Hanna/elkmountain (Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie: for sale, real estate, hotel)

[alofficer]

I am thinking of moving my family to the Hanna Elk Mountain area. Can anyone tell me about the scenic,housing,jobs ect... I was looking at the Carbon County Chamber website and settled on Hanna Elk Mountain mostly due to the fact it is not in the middle of the hub-bub of the metro areas.

[Griffis]

Sir or madam, I'm not sure where you are coming from, but the "metro" areas of Wyo still have some smallish-town charm to them, from what I saw. I mean, the entire STATE has fewer people than a lot of big city metro areas.

It's been several years since I lived there, and I know things can change quickly, but even the larger towns are easy to get out of and into pretty remote country. It's pretty spread out...lots of space between towns.

[Munshine]

This website might provide some information for you about Hanna/Elk Mountain; Wyoming Carbon County Travel & Vacations

If you click onto the towns’ names which are listed on the top of this website’s page, it will take you to other pages with information about each town, and which website does have info for all of Carbon County’s/this area's communities.


I left a message here not long ago, and which, in a way, gave a little information about Elk Mountain. That can be found here at this website, with this url; http://www.city-data.com/forum/wyomi...y-wyoming.html

As for housing in Hanna, I have, personally, seen some real estate/homes for sale here at this time, but the best way to see everything that’s available, would be to search for such information at sites such as realtor.com/century21/at any realtor site which has Carbon County/WY listings, (Same for Elk Mountain). The times I’ve been to Elk Mountain, I never noticed any available housing there. However, people can, and do, put their properties up for sale at differing times, so there may be more there than I know of.

Or, if you’d be interested in doing this, you can reach Hanna’s/Elk Mountain’s phone book’s listed realtors at these phone numbers, and could ask them to mail you their current properties;

Moderator cut: linking to real estate pages is not allowed

(And I imagine, a few of these at the least, could have their own websites, also)


As for employment in this area, I can only tell you what I’m personally aware of. I know that the WDOC, (Wyoming State Penitentiary), is always short-handed /is always looking for new employees. And by the consistent reading of the Rawlins Daily Times newspaper, there are always ads running for open employment in the, gas/oil field-drilling operations, city police department, hotel industry, and fast food and other restaurant businesses. As for the latter two mentioned, these ads claim to pay that of $8.50 - $15 an hour, also. I’m not sure, but I imagine a higher hourly pay is offered here, due to these places being so, severely, short-handed, and in somewhat of a dire need to completely/adequately staff their businesses.

As for employment in the towns of Hanna/Elk Mountain, (specifically), I don’t know of any available/open jobs, but, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any, it just means I’m not aware of any.

And one last opinion/response to your query; Elk Mountain is far more scenic than Hanna is. Not that Hanna isn’t/can’t be attractive also, but Hanna is that of rolling hills and prairie-type land, and opposed to Elk Mountain’s more green/grassy areas, and mountainous areas much closer to that town.

[MHT]

Originally Posted by alofficer

I am thinking of moving my family to the Hanna Elk Mountain area. Can anyone tell me about the scenic,housing,jobs ect... I was looking at the Carbon County Chamber website and settled on Hanna Elk Mountain mostly due to the fact it is not in the middle of the hub-bub of the metro areas.

I'm not sure where you're moving from but it sounds like you need to be prepared for a big change in your lifestyle. For one thing there are no metro areas in Wyoming, let alone hub-bub. The highest building in the state is a dorm at the University of Wyoming. When the football stadium at UW is full it is the third largest "city" in WY. As mentioned in another post there are jobs in Rawlins. I'm not sure about Elk Mtn./Hanna. Contact the WY Workforce Center. As far as scenery that was also covered in another post. In either case be prepared for winter and driving quite a distance for shopping, etc.

[alofficer]

Wow thanks fo the help. I am a police officer located in a suburb out side Madison and grew up in the Twin Cities. So yes i am use to the snow and winter driving. Even though the above mentioned cities are not "metro huge" either it is a term I am using lightly and out there aparently the term is very light. I am currently looking into the Highway Patrol or County Sheriffs Dept. it dont seem that they have the need for many city officers. I here that the Interstate is very active with drug transport? How are the neighbors, other community members and elected officials in these small Carbon Co. towns?

[Connie Matekovic]

Originally Posted by alofficer

I am thinking of moving my family to the Hanna Elk Mountain area. Can anyone tell me about the scenic,housing,jobs ect... I was looking at the Carbon County Chamber website and settled on Hanna Elk Mountain mostly due to the fact it is not in the middle of the hub-bub of the metro areas.

For any scenery you will have nothing in the town of Hanna. It has sage brush and weeds! There are only a few trees on the "older" part of town, but not enough to slow any of the wind down! If you like to see grass or flowers don't consider Hanna. It's flat and it sits between 2 large mountain ranges (neither of course are visible) that allows the wind to BLOW constantly and extremely HARD every day! It's miserable for children that enjoy playing outside, yard work or just a BBQ! Great though for the wind turbines that have been going in! The winters are long and hard! Because of the constant wind the drifts are unbelievable!! The nearest shopping is in Rawlins but its become a ghost town too. People go to Laramie (80 miles). Go to Great schools.com for info on their "success rate", it speaks for itself! There's one clinic that a Dr. out of Rawlins come in to...one grocery store with jacked-up prices and nothing fresh...no gas station, no convenience stores, 3 Bars though!! Which you're able to walk into and see the same people every day and they're talking about the same thing as every other day! No place to eat out in Hanna but there is the Elk Mt. Hotel that serves food but with new management from California that want to serve "brains"...well it's not gonna last long! Hanna did have a very nice Rec. Center however through the years of poor maintenance and lack of good management this too has become a dumping ground that's only open Mon.-Fri. hmmm? Elk Mountain is a very pretty LITTLE town but the kids are bused to Hanna (12 miles one way on those bad roads). There are NO JOBS in this area! The houses have been sitting for years either empty since the coal mines shut down in the late '90's or they've been rented out. Either way they NOT worth what they are asking for them. However the owners have most likely been gone for years now and are tired of sitting on the house and they are willing to take reasonable offers. Granted there's no "Hub-bub" of city life in Hanna but there is that horrible small-town, extremely- bored -with -my -life attitude that just ruins even the best of people. I'd honestly love to say someting good about this place as I do have family living there but if you have children and you love them...don't choose Hanna. Wyoming is a great place just not this particular area...for a quick view into the town and it's people go to Moderator cut: Competitors site and read the Forum for Hanna, zip code is 82327..this is their childish mentality.

[sunsprit]

It's a brutal area of Wyoming, due to the isolation and remote locale without much offset from the "outdoors" that offers a lot of recreation opportunity.

The continual winds are so strong here that it forms it's own "micro-climate" around the mountains and prarie around there.

Living here is a matter of independent survival and self-reliance.

If you get a job that pays adequately for you to be here and that's what you want, then it's great. You will definitely become part of a tight knit community for your social, economic, and survival if you are to stay here. This is one of the most remote areas to live in in the continental USA.

Visiting with my friends who are/were state troopers or sheriff's deputies in the region suggests a high level of I-80 drug traffic and local meth use.

[Munshine]

As they say, I guess ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. Where my house is situated in Hanna WY, a portion of the Snowy Range mountains can be seen, and Elk Mountain can be seen as large-as-life.. Out my front window, the mountains adjacent to Elk Mountain can also be seen. Granted, the nearest-to-Hanna, surrounding terrain is that of ‘prairie’, and only pertaining to my own opinion of course, I can find beauty in that.

Reportedly, drug use is quite a problem here, and in Wyoming as a whole. But as far as I can tell, Hanna/Elk Mountain are definitely not small communities whose neighborhoods/sidewalks are littered with such. I’m not denying illegal substance abuse isn’t in these two particular communities, I’m just saying that such a type of problem, so far anyway, doesn’t seem to be anything that makes either of these two communities a bad/negative to live.

And I think that most all of Wyoming is desolate/isolated, at least so in the southeastern section of the state, and where Hanna and Elk Mountain are located. But in my opinion, that’s just one more thing that makes this area a decent place to live, and unique.

[wyoharley]

I grew up in Hanna. I, to this day love that town. The people were great then. I would love to be back there. The winters, well, in my opinion they are awesome. I love all the Hanna snow. The wind, come on that is all over Wyoming, not just Hanna. That is Wyoming pollution control. If you don't like it, you could think about moving somewhere that you have to smell smog all day.

[Treehugger]

Originally Posted by alofficer

I am thinking of moving my family to the Hanna Elk Mountain area. Can anyone tell me about the scenic,housing,jobs ect... I was looking at the Carbon County Chamber website and settled on Hanna Elk Mountain mostly due to the fact it is not in the middle of the hub-bub of the metro areas.

You need to come spend a month in Hanna/Elk mountain in JANUARY before you make up your mind. There's a reason why only 500,000 people live in a state of 98,000 sq. miles or so. This is because the climate SUCKS and the rural isolationism in these small communities is enough to scare this progressive city boy from the east coast under a rock.
Personally, I would never live in a "City" smaller than Laramie (pop. ~30,000), Casper (pop.~50,000) or Cheyenne (pop.~ 60,000) in Wyoming. At least there is something to do in larger towns when cabin fever sets in during the winter.

Madison is New York City compared to Hanna or Elk Mountain. 220,000 people (Madison) is more than the combined population of every recognisable town on the map in Wyoming. You'd be in for a huge culture shock.
Just sayin'...........