A summary of major (and interesting) events in the history of Cheyenne and Laramie County, Wyoming. 1833 Fort William, later Ft John/Ft Laramie, established by trapper William Sublette at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte rivers. 1849 US Army purchases Ft Laramie from American Fur Company. 1850 US Army engineers survey guided by […]
Placemaking Pays Off in the Place and in the Making
Cheyenne’s Celtic Musical Arts Festival took over Depot Plaza downtown this weekend. The usual Fridays on the Plaza offered up high-octane Celtic grunge leading up to a romping good time with Celtic Americana of The Elders, a favorite from my KRFC days. Put together some food, some music, some folk art and even some weekend rain couldn’t […]
Jalan Crossland Packs Cheyenne Downtown
Cheyenne’s Fridays at the Hynds is a bootstrap affair to bring more folks Downtown after work and to provide a friendly venue somewhere between the solo stage and the larger clubs. I say bring folks downtown, rather than keep them downtown, because outside of state & local government, Cheyenne tends to be a suburban affair, […]
A Story Within A Story: The Best of The Blog 2013
In the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7), author J.K. Rowling introduces a story about three brothers and their three magical items that promise to bestow eternal life. The particulars are prime folklore, but the three legs of the story inside the story is legendary mythology. We tell stories for many reasons. We […]
Do You Want To Be My Boss?
Laramie County needs a new Planning & Development Director. The hitch? You have to put up with me (or at least I hope you would put up with me). Located in beautiful southeast Wyoming, in the state capital of Cheyenne, Laramie County anchors the north end of the Denver Front Range. Slow and steady growth […]
The Cantrells Come to the Library: An Americana Myth of Home
I wandered again through my home in the mountain Where in youth’s early dawn I was happy and free. I look for my friends, but I never could find ’em. I found they were all rank strangers to me. -“Rank Stranger” (traditional) There’s an element of home woven into traditional folk and country music. Celebrations […]
County OKs wind turbine for Wal-Mart distribution center
Made the local newspaper today. They didn’t spell my name right, but they got the gist of the story straight. Fairfield Energy Partners proposed to build a single 2.5 MW direct-drive wind turbine on an 80-meter tower, at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center west of Cheyenne. The Large Wind Energy System (WES) would provide peaking power […]
One Year in Wyoming
Twelve months have flown by since I moved back Out West to join the Laramie County Planning & Development Department, here in Cheyenne, Wyoming. There are many differences between the eastern side of the Great Plains in Minnesota and the Dakotas, and the western side here along the Rocky Mountains. While population continues to contract […]
Strong Towns Curbside Chats Coming to Wyoming
From the Wyoming Business Council: CHEYENNE, WYO. – Starting Monday, the Wyoming Rural Development Council will host the first of four Strong Town presentations throughout the state. The WRDC, in partnership with the nonprofit organization Strong Towns, invites community leaders, business owners and residents to these presentations to learn more about keeping your community strong […]
Where the Well Things Are
Everything we thought we knew about energy development just a few short years ago seems to have been turned on its head. Some of this change has been caused by new technology, some by old politics; a lot by larger forces in the world around us: Over the next three decades, world energy consumption is […]