Werner Wildlife Museum at Casper College

10/14/2026

Join us on Wednesday, October 28th at 6:00pm for Joel Sorensen's presentation on "Studying Scale-Dependent Disease Dynamics in Prairie Dogs." Prairie dogs provide an ideal system for studying scale-dependent disease dynamics because they exist within a natural social and spatial hierarchy. Individuals live in family groups called coteries, which form colonies that are often clustered into connected networks across grasslands. This structure allows us to investigate how individual traits and colony-level processes scale up to drive regional plague outbreaks.
Joel, a former Casper College student is now a master’s student in zoology and physiology at the University of Wyoming.
The presentation is free, family-friendly, and open to the public. It will take place in the museum’s Africa-Arctic Room. For more information, call 307-235-2108. The Werner Wildlife Museum, located off the Casper College campus at 405 E. 15th Street, is free and open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

09/28/2026

As part of the talks accompanying the GLAM Exhibit,
on Wednesday, September 30th at 12:45, Casper College biology instructor Luis Alza Leon will talk about The Casper College Herbarium. "The collection dates from 1963 to 2009 and contains extensive botanical information with 2,259 specimens, mostly from Wyoming, but also from seven other states. The Herbarium preserves the past, and its use allows us to study the present and the future of plant diversity."

Luis Alza-Leon holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Miami and has research experience in scientific collections, ornithology, wildlife ecology, and biodiversity in both Peru and the United States. His work combines teaching, mentoring, field research, and undergraduate research opportunities.

This is the schedule in its entirety, the talks will be held at the Casper College Visual Arts Center.

10:00 a.m. Renee Stewart “Wyoming Jade”
10:30 Clint Gilchrist “The Making of a Beaver Top Hat”
11:00 - 11:30 Russell Hawley “Fighting for Fossils: Cope, Marsh, and the Bone Wars”
11:30 small bites are served
12:15 Sydney Smith “Western History Center: A Case Study in Conservation”
12:35 Patrick Amelotte "Hemingway and the Big Read"
12:45 Luis Alza Leon “The Casper College Herbarium”
1:00 John McCoy "Beavers - Ecosystem Engineers: Their decline and what we're doing to bring them back"
1:30 Hanz Olson, “Guiding Internships in GLAM: Finding the West in the Past, Present and Future”

09/25/2026

Thank you Lars Alsager, Superintendent for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department,'s Dan Speas Fish Hatchery, for your talk about fish production and operations at the hatchery. It was interesting to learn of all the intricacies and specialized conditions involved in rearing various fish species.

09/25/2026

John McCoy, an Aquatic Habitat Biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department will be presenting "Beavers - ecosystem engineers:, Their decline, and what we're doing to bring them back," as part of The West - A GLAM Exhibition.

John works to restore rivers and streams throughout central Wyoming to benefit both aquatic and terrestrial wildlife. He shares that "Beavers are ecosystem engineers that create their own habitat which positively impacts many other species in their vicinity and provides us with ecosystem services. Following European colonization, beavers saw major declines throughout Wyoming and the West. Wyoming Game and Fish Department is working to reintroduce beavers and build beaver dam analogs (fake beaver dams) to regain some of the ecosystem services they once provided."

His talk will be at 1:00 in the Casper College Visual Arts Center.

09/18/2026

Sorry, but tonight’s event is cancelled. The weather is not conducive to an outside music event.

09/15/2026

The Werner is excited to be a part of "The West," a GLAM collaborative exhibit in the Casper College Foundation & Alumni Association Art Gallery at the college's Visual Arts Center. Our beaver is on display along with a top hat on loan from the Museum of the Mountain Man. The Executive Director of that museum, Clint Gilchrist will be a presenter during the day of exhibit talks on Wednesday, September 30th. He'll be discussing "The Making of the Beaver Top Hat." Gilchrist shares that "In the early 1800s, beaver felt and high fashion intersected creating an international market that drove trappers and traders into the unexplored American West seeking beaver and riches. This presentation will examine the making of the 19th century beaver top hat from trapping in what is now Wyoming, to complex supply lines, and London hat factories. In the process the people involved including hat makers, mountain men, Plains Indians and European dandies will be introduced."

Gilchrist has been the Executive Director of the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming since 2017. He is a lifelong resident of Wyoming and graduate of the University of Wyoming in Engineering, but is a historian by passion. Starting as a volunteer, he has been involved with the Museum for 30 years, and helped found the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal.

For the schedule of presenters please go here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1076252815128956

09/14/2026

Join us on Wednesday, September 23rd at 6:00pm at the Werner Wildlife Museum to hear Lars Alsager, Speas Fish Hatchery Superintendent, talk about fish production and operations at the Dan Speas Fish Hatchery. The Hatchery was constructed in 1957 and began full production in 1959. Fish species raised include Fall rainbow, West Virginia Strain rainbow, Eagle Lake rainbow, brook, brown and Bear River cutthroat trout. Dan Speas Fish Hatchery produces approximately 50% of the fish raised by Wyoming Game and Fish Department which also includes kokanee salmon, tiger muskie, catfish, bluegill, and walleye.

The presentation is free, family-friendly, and open to the public. It will take place in the museum’s Africa-Arctic Room. For more information, call 307-235-2108. The Werner Wildlife Museum, located off the Casper College campus at 405 E. 15th Street, is free and open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

08/10/2026

Hope to see you on Wednesday for our last Animal House of the summer!

Join us on Wednesday, August 12th at 11:00 for a Children's Animal House activity focusing on caring for the environment for animals and plants. During this free event, students ages 5-12 will learn how animals and plants react when threatened or crowded.

Programs are free and are held in the museum’s backyard. Families are encouraged to bring a sack lunch to enjoy after the program. For additional information, call the Werner at 307-235-2108 or drop by 405 East 15th Street, Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

08/03/2026

CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department will host a free workshop on living and recreating near bears and mountain lions on Wednesday, Aug. 5.

07/22/2026

Join us on Wednesday, August 12th at 11:00 for a Children's Animal House activity focusing on caring for the environment for animals and plants. During this free event, students ages 5-12 will learn how animals and plants react when threatened or crowded.

Programs are free and are held in the museum’s backyard. Families are encouraged to bring a sack lunch to enjoy after the program. For additional information, call the Werner at 307-235-2108 or drop by 405 East 15th Street, Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.