Upside Down and Downside Up

Bev and I moved to Sheridan in 1990.  It took me a while to understand the economics of this rural/energy/tourism-focused state.

This is not the car, but it is the right year, make and model.

My first clue should have been that old station wagon.   It was a 1958 Plymouth.  I noticed it putt-putt-putting around town as if it had sticky valves.  It also needed rings and about a gallon of Bondo.

Now I lived in a station wagon for part of a summer after college, so I could tell by looking inside this ol’ wreck it was the “Plymouth  Hotel”.  An unrolled sleeping bag, a ratty old pillow, boxes for clothes and a picnic cooler were all the evidence I needed.

The clue of Wyoming’s economics wasn’t inside though.  I found it on the tailgate: a peeling and sun-faded bumper sticker said:

“Dear Lord, please send another boom, I promise I won’t @*!% this one away”

Later on, I learned that Wyoming often lags behind the economic ups and down ’s of most of the fifty states.  We’re an exporter of energy, so when the price is down the rest of the country likes it, but we don’t, and vice versa.  An upsurge in energy demands across the nation creates a delayed boom in energy development in Wyoming.  But booms don’t last, they turn into busts which raise unemployment.  That’s when Wyoming ‘s community colleges see their highest enrollment, as unemployed workers try to learn marketable skills in a changing world.

When winter weather turns cold and nasty for a long time across the US, we sell more coal and gas and oil.  That’s good for Wyoming.  When winter weather turns cold and nasty for a long time in Wyoming, cattle freeze, and calving season is a disaster.   That’s bad for Wyoming.

A very deep snow pack in our mountains is good for Wyoming – it is the antidote to our too frequent droughts.  But it is bad for many towns down river – because our rivers, the Yellowstone, the Powder, the North Platte, the Bighorn and Tongue feed the Missouri and eventually the Mississippi River.  The floods from our snow melt are legendary.

So upside is down and downside is up.