BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum
Our BetterMost Community => Chez Tremblay => Topic started by: Jeff Wrangler on January 30, 2007, 10:30:04 pm
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My copy of the Feb. 5 issue of The New Yorker arrived in today's mail. There is a fascinating article on the effect of a natural gas boom on Sublette County, Wyoming, southwest of and on the other side of the Wind Rivers from Lander and Riverton.
(The author mentions that there was an oil boom in the county in the 1980s. Maybe that was where Kurt worked.)
The article begins with a description of the Rendezvous Rodeo, held the second weekend of July every year, that could come right out of Jack's rodeo scenes in Brokeback Mountain. It goes on to discuss the effect of the boom on the environment in the county, and on the traditional ranching culture.
Apparently the boom has led to a skyrocketing crime rate in the county, and crystal meth is an enormous problem among the roughnecks, as a result of combination of the demands of the work and sheer boredom from nothing to do when the roughnecks aren't on the job. :-\ (One roughneck who was interviewed said that one way to combat the meth problem would be for somebody to open up a Hooters in the county, to give the guys someplace to go. :o ).
For anyone who has access to the magazine, the article is a fascinating read, and not very long.
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Bump. ;D
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I'll look for that, Jeff! I'm a little behind in my New Yorker reading.
Yeah, it can get pretty boring up there. I need to move up there and start setting up a fishing buddy matchmaking service!!
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The article also includes a brief but interesting account of a round-up. :)
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Thanks, Jeff. I'll look for that.
Meth is a huge problem in a lot of rural communities. It's easy to make from substances that are readily available, apparently. So it isn't surprising that it's abused in the oil & gas boomtowns.
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Maybe this forum isn't the best place for this thread. Anybody know how to move it? Maybe to Chez Tremblay? ???
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Maybe this forum isn't the best place for this thread. Anybody know how to move it? Maybe to Chez Tremblay? ???
Done.
8)
Yep - meth is a big problem in my rural community too - very sad. In fact, my last jury duty was a conspiracy/crystal meth case.
:'(
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Thanks for the "move," Little Darlin'! ;D
Me stupid. Article's too innerestin' to get lost amongst all the beefcake pics! ;D
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Me stupid. Article's too innerestin' to get lost amongst all the beefcake and hot sporty babes pics! ;D
Not stupid, Jeff! Moving is a mod-only thing!
OT: Did you see my new thread over there?
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Not stupid, Jeff! Moving is a mod-only thing!
No, me stupid for starting the thread at Anything Goes. ::)
OT: Did you see my new thread over there?
Sure enough! ;D
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Xcuse me, but I am proud to have my book discussion thread of The Virginian on the Anything Goes site. Books and beefcake, they go together like birds of a feather!!
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I thought those roughnecks would like some more upscale shopping instead of a Hooters ;D. They probably making alot of money and got to spend it on something. Certainly make more money then those guys on the rodeo circuit and they aren't interested in that scene..
I'm sure the Alaskan oil boom brought in alot of outside forces which clashed with the local culture. They was such a labor shortage, way back in the 1970's and early 1980's, they were bringing up ppl from TX and LA. I can't imagine transplants being interested in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race Tour. I mean what's the point of it all. ;) Poor dogs.
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From what I've heard, the Alaskan roughnecks drank, gambled, and fought a lot. And probably visited prostitutes, though the people I know go into Gentleman Mode and don't talk about that sort of stuff in front of me. Stories I've heard sound very depressing, like any gold rush except with Seasonal Affective Disorder on top of it.
I don't know anyone who has had a good thing to say about Prudhoe Bay.
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It's really hard to understand what these rough rural places of the West are really like...when I went to Wyoming recently, my husband didn't understand why I couldn't call him or he couldn't call me on my cell phone...no service in those backwards areas!!
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I'm reading this article now, and reading The Cowboy Way at the same time...about two different groups of hard-working menin the West. And I'm gonna "compare and contrast"!!
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This is the same general area that Annie Proulx was talking about in her lecture at the Center of the American West back in November that was covered in Social Events. She has a book coming out this year about The Red Desert that seeks to promote conservation of the area, but it may be too late if the energy boom continues as it has.
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Quote from "Boomtown Blues" by Alexandra Fuller:
"The house is furnished for people whose most important reference point is the land: rugged carpet, a couple of bottomed-out sofas, a utilitarian coffee table, and a woodstove....On the wall above the python's cage was a framed pencil drawing of Licking at eighteen, in his heyday as a bareback rider. Next to that were several professional photographs of bucking horses ridden by him as a young man, his spurs digging into the horse's flanks, his face hidden behind his cowboy hat, his hand in the air as if in a black-power salute."
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This is the same general area that Annie Proulx was talking about in her lecture at the Center of the American West back in November that was covered in Social Events. She has a book coming out this year about The Red Desert that seeks to promote conservation of the area, but it may be too late if the energy boom continues as it has.
Thanks for that, Lee. I remembered reading about Annie's talk about the Red Desert, and when I read the article I wondered whether Sublette County was considered part of that region, but the term Red Desert wasn't used, and when I looked on my Wyoming map, I thought perhaps Sublette County was too far north.
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Quote from "Boomtown Blues" by Alexandra Fuller:
"The house is furnished for people whose most important reference point is the land: rugged carpet, a couple of bottomed-out sofas, a utilitarian coffee table, and a woodstove....On the wall above the python's cage was a framed pencil drawing of Licking at eighteen, in his heyday as a bareback rider. Next to that were several professional photographs of bucking horses ridden by him as a young man, his spurs digging into the horse's flanks, his face hidden behind his cowboy hat, his hand in the air as if in a black-power salute."
"Licking" is one Levi Licking, a subject of the article, who grew up in Sublette County. He's a former rodeo rider who now works as a roughneck. He and his wife have a pet python. ;)
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Thanks for that, Lee. I remembered reading about Annie's talk about the Red Desert, and when I read the article I wondered whether Sublette County was considered part of that region, but the term Red Desert wasn't used, and when I looked on my Wyoming map, I thought perhaps Sublette County was too far north.
Annie was asked about the northern border of the desert, and she said it was roughly along I-80, which includes Rock Springs, Rawlins, and Green River. The county also includes a saddle of the Rocky Mountains between the Teton Range to the north and the Medicine Bows to the south and east. Gale-force winds that fell semis (see my posts in Anything Goes), and thousands of Antelope move through this area every year. Last fall, Pete and I traversed the Muddy Gap over the Rockies and visited Independence Rock where pioneers left their messages.
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Annie was asked about the northern border of the desert, and she said it was roughly along I-80, which includes Rock Springs, Rawlins, and Green River. The county also includes a saddle of the Rocky Mountains between the Teton Range to the north and the Medicine Bows to the south and east. Gale-force winds that fell semis (see my posts in Anything Goes), and thousands of Antelope move through this area every year. Last fall, Pete and I traversed the Muddy Gap over the Rockies and visited Independence Rock where pioneers left their messages.
Thanks! I'm gonna study this on my Wyoming map! :D
I never really checked before, but it sounds like I-80 pretty much follows the route of the Union Pacific Railroad.