can I get peace in wyoming? (Cheyenne, Gillette: renting, home, buy)

[sagebunny]

As many of you may remember from my previous posts, my family is looking to move to Wyoming in a year or so. I've been in contact with both the chamber of commerce in Powell and in Cody, and have received relocation information, which I am grateful for and finding helpful.....until I read the 'guide for newcomers' I received. I have one concern that I'd like to put out there and welcome your comments. Here are some quotes from the guide: "It is often said that a Wyomingite can make two or three phone calls and find out anything he or she wants to know about anyone in the state." and later it actually explains when and where to gossip. "Wyomingites have a strong sense of sharing a unique past, which carries with it a certain sense of exclusivity. There is a tendency to distinguish between "insiders", i.e., long time residents, and "outsiders."
OK. While my brain is telling me there is no way you can keep track of everyone in the state through phone calls, I am wondering what it really means. The gossip where we live now is exactly what I want to move away from. My husband and I have lived in 4 locations together, and only in this last location have we experienced gossip and rumors on a harmful level. We want to move our family to a better life. Of course, the town we school our kids in now has a population of only 850 or so, which I'm sure contributes to the gossip and the shunning of 'newcomers' that weren't born or raised here.
So, please enlighten me. What can we expect in Wyoming?
I have a clean record and we are good people, but I value my privacy.

[NDak15]

Gossip is everywhere, especially in small towns. I don't know how Cody or Powell compare to most towns, but you will likely hear it there. My best advice is don't contribute to it and keep it with a grain of salt. As far as outsiders, it's been my experience that Wyomingites accept anyone as long as they're a hard worker and down to earth. Basically, if you're a real person. I don't know specifically how Cody and Powell are in this regard, but if they are like the areas I've experienced you should be fine.

[juneaubound]

My husband and I came back to Wyoming for peace as well. Not because of hurtful gossip but for other reasons, and for the most part we have found that here. We live in Cody. We don't engage in gossip, and although we are friendly with everyone we meet, we also don't share many personal details of our lives with people. Because we don't want to. Most people seem to take us at face value and I have met some very good people here whose friendship we enjoy greatly. I have no idea if people gossip about us, because truthfully we're at the point in our lives where we don't really care too much what other people think. We came for peace and to quietly live our lives, and we insist on doing that. I don't have young children so don't deal a whole lot with either kids or young famlies so can't speak to that demographic.

There are many people with a lot of money in this area and I have both heard and witnessed a certain "classism" against those with less means. I believe they are the exception rather than the rule though, and I choose not to associate with people who look down on others who have less money. It is not a cheap place to live so look closely at costs compared to where you are now.

With regards to "outsiders", most of the people I have met in Cody could be classified as outsiders - everybody seems to be from someplace else. Not sure if that is the case in Powell. Because it is a farming community my "guess" would be that there are more people who were born and raised in the area.

Both towns are generally very safe, have good schools, have a lot of outdoor recreation opportunities, and hold many special events throughout the year to keep the locals and tourists entertained.

The Chamber info is exaggerated to make a point and I can see how the message they are sending can be interpreted in different ways depending on who is reading it.

[ElkHunter]

It's kind of funny. I lived in a town of 18,000 and got tired of the community gossip. It was very localized, in that people 10 blocks away knew nothing, but in about a 5 block raidus, they knew how my last blood test results were. I moved out to a town of 850. Now you are probably thinking that that was a stupid move, not really. Our here, I quickly identified the town gossips and I simply don't associate with them. There's only about a half dozen and they show up like the drove red cars and wore pink bunny suits. For once in my life, it is quiet. It's peaceful. I go fishing when I want, I go hunting when seasons permit, I don't go to bars, and low and behold, not even my next door neighbor knows anything about me.

Everybody is extremely neighborly and friendly. 2 winters ago, a neighbor had his knee replaced. For 3 months I bladed his driveway and walk. He didn't ask, I just did it. Last year I was in the hospital and when I got home after 5 days, my lawn had been mowed, my garden weeded and watered, and to this day, I am not sure who did it.

I have a cousin that lives in Cody and has lived there for 40 years. You could no more pry her and her husband out of that town for nothing. They have a son with wife, and a daughter with husband, that all live in Powell. You couldn't make them leave with dynamite. I have never been to either Powell or Cody so really couldn't answer direct questions about it, but I have to believe that my relatives would have moved a long time ago had they found one excuse to get out of there. That's just the way they are.

I wish you luck with your decision. I don't think you can go wrong with either choice. Because of what I know about Wyoming, I would choose my landing point by the beauty of the area, the availability of fishing and hunting and other outdoor activity, because I don't think people are going to be a problem. Our schools are pretty much the same, throughout the state, as far as availability of curriculuum, activities and such. The only difference in schools would be community backing, as far as community participation and envolvement. I have lived in a lot of Wyoming towns and community backing has NEVER been a problem. Every place I have been the parents and even non parents were heavily envolved in school activities.

I don't think you can go wrong. Good luck.

[branDcalf]

Heck. I worked in a city of 1.7 million and found gossipy folks. I've lived and worked in many very small Wyoming towns and figured out who the gossips were in those, too. Not really too hard to avoid.

Yes. It's often easy to tell who is from here and who is not, but just about everybody is accepted or at least tolerated.

I often do find that everyone I meet knows someone I know.

[Ltdumbear]

You won't 'escape' ANYTHING by re-locating to Wyoming. Everything that is there (where you are), is now HERE.

'Urbania' is EVERYWHERE...except maybe the far north 'Tundra' region of Alaska and/or Canada.

...I imagine Urbania is even prevalent in most of Siberia, now that they have well-maintained highways in and out of it...

[jody_wy]

Gee , when you go to the State's one university, been in HS activaties and sports, FFA ,4-H, a member of one or two State Wide oragization, be on County and State Boards , yes there is some State Wide gossip

[WyoNewk]

Originally Posted by jody_wy

Gee , when you go to the State's one university, been in HS activaties and sports, FFA ,4-H, a member of one or two State Wide oragization, be on County and State Boards , yes there is some State Wide gossip

I think maybe that's what the Chamber was getting at. The State of Wyoming is, in many respects, much like a medium-sized city. I'd only lived in Gillette a few months before I'd had lengthy conversations with not only the mayor but also the governor, not only city councilmen and state senators but also U.S. senators. I'd go to a high school football game and run into Mayor Enzi or go to a UW football game and run into Governor Hathaway. I was in the newspaper business and knew the editors and publishers of most of Wyoming's newspapers better than I knew the editor and publisher of the city newspaper where I'd previously worked. Even decades later I'd run into people I knew when having dinner in Jackson or Cheyenne, camping in the mountains, or getting a tank of gas in Wheatland. It's a small state, and if you get out and about and meet people, you'll run into those you know in every corner of the state.

Or you can hibernate, like Juneau has, and like I've done for the past 15 or 20 years. You can be active in the community and state and know people far and wide or stay at home and mind your own business. It's pretty easy to do either.

[shadowwalker]

I strongly suggest renting for at least 6 months to a year before you buy anything in Powell or Lovell. I only spent 2 years in Powell and ran out of that town the first chance I got. I have never lived with the bigotry my wife and I received there.

[juneaubound]

Originally Posted by shadowwalker

I strongly suggest renting for at least 6 months to a year before you buy anything in Powell or Lovell. I only spent 2 years in Powell and ran out of that town the first chance I got. I have never lived with the bigotry my wife and I received there.

Can you share any of your experiences? Are you talking about the LDS influence or something else?