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On a wee bit of a side note...if you want to peruse a more historical aspect of Wyoming and the towns, this site is an interesting one to visit: Wyoming Tales and Trails
I appreciate that. By the time I get to Wyoming, I'll know enough about it's history to be able to teach it! Can't be coming in all ignorant, can I?
The Sheridan/Buffalo area is very nice. The whole NE area of Wyoming is beautiful as well as the western portion of the state. Unless you are a huge lover of high winds, I'd avoid Casper and Cheyenne. I would definitely live in Sheridan though.
The Sheridan/Buffalo area is very nice. The whole NE area of Wyoming is beautiful as well as the western portion of the state. Unless you are a huge lover of high winds, I'd avoid Casper and Cheyenne. I would definitely live in Sheridan though.
I'm beginning to see that this is probably going to be the best area for me, leaving the Yellowstone area open for visiting. I'm going to finish researching a few more small towns on the west end of the state, but my concentration is really turning towards the Sheridan area. Story, more specifically (so far).
I've had fam in Sheridan & have spent more time than I desire there...is getting too crowded there tho does have the "old west" ambiance I guess if you can ignore I-90 running along the edge of town & the string of "box stores" at the east & west ends. HEAVY franchise biz & just too big for my taste. One of the hospitals is a VA hospital so that is slightly misleading - and some of those beds are probably the long term care residential beds. I believe the Sheridan Cty Memorial Hosp is licensed for about 50 beds MAX. I couldn't live there myself but COULD live in Dayton. EASY. Buffalo is getting too stretched out...
I've had fam in Sheridan & have spent more time than I desire there...is getting too crowded there tho does have the "old west" ambiance I guess if you can ignore I-90 running along the edge of town & the string of "box stores" at the east & west ends. HEAVY franchise biz & just too big for my taste. One of the hospitals is a VA hospital so that is slightly misleading - and some of those beds are probably the long term care residential beds. I believe the Sheridan Cty Memorial Hosp is licensed for about 50 beds MAX. I couldn't live there myself but COULD live in Dayton. EASY. Buffalo is getting too stretched out...
I think you might have your directions a little off. There are no stores on the west side of town. Box stores? We have a Wal-Mart, we have a Home-Depot, we have a Dollar General. And other then a Safeway and a Albertsons, I can't think of any more Chains.
As far as the VA is concerned, it's one of the best VA's in the country. The long term care folks are in a separate building from the hospital. Some of the finest doctors and staff I've found at any VA.
The hospital has built on in the last 3 years and expanded greatly. The rooms are about twice as large as my master bedroom and I have a huge master bedroom. They are licensed for 64 beds.
We have 15,804 people in Sheridan.
Last edited by ElkHunter; 04-20-2008 at 09:21 PM..
Wow. I had to register just to post on this topic.
Ive lived here for around 15 years. you want some honesty? this will take me some time but I had to comment on this and give you an honest picture of the people, the mentality, and the cost of living verses the pay scale. here we go.
obviously a smallish town, but a very pretty one too.
you will have the small-ish town values and problems both, it is not so small that you will know everyone within ten years, but is small enough that on a general scale people here care about the community as a whole. your neighbor, on average will dive out into a street to keep your child from being hit. in major family disastors, many of the locals come together to help one another out. waves and nods of hello are common as you walk down main street, people are generally very friendly with those they know and polite to those they don't.
the small-town politics, frankly, are bull.
this is a good-ole-boy town that is ran by the locals with money, not so much that corruption seems everywhere but enough that it can be aggravating.
again, another example, the town turned down an offer from a local ranch to lease over ten acres of land for "recreational use", meaning for the crowd who likes to ride dirtbikes and fourwheelers, and go out and shoot, at a cost of 1 dollar a year. this is a great example of two very distinct kinds of people you will find out here. the ranch, already had people illegally entering the property and riding on it enough to form well-used trails. out of kindness, and the fact that portion of property was not being used, they offered it to better the community at a price of 1 dollar a year. the local government, however, turned it down for a reason that I do not know or understand. they would immediately approve of a new golf course, I can tell you that, which is sad when you consider that drinking and driving is a huge issue here, as well as underage drinking, when the primary reason is that there are little to no provisions made for the young crowd. you can go do outdoor things, but a majority of the 21 to 30 crowd that wants to go out and socialize and meet people of similair age and thus similair interests, go to the bar. we have a bowling alley, and a movie theater, both 18 and under dominated places, and then many, many bars. no clubs, theme parks (obviously) or any other place that younger people would congregate.
this mentality on the local government's part is one of the reasons for the younger population moving away, which has resulted in a growing percentage of retirement and 50+ aged citizens. the whole "lets retire and play golf" mentality is common here. there are now statues on almost every corner of main street to "beautify" the town, and many of them are well into the double digit thousands mark. we have one small skate park that is poorly maintained, by the way. private golf course community, and much support for the more mature activites. with the lack of activities and support for the younger crowd, there are not many opportunities here for them, and they havent much reason to stay.
another issue that will tie into people moving here is the housing market at this point. it is ridiculous, and far overpriced. you will pay 120 grand for a very small home on a small plot of land, say under a quarter acre, and the house will be in such ill state of repair youd be better off bulldozing it and starting over. a nice, well maintained medium sized home with a two-stall garage on a third acre of property is well into and beyond the quarter million mark, and most here do not make the kind of money that is needed to find a place to rent, much less own. with fast food restaurants paying around eight bucks an hour, and much the same for many other jobs in places like department stores and such, there are many unskilled or no-college-degree parents doing the best they can and having it so rough that they are renting two full families to one two or three bedroom house. homes are overpriced and rentals are scarce and overpriced. expect to pay around 600 or better a month for a respectable but small studio or 1 bedroom apartment. an old, beat up trailer from the sixties or seventies will easily rent here for 550 bucks a month, without utilities. and you are lucky to find any kind of rental at all that is priced below a grand, as anything economical is snatched up quickly. youd be best off to rent in neighboring smaller towns of dayton, ranchester or buffalo. it truly is horrendous, and for my sake, I hope the market crashes hard.
the town is fairly well maintained, again, people will pick up trash blowing down the neighbors yard, this makes for a pretty darn clean town that is easy on the eyes. the bighorn mountains, with both a paved and a gravel access road are easy to get to, the gravel road can get you from your home in downtown sheridan to a campsite near the top of the road within two hours easy. hiking, fishing, camping, hunting, snowmobiling are all common activities and you will find many people who are highly knowledgeable about these things here. we have a local snowmachine shop that has built snowmachines for competition in the x-games, as an example.
it is large enough to have the businesses around to supply you with a majority of what you will need. for an example, there is a starbucks, but no barnes and noble. no mall, no specialty store just for batteries. couple of nice furniture stores, a blockbuster, some nice local pizza joints and anything from a five dollar meal to an eighty-dollar plate for sit down restuarants. no staples. no real specialty stores, but you will usually find what you need, and if you cant, billings is a short drive away, under two hours, and of course most businesses can order in what you need.
there is three to four large grocerie stores, and a handful of mom-n-pop places about, although the smaller places have a bit of a hard time staying afloat, and most do so with good customer service, a friendly warm feeling, and strong base of loyal customers.
the people here can be clickish, and they really talk about others far too much. maybe 20 percent of the locals fling gossip around like gospel, and while most know better and take much of what is said with a grain of salt, you will also find the close-minded and click-ish personalites mentioned above here too. this is maybe a result of not having enough to do, so much socializing takes place in the bar or the restaurant. the live and let live mentality is common, but the gossip and behind the back comments are stinging, with not much kindness. and a town like this, once you get integrated, you must remember that to talk to a common friend about another will almost always result in whatever you say being recited to the talked about person. do not do or say anything publically when you are around people in your social group that you would not want printed on the front page of the local paper.
the local law enforcement are hard on people, as with anything, there are fantastically great officers around here but there are also many law enforcement officers here with a "better-than-thou" attitude coupled with power and control issues that are sickening. you do not usually get treated with anything but required fake courtesy, and if you get pulled over for a minor traffic violation, two more will pull up behind the first officer as if you had hit a nine year old girl playing with her beach ball. they do not act as if they are a public service, more like the insecure must-have-control adult that resulted from having his lunch money stolen or taken one too many times in school. many locals breathe the words "the local gestapo," in reference to the police. any kind of hot rod car in town that has an owner who likes to play with the throttle, even a little, will result in harassment. this doesnt stop it from happening, but it is a downer. I am talking about a situation where you are at a stoplight, and you accelerate to thirty briskly. you havent broken the speed limit, nor have you spun your tires or left any marks or made any squeeling tire sounds. if you have done it in a sports car of any kind, the law enforcement would not hesitate to pull you over and call for backup.
some of this sounds bad, and some of it good. you will find things that you can find in almost no othere place here, and they are worth their weight in gold. like anything else, it comes with a tradeoff in some areas and you have to decide where your priorities are. it is expensive, not kind to the young folk, and unfair sometimes here. at the same time, you will find loyalty, caring, and uncommon friendliness by some, rejection as an "outsider" by others of a small percentage. beautiful scenery, fantastic outdoor opportunities, weather that can be -10 or 110 for a couple weeks at a time but rarely that severe, uncommon qualities in people that are both good and bad... it is hard to put the experience of a town in words. I hope this novel sized report can be of some help to you- and have a wonderful day.
Elkhunter - guess I just never bought into the whole "box store" mentality. We had a reg. walmart here in Cody & then prob'ly less than 1/2 mile on towards the Y'stone end of town built a supercenter. Left that orig. block bldg empty & UGLY for several years until Cody labs bought it & I don't think they use half of it & DEFINITELY not 1/5 of the parking lot. Is just ugly. Isn't it the east end when you drive in from Gillette? I get my directions mixed up - Is just Coffeen Ave that turns me WAY off except right downtown - all the way to the other end of town where you hit I-25 again. I don't have a prob w/Sheridan - although It just has a lot of old parts of town that could use some "urban renewal" work. Cody had that too & a lot of ppl have bought some of the really old homes in downtown area & have fixed them up into real beautiful homes & I'd love to see that happen in Sheridan...but costs $$. I know a lot of ppl who move here have more $$ (at least at first...) so can afford to do that. The street I lived on for 6 months in 1987-88 was pretty trashy back then but tolerable & safe - just old. Now most of the homes on that street as well as the cross streets & other parallel streets have been really fixed up at least aesthetically. Think is just basically Sheridan is just too big for me. I am a big web/catelog shopper - gas is too $$$ to go to Billings (is about as far for us as for Sheridan) & so if we can't get it local I just hop online & get what I want. I don't need all those big stores in town. I thought there was a K-Mart & some other big store at the end hitting I-25 on the (north???) end, heading towards Dayton. Maybe is just the stack of big gas stations there...I know gas is USUALLY (historically) lower there but bet is about the same as it is here now. Used to be up to 20-cents less there. Greybull was the other cheap gas destination...didn't mean to step on any Sheridan toes...
Chad - are you the same Chad Straight who used to live in Cody & work at the Proud Cut???
You're right. Coffeen is the major road running South to North. You hit coffeen right after you exit the interstate from Gillette. Our box stores are all right down at the South end of town on the East side of Coffeen. They did build a Home Depot on the West side right there at the South End.
We were lucky. When we went from Wal-Mart, to Super Wal-Mart, they kept the same building and just added on so we didn't have anything standing empty. But that's it, Home Depot and Wal-Mart are the only big chains we have in Sheridan. OH, and K-Mart at the North end of town. But they don't get much business. Seldom ever see more then about 20 cars in the parking lot.
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