My Wyoming Perspective

[Potshot]

I'd like to contribute my personal perspectives on a range of topics...

1. Where to live and raise a family.

Worst - Gillette, Pinedale, Rawlins, Rock Springs and the other boom towns. They're overcrowded, dirty, noisy with oil patch workers forming their own subculture, and the long-time residents keeping to themselves. Mobile home parks full of noisy kids, domestic squabbles and muddy parking lots filled with glitzy new 4WD pickups, boats and snowmobiles. Every weekend is a 100-mile commute out of town to find some quiet in the ever-shrinking outdoors.

Bad - Cheyenne and SE Wyoming. Most Wyomingites don't even consider Cheyenne to be part of Wyoming... rather, just an extension of Colorado, with its teeming masses, growing traffic and population issues. Come Friday afternoon, interstate 25 is jammed with greenies (Coloradoans) trying to escape the crowds and pollution of Colorado. Unfortunately for Wyoming, a goodly portion of these weekend residents have bad manners and too much money.

Mediocre - Douglas, Sheridan, Buffalo, Ten Sleep, Casper - Overpriced real estate caused by out-of-staters flocking in and paying any price for a few acres on which to build their vinyl villages.  Want to see something really gaudy? Drive highway 16 from Ten Sleep up to the mouth of the canyon. In what was a pristine setting a few years ago, you've now got these bozos building press-board mansions with 4 car garages. There's actually a golf course now in Ten Sleep. Good God.

Still Good - NE corner of Wyoming... Newcastle, Sundance, Hulett, etc.. Still undiscovered by California's golden hordes, you can find a bit of what Wyoming used to be like. Bring your own job though.

Best bet - NW/central Wyoming. Lander, Hudson, Riverton, Shoshone. Don't plan on getting rich.

Used to be good, now getting bad - Cody, Powell, Greybull and all of NW Wyoming. Again, out-of-staters trying to escape the mess they made of their own state. Real estate ballooned way out of sight, ricky-ticky developments and shoddy construction, all provided by greedy developers and bankers.

Where do I live? I ain't saying! 


2. Wyoming's "Independent" spirit

Disappearing fast. 2006 saw the end of legal "open containers". Used to be, one could drive around and your passenger could crack a beer while you drove. Think about that for a moment... For 100 years, the 'state' treated you and your passenger as responsible citizens. Well, evidently the state of Wyoming now is so addicted to the federal dollars (highway funds) that this little freedom is now gone. Same thing with seat belts... legislators are pushing for draconian new laws that will penalize those of us who still believe that buckling up in our own cars is a matter of personal choice. It's difficult to say exactly why we are losing our spirit. My belief is that so many folks are moving here that have grown up with the "nanny state" mindset, that it is affecting the very core of what we thought we were.

It still isn't as bad as most of America has become, but we're definitely on the same road to Big Brotherism... especially in our paranoid, post-911 country, where we lost our guts and found that we really don't mind some surly government employee strip-searching our grandmother... as long as it "Keeps us safe."

Hope this helps!

[DRZinn]

I suppose it helps, but it's a little discouraging.

[rosco]

Worst - Gillette, Pinedale, Rawlins, Rock Springs and the other boom towns. They're overcrowded, dirty, noisy with oil patch workers forming their own subculture, and the long-time residents keeping to themselves. Mobile home parks full of noisy kids, domestic squabbles and muddy parking lots filled with glitzy new 4WD pickups, boats and snowmobiles. Every weekend is a 100-mile commute out of town to find some quiet in the ever-shrinking outdoors.

Just one persons point of view . Very narrow one at that .

Where do I live? I ain't saying!

Why not ?? Makes your view worthless .

 I have lived in Sweetwater County for 10 years and have found the locals to be great from the start . Can drive 10 mile's , walk 100 yards off the road and not see another person all day .

[Paul W. Allen]

If I were to hazard a guess, I would say Potshot is from the Lander area. They have a pretty typical 10 county attitude but they spelled Shoshoni incorrectly. Not something that Riverton folks do very often. Yes the view is somewhat narrow, but so is the Wind River Basin. rosco, I wouldn't take offense to the 100-mile commute thing, county 4 tags have created quite a reputation for themselves up in the Wind Rivers as well as the Lander area. Nothing personal, just a few bad apples. It's really hard to go camping anywhere along the Loop Road anymore with out tripping over them and their &^%^$^$ 4-wheelers. As far as their opinion being worthless because they didn't say where they were from, just remember that not even Boston himself has disclosed his location. The view as expressed is kinda unique to Fremont county, not to say that it is correct. Paul

[Paul Bonneau]

I'll add a few comments too.

Many people would look at the same places Potshot has rated "bad", and call it "pretty good". Cheyenne for example; I've been there and like it quite well (based on limited experience of course). Of course it is all relative to our past experiences.

Any place that people are moving into, is going to look like things are going downhill to the folks that were there a long time. Of course these folks sometimes forget that it is easier to put some food on the table than it was in the "good old days". 

I do know Cody pretty well because I live here. Potshot called it "Used to be good, now getting bad", mainly because of immigration. Now, I know lots of long-time residents, and lots of folks who moved here. Funny thing, it's often quite difficult to tell between the two. One guy I know is every bit the cowboy that a homegrown cowboy is, though his Wisconsin accent betrays the fact he moved here within the last year. And no, I don't mean he bought a cowboy hat and called it good. He's been living with horseshit on his boots for a long time.    So the point I'm making is that, a lot of the folks who move here like Wyoming just fine and don't want to see it changed. It's why they moved here. Most don't live in McMansions either. One of our wranglers just got back from his home in Florida, another who looks like he was born in the saddle. Lives next to the tack room.

Yes, immigrants do boost real estate prices. This is certainly a problem for the homegrown folks, who are often priced out of the market. On the other hand, more people means more work, so jobs (and pay rates) are better; that compensates. Now you have more money to buy that land. Who's to say how it balances out?

Again, out-of-staters trying to escape the mess they made of their own state....
It's difficult to say exactly why we are losing our spirit. My belief is that so many folks are moving here that have grown up with the "nanny state" mindset, that it is affecting the very core of what we thought we were.

It depends on what you are talking about. If it's real estate, you have some valid points. If it's politics, then you are just rewarming an old chestnut that 1) has little basis in reality, and 2) allows one to transfer blame to someone else. I've been watching the Wyoming legislature more closely than anyone else on this forum (see my sig line - and let me know if that claim is wrong  ) and it is all too common for Wyomingites to blame the slide on those rotten legislators from Laramie and Cheyenne - all the while being unaware that their very own legislators voted for the same crap! Fact is, the bad legislators are liberally spread all over the state, and no one cares to take them to task for it by running against them and getting them kicked out of office.

Potshot, you are right things are going downhill here (just like everywhere else), but I would lay most blame in two places: 1) Waaaay too much money flowing into the state government from the severance taxes, and 2) Waaay too few Wyomingites keeping track of what their legislators are doing. They just keep on voting "R", thinking that will do something.  And sitting legislators almost never get challenged in the primary, even the rottenest of the rotten.

It's good old Wyoming boys in the legislature who are doing the damage. Reason is, the kind of people who run for office, are people who believe in government and who want to "do something". They may not know their ass from a hole in the ground, which is another way of saying they may not understand that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions", but doing stuff is what gets done. And that is our downfall.

[Paul W. Allen]

Well said Paul. I see it doesn't take long for the realities of Wyoming politics to become apparent. The 'BIG' rancher mentality has dictated the direction of this state since its inception and also ensures that there will be an inevitable bust. Until Wyo's focus and priorities change we are doomed to a continuation of the same ol' cycle. Just an opinion, Paul.

[Prairie Fire]

This place has been run by the railroads, the stockgrowers, and the oil/gas men, and the miners, in cyclical fashion.  Like countrymech says, there is always a bust in this state.  The real nice thing about Wyoming busts, is that the state has a history of exporting its unemployment problem.  That makes it easier for the stayers to start again (Lord, I promise not to piss the next boom away...), without having to support the welfare state thing AS MUCH as elsewhere.
 
Of course most here know that Wyoming citizens are embracing more and more of the ideals that are sinking the rest of the country.  Even the cyclical cleanout of the state during bust times is subject to going away, in time.

[Potshot]

Don't be quite so hasty in condemning the "big ranchers". Their influence on state politics is about the only thing that prevents Wyoming from becoming what Colorado became years ago.... overpopulated, overindustrialized, overpolluted, overpriced and overregulated.
 
Don't like Wyomings boom and bust cycle? What's the alternative?... smokestack industries? A Wal-Mart distribution center? How about a Japanese automobile factory? The boom/bust cycle simply guarantees that Wyoming remains the place that appeals to all of us. If jobs were plentiful and housing cheap, it would have ceased being "Wyoming" years ago.

When I lived in Cheyenne about 20 years ago, Budweiser was considering constructing their new brewery in Cheyenne. Drive down to Fort Collins in I-25... The Bud brewery is there because Colorado offered major incentives and wanted the factory worse than Wyoming did. We didn't get the brewery... neither did we get the traffic, pollution and hundreds of new residents. So most of us were quite happy to see Colorado "win".

Wyoming always has been (read about the Johnson County War sometime) and always will be, something of a balkanized entity. The Casper folks don't like the Cheyenne people,,, the Cody people don't like Riverton... and you ain't gonna change that, so you best learn to live with it. After all, that's the way Wyoming has always been.

As far as being aware of what the state government is doing... I know who my state reps are and they know who I am. I testified in Cheyenne in support of the CCW legislation, I was invited by Congresswoman Cubin to participate in a panel on immigration issues and I'm now involved in efforts to halt the "Real ID" in Wyoming.

I'm a firm believer in folks like you coming to Wyoming. It's inevitable that Wyomings population will see some increase and I'd rather have people who believe in Freedom coming in, than a bunch of buffoons who want to change Wyoming into the mess they left their old state in. I just think plain old unvarnished truth can't be beat.

[Prairie Fire]

Potshot, I like your last paragraph.  Maybe some will read it again.
 
On the Johnson County troubles:  My wife had kin who talked about it.  It was an unpleasant time for the area.  You all or we all could take some learning from it and possibly extrapolate it to our futures.  Start with learning about what the state of Missouri went through during the War Between the States.  Johnson County had its slice of that life, during the early 1890s.  Our current and somewhat pleasant lives are no guarantee for the future.  People will do what they have always done.  You just have to kick up the speed of that old depravity to our current way of living, you will not like the thought.
 
There are a couple of books worth reading on that subject of the Johnson County War.  One is called Banditti of the Plains, the other is called The Longest Rope.  Each written from a differing perspective.  Both were published fairly early, locally, and with small print numbers, both are in my library.  Don't know what a google search might find for sale.

[bobcat]

As far as being aware of what the state government is doing... I know who my state reps are and they know who I am. I testified in Cheyenne in support of the CCW legislation, I was invited by Congresswoman Cubin to participate in a panel on immigration issues and I'm now involved in efforts to halt the "Real ID" in Wyoming.

THANK YOU for your participation.  I am particularly glad you are actively involved in STOPPING "real id" in WY. 

I'm a firm believer in folks like you coming to Wyoming. It's inevitable that Wyomings population will see some increase and I'd rather have people who believe in Freedom coming in, than a bunch of buffoons who want to change Wyoming into the mess they left their old state in. I just think plain old unvarnished truth can't be beat.

Thanks for welcoming freedom loving folks into the fold.  We are practical living folks that enjoy our freedom and wish to keep it.  We live in a midwest state that is actually ok, but it is east of the Miss. and getting too populated for me.  A lot of gravel roads have been paved.   Now they are screaming for more money to keep the PAVED roads up.   We are practical living folks that enjoy our freedom and wish to keep it.  Less gubmint is more freedom.

We like Wy pretty much the way it is.  Gravel roads and all.  Plowed or unplowed. (I don't want to pay taxes for pavin and plowin)  I have no illusions of grandeur.  If I were to want any changes, it would be for more freedom, i.e. no real id.  Thanks Potshot.