An Honest View of Moving to Gillette Wyoming (Casper, Laramie: appointed, apartment complexes)

[DJFrog71]

I used this site prior to moving from a small town in southern Illinois to Gillette wyoming, I posted questions and concerns and researched everything I could about living in Wyoming, but I promise you, living here is quite different than reading about living here!

Most people are nice here, but it has taken us 6 months to make friends and the people we have gotten to know are already moving away because it is a very transient place. The people here are usually very friendly but we have run into a few very unfriendly ones too. While drivng here, if someone lets you merge during while rush hour, wave, because you have probably just met me, I seem to be the only one who does it!

This is a little off the subject, but I just read a post that said something about the Mormon kids being in control and not allowing other kids of different religions participate in Green River school activities, well that is a typical reversal of the truth! We are the minority (usually) and even if we are not, we are very nice and caring people as a whole. I have never rejected another because of thier religious choices, but I have been more times than I can count!!! Our best friends are catholic and asked us to be god parents to thier one child that they tried to have for years, an honor to us even though it is not what our beliefs teach but something they held very dear to thier hearts, but we were rejected by thier priest who said we were not christians. Until moving here, my kids had been the only mormons in thier school. They have never seen other kids as anything but other kids, someone to play with, be friends with, to have fun with, not nessessarily church companions. I joined one of my sons into the local wrestling program and as we watched the kids practice, I was speaking to several of the Mom's, the conversation turned to "Did we have a church and would we like to attend thiers." At this time I told them that I was Mormon, but thanked them for the invitation. The conversation quickly came to an abrupt end! It was very uncomfortable for me to return after that happened. I just think it is really sad that the same people who would never dream of insulting a person of a different skin color don't think twice about insulting someone who is a Mormon. And usually thier ideas about who we are and why they dislike us are unfounded.

Back to my point about living here in Wyoming. My husband had worked for Ford In Hazelwood, Mo. for 12 years when they decided to close his plant, so we went on the lookout for a job that would bring us out west and closer to my family in Utah. He had originaly taken a job in Rock Springs, we looked prior to coming out, (for weeks) for affordable housing for our family, (3 boys and 2 dogs) We actually had people hang up on us after telling them we had a dog. With our house sold and the truck packed even without housing we headed out, we mistakenly believed that once we got to the area there would be more things for rent that we could see around town, signs in yards, ect. Boy were we wrong! After putting our stuff in storage and sitting in a hotel room (at 140.00 a night because we couldn't even find another cheaper room that would allow our kids and dogs) for three weeks while we searched and searched for a rental in green river or rock springs, we finally gave up and left and headed to stay with family in Utah.

Rock Springs was such an unpleasant area, but as far as looks and feel, Green River was by far the nicer of the two towns! If you live in a city setting already you may do well in Rock Springs, but we lived in a rural community with 900 people but close to several other small and large communities (30 miles outside St. Louis) and it was such a shock to even drive in and see the town, so little greenery and trees. I felt like Rock Springs was a large truck stop community.

We gave up the job in Rock Springs for a railroad job in Gillette and actually posted an ad in the local paper for 3 weeks asking for a land lord who would allow our dogs. (Sorry but when you have children who love thier pets and you are uprooting thier lives by moving them half way across the country, you let them keep thier dogs). We finally got an apartment, 950 square feet, tiny dirt yard and in not so nice a neighborhood for 1100.00 a month!!! We live in what is commonly refered to as "the popular Westover hills area". It is a nice area, two blocks over, but there is also 2-3 roads that consist of mainly apartments and condos, it is quite run down. We see police cars in our neighborhood at least once a week, in fact we had one knock on our door because of a fight our neighboor had. While visiting one of our sons, a boy had his bike stolen from right next to our cars, we found it at one of the apartment houses. Last night someone was jiggling our door knob trying to get into our house, good thing our dogs barked and they left. My husbands job takes him away for days at a time, it sucks being here and being scared to live here.

Early in our lives, we were military and my husband took jobs that forced him to move so it isn't like we have never been anywhere, with Illinois being the longest at 12 years, prior to moving there we lived in Utah, Tennessee, Colorado, and Nevada, the only place we have ever felt this unsafe was while in Reno Nevada. And we left that job quickly!

There are more people living in travel trailers and mobile homes here than I have ever seen, even in a camp ground!

There is also a huge problem with drugs here, meth and pot. Our oldest son is opting to go to his senior prom solo because every girls he has been initially attracted to has offered him a cigarette or pot! He said the kids here think of pot as just another cigarette.

We did not want to purchase a home until we knew the area better and if the job would work out. The housing costs are are beyond ridiculous! For the home we sold in Illinois for 95,000.00 we could have sold it here for 200,000.00 or more! The houses in the areas that we want to live, safer, same school, church, ect. we will have to carry at least a 250,000.00 mortgage, the utilities are about the same (250.00 a month for electricity, water and garbage pickup). The groceries are more expensive here, on average the things I bought on a weekly basis are about 10-20 cents more per item, (I know that doesn't sound like much but it adds up)! The gas was steady at 2.27 for months but it up to 2.80 now. The cost of a happy meal here is the cost of an adult meal in St. Louis. If you are looking for shopping, you will need to drive into Rapid City as Wal-mart and Kmart are the biggest stores here. A lot of smaller strip mall stores but they tend to have little in selection and prices are quite high. Restaurants are lacking too, we have went to about 1/2 of places in town in the last six months and have been disappointed almost every time. We have only gone to one place twice!

Don't be fooled into believing that the rate of pay will create a balance with the cost of living. We have heard a lot of things about the "Energy Boom" coming to an end here, at least partially, the methaners have had problems with the EPA or something like that, the business are slowing down and people are leaving due to lack of work in that field. Coal is still a boom business here though, which is directly tied to the Railroad. My husband will make approx. the same amount as his best year at ford. If we had not had a large savings account (that is dwindling into nothing) we would not have been able to live here at all.

The weather is very different here too. Mainly the wind, that seems like it NEVER stops blowing!! Sand and dust are a constant, forget trying to keep a dust free home. It is not very green and there really are huge tumble weeds blowing around town along with the garbage that is always along the roadsides. The small yard we do have is always littered with garbage from the dumpsters that are used for the Apartment complexes and are kept along the road side.

It is dry here, I use more lotion in a week then I used in a year in Illinois and bloody noses are common too. Be prepared for a higher altitude, the air is thinner here. I had never even thought of that, but my kids have a harder time catching thier breath here, even to the point of blue lips while hiking when we first arrived. It snows here in Sept and through April and it is cold a lot! At first we were amazed at the fact that there are hundreds of Antelope everywhere, now we barely notice them!

Other things I never thought of where cellular usage and local weather and news reports. We had Cingular for years and they dropped us because we were out of network. Only Verizon and Alltell offer service in Gillette. We have also had Dishnetwork for years as our satelite T.V provider and they do offer service here but no local channels, not even Rapid City, S.D. or Casper, Wy. Our only available local channels are in Denver, 350 miles away doesn't help when you want weather reports. So we get all our news from the local paper a day late or online.

I am sorry if this has been a negative narrative, I guess if we knew how much we would have disliked it here we might not have moved here. Maybe we still would have, but we would have opened our eye much wider and maybe had much lower expectations.

Now that I have allowed myself to vent about all the dislikes here, I will say there are some really nice things here too. For a small community, Gillette has an amazing cultural side, we have seen more plays and concerts here, than we ever did while living close to a metro area. Mainly because it is so close and cheap. Tickets for many events run 6.00 for adult and 4.00 for children. One of our children was even in a play run through the Musula Childrens theater.

The schools here have a great deal more money than we were used to. We did not have to pay for book rental or class fees. A big savings over Illnois. They offer a great deal more classes to younger elementary students, band, chior, even swimming as part of P.E. One of our sons struggles a great deal with schooling, he has improved due to the smaller class sizes and personal attention. They do push athletics in the junior and high school levels more than I would like but the city rec center offers an alternative to the highly competive pace of the school sports (for younger children). Soccer, basketball, football, and wrestling. I think they have hockey too but it isn't something my kids play so I don't know. There is a local rec center and a city pool that I am sure we will frequent this summer. There is also a great deal of places to visit within just a few hours drive from here.

There is a wonderful library in town, they offer many programs for tots to teens. We joined the community garden, where you rent a plot of land and can grow a beautiful garden of your own while getting to know others in town who also enjoy gardening.

I am not sure what my point of writting all of this has been but I hope it helps someone out there who may be considering a move to Wyoming, specifically the Gillette or Rock Springs area. Keep your sense of humor, it may be the only reason we have survived here long enough to begin to feel like we are adjusting to life here. Hopefully the adjustments will continue and we will learn to love it here. I have been told that people either hate it or love it, well if I have to live here I want to learn to love it!

Thanks, D.

[imbobbbb]

your post does a good job of summing up the culture shock a lot of people would/will experiance by moving to any of the wyoming energyboom towns without spending some time there first.its hard to describe,but its a lot different then most other places ive lived.i lived near gillette between booms so at least housing was cheap then,i cant believe how realestate has skyrocketed ,rentals were impossible when there wasnt a boom going on,i commuted from moorcroft.while i love wyoming anybody thinking of moving near any of the energyboom towns really needs to visit a while first.i think if i was lds i would have looked into mt. view,lyman,kemmerer,labarge,evanston etc before moving to gillette as they are all 50+% lds.

[Earniefan]

DJFrog, I've lived in Green River and heard the stories directly from the parents and their children about the mormon bias. There is a lot of bullying that goes on and NO ONE does anything about it. I guess they think if you're mormon you couldn't possibly do anything wrong.....give me a break! We have mormon friends that are family to us, and we have mormon friends that we have had to break ties with. I've come to discover that there are varying degrees of mormonism, none of them are the same across the board. I'm sorry you were offended by the other post but in Green River this information is very true.

Oh my goodness, it takes a least a year to acclamate to a higher altitude. You're lucky none of you got altitude sickness from your hike.

[NewWy]

Gillette before the boom was a completely different place, and one that I would have recommended to anyone. Now, not so much. For some reason as it grows it doesn't have the nice part of being a small town.

Anyway, I will hope that the rest of your stay will be happier.

[DJFrog71]

Let me clarify, I was not saying that the situation could not be going on in Green River. Typically the truth is very different, at least with my experience. In fact, our experiences have been very much the other side of that same coin! A great deal of the time, the situation has NOTHING to do with the fact that the people in the situation are Mormon. But being Mormon becomes central to the issue instead of taking control of the issues at hand. If these kids are bullying other kids, call them what they are "Bullies!" I was simply questioning why it became "those Mormon bullies"? If they are being bullies and being Mormon is part of why they are bullying, then shame on them! But know that thier behavior goes against everything we as a whole believe in!

I guess I just think it is sad and odd, that rarely will you read "Catholic man commits crime", but if that same man is Mormon you will read it as part of the article.

I have a son who had to change school's because of a bullying problem and no one wanted to do anything about it. We had to threaten an attorney and lawsuits before any action was taken. As sad as it is, it comes under the parents responsibility to protect thier child when the schools and parents of the other children won't. The people in charge need to be called to the mat, bullying is unacceptable in any cirlce!!! Just leave the fact that they are Mormon out of it. Because it makes everyone who reads that post, who may not have any experiences with Mormons, think that all mormon children are as rude as those few!

People have way to many preconcieved ideas about other people already. I simply wanted to make the point that it is always better to make decisions based on individuals actions and not based on thier religious preference. We have known some of the most wonderful people in the world and some of the most aweful people in the world, all through our association in the church. One of the things they all had in common was not thier membership in the church, it was being human and flawed.

[Mom in Gillette]

Gillettes not too bad, but of course it all depends on where you are comming from.

One of my biggest gripes is the lack of shopping and the drugs. I do a lot of online shopping as I am not about to waste gas to shop in Rapid City or Casper. Drugs are a problem here, but they are a problem everywhere. I dont think this is a gillette only problem. One of the main factors for the drug problem is houses out in the country make it very easy to hide a meth lab out in the middle of no where.

Also our housing shortage is unreal. We are saving to buy a house but in the meantime we keep looking for a 4 bedroom house to rent...yeah right. Plus we have pets too. Luckily we are set with the rental we have right now as its owned by family member so we are not going to be forced out of our house anytime soon. But with 5 kids and pets it can be a bit cramped. When we moved here we only has 3 kids but we have since added twins to the family.

I am not Mormon nor have experianced any negativity with any mormon families or kids...moot point for me. The only people I have known to be mormon were the missionaries who knock on my door. I guess I never bother to ask what someones faith is....

Wind is an issue...but Wyoming is known for thier wind. We knew it was windy here before we moved.

Cost of living. I guess it is all relative. We have lived in So. California, so anything cheaper than there is good to us. I am a couponer (with my own website if anyone is interested in learning how to shop let me know otherwise I wont plug my site here LOL) so I know how to shop for groceries on the cheap. Our budget 7 people (3 in diapers still) 3 dogs and 3 cats is $400 a month for all groceries and household and personal care products.

Houses here are cheaper than in CA.

And you pretty much have to be a moron or on drugs not to be able to get a job here. Heck McDonalds starts at 8.00 an hour! The downside to that is that you can get a better paying job in the coal mines or other supporting industry for much more $$ and so the turn over for employees in retail is high equaling a lack of customer service. I have been to Taco Bell recently and there were only 2 employees working on a busy friday night and we waited over an hour in the drive through lane. Same at Burger King.

Upside here...little real traffic (rush hour is what an hour at 6 PM and you get hung up at Boxelder and 59) Thats not real rush hour.

Schools in campbell county have money...that means we are not billed for books and busses. Our kids have computers in the classrooms, and the student to teacher ratio is low. My only complaint with Gillette Schools is that there is no GATE school.

Lots of things to do for free or cheap, camplex offers lots of things to do that are affordable. The teens now have a hang out spot (Sports Zone) that was much needed in Gillette. Community center and city pool offer free or cheap things to do in the summer. Plays, arts, even our little Rock Pile museum. We have what I think are nice parks, there is a park in every subdivision.

I think anyone moving to Gillette should come and visit before just heading out here as its a culture shock. Gillette is blue collar town, it is industrial. The city tries to do thing to improve the culture of the town but it is what it is. We are out here on the plains, its a dessert here, nice and dry (lived in the humid south before too...give me the dry anyday!)


There are things that could be improved upon sure, but over all I feel its a pretty good place to live and raise kids.

[Himpurs]

My husband just got a job in Gillette. So he just found out today, (friday) that he got the job and he is to start on monday. We called around to all the campgrounds as we have a camper that he wants to stay in during the week there but all campgrounds are full. He really doesn't want to drive back and forth everyday, so any ideas on places to call to find a place to park the camper during the week? He may eventually get an apartment but for now just wants to stay in the camper.

[ElkHunter]

DJ,

Sorry you didn't acclamate like I did. You've asked a lot of good questions and we've provided answers based on what we found and what we did. Not everybody is the same, but we answered the best we could. Sorry it didn't fit exactly the way you wanted it to.

[wyolady]

DJ,

If I read your post right, your husband works for the railroad? BN or UP? If he's away for days at a time, have you considered moving to another WY community? I live in Torrington and we have many railroaders here. We have many Mormons - my best friend from Laramie is Mormon - and I've never heard the negativity you refer to here.

Our housing is affordable right now, although with a medium-security prison slated to open in '09 that might change. We have wonderful schools and although drugs are everywhere in WY, the meth problem is less here, I believe because we are smaller and able to keep "tabs" on our kids.

Think about it - if you want more Torrington info, post questions here and I bet you'll hear from many of us.

Oh yeah, and the weather here is wonderful. A bit hot right now, but mild winters and although the wind blows here, not as bad as many other WY towns. I moved from Laramie and find the "wind" here to be more of a "breeze".

[Wild Hare]

i moved to gillette in feb from being born and raised in cheyenne. i hardly notice the wind here compared to cheyenne. i have found the people here way more friendly and i feel more comfortable here than i ever did in cheyenne.