need some input..... (Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie: best town, sales, movers)

[Helenshope]

I am seriously thinking of relocating my family from Massachusetts to Wyoming.....I am looking for any input on what town/city would best fit our needs. (I am a widow with 2 daughters)
We have done a little reserch on New Castle and it sounds wonderful. I would really like to connect with anyone who can give me some info.
I am tired of the fast paced city life and all the crime that goes with it.

[Wildman]

I can help....Newcastle is on the edge of the Black Hills. Go east and it is beautiful, but going west is high grass/ sagebrush plains similiar to what you would see in the movie with Kevin Costner and the Buffalos. Newcastle is probably the fourth inexpensive place to live in Wyoming, but there is a reason for that. Little work unless you work in the coal mines an hour away(depending on weather), railroad, or refinery/ oil fields. Otherwise, I would consider having a 2nd house there. Hope that helps.

Wildman

[blakeman59]

After living in Massachusetts for years you will find Wyoming very refreshing. The two states couldn't be further apart in many ways. Taxes being a prime example and all the ideology that comes along with each. Likely there are some things one would miss about Mass. Like revolutionary war history and a well developed park system to present it. In Wyoming that will be replace by old west history well documented in some areas. Almost any small town in Wyoming will deliver what your looking for. Some others beside Newcastle that immediately come to mind are Sundance, Hullett,Buffalo, Dayton/Ranchester, Cody, Freedom, Thayne, Saratoga, Tensleep, Wheatland, Riverton, Lander. There are more but this is getting silly. I essentially listing communities that are smaller but close to recreation or good scenery.

[alpine]

If you are used to big cities, you need to take downsizing slowly. You will find that really small towns are pretty close to newcomers since everyone has known each other since time began. Here in Cody, you get an influx of newcomers so they seem more open to getting to know other newcomers. Cody is small compared to MASS but big compared to WY towns. We are close enough to Billings that you can get big city stuff but most things you can find here in town. It takes about 10 minutes to drive from one end of town to the other even during tourist season. You are close to Yellowstone so that you can go there outside the big tourist seasons and avoid all of the traffic. Expense wise, you will be in pig heaven! Low property taxes, low housing costs, no income tax and sales tax at 4+%. I have lived in Ohio, NM, CA, AZ, OR and MT, and Wyoming is where it is at, at least for me! Come and enjoy wide, wonderful Wyoming!

[Joan]

Wyoming is a great place to live. We moved from California and will never go back. Great History and Great people keep us here in Wyoming. Wheatland is a great place to start if your from a big city. It is small but you will find a lot of great people willing to help you with your adjustment. And Cheyenne not being to far away if you need to go to a bigger town for shopping or enjoyment.

[jetta2337]

Some great advice here for you already.

I live in Casper and for my top places to live in Wyoming Newcastle if not number one would be right there. I love the Black Hills very much and being right there at the foot of them is a great place to be. But due to the job I do I have to stay in the somewhat bigger cities. But keep looking and waiting. I also have traveled all over the state for job and site seeing. Not to many towns I havnt been to and spent some time there.

Newcastle will be a chance of pace for you that is for sure and I hope not to shocking. Most people say that there is nothing to do around those little towns coming from the big city as you are. That isnt true. It is just you have to come up with the things to do yourself. Do that and Wyoming will open up to you and show you how wonderful it is. The hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, rafting, history and everything else. So much to do but you have to go to it. This will be total diffenet from what you are used to. After all this is the Wild West.

As for you big city fix if you do move here Rapid City is right down the road a couple of hours and if you need to real big city Denver is down the road around 8 hours. Wyoming is spaced out and our counties are bigger than your state. So just remember that it takes some time to get to where you want to go here but for us that is why we are here.

Hope you do deside to come to Wyoming it is a great place. Low taxes and a nice spread out state where you dont have to rub elbows with everyone all the time.

[NancyJo]

We have been trying decide where in Wyoming to move, and this thread is very interesting, because we fell in love with so many places mentioned, for the same reasons. We collected noticed alot of red soil in Hulett/Sundance area - is this clay?? We found Upton with a sign stating (and it IS really cute) 'the best town on the earth' , loved Ten Sleep, NewCastle, Buffalo - all for access to the mountains - Saratoga, Baggs/Savery, Encampment...so pretty! We really loved Dubois, and the access to all the mountains....where we were told that there are thousands of offroad Jeep trails....but we cannot seem to find any info on this...just snowmobile trails...are these ok for other motor vehicles during off-season and non hunting days?
What a dilemna all these beautiful places make! We also loved the few cars on the highways!

[jetta2337]

The city of Upton is one I go to quite a bit. I laugh at the sign there also but for other reasons.

About 3 or 4 years ago Wyoming on all the state line makers had a sign "Like No Place on Earth". Well it ticked off some East Coast politician saw it and got all dumb with it. Said things like we are saying we are better than everyone and saying Wyoming isnt of this world? So due to the pressure of that crap Wyoming took down all the signs. So I always wonder how long until Upton has to take it down.

[kinnikinnik]

I was born and raised in Wyoming, but I've also lived in Colorado for a while too. I'd recommend living in, or close to, a larger town in Wyoming to begin with. As Alpine posted earlier, people in some of the smaller towns in Wyoming do tend to be stand-off-ish toward newbies. I've seen some bumperstickers now and then that make it pretty clear that visitors are welcome but movers are not. This isn't a problem in the larger towns - like Laramie or Cheyenne - which are still small towns by most of the rest of America's standards.