Scouting for information

Established last fall, a new collaborative covering the northeast of Wyoming is looking to improve outdoor recreation in this area – and needs your help for its first steps towards doing so.

The Northeast Wyoming Outdoor Recreation Collaborative (NEWORC) has two ideas for projects this summer, but first needs to discover the identity of the Eagle Scout who installed a life jacket kiosk at Keyhole State Park.

“We need to find out who this person was or if anyone remembers anything about it,” says Commissioner Jeanne Whalen, who is part of the NEWORC steering committee. “We want to revive it.”

Giving the kiosk new life was the idea of State Park Superintendent Wade Henderson, she says, who is also a member of the steering committee.

“He mentioned getting life jackets because he has kids from the schools come over with canoes, but they send adult-sized life jackets,” Whalen says.

“Glendo has a place where, if you need a life jacket, you can go to a kiosk and borrow it.”

It wouldn’t be a case of building from scratch, because the previous life jacket station is relatively intact, Whalen says. It’s known to have been constructed by a local kid as his Eagle Scout project, but his identity is not known.

“The kiosk is actually still there,” she says. “It’s sitting out at Keyhole over by the headquarters.”

The kiosk, once complete, would include a range of life jackets in different sizes to accommodate different age groups, genders and body sizes. NEWEOC would like to expand the project to have two kiosks within the park.

Whalen hopes to work with local organizations to maintain the kiosk and had plans to make contact with potentially interested parties such as the Northeast Wyoming Walleye Association or the Sundance Rod & Gun Club.

“Our little group can come up with the money, but somebody has to be able to maintain it,” she says.

The second idea that NEWEOC is pursuing, says Whalen, is a fishing dock, and the collaborative would welcome assistance here too.

“The idea is to erect an ADA Compliant fishing dock on the lake. If anyone has any ideas or has knowledge on what the dock project would cost please contact [email protected],” she says.

NEWORC is one of several collaboratives across Wyoming that sprang from the Wyoming Governor’s Outdoor Recreation Task Force report of 2017. A group of stakeholders came together to create a report on how outdoor recreation could be leveraged to help diversify the state’s economy, and a consistent theme within that report was collaboration with local communities.

NEWORC also includes Weston and Campbell counties. Whalen was appointed to its steering committee to represent Crook County’s needs and interests.

The collaborative will aim to bring to the table both motorized and non-motorized opportunities, including specific interest groups such as rock climbers and mountain bikers. Hunting and fishing, wildlife and conservation interests are also on the list to be represented, as well as business owners, chambers of commerce and tourism organizations and agencies including BLM, State Lands and the U.S. Forest Service.

According to Whalen, the decision on whether to move forward with the two project ideas will be made at the next NEWORC meeting on April 12 in Newcastle.