Brodie Farquhar

Journalist Brodie Farquhar, of Casper, has 37 years of experience covering the West, with public relation stints for the Colorado School of Mines, Crested Butte Mountain Resort and The Nature Conservancy. His specialty is natural resource journalism, buttressed by a master’s degree in natural resource policy from the University of Michigan, where he was a Scripps Fellow for Environmental Journalism. He has covered natural resource issues in the High Plains, Black Hills and Sonoran Desert as well as the Columbia and Snake river drainages and much of the Rocky Mountains. Most recently his work has focused on the greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

The history of Sheridan County, Wyo., located at the base of the Bighorn Mountains, includes polo ponies, working ranches and farms, a prestigious sanctuary for artists and writers and an abundance of American Indian lore, outlaws, pioneers, miners and Old West dude ranches. Railroads, and the coal mines dug for fuel to run the locomotives running also played important roles in the area’s development.

The history of Johnson County, Wyo., features a number of violent conflicts that influenced the heritage of the West. The Fetterman and Wagon Box fights were important conflicts in the Indian wars of the 1860s, while the infamous 1892 Johnson County War erupted because of tensions among cattle barons, homesteaders and rustlers. Johnson County’s economy today continues to thrive on tourism, ranching and oil and gas.