The best towns in Wyoming? (Cheyenne, Casper: fit in, real estate, transfer) - (WY) - City-Data Forum

racechick73 · 05-09-2007, 03:14 PM

My family and I are thinking of relocating to Wyoming. My husband works for the railroad, so he would be transferring and work wouldn't be an issue for us. We are looking for a small town within a half-hour's drive of a bigger city, or else a city no larger than 60,000. We have 3 kids under the age of 7, so we'd be looking for a good private school. We would consider public school as long as it had an excellent reputation and was on the smallish side. We have had our fill of liberal-minded people, so a "redneck town", if you will, would be right up our alley! We are friendly people and don't have a problem fitting in, but we want a town that primarily has the same values and political views as ours. We hate drugs, crime, and tree-huggers; we love friendly people, fresh air, hunting, and quiet.
I'd sure appreciate some advice from you locals on where you think we'd fit in. We're looking at Sheridan, Casper, & Cheyenne so far, because that's where the open positions are, but we'd appreciate insight on other towns, too. Thanks!

imbobbbb · 05-09-2007, 04:53 PM

casper and cheyenne are the only cities in wyoming with anywhere near 60,000 people.most counties dont have 60,000 people.sheridan would be my pick of the three listed,not too big and right at the base of the bighorn mountains.

racechick73 · 05-09-2007, 05:40 PM

Real estate looks higher there though, am I correct?

racechick73 · 05-09-2007, 05:41 PM

And what about smaller towns within commuting distance of Casper, Cheyenne, or Sheridan?

shadowwalker · 05-09-2007, 06:36 PM

Racechick. Glenrock is withing 25 minutes of Casper. Also is Douglas, it's 45 minutes away. I don't think either town has private schools. I do recomend both places to live. Also you might consider that a town of the size of casper or cheyenne in wyoming. Dosn't have the same amounts of negative lifestyle choices of towns that size in the eastern united states. I can attest to that very fact. From experience.
Get a webmap of the state, look up the cities around where you want to live. Check out to see if they have websites. Also check on this forum for old posts of the towns.

jdavid93225 · 05-09-2007, 07:00 PM

Well, your wish to be in a small town or smaller city will definitely be fulfilled in Wyoming. There isn't a city or a town in Wyoming with over 60,000 people, though, as stated above, Cheyenne and Casper are both getting close (each is 50,000+).

Cheyenne probably has the most to offer in the way of housing at the moment, due to the demands that the energy sector has placed on the other parts of the state. I believe you would find it to be the most affordable, too, for the same reason.

As far as nearby towns to commute from, it depends on what you consider nearby. (I know you mentioned a half hour drive in your original post.) Most of Wyoming is very sparse, with long distances between towns with any sizable population. For example, when you head north out of Cheyenne, the next town with any significant population is Chugwater, Population 244, according to City-Data.com, and is about 45 or 50 miles away. About 20 miles further is Wheatland, population about 3500. There really isn't much else out there in the way of towns, when you go that direction. I think this is typical throughout most of Wyoming, and it certainly has been in my experience.

According to most of the posts on this board that I've read, they would suggest that anything within about a two hour drive is considered nearby. In my travels around Wyoming, I can relate to that mentality, because there are places where there really isn't much of anything at all (except antelope, grasslands, a few trees, some rocks, a creek or two, some mountains...) along the road for two hours, or sometimes longer.
An example of this is the drive from Lusk to Newcastle. Granted, it's a little shorter than two hours (about 80 miles), but there is really very little population in that area. This is very unlike Southern California, where the natural landscape may appear for a little while, but disappears again a few miles later, because you've reached another town (or more likely, city).

Getting back to your original post, I still think your best bet would be Cheyenne. I think you'd be most likely to find a suitable school, and adequate housing for your family. You would be close to areas for hunting (as with anywhere in Wyoming). The people, at least in my experience, are friendly, but that is generally the case all over Wyoming. There are some nice areas on the outskirts of town that I'm sure would meet your satisfaction for peace and quiet. Oh yeah, one more thing about Cheyenne. Since your husband is in the railroad industry, he may be interested in seeing the Union Pacific #844 (4-8-4) and #3985 (4-6-6-4) Steam Locomotives that are both housed in Cheyenne. They both get used occasionally in excursion service, so there's a great chance you all would get to see them on occasion.

I am not suggesting, though, that you don't look into Casper or Sheridan, because both of them also have a lot to offer. Where ever you end up, I'm sure you'll love it, based on what you said about yourself in the original post. Good luck in making your selection.

racechick73 · 05-09-2007, 07:28 PM

Thanks to you both for all your input! I see that Cheyenne is a university town. Would either of you say that Cheyenne is then a liberal community? Hey, I don't mind a little recycling and I drink soy lattes once in a while (that's a joke, everybody), but we've had it up to our ears with liberal college towns.
And jdavid- when you were describing SoCal and how you never truly get out of town, that's what Western Washington has turned into! So going for miles and miles without seeing a town sounds perfect to me! Also glad to hear that there aren't any big cities in Wyoming. I thought Cheyenne was bigger than Casper for some reason.
I've called around to do some checking on Casper, and everyone I've talked to in person so far has been sooo friendly! That's a definite positive in my eyes.
Thanks everybody for your help!

sunsprit · 05-09-2007, 08:21 PM

No university campus in Cheyenne ... just LCCC, the local Laramie county community college.

In any event, describing Cheyenne as a liberal college town would be the exact opposite of the situation here. It's definitely showing it's ranching and railroad roots .... hard work, blue collar type basics.

Casper has a larger population than Cheyenne. Cheyenne tops 50,000 by a couple of dozen people or so ... it's very close and the census that put it over 50K was questionable. They needed to hit 50K population to qualify for state and federal grant monies ... so were very aggressive to make the count reach that number. Some folks would claim that we didn't make it ....

Laramie is where the Univ of Wyoming is located, and would qualify (in some areas) as being more liberal than Cheyenne or Casper. But for the most part, it's still a western ranching/farming town of small size. "Liberal" out here is a relative term compared to the West Coast type liberal activism. (I just came back from Seattle last week, and I couldn't believe the local and major newspapers pro-active socialist agendas ...)

Casper is pretty much blue collar, with energy and extractive industries being a big deal along with the ag basis.

jdavid93225 · 05-09-2007, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunsprit

No university campus in Cheyenne ... just LCCC, the local Laramie county community college.

In any event, describing Cheyenne as a liberal college town would be the exact opposite of the situation here. It's definitely showing it's ranching and railroad roots .... hard work, blue collar type basics.

Casper has a larger population than Cheyenne. Cheyenne tops 50,000 by a couple of dozen people or so ... it's very close and the census that put it over 50K was questionable. They needed to hit 50K population to qualify for state and federal grant monies ... so were very aggressive to make the count reach that number. Some folks would claim that we didn't make it ....

Laramie is where the Univ of Wyoming is located, and would qualify (in some areas) as being more liberal than Cheyenne or Casper. But for the most part, it's still a western ranching/farming town of small size. "Liberal" out here is a relative term compared to the West Coast type liberal activism. (I just came back from Seattle last week, and I couldn't believe the local and major newspapers pro-active socialist agendas ...)

Casper is pretty much blue collar, with energy and extractive industries being a big deal along with the ag basis.

Sunsprit hit the nail on the head, as I see it. I don't think I could put it any better than that. I didn't realize the bit about the population, though. I thought they (Cheyenne and Casper) were both about the same population.

racechick73 · 05-09-2007, 09:55 PM

Thank you, Sunsprit! That is exactly what I was after regarding the liberal bit. So I'm guessing you saw exactly what we're trying to get away from in Western WA! The media around here is terrible- very one-sided. Thanks for the input- now Cheyenne is sounding a lot better to me! As long as there's a race track, good schools, and decent housing prices I'll add it to my list of possibilities. Thanks!