Retiring to Lander Wy...any information appreciated (Casper, Sheridan: real estate market, 2013)

[stella451]

Hi,

My wife and I are planning to retire in Lander, WY in 2020. We've visited twice and like the feel and met some people, who seem nice and welcoming. I'm going backpacking with my son in the Wind River range this summer, can't wait. We have been watching the real estate market in Lander and plan to buy.

We are coming from the Seattle area, been here 28 years, and have seen explosive growth and all the bad things that come along with it (traffic, homelessness, high cost-of-living). Our once nice small-town feel suburb is now full of 8 and 9 story ugly apartments and condos. We're paying ridiculous vehicle taxes now for a $54 billon transit system that will be obsolete by the time it's done. Good thing is that the value of my house and our savings gives me the opportunity to sell and get out of Dodge.

We're both originally from Illinois, and winters don't bother us, so weather isn't a big deal, I hear wind in the Lander area is calmer than Eastern Wyoming. We love the outdoors, so that aspect of having a base from which to explore is exciting. We love the idea of small conservative government too, sure don't have that here. We don't mind driving to get to Walmart in Riverton or trips Casper etc.

Does anyone have any anecdotal stories or advice about living in this area? Good or bad. How about water storage outside city water?

Thanks for any input.

[NW Crow]

Weather isn't a big deal in Lander... if you are ok with 4-5 months of winter with a average of 90-100 inches of snow and around 20 nights per winter that go below zero. For much less snow, you could consider Riverton or Cody.


Some past threads available via search tool address other topics.

[Brian_M]

There's a lot of input on Lander in this forum (posts from myself, sunsprit, rya700 and a few others pretty consistently for over a decade). I'd recommend doing a search first, sorry I'd link but the forum search is down right now. Anyway, read through those older posts first and then formulate more detailed questions. No sense covering the same ground again and again when it's already available.

[rya700]

Not sure what you mean OP in your last sentence about water storage but FWIW many households outside Lander city limits do haul their water (or there are businesses that do so) for household use, storing it in underground cysterns. It's not as bad as you would think. Lander has excellent water and drilling wells is costly with no guarantee that you are going to get drinkable water.

[StealthRabbit]

OP, Have you considered Powell ? (Lovell / or west side - Afton / Star Valley)

Sheridan / Sundance / Newcastle are viable options (as are Spearfish and Sturgis, a tad east)

As a retiree (WA based at the moment, but previous in WY, CO, NE, SD)
I find it very nice to have a college and hospital nearby.
I also prefer to be within 1 hr of an international airport (but that may not be a need of yours) .

[Wm Jas]

Am I correct in understanding that collecting rainwater is not allowed, as it belongs to the State?

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by Wm Jas

Am I correct in understanding that collecting rainwater is not allowed, as it belongs to the State?

there's a "fine line" here … ALL water that is on the surface or in the ground "belongs to the State of Wyoming" for management by the State Engineer.

But water that hasn't yet hit the ground; ie, it's on the roof of a structure that you own on your property, hasn't yet become the property of the State.

So you can collect rain water off your house or barn roof.

The trade-off however, is the cost of your collection and storage system and distribution of that water for beneficial use. Don't forget that this collected water will be running off a roof that birds and other critters have been pooping on in addition to airborne pollutants (mold spores, pollens, leaves, bugs/insects, dust, debris, farm and ranch generated contaminants, etc) which will likely render it unfit for any use except a garden or trees in your yard. You might consider some sort of effective water purification system, but at what cost for the nominal number of gallons per year you will collect if your intent is domestic water consumption.

How much rainwater do you think you'll collect in an average water year where much of Wyoming sees only an average moisture production of 12" per year? remember, most of that moisture falls as snow in the cold months and when it melts off during a warmer/sunny day, you'll still generally be in freezing temp weather months for your water storage. You won't be applying it to a garden then, right? how will freezing up affect your water storage/containments?

For discussion's sake, let's say that you are able to collect and distribute to beneficial use in your garden 5,000 gallons of water per year. What would that cost from your water supplier? How does that compare to your costs of water collection system and the labor time that it takes to collect and distribute that water?

Further info, see this article written by a UW staffer: http://www.uwyo.edu/barnbackyard/_fi...terharvest.pdf

I disagree with Tony in the cited article re the "high quality" of the rainwater. There's a lot of airbone pollutants that are rinsed out of the sky via rainfall in addition to the contamination products that are on the rainfall surfaces. Filtering the rainwater debris as it is delivered to the containment is essential, but again … at what cost to handle what will be a nominal amount of water in a likely short period of time?

[nm9stheham]

Originally Posted by NW Crow

Weather isn't a big deal in Lander... if you are ok with 4-5 months of winter with a average of 90-100 inches of snow and around 20 nights per winter that go below zero. For much less snow, you could consider Riverton or Cody.


Some past threads available via search tool address other topics.

I was surprised to read that Riverton would get a lot less snow than Lander but looked it up and that is true (whew I looked). Quite a difference in a few dozen miles.....but Lander is right on the edge of the Wind River Range.

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by NW Crow

Weather isn't a big deal in Lander... if you are ok with 4-5 months of winter with a average of 90-100 inches of snow and around 20 nights per winter that go below zero. For much less snow, you could consider Riverton or Cody.


Some past threads available via search tool address other topics.

That's a lot of snow


Perhaps Sheridan is better in that you get less snow there?