JH Underground – news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming

First came a bill to designate an official state gun.

Then another, inexplicably sponsored by Rep. Ruth Ann Petroff, R-Jackson, to exempt guns from sales tax.

And now House Bill 104, which would make any federal attempt at gun control, no matter how reasonable and justified, unenforceable in Wyoming. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Dan Dockstader, R-Afton, who represents Wilson and Hoback.

Not to be left out of all the rootin’ and tootin’ over shootin’, Rep. Keith Gingery, R-Jackson, is among the sponsors of yet another bill that would prohibit towns and counties from regulating firearms.

Then there’s the “Citizens’ and Students’ Self-Defense Act,” which would permit concealed weapons inside elementary and secondary schools and at any school, college or professional athletic event.

As usual, The Onion makes a forceful and sane counterargument.

Update 1/13: Co-sponsors Petroff and Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, filed their bill two days before the Newtown massacre and could not withdraw it.

Posted under Crime, Politics, Republican Party, Wyoming Legislature

Tags: keith gingery, rednecks, ruth ann petroff

The photo of a massive pile of avalanche debris widely circulated this weekend turns out not to have been taken on Teton Pass.

Showing a plow’s width cut through a 20-foot-high wall of snow, the image served as a powerful dissuasion to skiing the backcountry, as well as a commendation to WyDOT staff on a job well done opening the highway.

The image was posted Saturday by Matthias Hans Joachim Richter, a pilot who lives at Devil’s Tower, according to his Facebook profile. He attributed the photo to the pass and advised, “Please be careful out there folks!”

By Sunday morning, the photo was everywhere, as friends shared it on their Facebook pages, inviting discussion and oohs and aahs from their circles. Victor, Idaho, residents were some of the first to share. Among those who reposted it were media figures such as Jackson Hole Radio, Mary Cernicek, Bridger-Teton National Forest spokeswoman, and Teton AT.

A true journalist, Sam Petri wanted to see for himself and perhaps post his own photo on Instagram. Petri phoned friend Tony Birkholz and said, “Let’s go admire this big pile of snow like a couple of rednecks.”

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Posted under Environment, Humor, Media, Sports

Tags: avalanches, backcountry, idaho, phonies, photography, rednecks, sam petri, skiing, snowboarding, teton pass, wydot

Some of you may have seen this video a few weeks back, after it was featured on the Cowboy State Free Press and I posted a link via Twitter feed on the bottom of this page. A motorist apparently pulled over on Highway 14A east of Lovell, in the Big Horn Range, to film the scene of a rock slide.

What the gentleman didn’t expect was for the rocks to keep on sliding. His narration is pretty entertaining. This is the time of year when the landscape comes alive, and the forces of water, erosion and even a slight seismic shifting can cause dramatic changes relatively quickly.

The Gros Ventre Slide occurred during the wet spring of 1925, and the Dog Creek Mudslide, which closed Highway 89 in the Snake River Canyon for three weeks, ran during a similarly soggy June 1997.

After a few weeks of travel to the mouth of the Big River, I am working my way back home. Arriving in Steamboat Springs yesterday afternoon, I discovered the creeks rumbling with runoff and the process of change in full effect. The next few weeks are going to be exciting, as the Snake surges and wildflowers begin to bloom. It’s my favorite time of year. Bring it, baby!

Posted under Environment, Weather, Wyoming

Tags: landslides, rednecks, snake river, travel

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that seeks to enshrine in the Wyoming Constitution discrimination against gays.

The so-called “Defense of Marriage” bill would let voters decide whether to amend the Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and woman.

The bill, which already has passed the Senate, is one of two lawmakers have been working on that would restrict the rights of gay citizens. The second, which passed the House, would prohibit Wyoming from recognizing gay marriages and civil unions performed in other states.

At the same time they are trying to prevent gay people who love each other from getting married, Republican legislators pushed another bill, since failed, to force straight people who don’t love each other to stay married.

What are these lawmakers afraid of? That our state will be infected by some sort of “pestiferous freelove doctrine?”

That’s precisely what critics said in the late 19th century when Wyoming first granted women the right to vote, earning itself the nickname “Equality State.” Perhaps it’s time to do away with that phony moniker.

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Posted under Economy, Politics, Religion, Republican Party, Wyoming, Wyoming Legislature

Tags: matt mead, rednecks, sex

In the summer of 2001, I was learning to roll a kayak on the Snake River while the Green Knoll Fire raged south of Wilson. A friend and I were at the Wilson Bridge, where gravel excavation had created a new eddy.

As he sat in a chair on the bank reading a book and I paddled around the eddy, helicopters buzzed overhead ferrying buckets of water from the river to fight the fire. The air was thick with smoke, and ash was landing on the water.

It was like a scene out of Apocalypse Now. We laughed at the words of Robert Duvall: “If I say it’s safe to surf this beach, it’s safe to surf this beach!”

Over the next few summers, the “Wilson Beach,” as it became known, grew into one of the most popular recreation spots in Teton County. By 2005, the site reached its zenith as Redneck Riviera, with pickup trucks backed to the water’s edge for tailgating and a group of Georgia girls floating on an air mattress.

Alas, high water eventually filled in the swimming hole, and the river shifted eastward. The Georgia girls moved away. A community treasure was lost.

Now there’s an opportunity to bring back the beach, better than ever, as Teton County is considering a public park at the site.

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Posted under County Government, Economy, Environment, Politics, Sports, Town Government

Tags: dogs, rednecks, river running, snake river