Why are people leaving Wyoming (Cheyenne, Casper: motel, construction, school)

[tamir]

Originally Posted by wyoman

Thanks Highlandlady! Thought I WOULD BE BLASTED OUT OF THE WATER ON THIS 1> I will try to be more careful not to insult the mall'ers in the future! Have a great day!

I confess, I DO go to the mall OCCASIONALLY and I DO like shopping but I CAN live without a mall (and I will very soon). However, not a big fan of Cabela's and if I ever get married, camouflage will not be one of the colors

[tekape]

I think people who leave are either not originally from here, or they are Wyomingites who seek to see "what's out there" but come back after discovering that what IS out there isn't that great.

Gillette does have some housing issues, but really, what town doesn't?

Billings (north of Gillette) has shopping and so does Casper (south of Gillette).

Hope you find what you're looking for!

[Clay Lady]

Originally Posted by wyoman

What do you lovely ladies find so attractive about a Mall? Please tell us so we don"t have to keep scratching our poor old heads an saying wah? O.K. An all that stuff>

I would be considered a professional super shopper and I don't care for malls at all for about the same reason I don't care for WalMart. I am not looking for the ordinary usually. Shopping for me is what hunting would be for some others - it's the hunt - going and then success - you score - you find the perfect whatever. It's ALL about the stuff.

Dear Wyoman, don't try to understand - just go hunting or fishing or hang with your buddies and smile and don't expect some women to understand that desire either!

[rural lady]

hey navy

:Yep, nobody in Wyoming has a personality. They're all just a bunch of uneducated rednecks sitting around in their podunk towns, twiddling their thumbs, wearing last year's line of clothes from Carhartt. It's so boring here...so please tell all your like-minded friends that this is how Wyoming is. I'm sure the good people of Wyoming will truly miss their company in this great state.""


i just loved you answer lol

[Little pony]

Originally Posted by YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY

Too late, I already know about you "boring" people in WY
You know what though? Not one single person I know here in Southern CA, is even remotely entertaining the thought of moving anywhere near WY...thank God. They all seem to want NC, TN, TX etc.

Hey Johnny, we are from southern CA. Only the good southern CAs go to Wy. The ones that pick the other states tend to be stuck up and want someone else to do thier work for them. We go to Wy to escape these stuck ups that wont even get near a farm animal because it is "too dirty". We like the down to earth folks in WY. Good to actually hear that thier are other CAs that feel the pioneer sprit too.
Elk hunter good luck with that finger. I cut my finger half off last christmas in the kitchen. I got lucky and got feeling back. Its a hard road, take care.

[slp1]

We left Wyoming. My husband is a native, born and raised. He went into the Marines, came back and after we were married, we left again. We lived in Casper for about 1 1/2 years and we had several reasons for leaving.

1. We had an "Everybody Loves Raymond" type of set up. His family, it seemed, NEVER left us alone and there was fighting and nastiness much of the time. Funny thing is, now that we live on the East coast (I know, East coast is almost a curse word for Wyomingites), the family is still fighting over something.

2. I was pregnant and it was looking like we needed really good medical. It is a good thing we left because we now have really good medical--insurance and services. Our son has had 11 surgeries in less than 9 years and I have an illness that will never go away. While in Wyoming, despite our higher education, we could only find $7 an hour jobs without benefits. While we have been gone, the local hospital admitted to botching a standard procedure on my husband's grandmother, which then killed her. We are quite happy we left regarding medical issues. Now our son is physically handicapped and whenever we go back to visit, he is teased and ridiculed by family and friends, adults and children alike, for not being normal and we are reminded about how our everyday would be so different if we would have stayed. Speaking of medical serivces, we hear that they are getting better everyday.

3. I felt incredibly isolated. I am from a small city, smaller than Casper, but I felt isolated. Once people heard that I was from the mid-west, you would have thought that I had the plague. I had calls from strangers telling me leave because I was a "foreigner". Even within the family, I was not good enough because I was born east of the Mississippi and had a different religious background (southern baptist, not fundamental baptist) and was asked not to show up with my husband for family gatherings, holidays and camping trips.

4. The school systems began to scare us when my husband's brothers, who were still in high school at the time, came home to tell us that the Holocaust never existed and that spelling was an optional subject and not spelling correctly was a form of personal experession.

However, having said all of that, we do miss some of Wyoming despite how difficult my life was there. Camping is one of our favorite outdoor activities and it is uncomparable and cheaper in Wyoming. We currently have LOTS of taxes and Wyoming doesn't. We, too, homeschool our son and our current state is just not as easy to homeschool in. Typically, in Wyoming even small advancements in life are celebrated (moving from a rented single-wide trailer to one that you own, for example). We miss that type of attitude.

We did leave for a better life, but not one that was described in a previous post. Will ever go back to Wyoming? We discuss that, but it would have to be in Cheyenne or Cody. But knowing what to expect is different. My husband only misses the mountains. We don't miss the weather, but after having winters where the lows are 28 degrees, almost anything different would be hard to get used to again. Of course, summers consistently near 100 degrees and humid is not a picnic either.

[Chris19]

Originally Posted by Plains10

I don't really understand why South Dakota and West Virginia have a high inbound rate

For South Dakota, many of the people are moving to the Black Hills or Sioux Falls, SD areas. Black Hills is a popular spot for retirees to move to and Sioux Falls is the largest city (150,000 in it limits and 250,000 metro) and it has a strong and stable economy, even with the iffy national economy. Sioux Falls has been adding an average of 3,000 to 3,500 people a year for the past 7-8 years and its neighboring small towns are growing too. Many of SD's larger cities are holding their own also.

[WyoMama]

Sioux Falls has a great RE market too - was highlighted in the USA Today in October when loans were falling out from under ppl - Sioux Falls was not feeling that at the time & doubt they are now either. My ex grew up on an old ranch between Mobridge & Trail City (2-room school house) but moved to Sturgis in 1961. I lived in the Hills off & on in the 1970's & LOVED it & always wanted to retire there. That was 30 years ago. The population in the Black Hills has gone up SO DRASTICALLY that it is not the same place - I don't get the "Black Hills High" I used to get when we'd go back several times a year. But then I was living in the south Denver Metro area (Littleton) & I would truly cry all the way home. But not now. I love to visit the area & my outlaws there but would never move on the SD side of the state line now because of the gambling issues. It was all going on in the back rooms in the 1970's, but Deadwood used to be my fav town - very cool, everybody was reasonably poor - all working class & mostly working at Homestake Mine but then casinos became legal, the mine closed, and all has gone down the chute as far as I am concerned & really saddens me. Progress is not always a good thing I WOULD HAPPILY move outside Newcastle towards Mallow Park, outside Sundance or noth of that but will not leave Wyoming.

[WyoMama]

One thing I've learned in Cody is that a LOT of ppl move because HERE anyway women will get jobs in the medical field & their hubby's don't find anything to do where they make a decent living. OR the opposite - and generally is that the women miss cultural things (Billings tries but definitely falls short from the large cities), shopping, etc. etc. But if your heart is true to Wyo - you will weather the busts & love the booms (mostly). Good example - Wheatland had a population that went from about 3000 to 10,000 while building Laramie River Power Station (power plant) in the 1970's & when it was complete in the early 1980's it went back down to about 4,000 - only takes 350 or so employees to run it. My ex is one of those who got on befor it went online & will retire next year after 30 years. It's that sort of very dynamic work opportunities here. Weather may have some impact, but not as much as the economy I don't think.

[CityParkMom]

I am a native Wyomingite & haven't lived there full time since I was a child...my Dad didn't like the weather & my parent's wanted to move closer to family & private schools for us...but my Mom couldn't stay away (she grew up in Chicago but fell in love w/ WY on a mission for her church) & bought a cabin the mountains in the Big Horns so we spent most of our summers there growing up. Now I take my kids there in the summer! I love Wyoming & would move there in a heartbeat but my & my husband's profession doesn't allow for it (we need a big city). We still have most of our friends from there (over 30yr friendships) & almost all still live there & so do the vast majority of their children. I think the weather & jobs are the 2 biggest deterants. With the internet, etc. shopping & isolation isn't as much of an issue.