Wendy Corr:
Well, hey there, folks, and welcome to The Roundup! We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, we focus on interesting people in the Cowboy State, and we've had so many wonderful conversations with people before we get started.
I want to make sure that everybody knows, though, about the Wyoming Business Alliance’s podcast. It's called the “Business From the Basement” podcast, and you're going to find all sorts of great information there about the Wyoming Business Alliance, about what they can do for Wyoming business people. So if you are a Wyoming business person, check out the “Business From the Basement” podcast on Spotify or Audible, or anywhere that you listen - any place that you listen to us on The Roundup, in fact!
I want to take just a real quick moment here to say thank you to everybody who has tuned in to The Roundup. We've gotten such amazing feedback from the guests that we've had and from the people who have really enjoyed hearing more about the people that we have focused on here on The Roundup.
Today, our guest is someone who's very familiar to Cowboy State Daily readers. We have as our guest today, Bill Sniffin. Now if you don't know Bill as a columnist for Cowboy State Daily you absolutely know him from his columns that have appeared in Wyoming newspapers for years.
Bill Sniffin, welcome to The Roundup, for starters.
Bill Sniffin:
Hello, hello, great to be here. Wendy, looking forward to it.
Wendy Corr:
We're going to have a great time today. Bill, how long have your columns appeared in newspapers? Because they're syndicated all over Wyoming or or they were, for a long time, syndicated throughout Wyoming. Tell us about, tell us where your column has appeared.
Bill Sniffin:
Well, we've lived in Wyoming now for 54 years, and so I've always written a column. So starting with the Lander, Riverton, Fremont County area. We always had had a column, but starting in 2002 I started writing a statewide column. And I wrote it for, I wrote about 1000 columns over about a 21 year period that were in upwards of 30 to 35 papers around the state.
And I just did it because, when I ran for governor in 2002 which didn't go well, I started out an underdog and ended up an underdog. But as a result of that, the editor of the Cheyenne paper, Reed Eckert, contacted me and said, you know, you're a journalist and now a politician. Would you mind writing about the rest of the election campaign?
And so I did, and I had so much fun with it, and it went so well that pretty soon all these other newspapers wanted to run it. And so from then on, up until about last, I think maybe February or January of this year, and then, because Cowboy State daily has become so successful and so big, it was decided that I should, since I worked for Cowboy State Daily, then hat's the only place where my column appears, although I do reprint it on Facebook.
But I've been doing it for a long, long time, and as a little bit of historical trivia, was 61 years ago, about right now, when I wrote my first newspaper column for a tiny little newspaper called The Elgin Echo, northeast Iowa. So I've been doing this a long time, and I I like it. And I write about everything, and people, a lot of people like to read it, apparently. And I love that.
Wendy Corr:
We love it too. You have so many wonderful things to say and great observations about life in general, about the people that you've met over the years. Bill, what got you from tiny, little Elgin, Iowa, out here to Wyoming? Why is it that you decided that this is where, this is where we want to be?
Bill Sniffin:
You know, I think people from the Midwest, there's essentially two kinds of people - people who like where they are and plan to stay there the rest of their lives, and the others are the people that I define are typical Wyomingites, and they're people with wanderlust. I call it a wanderlust gene, and they say, I want to go. They don't want to spend the rest of their lives where they grew up.
And I was always attracted to the Rocky Mountains, and had applied at a number of different places. And in 1970 I was hired to come to Lander and run the Lander newspaper, and that was the beginning of my experience out west.
But I always wanted to come to the west, and like Dick Cheney, I used to say I wasn't born in Wyoming, but I got here as fast as I could.
Wendy Corr:
That's the truth. That's a lot of us. That's definitely a lot of us. Bill, you started like, say at newspapers, at the newspaper in Lander, you've made that your home. You and your lovely wife, Nancy, have built your family there and grown your family there. Tell us real quickly about your family, because I think all of us want to get to know you just a little bit better.
Bill Sniffin:
We just had a wedding in June in our yard here in Lander, and with our granddaughter from Dallas, Texas, which was very interesting, because, you know, here's Texans wanting to get married in Wyoming.
But anyway, it was a beautiful event, and it was stunning to all these Texans, because we had one of those perfect Wyoming evenings. There were no bugs. We have, what we call in this state, natural air conditioning. And it was about 75 degrees, low humidity, very little wind, just an absolutely spectacular evening. And again, it was, I was telling the folks from Texas that it's this way all the time, year round, you know, but deep in my heart, I knew that it was an extraordinary evening.
But we during that group, we did do a family picture, and it was pretty stunning. We ended up with 30 people in the photo, and starting with Nancy, Nancy and I at the center, holding our youngest great grandchild, but then with our four children and our and their spouses, and then our 13 grandchildren and a bunch of their spouses and again, four great grandchildren.
So it was a wonderful portrait, and it made me look, I looked over at my wife, and I says, My gosh, look what we've spawned!
But we have a beautiful family. I love them all. And it's when you look back on your life and look at the things that you've done, you have to start with family. And we've been very blessed. We have really have a wonderful, wonderful family.
Wendy Corr:
Well, and speaking of family, I'm going to kind of go off - it's a great segue, because you and your daughter, Shelli, created an offshoot, I guess it is a publication. It started out as a publication, Yellowstone Journal, and that's Travel and Tourism based. But tell us about going out, and really embracing that travel and tourism opportunity and bringing your daughter along with you for the ride.
Bill Sniffin:
Well, you know, I have always said I've had literally a dual career - of promoting tourism in Wyoming and journalism. I've always been a journalist, but I just love everything about tourism, and I love everything about Wyoming, and so it was in 1989, Mike Sullivan appointed me to the travel commission, and I just loved being on the travel commission.
And as a result of that, I ended up starting three or four pretty significant Wyoming tourism companies. A young man named CJ Box and I started a company called Rocky Mountain International, which is still in existence. He and I are both retired from it, but it promotes Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and South Dakota and international tourism, pretty much in Europe and around the world. We started that back in the early 90s, and it was really very gratifying.
Along the same time, I had started a magazine about Wyoming and a tourism magazine, a free magazine distributed around Wyoming, and we ended up selling it to the state of Wyoming. The State of Wyoming decided they wanted to have their own magazine, so we partnered up with them, and that's the magazine that they do officially, that actually started out at my place. And while we had it, we distributed over 3 million copies of it.
So I was really big time promoting tourism. And then, at the same time, my daughter Shelli, who's a genius, in my opinion, but she and her husband wanted to start a publication called the Yellowstone Journal, and it was very successful. And then they came up with another magazine called “99 Things to Do In Yellowstone Country.”
And then later, they developed this website, yellowstonepark.com, which twice won the Webby Award as the number one tourism website in the world. I mean, number one in the world! They went to New York City to get the award. And like, David Bowie was there one time, and Al Gore, I think, was there reminding everybody how he invented the internet. But we got to go along on those trips to babysit their kids.
Wendy Corr:
That's so great, Bill!
Bill Sniffin:
With her, we sold that company to Backpacker Magazine some years ago, and they've taken it and really, really expanded it. But tourism was a really, really big deal to me. And I was actually the founder of the Wind River Visitor Council and its first president for three years here in Fremont County.
A little funny story to tell you is, when I was appointed to the travel commission, I actually represented my District, represented Jackson. And the folks in Jackson were a little nervous, what the heck, some guy in Lander is going to represent Jackson? So I remember going over to their first meeting, and I walked into the room and it was just like, you know, man, you know.
But I made wonderful friends there, and I worked really hard promoting Jackson, and everything ended up being just fine, but it was Corrine Law and Clay James and Manuel Lopez and all those guys and gals over there that were great leaders of Wyoming tourism.
Wendy Corr:
Bill, you have met so many people. You have made connections with all of these people over the years. I know Gene Bryan sings your praises. He was the director of tourism in a number of levels in Wyoming for several years. You love getting out there and promoting Wyoming, but your first love was, like you say, journalism - you started three newspapers in the state. Is that correct?
Bill Sniffin:
No, I was actually involved in starting four. I was always in the background, because I would promote the people that were running those papers as the founders, because I didn't want to move to Dubois or Jeffrey city or Bridger Valley and run these newspapers. So I was always in the background, but I was intimately involved in developing them and coming up with them.
But the first one was in, I think, 1978, it was the Dubois Frontier with Cynthia Boyhan and Mary Ellison, and they were just wonderful journalists, and lived in Dubois. And that paper's still going.
And then we started the Jeffrey City News, which, at that point in time, Jeffrey City had 4000 people, and it was a boom town, and it had its own bank, it had a chamber of commerce, had a fire department, and 4000 people living out there.
But then the bust hit in the later on, in the 80s, and I finally said, this thing isn't going to last. And so I moved the Jeffrey City News to the Wind River Indian Reservation, and started the Wind River News, and it's still going strong, and it's the official newspaper for the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes. So I'm real proud of having done those two papers.
And then I was one of the owners of the Green River Star, and we had a publisher down there named Carl Bechtel. And so he and I helped put together the Bridger Valley pioneer, which is an outstanding newspaper still to this day, and it covers Mountain View and Lyman and that whole area out there.
So that's kind of an interesting little tidbit in your life, is, you do something, and here we are, all these years later, and they're still operating and serving their communities and doing great work. And I don't have anything to do with any of them anymore. But it's, it's a little feather in my cap,
Wendy Corr:
I guess it is, oh, my goodness, absolutely. And you've had your fingers in the pie, I guess, for a lot of these Wyoming newspapers. I know up here, you were part owner for a while at the Cody Enterprise. You've just had a lot of these involvements in keeping local journalism alive. And Bill, I know that's been a passion for you ever since you moved here. And tell us about the importance of that local journalism, and why you felt it was important to have a stake in some of these.
Bill Sniffin:
Well, again, I always felt, I have to say, I've led a very privileged life, and that I was in the newspaper business during the Golden Age of newspapers. I mean, if you did your job right, your paper was truly the heartbeat of the community, and you had a lot of influence for good.
Once in a while we'd stub our toes, and do something poorly or make a mistake, and everybody could see it, but generally, you worked really hard, and people appreciated it. And, boy, people couldn't wait to tell that newspaper came out.
You know, there's an old saying in the newspaper business that the most wonderful thing a newspaper man can ever hear people say is, “I saw by the paper,” you know, or “I read it in the paper,” you know. And it was sort of the old adage back in back in the 70s and 80s and 90s and 2002 1010, 2000 what? Even now, if it's in the paper, it's pretty much gospel, and people do believe it.
So that's a lot of responsibility, but it was certainly a responsibility that I welcomed. I love having that responsibility, and I love the challenge of it. And it was, it was really important to work really hard.
And we used to have an expression called “refrigerator journalism,” that we practiced community journalism, but we called it refrigerator journalism. And the idea was that you could go to anybody's house and there'd be clippings from my newspaper on their refrigerator with magnets, you know - that was always a sign that you were doing your job.
Wendy Corr:
I love that. That's great. Well, now a sign that you're doing a good job is when you go to somebody's house and your book is on their coffee table. And there's a lot of, I've gone into coffee shops. I've gone into your offices. And here's a Sniffin Coffee Table Book. So you took your love of journalism and your love of tourism and obviously your love of history, you have taken all of those things, and you have published a number of books.
Bill, tell us about your coffee table books, because they're just marvels. I've given them as gifts to people, because they're just wonderful books.
Bill Sniffin:
Well, it all started with a column I wrote in 2007 and it was called “Wyoming, 7 Greatest Natural Wonders.” And that column generated a lot of - again, it was a statewide column, and it generated a lot of feedback.
But two of the main feedbacks that it generated is, one of them was “Bill, you should do a coffee table book about Wyoming with the seven greatest wonders.” But the other feedback I got was, “Who gave you the right to pick the seven greatest wonders?” And I said, it's my column. I can do what I want.
So, the seven wonders were obviously the Yellowstone and South Pass and the red desert and Thermopolis Hot Springs.
But I came down to, I had, like, the five or six obvious ones. And then I kind of flung it out to a bunch of my friends and said, what should be my seventh? And they thought it should be a river system. And I thought, well, the Wind River/Bighorn river system is so incredible. But you know what? I ended up picking the North Platte River system as the seventh.
And it was an interesting thing, because I collaborated with people on the seven wonders. And Clay James wrote the Teton County one, and my daughter Shelli wrote the Yellowstone one. And so I went to Mike Enzi, and I asked him, since he was from Gillette, if he would write the Devil's Tower one. And he said no, and I couldn't believe it. I can't believe he turned me down.
But he said, I'll tell you what, I'll write about the North Platte River system. And I didn't realize he was such an avid fisherman, and he loved the North Platte River, so he wrote an absolutely spectacular chapter about the North Platte River system. So I was always real tickled that that sequence of events happened well after I did that book.
But then I decided that I needed to do a follow up book that I called “My Wyoming.” And this was all about people in Wyoming and events and just so many other interesting things about the state. So at that point, I was exhausted and tired, and I had done my thing.
Well, then, I was at the Wyoming Business Alliance meeting, and Matt Mead, the governor, came up and said, you know, Bill, next year (this was in 2014) he said, the state of Wyoming is having its 125th anniversary, and we need a coffee table book. And I said, Well, why don't you do one? He said, No, it takes us a long time. You seem to do these things, really.
So I took the bait. And I said, Okay, I'll do one.So I did this one called “Wyoming at 125” and it's a historical book. And I always tell people that I'm not a historian, but I'm a journalist with an interest in history.
Well, I met with some of the prominent historians in the state, like Mary Hopkin and Phil Roberts and some other folks, and they said the book should definitely start in 1890 at statehood. I said, Okay.
And they also admonished me and said, Look, Fremont County has got so much history. You can't make this book just about Fremont County. I said, I know. My books, even though we have Yellowstone and Tetons and everything, all my books have the whole state covered. We we don't focus just on the main sites.
But anyway, so I had a blank sheet of paper in December of 2014 when I met with them. Well, then I called them back. We had a conference call, and I said, Wait a minute. I can't start at 1890 because all the fun stuff happened before statehood. And they said, well, you'll never get it done. I said, Well, you watch.
Because you know, what was fun before statehood is the dinosaurs and super volcanoes and the Oregon Trail. And, you know, I was able to to, I don't know if I can find them in here, but it was just, uh, amazing how I was able to, I did fold outs in these books, but, like, I was able to get images like this of the, whoops, that's an artist that isn't coming out.
Wendy Corr:
You disappeared there. That's pretty funny. The background, bless Zoom.
Bill Sniffin:
Trust me, it's a really beautiful picture.
Wendy Corr:
So people just need to go down and find the book, and then they pull it out and they can see it there.
Bill Sniffin:
Yes, on sale at bookstores. And I have a website called wyomingwonders.com. But anyway, I don't mean to beat that drum too much, but we have sold 35,000 of those books. I self published them and they do come out as a trilogy. But anyway, Wendy, I obviously get excited about the books.
Wendy Corr:
I love that you get excited about the books, Bill, I think that's fantastic.
One other thing that we have to talk about, because we're getting close to running out of time, but we have got to talk about something else that's very, very exciting, and that is the Amos Awards. This is a national publishing award. And Bill Sniffin is the 2024 recipient of the Amos Award. And Bill, I get goosebumps. I'm so, so proud to know you, to know that you're getting this award. Tell us, for starters, about the award itself.
Bill Sniffin:
Well, it was such an honor to be nominated. The National Newspaper Association, there's probably 5000 active publishers and 5000 retired publishers, and they pick out one person a year to give this award to. It's a Lifetime Achievement Award. And like I said, I was really honored to be nominated.
A fellow named Stan Cannon, who was Al Simpson's press secretary and was an attorney, long time attorney in Sublette and Sweetwater counties and recently moved to Lander, and who's an old friend. He nominated me.
And so it just so happened I was out on a Cowboy State Daily assignment in the Red Desert at Adobe town, about 80 miles south of Rock Springs. And my cell phone rings. There's no signal normally, but here, my phone rings and it says, “Congratulations, you won the Amos.”
But it was certainly unexpected, and it's a wonderful honor, and I'm obviously very pleased. I guess they've been giving this out for 80 some years, and I'm the second Wyoming publisher to get it. Back in 39 years ago, I think, a Sheridan publisher was given it. So it's singular, and it's special. And I'm truly honored and humbled, that's for sure.
Wendy Corr:
Well, we are honored and humbled on your behalf, because, like, wow, this is somebody we know, this is a national award. And Bill, you're just so gregarious and kind, you don't strike anybody as this “business” person, but you have been such a business success in the state of Wyoming.
When you're looking back at your career, your very long and really interesting career, tell me one thing that really stands out - one adventure that you had, or one story that you told, or a column that you wrote that sticks with you, that you reflect on every year.
Bill Sniffin:
You know, I think that you do look back and say, “Okay, what was the greatest story you were ever connected with?” And there's no question, in my case.It was a story about uranium miners that were exposed to terrible radiation here in Fremont County, back in the in the 60s, essentially, and and in the 70s and 80s, all these young men - who were no longer young - started getting these crazy cancers.
And most of them smoked, but they were getting cancers that doctors said, “Wait a minute, these cancers aren't caused by smoking and conventional Wyoming things. This is radioactivity-caused cancer.”
And anyway, a gal came to my office and said that her husband, whose name was Digger, he was a construction guy, but his body was so radioactive, you could put a Geiger counter up to it and it would set it off. And he died. And she claimed that grass wouldn't grow on his grave.
But I started doing stories, interviewing all these guys who were dying, and the widows, because all their husbands had died. And I reached out to Stan Cannon, who was the press secretary for Simpson, and there had been a bill in Congress that they couldn't get passed to provide money for “downwinders” in Utah and Nevada, people who had been exposed to radioactivity by just watching the blasts.
And Al Simpson, I set up a meeting with him, oddly enough, at a hanger at an airport with all these miners, and he couldn't believe his ears. He hadn't heard this before. And he got right to work.
So I put together a scrapbook of all my stories and sent them to the Senate so they could pass them out. And it ended up, he put together a bill creating a $100 million trust fund and giving each one of these miners $100,000 - and it passed 99 to zero. And Stan credited me, he says that bill would never have passed if I hadn't done those stories.
And so when you look back on your life and say, you know, did I ever do anything meaningful? Well, yeah, I did a lot of things meaningful, but I can put my finger on one thing that I did that was really meaningful, and that was it. That would certainly be the icing on the cake, or the feather in the cap, or whatever, the cherry on top. \
But it was a great story, a great story to write, compelling, local and yet national, and that has certainly had a good result.
Wendy Corr:
That is the journalist’s real ethos, and real hope, is that someday they can write a story that makes a difference. And Bill, you have been responsible for a lot of stories that have made a difference, and here in Wyoming, we thank you.
See, and I thought maybe you'd talk about, you know, the big time that you had in Wales - didn't you get your master's degree from the University of Wales at Cardiff?
Bill Sniffin:
Yeah, I was a guest lecturer, and I worked on a part time master's degree in journalism over there, and it was really, really a fun thing. And because of that experience, I think that's why Mike Sullivan put me on the travel commission, because I certainly knew something about international travel. And of course, that was the impetus to start Rocky Mountain International, and do a whole bunch of these things.
But, yeah, I love everything about journalism. And let me say - earlier, I said that I was at the Golden Age of newspaper. Newspapers are still very viable. A lot of people in Wyoming are doing really, really great work in newspapers.
I am now, for the last five years, been involved in a digital news operation. You and I both, Wendy, and I'm so proud of my association with Cowboy State Daily, and as a result, these people read their news off their laptops, and off their phones, and even off their watches, now, you know, and it's a different world.
It's not like when, back in the day - and I think you were in radio back then - the local radio and local newspapers, we were the center of the universe, but not anymore.
Wendy Corr:
Well, there's still great journalism happening. And Bill, you have made your mark on journalism in Wyoming, and obviously across the nation as well. And thank you so much for your stories today. Thank you for your contributions. And congratulations on the Amos Award! We're excited for when you actually get that award. We're excited to see that.
Bill Sniffin:
Wendy, it's always a pleasure doing anything with you. And I gotta tell you, folks, if you get near Cody, Wendy is an unbelievable musician and singer, amongst all her other great things, so try to take in her show up there. But thank you, Wendy.
Wendy Corr:
Thank you, Bill. This has been great! Folks, thank you so much for tuning in to The Roundup. Once again, we want to make sure that you check out the Wyoming Business Alliance and their podcast, as well. Check it out anywhere that you get this podcast, as well as any of the other great, great stories that are still being told - not just on paper, not just on the radio, not just over your phone and your computer, but journalism is alive and well. And Bill Sniffin, we're glad that you have been a part of that.
So thanks for tuning in, folks! Have a fantastic day. We'll see you next week.
