An Honest View of Moving to Gillette Wyoming (Casper, Rock Springs: apartment complex, renters)

[rlroos]

how far is torrington from gillette?

[rlroos]

can anyone give me names of towns in a 25 to 30 mile radius of gillette?

[georgiainwyo]

Originally Posted by rlroos

can anyone give me names of towns in a 25 to 30 mile radius of gillette?

There is very little within 30 miles of Gillette. The only real "town" is Moorcroft, which is almost 30 miles. As for Torrington, it is about 215 miles from Gillette, going the shortest distance. If you go interstate most of the way, it's a bit further.

[Wild Hare]

Originally Posted by padcrasher

This was two years ago. It may very well be the case now with the economy that they are not hiring.

I don't wish to go into what mine it was but it would have been the same with all the big mines I'd imagine.

Just off the top of my head....Jacobs Ranch, Black Thunder, Bellaire, Caballo, North Antelope, Eagle Butte, Rawhide, Cordero, Spring Creek (mt), Decker (mt), Buckskin etc.

why in the heck would you throw in info from 2 years ago in a current thread.

[ck888]

Hi DJfrog71...
I'm new to this forum but was wondering if you are still in Gillette and how you are liking the town now. I saw you posted this in 2007, so being it's 2 years later was just wondering how it was going.

My husband got a job here in Gillette last August and moved here while I stayed back in New Mexico so that our oldest son could graduate with his class (bad idea and expensive). I just moved here in June and am liking it so far, but don't get out too, too much...

Look forward to hearing how it's going now.

Thanks!

[iam2boysmama]

Originally Posted by ck888

Hi DJfrog71...
I'm new to this forum but was wondering if you are still in Gillette and how you are liking the town now. I saw you posted this in 2007, so being it's 2 years later was just wondering how it was going.

My husband got a job here in Gillette last August and moved here while I stayed back in New Mexico so that our oldest son could graduate with his class (bad idea and expensive). I just moved here in June and am liking it so far, but don't get out too, too much...

Look forward to hearing how it's going now.

Thanks!

I'd like to have an update too! We may be headed out there in a couple months and it sounds amazing but I am nervous about leaving my parents, grandparents, sister, in laws,... Gillette sounds so friendly so I'm not too worried about making friends!

[WyoNewk]

Originally Posted by iam2boysmama

I'd like to have an update too! We may be headed out there in a couple months and it sounds amazing but I am nervous about leaving my parents, grandparents, sister, in laws,... Gillette sounds so friendly so I'm not too worried about making friends!

I doubt you'll get a response from the OP. Her post is nearly 3 years old, and she's only made 8 posts all total.

I've been in Gillette a long time, nearly 39 years, and the town is a much nicer place in which to live now than it was in 1971, but new residents still have much the same problems adjusting now that they did when I came here.

You've listed the number one cause for disappointment -- homesickness. If you've never lived away from your family, it can be very difficult to adjust. Moving to a remote town makes that part of it a little more difficult, because airline connections aren't the easiest. We do have daily flights to Denver and Salt Lake City, but they're a little costly for family travel. I think it's best to plan on seeing your family once each year for a set number of years, say 5, and if you can't handle that, stay home. Try not to spend all of your vacation time going "back home". There's much to see and do in Wyoming, and it would be a shame not to enjoy some of it while you're here.

The other cause for disappointment happens when you rent or buy a home that's not to your liking. People move here from lower income/cost-of-living areas and are reluctant to spend the money it takes for a nice home. Gillette's no different than other towns -- some homes are beautiful, some are average, some are depressing. If you get into one that depresses you, it will color your image of the whole town; if you get one you really like, you'll probably like the whole town. Your first home/neighborhood is very important.

The OP rented in a relatively high-density, poorly planned neighborhood that catches a lot of wind. I'm not in a fancy neighborhood, but it's well-established with sodded yards and mature trees, and it's not on a hill facing the NW wind. We seldom notice the wind at our house unless there's a storm blowing through. Even then, there's little dust, as the OP complained about. Granted, when I leave my neighborhood and get into open areas, I do notice the wind. Wheww!!!

She also complained about discrimination of her religion. There seems to be a little of that everywhere, but if you have a problem with it in Gillette, I honestly think it's because you make the problem. Some people do that without realizing it, and some are just too sensitive. I lived in the midwest before moving here, and it was MUCH worse there.

Drugs are in every corner of the country. Most good jobs in Gillette are either white collar or require drug testing. My wife works in the food industry -- one of the few industries in town where drug testing isn't normally a prerequisite for a job. Since she started that (she was previously a teacher), she's learned of a lot of pot smokers, but before that neither of us knew anyone here who did drugs. I mentioned it to my 30-something son, and he didn't know anyone who took illegal drugs either. High schoolers? Yeah, they know. Probably any high school student in the U.S. could put his hands on a doobie with a days notice.

The cost of housing has dipped a little here in the past year, but it's probably still near where it was when this thread began. It's a bit higher than the national average. So are incomes. And so are groceries and most retail items. They've got to be shipped long distances to get here, and the store clerks get paid a little more here than in the rural midwest -- not a lot more, but enough that you might notice it on your expenses. That hasn't changed in my 39 years here, and I don't expect that it will soon. The cost of most merchandise will be a little higher.

Oh yeah, one other thing that often bugs people from the east/south/midwest -- our lack of trees. Gillette is in a semi-arid high plains. Just outside of town is one of the only remaining national grasslands in the country. That's what we grow here, and it's only green for a few months each year before it goes dormant. There are scrub pines in the hills and a few cottonwoods along the mostly dry creeks, but in general, trees are scarce.

When our current U.S, Senator Mike Enzi was mayor of Gillette 30 years ago, a goal of his was that Gillette visitors would feel like they were arriving at an oasis when they pulled into town. I'm not sure if that goal has been reached, but it's a pretty nice town by any standard.

In case you haven't found it yet, here's the free edition of the online Gillette News-Record. (http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/news/Today/ - broken link) Bookmark it and read it regularly.

[iam2boysmama]

Thank you for your response! My dad has been in Wyoming for hunting several times so he plans to get a small place there for longer stays, they plan to spend half the year there with us and the other half with my sister and her family, so as far as family goes if all goes as planned I'd have my parents there a lot. I did notice the lack of trees in all the real estate photos. As for the wind, it isn't windy here (Dayton, OH) but I love to line dry clothes and I guess the wind can help with that. I have been reading the newspaper on-line, and I think I know more about those schools than the one my son will go to this fall if we don't move. I think I am ready for this....I hope!

[WyoNewk]

In some neighborhoods you could dry your clothes in the wind, others would turn your wet clothes into muddy ones. But even with no wind, your clothes will dry much faster on the line here than they do in Ohio. Our air is dry and thin, and the sun is usually pretty powerful -- less atmosphere to filter its rays.

There are plenty of trees in the well-established neighborhoods, but they are much slower growing here than in Ohio. I'm notoriously bad at growing trees. I've killed almost as many as I've planted. If I don't run over them with a tractor sprinkler, they just mysteriously die off -- or almost die and then come back from the roots. We've had extremely cold, dry winters that have killed a few, and late frosts that have done in one or two, and early snow and ice storms that have broken the tops off. But somehow, the older neighborhoods are filled with nice trees. If that's important to you, just keep it in mind when you're shopping for a new home.

That'll be nice having your parents here. Maybe they can share in the price of your house and you can just have an "apartment" in it. I knew a couple here years ago who, when they had their home built, had a nice-sized apartment built above their garage for "Mom". You could have an awfully nice house for the price of two small ones.

[jenkeys]

things are falling appart here jacobs ranch got sold to black thunder and a lot of people quit. its becomeing increasingly harder to find a job and frankly id stay where you are and just watch the econemy around gillette for a while. as far as jacobs ranch and black thunder goes no way would i work for a dangerous joke like arch coal. they really dont treat there employees right and for some reason they keep getting out of lost time injurys. how the heck do you have a broke ankel and a broke leg in the same shift and no lost time incident? or a broke arm and dislocated shoulder on the same person and no lost time incident? something kinda fishy about it. anyhow just fyi things in gillette are really slowing down.