We left Custer State Park and South Dakota behind, forging our way westward through Wyoming, a wondrous place where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains. We went through three distinct regions before arriving in the town of Greybull. It started with miles and miles and miles of high elevation tree-less prairies, with the horizon broken only by nodding donkey pumpjacks.
Amongst all 50 states, Wyoming has the 10th largest landmass and the smallest population – about 600,000 people. There are more people living in Alaska than in Wyoming!
We passed the Powder River Basin area, a region that produces a massive 40% of the country’s coal. Coal in turn supplies about 30% of US electricity. The coal here doesn’t have the best energy output per weight, but it makes up for that with exceptionally cheap extraction cost. Combine that with a good rail infrastructure (see video below) and you’ve got a winning formula.
About midway through the state, the looming shadow of the Bighorn Mountains began to rise in the distance. This is an outcrop of the Rockies, an opening act to the main event. The scenery changed dramatically with sharp rocky outcrops and deep beautiful ravines breaking all horizontal lines.
Then, the land calmed down, flattened out, and we started to see Wyoming’s agricultural acreage.
We passed a number of small towns along the way, mostly tiny places with one main street and not much else. We selected one of these, Greybull (pop: 1,900) to explore.
What kind of place is Greybull? Well, it has a diner with walls covered by nearly 80 years of the local high school’s football memorabilia. There was also a Mexican food restaurant and two bars.
It has a historic hotel that was originally a bank, with a vault and various hidden tunnels. The highly-reputable website, hauntedplaces.org, notes the presence of six of more ghosts haunting the place, but assures that they are all of the friendly variety. We didn’t meet any to confirm this.
The town was having a raffle where the prize was a new Mossberg rifle.
It also has its own hometown paper, the Greybull Standard. Of course, we picked up a copy.
Whats in the news? A dog grooming business has opened in the building that used to be home to Hair Country. There is a new stylist at Salon Bijou. The Hinshaws welcomed a new baby girl. The Shell Valley Women’s Coffee group will not be meeting in July. There is a new ATM opening in a nearby town. But the highlight was that 12 year-old Jayce Sorenson scored well in the regional miniature bull-riding contest – a future cowboy. A newspaper subscription is $33 per year. The advertising insert put the region’s grocery store rivalry on full display. Small town papers serve as a window into any local community, and Greybull seems like a nice one.
Our last stop on route to Yellowstone National Park was a town called Cody, Wyoming, population 10,000 (a metropolis in comparison to Greybull). The town is named after “Buffalo Bill” Cody, who was instrumental in the town’s founding. Buffalo Bill was a war veteran from the Indian Wars in the late 1800s who became a legendary showman. He put on ‘Buffalo Bill’s Wild West’, a circus-like attraction and toured the country. There would be re-enactments of Indian attacks, stage coach robberies, sharpshooting displays, etc. Basically, the guy was a rock star celebrity. The town today serves as a portal into Yellowstone, and everything had a cowboy theme.
After picking up supplies, we headed into Yellowstone.