Thinking of Moving to Wyoming (Cheyenne, Casper: sales, real estate, apartment)

[askmak2003]

I am active duty Army and a widow with three small kids. My tour of duty will be ending soon. I have started looking for a place to settle down. I am looking for a more rural and quiet area that we can still financially survive. Wyoming is looking better and better, but to be honest I will be completely starting over and have no idea what to look at and for. Any suggestions?

[ElkHunter]

Anything in particular you are looking for? i.e. Mountains, prairie, high desert, do you mind a little wind, what outdoor activities do you like? Boating, snow shoeing, skying, that sort of thing.

Are you looking for a small town atmosphere or just a small town? Large town? Remember, in Wyoming our biggest Cities are only 70,000 or so. Are you wanting land to build, want to rent, own a house in town or even outside of town.

Tell us a little of what your looking for so we can better give advice.

[askmak2003]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

Anything in particular you are looking for? i.e. Mountains, prairie, high desert, do you mind a little wind, what outdoor activities do you like? Boating, snow shoeing, skying, that sort of thing.

Are you looking for a small town atmosphere or just a small town? Large town? Remember, in Wyoming our biggest Cities are only 70,000 or so. Are you wanting land to build, want to rent, own a house in town or even outside of town.

Tell us a little of what your looking for so we can better give advice.

Being in the Army I have lived in many many different types of atmospheres. I have found that I adjust well to just about anything. I enjoy outdoor activities of just about any sort, but I do not depend on them to be happy. My ideal location would be a small town area (or just outside one), and to eventually own something small. I am in no way looking to make big bucks, but I need to make a living. I also need to be able to educate my kids.

[ElkHunter]

Well, for the Eastern half of the state:

Cheyenne, large town as towns go here in Wyoming. Warren Air Base is there but they don't fly in and out of there. It was originally set up as a missile headquarters and the silo's were maintained out of Warren. Very diverse town that has affordable housing both in town and just outside of town. A bit windy for my taste. Located at the crossroads of I-25 and I-80. Short hour and a half trip to Denver. Lots of jobs available.

Laramie, medium town. College town. Jobs are a little harder to find as the college kids tend to eat up what they can for work. However plenty of professional opportunities. A little more costly then Cheyenne, but a little more scenic too. Camping and outdoor activities close by.

Casper, large town. Center of the state. Housing is available as well as jobs. Tends to get a bit windy from time to time. Good metro system.

Buffalo, small town, nestled up against the Big Horn mountains. Few houses available. Several jobs available. Tends to be one of the least windy places in Wyoming.

Sheridan, medium town (15000), nestled up against the Big Horn mountains. 2 hours from Billings Mt for heavy duty shopping (MT has no sales tax). Very little housing available. Lots of jobs, just no place to live. Few places outside of town but winter road closures can be a pain. But we're only talking 3 or 4 days a year the roads close due to snow. Again, one of the least Windy places in the State.

Gillette, a BOOM town. Oil rigs, coal miners, methane workers are it's mainstay. I wouldn't recommend looking at that area unless your looking into one of those fields. Great town, just a major Boom town.

Hopefully somebody from over the hill can fill you in on the Western half.

[jazzlover]

A correction: Warren AFB is still quite active managing and maintaining missile silos. It is still considered by many to be the single most militarily powerful Air Force Base on the planet because of the destructive power it controls. It does not have its own airfield--it uses the Cheyenne Municipal Airport, but I can assure you that C-130's are going in and out of there every day. It is also Wyoming's Air National Guard Base, with a fair amount of helicopter traffic.

Elkhunter neglected to mention Torrington. A nice town right on the Wyoming/Nebraska border. Basically a farming community, with a new prison now being built there. About the warmest, mildest climate in Wyoming. More reasonably priced real estate than many Wyoming locales.

[ElkHunter]

Thanks for pointing that out Jazz. Torrington being so far away from the beaten path tends to keep the serenity a little better. Wonderful town. Should also mention Wheatland. Nice little town also.

As far as Warren, I was simply pointing out that there's no inbound and outbound jet or aircraft noise so if you rented an apartment close to Warren, it's relatively quiet, not like most bases. But yes, Warren is still a very active facility.

[emeraldsky]

Thank you for what you do in the military. Your time and service.

My dad is retired from the Air Force, so we moved around lots too, and I have to say WY is definitely one of my favorite places.

I think it's a good place for children. And I've heard many positives about the schools throughout the state. Here in Campbell County they have a great deal of money they put into the schools. One thing I've appreciated in that regard is the resources they have to diversify education for each individual child - whether they need extra help, more of a challenge, help from a counselor. It seems all students get that extra whatever they need.

And there is plenty of fresh air and opportunities for sports here in WY of course.

I wish you the best in deciding what to do next...

[brerose]

Yes. Wyoming is a great place to live. I live here right now. But the winters are not too mild and they really have no growing season. I live in Green River Wyoming, and I love the people here! They are awesome. My grandpa loves to hunt here (There is never a shortage). You can fish and everything here! It is really pretty especially in the summer. Like you will look at the rocks when the sun is about to go down it's like this pinkish color it's beautiful!

My family is moving soon and the only reason I want to move is because there isn't really much for a fifteen year old to do. And the winters are really cold. We do have the smallest pop. in the U.S. tho. About five hundred thousand. But the school districts do have a lot of money to use on eduucation, and they do try to do right by the kids. I also would like to recommend Green river to you, there is no humidity and it is like just perfect!

[tekape]

Originally Posted by askmak2003

I am active duty Army and a widow with three small kids. My tour of duty will be ending soon. I have started looking for a place to settle down. I am looking for a more rural and quiet area that we can still financially survive. Wyoming is looking better and better, but to be honest I will be completely starting over and have no idea what to look at and for. Any suggestions?

Elkhunter did a good job covering the eastern side....

western side tends to be more scenic (and more expensive)...Cody, Jackson, Alpine, etc are beautiful places, but you need $$$ to afford to live there. Dubois is great, but no jobs. Lander/Riverton are good places...Riverton is on the rez, Lander just outside the rez....

then there's Green River/Rock Springs and Evanston....don't know a lot about them....

there's a ton of quaint little towns along I-80 (Saratoga, etc) but I don't think they have much for jobs

welcome to Wyoming

[Jason1980]

Originally Posted by askmak2003

I am active duty Army and a widow with three small kids. My tour of duty will be ending soon. I have started looking for a place to settle down. I am looking for a more rural and quiet area that we can still financially survive. Wyoming is looking better and better, but to be honest I will be completely starting over and have no idea what to look at and for. Any suggestions?

I live in Rawlins, and it is the most bleak, dismal, surreal little outpost imaginable. I have lived in five other places (NYC; Palo Alto, California; Auburn, Alabama; Toledo (Spain) and Mexico City). These are very different types of places, but I very much enjoyed each one. I cannot say the same about Wyoming. Granted, the other towns out here I have visited seem less depressing than Rawlins, but they hardly seem that impressive either. Jackson had some good restaurants. Rawlins has Taco John's, Taco Bell, what must be the filthiest McDonald's on the face of the planet, and a couple of other places like that dive in the TA truck stop where the waitresses look like toothless meth addicts out on parole.

Most of the people seem like uneducated, uncouth, not particularly friendly and often quite frightening cretins. They are very coarse and blunt; and men women and children alike tend to be appallingly foul mouthed. They dress as if they pulled their clothes directly from the Salvation Army reject dumpster. Meth use, I understand, is a huge plague here - and I can believe it. Tattoos abound. Bookstores don't. Squalid trailer parks and filthy pickup trucks are everywhere. There is a heavy aura of tragedy about this place. Trashy little saloons are everywhere too - even though the town only has 8,600 people. It's a hard drinking little place to be sure. There must be twenty bars.

The winters here are beyond hideous, and there are potholes the size of Utah every two feet on the pathetic little roads. It is like being in Siberia without the charm. I can't wait to leave because this place is driving me insane. It is such an unspeakable and backward dump.

Having said that, Cheyenne seems like it might be tolerable. It is quite small too. For Wyoming, it is like Paris - what with such exotic things as that mall and that Red Lobster. My advice as you drive in from Denver is to stop in Cheyenne (or better still turn around). Do NOT venture further into the state/Twilight Zone. Cheyenne is not only the largest town in the state, but it is the closest town in the state to civilization (Denver, Boulder, etc.) Other Wyomingites sometimes say Cheyenne isn't the "real" Wyoming (as if that were a bad thing) because it is down on a prarie in the corner of the state ten minutes from Colorado. It is still extremely country, but it is one of the oldest towns in the state, still the largest town in the state (and the state capital), so it has vague traces of semi-urban charm amidst its end-of-the-earth setting.

In general, Wyoming is a very harsh, desolate place. I thoroughly understand why it is the least populated state. The people here are a very rough lot and seem to reflect their rough hewn habitat.

Hope this was helpful. It was most sincere.