Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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“When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” - Alexander Graham Bell I’ve been here in Thermopolis for the better part of nine years, I’ve been to your events photographing your kids at sports, your fundraisers, the concerts and many of the great activities for the people of Thermopolis. I’ve created your advertisements, thank you displays and worked with an amazing staff at the Th...
Christmas is half way over for me. That deserves some explanation. For more than 10 years, holidays have been split between my family and that of my fiancée/wife Louise. Occasionally in those years, several members of her family have been able to make it home for Thanksgiving, but not for Christmas. This results in quite the heyday at my in-laws, with Thanksgiving celebrated on its regular fourth Thursday in November and Christmas the following Saturday. That still leaves time for that Black...
The annual celebration of the turkey is upon us and hopefully this week finds you with friends and family, whether it’s at home or on the road, to share in this wonderful holiday. While the day is one to be excited for, with the promises of gut-busting meals, football games and those infamous Black Friday crowds, one need only look at the holiday’s name to know what it’s made for — giving thanks. Though thankfulness is something we should express in our day-to-day, even if it is just for something as simple as getting through another day, Th...
Yes, I am one of those weird people that already has all my Christmas shopping done. Well, with the exception of a few little ‘stocking stuffer’ kinds of things. Nothing is wrapped and my tree is definitely not up, but I buy things throughout the year when I see them, knowing someone on my list is going to love this little trinket or that. I’ve definitely come a long way from when I was married. It used to be we would put off Christmas shopping until the very last minute and then it was a flurr...
Where are we supposed to park? That’s been the mantra the last few days as a high profile case out of Natrona County moved into the Hot Springs County Courthouse and is expected to be here well over a week. Yes, its a little inconvenient for us locals to have to walk a bit to get to the courthouse or the post office or the bank, the library or Public Health, but the upside to the situation is it isn’t costing us anything but a little inconvenience. Because this trial was moved to Hot Springs County, Natrona County is footing the bill for eve...
Tuesday night I took in the annual Fall Showcase put on by the Hot Springs County High School Drama Club, getting a look at what the students are taking to the State Drama Festival next month. To say I was in awe would be a drastic understatement. Watching the individual and duo drama pieces, as well as the musical performances was incredible, and the applause the students received was well-deserving, though I wish it could’ve been more — more seats full, more performance time, more of eve...
Thank you to everyone responsible for continuing Hawk’s Avenue of Flags. Thermopolis can be proud of honoring our veterans in this manner....
November 12-16 will mark the 97th annual observance of American Education Week. Our AEW tagline, “Great Public Schools: A Basic Right and Our Responsibility,” highlights the importance of bringing together educators, parents, students, and communities in a unified effort to build great public schools. Today’s teachers do more than teach basic skills. They nurture and inspire children despite obstacles. They help students learn essential skills not always measured in testing, such as critical thinking, conflict resolution, cooperation, life...
If you’re like us here at the Independent Record, last night you were anxiously awaiting the General Election results. This week’s front page gives a look at what our local numbers were. Some race results were certainly a surprise, while others went as predicted, but the one thing they all have in common is that they’re over. All of the disagreements over who is best for the town, county and state can be put to rest. Mind you, this isn’t something that will happen overnight. Those voted in will be cheered by some, while also being scrutin...
We awoke Wednesday morning after a long, hard battled election, some feeling wonderful about the choices made, others, not so much. There are changes coming in a number of positions in Thermopolis and Hot Springs County, but now that its all over, we need to embrace those changes and understand that even if our candidate didn’t get in, we voted and our voice mattered. It was exciting to see so many people step up for the primary, putting their name on the line to make our little slice of h...
A few years ago, I was surprise an elated to find two wild turkeys on my fence. I had never before seen a wild turkey. Yesterday, I counted at least sixty (60) turkeys going up the hill to Cedar Ridge. I don’t propose to know the ideal number of turkeys, but judging from the number of piles on my driveway, I am sure that the number is less than sixty. Perhaps the city council could consult with Wyoming Game & Fish to consider a turkey reduction program....
We are on the final lap with the finish line in sight. Tuesday, Nov. 6 is the General Election and we urge everyone to get out and cast your vote. This edition of the Thermopolis Independent Record includes our election section, filled with a good deal of information to help you make your decision next week when you head to the polls. This election season has been an interesting one with plenty of candidates tossing their hats in the ring, wanting to help make things better for our community, our state and our country. At the Independent...
Well, Halloween has come and passed once again. The holiday has always been a favorite for me, even taking a higher place than Christmas, largely because of the amount of fun you get to have dressing up as a creature of the dark, a silly clown or some other figure and banging on doors to demand candy. In my childhood days, I always wanted something cute like a clown, but as I aged the costumes got a bit darker. Zombies, Riff Raff, the grim reaper, etc. I did once go back to being a clown, but Pe...
Voting is a fundamental right of our democracy. The decisions made on school boards, in city halls, at the state legislature, and in Congress impact all of us. There are many ways to influence our elected officials, but only one to determine who our officials are: by voting. On Tuesday, voters will decide which candidates will be our next representatives. Because Wyoming’s election laws allow for same-day voter registration, even people who have not yet registered to vote can go to the polls and cast their ballot on Election Day. U...
Certainly one of the most talked about races in the General Election is for the Hot Springs County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees. To that end, the Community Hall was home to a special forum for all six who are on the ballot for the school board. A similar situation happened in the Primary, with a forum specifically for candidates in the running for Hot Springs County Sheriff. As with any forum this past election year, introductions were given, questions were asked and answered, and there was plenty of visiting with candidates outside...
Halloween marks the start of the holiday season, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve, with lots of food and family time. Holiday dinners with family were huge when I was growing up. My grandmother hosted them all in our house on Fifth Street, getting up at the crack of dawn to get things cooking. My job was to set the table and then sit with grandpa to wach the parades on TV. Just the scent of my grandmother’s rolls baking in the oven were enough to fill the whole house with that fee...
The Joint Appropriations Committee for the State of Wyoming will be meeting in Thermopolis next Wednesday and Thursday and it looks as though Tom Forslund, the Director of the Department of Health, may be gearing up for another run at selling the Wyoming Pioneer Home. In their wisdom, Wyoming’s founding fathers created the Wyoming Pioneer Home, by state legislation in 1949, for “the purpose of providing a place for the care and maintenance of residents of this state who are afflicted with the infirmities of old age.” (W.S. 25-8-101) Here in Ho...
When I was graduated from high school and college, I thought I was done repeatedly going over lines in preparation of a stage production. Then along comes Dr. Fox and the Nosy Pig. For those of you who don’t know, this story of talking animals and learning to be yourself is what students in the Lights On program have been rehearsing and preparing for the past couple weeks, with opening “night” this Wednesday (Oct. 17). Not only have they been practicing their lines, but also getting invol...
I just completed watching the first episode of Ken Burns’ “Dust Bowl” which was originally aired on PBS several years ago. It had a special meaning for me since both my parents were “Kansas kids” whose lives were forever impacted by what some ecologists call the greatest ecological disaster ever on the North American continent. Memories of Mom’s response to questions about the “dusty bowl” as I called it were mostly confined to “It was just something that happened before you were born.” As the years passed, I discovered there were a lot of thin...
The first recognized printed newspaper is a publication titled “Relation,” published in Antwerp in 1605 under Johann Carolus. However, the first evidence of a newspaper is the “Acta Diurna,” published in Rome around 59 B.C. Against such dates, 117 years might not seem a significant span of time to some, but that’s how long the Thermopolis Independent Record has been bringing the news of Hot Springs County to you. The Independent Record came about when two papers — The Thermopolis Record and the Thermopolis Independent — merged. It is the off...
There is much to celebrate in Hot Springs County Schools as the 2018 WyTOPP results are released in Wyoming. Hot Springs County School District #1 has the best results ever recorded on the state assessment! The WyTOPP was the new state assessment rolled out in the 2017-18 school year, replacing PAWS. The new test added writing as part of the English Language Arts component and included questions in reading, math and science that required students to demonstrate learning through a series of problem solving steps, not just multiple choice. Just s...
It has recently been brought to my attention that the Russian olive tree is more than a beautiful Non-native tree. It was given to us by the Lord for beauty, flood control, and as I found out, a medicinal and edible source. Like the many benefits of the rain forest the Russian olive is fast disappearing from our landscape. Before The last Russian olive tree falls, and we give up free food, medicine, and the other benefits it offers please research this wonderful tree....
Its here! That smell of fall is here! You can step outside in the morning and the air actually smells different. There is no way you can escape the constant barrage of pumpkin spiced everything, either. Who decided we need pumpkin spice yogurt pretzels? Pumpkin spiced smoothies don’t really sound appealing to me, nor does pumpkin spice Jell-O. Non-alcoholic pumpkin spice sparkling juice? You can also find pumpkin spiced kettle corn, moonshine and salsa. I kid you not. Now that’s not to say I don...
Schools across the Cowboy State received the results of the new Wyoming Test of Proficiency and Progress (WY-TOPP) recently, a new testing method for our students that replaces the PAWS testing of the past. Our students did well, ranking in the top 10 in some of the categories tested at the individual grade levels. Kudos to our kids! However, what is concerning is the state averages on the same tests. There are many, many students in the state of Wyoming who show below basic skills in areas such as math, English and science. Wyoming schools suf...
The adage about March coming in like a lion certainly didn’t take Octobers like this one into account. It’s a very rare that I get woken up by nature, and when it does happen it’s usually something peaceful like a low roll of thunder somewhere miles away or raindrops hitting the roof. Not some kind of eerie howling wind that’s got me running around the house making sure the doors and windows are closed and wondering where I could go that has a storm cellar. But that howling seems fairly appropr...
