small mountain towns? (Casper, Laramie, Cody: for sale, home, employment)

[exitplan]

Want to find a place in Wyoming to move to. Looking for a rural/small town with no more than 2 thousand people. Any advise would be appreciated!

[WyoNewk]

Story is really a pretty little town tucked in the foothills of the Big Horns. Dayton and Ranchester are 5-10 miles out of the Big Horns. I think all three are just under 1000 population and both are more like "real" towns. Hulett is at the edge of Wyoming's Black Hills and is about the same size. Sundance is also in the Wyoming Black Hills and has somewhere around 2000 population.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by exitplan

Want to find a place in Wyoming to move to. Looking for a rural/small town with no more than 2 thousand people. Any advise would be appreciated!

it would be helpful for a meaningful response if you would give us an idea as to what you perceive a "mountain town" to be ...

as most towns in Wyoming are rather low population, that's an easy criteria to meet.

but "in the mountains", as actually in the mountains like you might view majestic peaks soaring around you and built in the mountains ... is a different story.

Much of the mountain land area of Wyoming is public lands that are not developable because approx 50% of Wyoming land falls into that fed and state lands category.

As WyoNewk points out, there's many towns to suggest, but they aren't "in the mountains", they are some distance away from "mountains". And I'd disagree with him about the NE portion of Wyoming and "mountains"; there aren't mountain ranges there, it's mostly "hills" of lower elevations at around 4,000'. The mountain ranges of Wyoming are mainly West of I-25 and I-90 in the Buffalo northward area, where you'll find the extended mountain ranges along the continental divide and alpine altitudes.

Of course, what hasn't entered into the thread is price point, whether or not you need a job/communications/municipal services/medical access, land or a town site, etc. These are important factors for most people. Consider, too, that actually living "in the mountains" here in Wyoming can be a very brutal winter weather experience, and perhaps isolated and seasonally accessed. There are reasons why you don't hear of many mountain towns in Wyoming .... unlike small towns that are more prominent in the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico.

Price Point is a major consideration. Don't expect that even a non-resort/tourist area "in the mountains" of Wyoming will be inexpensive to live in just because it's a low population and limited services area. Alternatively, one might look in the Jackson area, perhaps down to Pinedale, or Dubois, or west of Cody.

[fr8train]

Centennial and Albany are cool little towns near the mountains that are off the beaten path. No idea what living there would actually be like, as they're both rather small (iirc Albany has a population of 55) and isolated.

[sunsprit]

Interesting to consider those small towns West of Laramie on or nearby the SH 130 corridor as fr8train suggests, or the places like Woods Landing through to Mountain Home. Just South of Mountain Home are a few residential places at the WY-CO border, several of which have been for sale over the last couple of years. There's a couple of places there that were focused on the tourist trade; ie, a residence with a lodging/retail supplies store home-based business, although these have looked pretty shabby over the last decade.

For the most part, I'd characterize living in these places as an isolated bedroom community of rather small size, pretty much dependent upon Laramie for any services/goods/entertainment/medical. There's effectively no employment nearby, or what there is available is seasonal outdoor work. A commute to Laramie is possible but will be problematic given the storms that blow through the area to the West of Laramie across the open plain area ... about 15 miles of very exposed roadway. One can reasonably count on this area's roads being closed more than a few times each winter and having to be fairly independent for your living situation. But it is an interesting combination of living in a mountain area while still retaining access to a metro area with full services nearby ... as opposed to the mountain towns in Wyoming that are quite isolated and remote from such access.

[spartan4411]

Can't believe no one has mentioned Dubois?!?!

Dubois is a town of about 1,000 people nestled next to the Wind River Mountains and is about 86 miles from Jackson, WY. It is EXTREMELY pretty. It has many amenities such as shops, restaurants, recreation etc.

I know a lot of people who go up that way in the winter for skiing and snow mobile. There is a lot of access to the outdoors. The community is an "older" community. A lot of retirees and "snow birds". Population picks up in the spring and dies down during the winter.

One negative is it is really nestled away. It can be pretty isolated from other places out there. So trips to places like Denver, Salt Lake are 6-7 hours. So if you like the BIG city, it will be far away. Casper is closer at about a 3 hour drive.

The people are very friendly and I know there is plenty to do there if you are into the outdoors and small town life.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by spartan4411

Can't believe no one has mentioned Dubois?!?!



Can't Believe that you didn't read my post above:

Price Point is a major consideration. Don't expect that even a non-resort/tourist area "in the mountains" of Wyoming will be inexpensive to live in just because it's a low population and limited services area. Alternatively, one might look in the Jackson area, perhaps down to Pinedale, or Dubois, or west of Cody.

Not to mention that I've frequently posted and recommended Dubois in several years worth of posting on this site.

The biggest drawback to Dubois is that it has historically been one of those "undiscovered" little mountain towns that is a playground for the back eastern money'ed set. I've written up my experiences of flying into the strip there, only to be confronted with a facility and aircraft there that belies a little town. As well, my experiences in buying property there ... or, as the case may be, finding out that the price points were way out of my range ... and I'm an experienced mountain property investor in little towns like Vail, CO ... maybe you've heard of it, spartan?

[NDak15]

Originally Posted by exitplan

Want to find a place in Wyoming to move to. Looking for a rural/small town with no more than 2 thousand people. Any advise would be appreciated!

As others have said, your definition of mountain town may vary from ours, but if you want some nice little towns near mountains there are plenty. In the Black Hills in the northeast part of the state bordering South Dakota, you could choose from Sundance or Hullett. In the Bighorn Basin, in the western part of the state closer to Yellowstone, you could choose from Greybull, Lovell, Basin, or Cowley. Thermopolis is around 3,000 people but it is a neat town IMO. Those towns are not too far from Billings with its no sales tax shopping. Another nice mountain town is Pinedale in the western part of the state. Pinedale is about 75 miles from Jackson which is a plus.

Also, keep in mind as others have said, services are limited and distance to bigger towns is often measured in hours rather than miles.

[volosong]

Shhhhh. Not so loud about Dubois. Wouldn't want the place to be "ruined" because of everyone wanting to move there.

To me, Dubois is one of those "magical places" in WY.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by volosong

To me, Dubois is one of those "magical places" in WY.

Indeed.

But it comes at a price which precludes that worrisome huge influx of people.