Around the 307
News, commentary, and other items of interest from the greater Wyoming landscape.
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It’s the first full week of June! Here are a few Wyoming news items of interest for the week of June 2nd, 2024:
On Tuesday, June 5th, a rare white bison was born in Yellowstone National Park (YNP)! Wildlife photographer, Erin Braatan, was lucky enough to be on the scene just after the miraculous birth occurred and captured some amazing photos (check out her Facebook post here). Read more about this extraordinary occurrence in this Cowboy State Daily news story.
Wednesday, June 6th was the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Allied invasion on the beaches of Normandy France. It was the largest seaborne invasion in history and marked the beginning of northwest Europe’s libration from the Nazi regime. Some 4,414 Allied troops died on D-Day, of those, 2,501 were Americans including 5 sons of the Cowboy State. Those men Private Raymond Dahlman, Private First Class Thompson Dicks, Private Thomas Offutt, Jr., Private First Class Steven Serkovich, and Private Jack Simpson made the ultimate sacrifice. Read more about these brave men and other Wyoming servicemen who served World War II in U.S. Senator John Barrasso’s speech given 5 years ago to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. You can also read more at the Museum of the American G.I. about the D-Day invasion.
Friday, June 7th, Teton Pass (Highway 22) was closed for the second time in less than 24 hours due to a mudslide the flowed across the road at milepost 15. Check out the video below of the mudslide area posted to YouTube by the Jackson Hole News & Guide (JHN&G). As of the writing of this post Teton Pass remains closed. On Thursday Teton Pass was also closed for about 3 hours when a large crack that spanned both travel lanes was discovered at milepost 12.8. The crack was initially discovered when a motorcyclist crashed into a guardrail after hitting the fracture. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured. Read more here from JHN&G about this story and also to obtain updates on the status of Highway 22 at Teton Pass.
That’s all for today buckaroos! Stay safe out there and thanks for reading. Have a great week!
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