Rural populations in Wyoming are shrinking, recent Census data shows. Civic and business officials say low populations lead to an inability to staff businesses that would help communities thrive.
For decades, the Crazy Days street fair was the city of Worland’s can't-miss summer event, a block party with live music, retail giveaways and street dances taking place in the arteries of the city’s lively main street, Bighorn Avenue.
But at the turn of century, Crazy Days, along with the local businesses that sponsored it, went the way of the dodo. And just like business districts in small cities all across Wyoming, Bighorn Avenue today is a shell of its former self, distinguished by for-sale signs and boarded up storefronts.
“When I was a kid, downtown Worland was a going son of a gun,” said Tom Schmeltzer, lifelong resident and current Wakashie County commissioner. “We had a Montgomery Ward and a JCPenney and a Harts department store and Marvin's for Men. We had three jewelry shops and three pharmacies downtown. Now our downtown is the biggest ghost town in the state, really, it’s terrible. It’s all boarded up.”
Despite the optics, economic opportunity in Worland is strong, underpinned by a handful of big companies and a slow trickle of new business, say local leaders, who believe that an era of renewed vibrancy could be around the corner.
The problem is whether residents themselves will stick around long enough to see a revival through.
Worland is the seat of Washakie County, one of 11 rural counties in the state whose numbers are in decline, according to recent U.S. Census data and analysis from the Wyoming Department of Administration & Information (WDAI).
Between July 2023 and July 2024, the population of Washakie County fell by 1% down to 7,685, part of a longer-term drop-off since its 1980 peak at 9,496.
If the decline continues in Washakie and other counties, it could have spiraling impacts and undermine rural life while weakening critical sectors, according to county officials, business leaders and economists interviewed for this article by Cowboy State Daily.
Out of the data emerges a central challenge: a negative feedback loop in rural employment, in which a dearth of workers in one sector has impacts on a community’s quality of life which then makes it harder to attract job seekers to other sectors as well.
Niobrara County
In 2022, the Lusk Early Childhood Daycare Center had a full staff of 10 and accommodated around 30 kids separated in two different age groups. Today, they accommodate one age group and less than a third as many children because their staff has since dwindled to two.
But not for a lack of trying to hire.
“With the difficulty in staffing this last year, we've gone from having over 30 kids in the building to now only having nine,” said Morgan Kling, center director, adding that come 2026 there will be zero children in the building; largely as a result of staffing challenges, the facility will soon shut its doors.
“The entire town's really devastated by it because we were a big resource. Niobrara County doesn't have any daycares except for the public school which is utilized just by teachers and district employees.”
The day care is a branch of the Wyoming Child and Family Development’s Head Start program, providing daycare and educational services to low-income families. Without those services, some parents will be unable to join the workforce, creating staffing pressure for other local businesses, like food service and retail.
“If we don't have the people here to work, there's no way certain businesses can stay afloat,” said Kling, referring specifically to Niobrara’s population decline.
The Outpost Cafe, for example, has had to shorten its hours of operation due to difficulty in hiring, according to County Commissioner Elaine Griffith. Similarly, one of the community's only general retailers, Family Dollar, is struggling to fully staff.
“If you've got people that are working shift work, like out at the [Wyoming] Women's Center or at the hospital, and they don't have a place for their children, that might be why a lot of them choose to live out of town,” said Griffith, referring to two of the county’s anchor employers, the state women’s prison and the Niobrara Community Hospital.
Is Rural Work Too Tough?
Rural population decline is bound to put pressure on ranch operations, which are already strained by a lack of good hands, ranchers tell Cowboy State Daily. But it also appears that the formidable work of ranch life itself is pushing rural populations elsewhere.
“If you were brought up on a ranch, you might think, ‘Boy, there's probably an easier way to make a living. I'm gonna go do something else,” said Steve Shockley, Platte County commissioner and fulltime cattle rancher.
Shockley offers by example the current calving season, during which he’s outside from first light until past dusk and then out again to check on calves multiple times in the middle of the night.
“Depending on the weather and what might be going on, there’s times I've put my Carhart bib overalls on and not come back in for three days,” he said, explaining why he can’t blame his own son and daughter for leaving Platte County for careers in law and health administration.
It’s not a new phenomenon.
“I graduated in a class of probably 100 people, and there might be only a dozen or more that are still around here,” he said.
Even as residents have peeled away from Platte, the county’s long-term population has been remarkably stable. With a population today at 8,512, it’s about one thousand more than it was in 1920, and one thousand less than it was in 1930.
Workforce challenges are evident in neighboring Goshen County, also in decline, where commissioner Michael McNamee believes changing attitudes toward hard work have inhibited small family operations.
“Back in the day, the family farm employed seasonal help that was the high school kids looking for a summertime job. But it's just harder and harder to find kids that are interested in doing this type of work. It’s long hours, maybe it isn’t glamorous, but my honest opinion is that kids don’t want to work that hard anymore,” McNamee said.
Although it’s not just high school kids, nor is it exclusive to agriculture.
“Talk to pretty much any industry around here, and they will tell you that it's difficult to find help.”
Concerns with population decline come in tandem with other concerns, including tariffs, which are destined to impact the region's exports like corn, hay and beans. These fears are compounded by the increased toll of a prolonged drought.
“If we don't get some serious moisture in the next few weeks, I may have to send some of my cows to the sell barn and get rid of them, because I won’t have anything for them to eat,” Shockley said.
McNamee said, “Everybody's aware of [the population decline]. But we continue to hope that we'll have young people that come back to Goshen County that want to be a part of what their families have done on their farms and ranches for generations.”
Zakary Sonntag can be reached at zakary@cowboystatedaily.com.
