Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
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Dear Editor, One of my favorite books in the Saratoga Museum is “Saratoga and Encampment Wyoming: An album of Family History.” Residents, tourists and researchers use this reference to the Platte Valley to explore and learn about their families. I would like to ask those with history in the Valley to reach out again to their families. Maybe there was not enough time with the last edition or maybe they always wanted to but thought they didn’t know enough details. We can turn staying at home into a positive with teaching children how to gathe...
My last column was about me being sick and waiting for my advised quarantine to be over. It was still early in how hard COVID-19 was hitting the country and there were some folks who were suggesting to ride it out for the economy’s sake. I wrote about being opposed to this idea. Two weeks after my column went out, I think America has learned not paying attention to the seriousness of this virus in the beginning has caused nothing but hardship. As I write this, over 20,000 people have died. The m... Full story
Face it, we are living in unusual times. Probably the craziest times of our lives. The COVID-19 coronavirus has turned our personal lives, our towns, our state, our country and our world upside down. Folks that we all took for granted just three weeks ago are now recognized as heroes. I am talking about grocery store workers, janitors, truck drivers, local food delivery servicers, utility workers and many, many others. Notice that I did not mention doctors, nurses, EMTs, hospital workers and other medical personnel. Obviously, they are already...
It can be all too easy, in times like this, to focus on the negative. I’ve been guilty of it myself, especially as I watch the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the state tick up nearly every hour. It hit me over the weekend, also, that I would have normally spent the weekend covering the 13th Annual Wyoming Open and that this week’s paper would have a list of all the various Easter events in eastern Carbon County. When thinking about what has changed, and what is cha... Full story
Several days ago, while watching the endless news about coronavirus I heard a newscaster say something that has stuck with me, "You can't quarantine tears". As I thought about this, even when trying to go to sleep and find some semblance of rest during these challenging times, the words kept playing over and over again in my head, "You can't quarantine tears". He was absolutely right, you can't. We can't quarantine suffering either. Never have and probably never will. We can't quarantine fear....
Dear Editor, Over the last several decades the world has witnessed a spate of new health threats in the format of SARS, HIV, Ebola, Bird flu, Swine flu. All of these in the form of highly communicable diseases which at one time have threatened the health of the planet. Now we are experiencing another such virulent disease in COVID-19 which is currently attacking countries around the world. In addition to the public health implications, it also reveals the diminished response capability of our government at all levels of society and highlights...
Dear Editor, Our world is dealing with an unprecedented time that has not been seen in generations, if ever. We are being asked to do things we would never consider as normal–social distancing being the most prominent. There is no one immune from this. It is a global issue. We all see the news showing how the numbers of those infected and having died from this virus continues to grow exponentially on a daily, or even hourly, basis. That said, those of us in Wyoming, and Carbon County in particular, have opportunities to deal with this better t...
I guess, in a way, I am glad I went through the experience of living in Taiwan through the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic in Taiwan back in 2003. It made me understand how serious it can be to combat an unknown virus and the steps needed to make sure it doesn’t decimate a population. Don’t get me wrong. It killed people and as I wrote in my column about my time during SARS (see “Tis truly the season to be careful” in the February 12 edition of the Saratoga Sun), my restaur...
Dear Editor, Do we citizens of Carbon County want the Federal Government to have total control over our natural resources? Fishing, hunting, agriculture, ranching, energy, recreation, water, air, mineral, timber, our economy (to name a few) are our heritage and way of life. Unfortunately, we are in a very sad state of affairs when our County Commissioners don’t appreciate or seem to want representation from all the people to formulate a Natural Resource Management Plan for Carbon County. The Commissioners voted on March 17, 2020 to have only s...
Dear Editor, Tourism is a growing industry in Carbon County. Carbon County’s tourism growth and economic change has been exciting and impressive over the last seven years. Carbon County not only provides temporary housing to industry workers but has a thriving visitor economy. In the past, Carbon County was more of a stop on the way to or from another tourist destination but, over the last few years, has become a destination for visitors. Evidence to support this is in the numbers. As reported in the Dean Runyan Associates 2018 Wyoming T...
The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated – famous quote by Mark Twain concerning American press reports of his demise while on a speaking tour in Europe in 1897. And like Mark Twain, reports of the death of media are also wildly exaggerated. Media, especially here in Wyoming, consists of a hardy lot of men and women who, although taking some blows, are still reporting the news and are nowhere near expiring. They have been pricked, pickled and pummeled, but the newspaper people, broadcast people, digital media people, and others are...
Are you feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment with everything that’s been going on recently? Well, you’re not alone. When I left the office on March 13, I probably should’ve taken the hint that it was Friday the 13th. The biggest thing on my mind was finishing up an article on the workshop held by the Town of Saratoga with James Childress and auditors from Carver, Florek and James. In a 48-hour period, that all changed. While the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, was on my radar as cases were...
I have talked about toilet paper more in the past week than I have probably ever before in my life! The COVID-19 virus does not even have symptoms that would require the use of extra toilet paper. Many of us are stunned at the level of hoarding and lack of respect for fellow community members. There are plenty of elderly and people who live on fixed incomes that cannot afford to purchase groceries and supplies ahead of time. They shop on a week to week basis. The panic purchasing that has been...
By Dr. Dean Bartholomew I personally and professionally have struggled with how to think about the novel 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Let me share with you where I am with COVID-19: It is a real pandemic; our government's drastic efforts at containment measures are necessary; the containment measures are sincere efforts to help the American people. Why do I say this? Settle in, because we are going to have to put on our thinking caps. First, we need to talk statistics. I have seen...
By now, we have all seen the news and heard countless coverage on the COVID-19 situation. However, there is something else that is spreading among us, and that is fear. The amount of emotional and mental energy fear and worry take is quite staggering. Mix this with an unprecedented situation of “social distancing” and we as humans are sitting in a recipe for anxiety, depression, sadness and mania. Watching the internet, constantly refreshing for updates, and checking your phone every few minutes are cyclical activities that provide the ill...
When I was living in Taiwan, my awesome stepmother passed away and I felt a major loss. My father had died a couple years before, so that parental group was gone out of my life. They both died fairly young and I hoped my mother and stepfather would live many more years. I was lucky up until March 6 when, I am sad to write, my mother passed away. No one in my family really saw it coming but, I have to admit, she was not the same person I knew and admired growing up. Many people know my Dad...
Editor, In response to the article by Mike Armstrong,”A Missed Opportunity” I would like to support both Mr. Armstrong’s reporting and the members of the CCVC as well as other tourism partners. As Bill Sniffen noted in “Tourism is a runaway success for the Cowboy State,” tourism is the second-largest industry in the state, with promises of greater growth and expansion ahead. If you are a conservative who believes in trickle down economics, tourism spending is essentially putting money in the bank. For every dollar spent on promoting tourism,...
Last month, the Saratoga Sun informed our readers of three pieces of legislation that had made their way through the House of Representatives and were headed to the Senate (see “Your right to know is at stake” on page 4 of the February 19 Saratoga Sun). Since then, we have kept an eye on that legislation. On Wednesday, all three bills were overwhelmingly passed by the Senate. The bills were then sent over to the House of Representatives for concurrence to determine if the House agreed with changes made by the Senate. All three bills passed con... Full story
During the course of my business career, our companies have published and distributed over four million magazines promoting tourism in the Cowboy State. My first magazine was started in 1970 called Big Mountain Country that sang the praises for my Fremont County, home of the biggest mountains in the state. Flash ahead 50 years, and I am attending the annual Wyoming Governor’s Tourism Conference in Cheyenne. Hundreds of members of the 31,000-plus people who work in the hospitality industry were there. Over the years the tourism industry has f... Full story