Logan Stayton

My name is Logan Stayton and I’m the Powell Tribune’s newest writer. I’m originally from the big, big city of Meeteetse where I graduated high school in 2017. I spent two years studying history out of Northwest College here in Powell before transferring to the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Truthfully, I was a terrible student at all three levels and ended up dropping out of college right as Covid hit full force. I spent 2020 working as one of the sporting goods associates at Walmart, selling guns and lamenting the pandemic. However, following two trips I made to Europe as a young man, I developed a passion for international affairs and I began to write current event posts for my friends on social media to provide them information on what I deemed to be worth knowing. From the then-ongoing Nagorno-Karabach War between Armenia and Azerbaijan to nationwide protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd, my friends came to see me as a resource for understanding the world.

I was offered a position to work as a CNC (Computer Numeric Controller) machine operator in Laramie, manufacturing gun sights the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, to which I immediately quit Walmart while watching scenes from the capitol. During my time as a machinist, my coworkers and I were only ever allowed to listen to the radio at our work stations. Having grown tired of listening to the same songs on the classic rock and country stations, I opted to continue staying up to date on events through Wyoming Public Radio. From the military coup in Myanmar to the Fall of Kabul, I tuned in and learned as much as I could, all while reporting back to my friends. While I was at my workbench, I slowly fell in love with journalism and knew what I wanted to do.

I left and returned to UW for the 2022 spring semester, this time focusing on international conflicts. With this new sense of purpose, I became more involved than ever and excelled in my classes. I took the opportunity to work as the podcast host of the Middle East and North Africa program’s podcast, Peeling Back, for a little over a year. Concurrently, I worked as a strategy reports writer for The Modern Insurgent, a digital database dedicated to critically and academically understanding militant groups around the world. Roughly a month before Oct. 7, 2023, I was involved in a university-affiliated diplomatic visit to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian West Bank where I met with community members, bereaved family members, and political representatives from all sides of the conflict. Upon graduating with my bachelors in the fall of 2024, I helped organize a research trip through the Sahara Desert with a colleague of mine to study the various threats to cultural heritage in some of Mauritania’s most remote cities.

In June 2026, I was offered a position with the Powell Tribune and moved back the same week I started. With me, I bring all the experience I developed while living in Laramie for seven years, my beautiful wife Ellie and my love of the Big Horn Basin and the communities that constitute it. I’m tremendously grateful for the opportunity to serve my community as a reporter for the Powell Tribune and I intend to work diligently as a community resource for everyone in the Basin.