain and LeGrange to learn two line dances and a swing dance. Nancy Ford, the organizer, said she loves to dance and wanted to bring back this art form through the Platte...
The Encampment Town Council had a full agenda November 14. The most difficult decision was what to do about a resident who had ignored their request to stop building an overhang on his property. The overhang is encroaching on state property and was denied a building permit at the November 1, 2023 meeting of the Encampment Planning Commission. According to the minutes from that meeting, the resident had already begun to build the overhang, but did not provide sufficient evidenc...
“We thought, let’s try a Turkey Trot. Something on Thanksgiving Day to give thanks to the fact that we have the opportunity to help people and provide assistance to some folks.” For the past 10 years, the Carbon County Cancer Fund—operating under Ribbons of Hope—has provided grants to county residents who are undergoing cancer treatments. Over the years, according to Treasurer Copper France, the county-wide organization has looked for different ways to help raise funds. Th...
A volleyball player has to be quick to react when blocking a ball. Sophie Diaz is not only good at blocking the ball, she is the best in the 1A Volleyball Class, and she placed third in the state of all classes. Diaz had 91 blocks during the volleyball season that ended earlier this month at regionals for the Saratoga Panthers. Diaz has been playing volleyball since the fifth grade, when they opened up camps for her age groups. Because of her height and the fact she is a...
Vanessa King was the only Cross Country runner to place at state this year - and she is a freshman. King placed eighth place at state, and when she first started running, it was because she was encouraged by her dad who had run cross country. He was placed at state. King didn’t have an interest in volleyball, so upon the urging of her dad, she ran cross country for the first time this year. During the season, she shaved off more than five minutes off her time. She ran the t...
Senior Josie Little had her 1000th dig toward the end of the 2024 Volleyball season. At the last home game in October, her coach Shayley Love surprised her with a poster. Little admits she checks her statistics after each game, so she can make goals for the next game because she wants to get better. “It’s not a priority for me, but it is fun to see how I did after each game,” Little said. She ended the season with 363 digs, which means she averaged more in the first three...
*Editor's Note: Anthony Campbell won the local Voice of Democracy contest. We have reprinted his entry here for our readers.* Our forefathers' vision of America is not exactly how it is today. When writing on the importance of law in the United States, Founding Father James Wilson stated, “Without liberty, law loses its nature and name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.” This principle still holds today, especially as liberty has been questioned rec...
Much like how the opening of the season pass over the Snowy Range is a sign of summer, so too is its closure a sign of winter. The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) announced on November 19 that the section of Wyoming Highway 130—also known as the Snowy Range Scenic Byway—was closed for the season. According to the press release, WYDOT crews in Laramie and Saratoga jointly decided that current road conditions warranted the closure of this section of Wyoming Highway 130 for the season. The Snowy Range Scenic Byw...
Photo credit: D'Ron Campbell...
Folks looking forward to another mouthwatering home cooked meal will be thrilled with the next Gather at the Table free dinner Monday, Dec. 2nd, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. in the Saratoga Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall. On the menu are barbeque ribs with mac-n-cheese salad, coleslaw, buttermilk cheese cornbread, pineapple cake with cream cheese frosting and a beverage. Everyone, especially the hungry and lonely, are invited to an evening of free food and fellowship. No reservations are needed and no restrictions apply....
The Never Forget Park committee recently received word that the Town of Saratoga will be a recipient of an award of approximately $278,200 from the federally funded Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Wyoming's LWCF project is administered by Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources, Grants Office. Using no taxpayer dollars, the LWCF invests earnings from offshore oil and gas leasing to help establish and improve parks and other outdoor recreation areas. This award requires a match from the Town of Saratoga, which...
Interest in speech and debate died out in 2021 when only four students signed up for the team and at least five students were needed to compete. This year there are nine to 11 students interested and coaches lining up to assist. COVID restrictions in 2020 resulted in the state competition being conducted online with teams competing through a computer monitor and virtual judging. The passion for debating without realtime interactions died out, at least for the Platte Valley...
I was very fortunate to have a dad who was involved in my education. In the third grade, I struggled with math. I had trouble with the times table. Dad was an electrical engineer and worked for the State of Iowa almost all of his career. When I was in the third grade, teletypes were the form of communication back then and dad brought home scrap paper to write out problems for me to work on. Every night he would give me a half page of 8 ? by 11 paper which had several multiplic...
Editor, The world is an ever-more complicated place. It can be difficult to know what the facts really are. Back in the day when we all watched Walter Cronkite give us the news on TV we all got the same facts. And they really were true. We might have disagreed on solutions to issues, but we all had the same facts to work from. So, now, when there are so many sources to get news from it can be daunting to get to the truth. But, keep in mind that there are still journalists out there—as opposed to some news hosts/anchors and w...
Earlier this month, the Campbell County Chamber of Commerce recognized the Gillette News Record at its annual awards banquet with the Legacy Award. The Gillette News Record is a legacy to our community, from the many that pioneered its beginning to those who built it to what it is today. From its early inception started by the Nisselius family to the Kennedy/Turner family, the Gillette News Record has seen many changes in our community with a goal of providing the community with the news and reporting that have made an impact...
2 Thessalonians 2:7 New King James Version For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. For some of us our lives seem like a mystery. You may ask where is my life headed, what is my purpose, and how can I even make any sense of my upside down life. For others you may not consider your life a mystery because that may imply something uncertain, unsuccessful, or even eerie, but before the end of this message you might consider the question from a...
Photo by Liz Wood Nick Wamsley, left, listens to his son Lloyd read Tuesday morning at the Encampment K-12 School for Books and Breakfast. Nick Wamsley is on the Board of Trustees for Carbon County School District No. 2....
Following a chase in vehicles and on foot the afternoon of November 10, a Saratoga man is facing multiple charges, including two felonies. The charges were so numerous, in fact, they required seven feet of paper to print the citations. Aiden Swanson is facing charges including felony possession of methamphetamine, convicted felon in possession of a firearm and nine misdemeanors including littering. The chase, which began in Saratoga, went out onto county roads and through...
When a student graduates from high school, the goal of teachers, the Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) and the Board of Trustees are to make sure each student is ready for the workforce, military, career or college. That is the purpose of the Postsecondary Readiness, which is used as an indicator to see if they are in fact ready. It measures the progress of juniors in high school and is dependent on students and what they have done to be ready for their next step...
With the scenic Snowy and Sierra Madre mountain ranges, the North Platte and Encampment rivers and breathtaking vistas many Platte Valley residents have likely thought it would only be a matter of time before Hollywood arrived. It has, but probably not in the way most would expect. According to Lieutenant John Moore with the Saratoga Police Department, prop money has recently been found throughout Saratoga. The props are realistic enough, judging by the $20 bill Moore brought...
*Editor's Note: McKinley Martin won the local Patriot's Pen contest. We have reprinted her entry here for our readers.* What is democracy you may ask? It is a system of government by the whole population where voting can make changes if the people don’t agree with the laws and government. Gerald Stanley Lee said that “America is a tune. It must be sung together.” If we sing together then all the people’s voices, including my voice, will be heard in American Democracy. Voting is important because we have a respons...
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