Welcome to Wyoming - Forever West

Every highway on the border of Wyoming with another state will have a Welcome to Wyoming sign, some in better repair than others, and most of them will have a cutout so that drivers can stop to take photos of themselves next to the sign.

Six states border Wyoming, and so there are at least six Welcome to Wyoming signs to take photos of, if you're the type of traveler who likes to collect those types of shots!

The states are Colorado to the south, Utah to the south and southeast, Idaho to the west, Montana to the northwest and north, South Dakota to the northeast, and Nebraska to the southeast.

US-85 runs north/south through Wyoming and Colorado. On the border between these two states, the Welcome to Wyoming sign is on the right hand side of US-85, just as you pass the exit for the Den and Borderline on the Colorado side of the border.

Sand Creek Massacre Trail sign framed beneath the Welcome to Wyoming sign

The Welcome to Wyoming sign features a bucking horse and rider silhouetted against the Rocky Mountains. That bucking horse and rider has been Wyoming's logo since 1918, and has appeared on the Wyoming license plate since 1936. It has also long served as a logo for various Wyoming school sports teams..

Bucking horse and rider
But who are that horse and rider? Depending on the source, the horse is either Steamboat or Deadman. Or a horse named Red Wing. The rider? It's either "Stub" Farlow on Deadman, or Clayton Danks on Steamboat, or Chester Colton on Red Wing. Or it's a composite of all three!

"Forever West"
Wyoming's Division of Travel and Tourism office has used several slogans over the years. The "Forever West" slogan has been in use since 2009.

Sand Creek Massacre Heritage Trail
 And what's that brown sign in the center? It's the Sand Creek Massacre Heritage Trail.

There are a few signs on Greeley Highway, starting with this one once you enter Wyoming, and with a couple more in Cheyenne.

The Sand Creek Massacre took place near Fort Lyon, Colorado on 29 November, 1864. US Army Colonel Chivington and 700 cavalry troops attacked a peaceful group of Native Americans consisting of Cheyenne and Arapaho. About 130 of these were killed - more than 100 of them women and children, and their bodies defiled.

The survivors straggled from Colorado into Wyoming, eventually arriving at the Wind River Reservation.

In 2000, this tragedy was commemorated when the massacre site was made into a National Historic Site and placed under the supervision of the National Park Service. The route that the survivors took to get to the Wind River Reservation was sign-posted with the brown "historic point" signs. (http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/trails-center-hosts-sand-creek-massacre-exhibit/article_4fe52b86-031c-11df-97d0-001cc4c002e0.html)

After this massacre many Native American warriors from the various tribes banded together to fight against the white man, which eventually culminated in essentially their last hurrah twelve years later, the Battle of Little Big Horn in which General George Custer was killed, on 25-26 June, 1876.

To read more about the Sand Creek Massacre and the establishment of the historic site, check out:
http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/pdf/SandCreekBrochure.pdf
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/horrific-sand-creek-massacre-will-be-forgotten-no-more-180953403/?no-ist

Photo Composition: Three different views of the same building

As I stood in front of Borderline, the store on the border between Colorado and Wyoming that sells Colorado lottery tickets and scratch-offs, I took several photos.

I took one straight on, for purely information purposes:

Borderline - head on view

But then I took some photos from different angles, to see if the photos could be made to be more "exciting."

Borderline, complete building, and my car

This angle shows the complete Borderline building, with its drive-thru and a few picnic tables for those who wish to sit outside to enjoy the weather.

The car, a 1998 Toyota Camry, is my car. You'll be seeing that car in a lot more photos during the course of this blog!  It will be one of my "photographic conceits" - always getting a shot of that car in one of my photos.

Windfarm to the southwest of Borderline

I don't have a wide-angle lens on my camera. As a matter of fact, I didn't take these photos with my camera (a Cybershot DSC-HX300) but rather with my smartphone, a Galaxy IIIS. And of course that doesn't have a wide-angle lens...though I could have done a panorama shot.

In any event, working with what I had, I got the name of the business, Borderline, in the photo, and to the left, of course, a shot of one of the ubiquitous wind farms in the region.

I'm leaving the comments section open on this blog - which photo do you like best?

On the Border.... between Colorado and Wyoming

US Route 85 is a highway that runs north/south across the United States. It begins in El Paso, Texas and runs north from Texas through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota and up into Saskatchewan, Canada.

When it enters Colorado its name is also Greeley Highway, because it runs through the town of Greeley. As it passes through the downtown streets of Cheyenne, Wyoming, the name changes to Warren Avenue going north, and Central Avenue going south. (Each of these avenues is one way.)

Since I live in a housing development just off Greeley Highway, the Colorado/Wyoming border I am most familiar with is this one, and I decided to visit it again today to write the inaugural posts for this blog, Windjamming Around Wyoming.

Businesses on the Border 

Greenfaith Ministry

Prior to August 24th 2014, Wyoming did not have its own lottery, so people in the Cheyenne region who wanted to play Power Ball or Mega Millions, or purchase scratch-off tickets, had to drive along US-85 to the Colorado/Wyoming border.

There were two businesses set up right on the border between the two states to take advantage of this traffic. The youngest one (just four years old) was set up alongside a residence, and closed when Wyoming's lottery, WyoLotto, made its debut.

I visited the site today (it's on the left-hand side of Greeley Highway as you head north) and found that it is now the home of Greenfaith Ministry, a sacramental herb church that uses cannabis (with its hallucinatory properties removed).

There are a few displays in an adjacent trailer:

Cannabis Museum

Magazine display in the Cannabis Museum

This location also offers a Disc Golf course, and according to the gentleman I talked to, it's the Disc Golf course that draws the most people. Within the building there is a private smoking room for adults only, and children are allowed in the other areas of the building.

The Den

Continue north on US-85 about 100 yards (if that much) and the next road you come to on your left is an exit for The Den, a "gentleman's club" that is open only in the evenings.

Continue on this road, past this establishment (about 50 yards or so) to:

Borderline

Borderline - play lottery here

The first lottery store, and a purpose built one, on this border, is about ten years old.

They're still in business, because although Wyoming has a lottery, they don't sell scratch-off tickets, and it is these that are keeping Borderline in business (at least at the time of this writing.)

Alcohol is served here, and pop can be found in vending machines.

Drink selection at Borderline

Leave Borderline and return to Greeley Highway to continue north, and within a few yards you will enter Wyoming, and pass a Welcome to Wyoming sign on your right.

That will be the subject of my next post.

___________________
Please note that I don't endorse the Greenfaith Ministry, the Den, or Borderline, nor do they endorse this blog.

Manifesto

A "windjammer" is a sailing ship. I've chosen the name for my blog covering my travels throughout Wyoming because with the state's non-stop wind, I've often thought of rigging a sail on top of my car and letting the wind blow blow me north along I-25!

Wyoming is a state rich in pioneer history and natural beauty.

As far as people are concerned, Wyoming is the "least populous," if Wikipedia is to be believed - with fewer people even than Alaska. In fact, according to Wikipedia even the state of Vermont has fewer people than Alaska!

Wyoming is the "second least densely populated" state in the Union - Alaska does have the distinction of being the "first least densely populated" state.

Welcome to Wyoming sign on I-80/Greeley Highway

Wyoming has about 586,000 people scattered throughout the state.

Cheyenne, it's capital, has about 60,000 people and is the largest city in the state. You can see it in the lower right hand corner of the map above!

Casper is the second largest with about 55,000 people.  It's northwest of of Cheyenne off of I-25 N.

Third largest is Laramie with 31,000 people. It's a little less northwest of Cheyenne, on I-80W.

Gillette comes next with 30,000 people (way up north), then Rock Springs (way west) with 23,000. Next is Sheridan (also way up north) with 17,000 inhabitants.

Green River and Evanston both have about 12,000 inhabitants.

 Riverton  (just above Lander) has about 10,000, and Jackson, Cody and Rawlins all have about 9,000 people.

Lander has about 7,000 people, and Torrington and Powell 6,000 people.

There are lots of small towns in Wyoming. Chugwater, home of the famous Chugwater Chili Cookoff, has about 400 people and is an hour north of Cheyenne on I-25 N.. Wheatland has 3,000 (just another 20 minutes or so on I-25N) and so on.

I'll be traveling through every single town and city in Wyoming, and will share my travel adventures here.