You don’t have to tell Dorothy Greenwood that Crook County is special.
She grew up on Odin Hill off Highway 14, and the view out her window every night was none other than the famous Devils Tower, featured so prominently in the cult classic, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
But the tower’s not the only magical place in Crook County. In fact, to Greenwood, it’s not even the most magical. Her personal nirvana is hiding away in the green spaces of the county, places she discovered as a child with her family.
When she was 8 or 9 years old, Greenwood’s father took her to one of Crook County’s blue-ribbon fisheries to teach her fly fishing.
“He had rigged up my rod and tied a fly on it,” Greenwood says in a video about visiting Crook County. “And he said, ‘If you can’t catch anything on that, just go catch a live grasshopper and stick it on there, and you’ll be fine.”
Greenwood laughs at the memory because the fishing was, indeed, mighty fine.
And it still is now.
“This is Nirvana here,” she said. “This is beautiful moving water, and that water is gin clear all year long. It never freezes. I have fished that creek when it was so cold the guides in your fly rod would freeze up, but you can still catch live fish on a dry fly, because (the water) comes out from underground.”
That’s just one of the many things that makes Crook County magical to Greenwood.
“I gotta tell you, everything about this country is just pretty magical,” she says with a huge smile. “There’s tons of wildlife. I bet I saw 40 turkeys minimum just driving in here. They’re everywhere. And deer? Life is good.”
The folksy video is just one of a dozen or so lures that Visit Crook County’s marketer, Jen Womack, who owns Sagebrush Marketing, has cast out onto YouTube, hoping to catch a different kind of fish.
Womack is fishing for tourists. But not just any old tourist. What she’s really after, and what her videos showcase, is how Crook County is a great overnight stay. A place you want to dig into over two to three days, rather than just passing through or day tripping.
Her tactic seems to be working well for Crook County. The state’s most recent economic impact report shows it was the county that posted the highest percentage increase in direct spending for 2024. Crook County increased its direct spend 5.7% year over year, beating out even Teton County, whose direct spend increased 3.2% year over year.
Overnight Stays Help Boost Spending
Part of Crook County’s success is how local insiders are leveraged to shine a light on the hidden gems of Devils Tower Country. While the videos never outright suggest an overnight stay, all of them show why an overnight stay might be attractive.
Wyoming counties care about overnight stays because those are the tourists who spend the most money, according to Office of Tourism Director Diane Shober. Overnight stays are one of many metrics Shober looks at when she’s studying the state’s annual economic impact study.
“The total visitor spend is across many verticals,” she said. “They’re buying food, they’re buying accommodations.”
They’re buying gifts in retail shops, as well as gasoline to get where they’re going, guides to show them cool places, shows to keep them entertained, and all the things that lead to great experiences in the Cowboy State.
Wyoming still cares about day trippers, of course. They’re an important element in the mix, particularly for smaller communities like those in Crook County, Shober added.
But they’re also an opportunity. If a county can influence those day trippers to spend a little more time in an area, that’s a win-win. Particularly when it’s somewhere besides Jackson Hole, which makes up the bulk of Wyoming’s now $4.9 billion tourism industry.
Spreading The Love
Wyoming has long been trying to help spread tourists around a little more, which is two-fold. It helps relieve pressure on the amazing tourism resources in the Teton County area. But it also helps spread important economic impact to other, smaller counties that really need it.
Crook County is an obvious choice for such efforts, with the nationally famous landmark Devils Tower and the Black Hills National Forest right there, waiting for adventurers.
“Also being adjacent to a really well-developed visitor industry right on the western side of South Dakota,” Shober said. “You get this opportunity to grow and expand there.”
Shober has a couple of programs to help communities leverage what they have to attract more tourism. There’s WY Best, launched in 2019, which empowers communities to become what she calls “visitor ready.” It encourages communities to see what they have through the eyes of a tourist, and then focus on the greatest needs first, layering in new things only after the right foundation to support the visitor is there.
“It’s modeled after a national program,” Shober said. “But it was adjusted for rural areas. It’s an ongoing strategic development assessment for communities, working with the local lodging tax boards and local partners.”
The program is a steppingstone for leveraging destination development funds, Shober added, which started in the latter part of 2023.
The destination funds are meant to fund new and expanded opportunities that a community otherwise couldn’t afford.
“We will really start to see the fruits of those labors I think probably in another couple of years,” Shober said. “Especially in larger communities where the investments have had some time to really settle in and they’ve been able to leverage visitation from it.”
Tim Tanner from the west side of the Tetons portrays Edward Robinson, one of three Kentuckians who came out West. The other two were Jacob Reznor and John Hoback at the annual Green River Rendezvous. (Renée Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
The Aladdin General Store in Aladdin, Wyoming, is the state's oldest operating general store. It's also had a U.S. Post Office for the past 127 years, until recently. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Mountain man Hugh Glass does battle with a sow grizzly in this exhibit at the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale. (John Thompson, Cowboy State Daily) 
Keyhole State Park in northeast Wyoming. (Courtesy Joel Parker)
The Blue Raspberry Whale Approach
Shober said she sees success written in the figures of the tourism impact report for many counties in Wyoming over the past year.
“Big Horn County is doing great things, Crook, Converse — they’re all working hard,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot of advancement going in Rock Springs. They’ve added so much product development there. Sheridan, Gillette, Buffalo — if I name some, I’m leaving others out, and everyone is doing something that’s really impressive.”
One of those other impressive counties that shouldn’t get left out is Sublette County, which showed a substantial increase in visitor spending in the annual economic impact report. Their direct travel spending rose 5.2% year over year.
The approach in Sublette has taken a little different tack than Crook County, but it’s still offering tourists a peek inside, through the eyes of insiders, using a vibrant stream of social media posts shared by Pete Paulin, executive director of Sublette County’s visitor centers.
The legendary fish that didn’t get away, the delicious flame-broiled steaks with cowboy butter at Lakeside Lodge, and the seasonally available Shark Tank, a blue raspberry drink, which is back for the summer season.
It’s a fun blue drink from Spill The Beans Coffee Company in Big Piney, which shows a little fish that resembles a whale floating in it. Whether that’s ice or a child’s toy isn’t clear from the post, but it’s sparkly in the sun, and looks delicious and fun.
So much fun, Paulin said he plans to try it himself the next time he’s in Big Piney.
Summer Is Go-Time
Sublette County does have winter tourism opportunities, but summer is the go-time.
“Once those gates open in Yellowstone, we’ll really start seeing a lot more people,” he said. “So, we’ll be open (at the visitor centers) seven days a week, 9 to 5-ish.”
That’s an important, if less visible, part of Paulin’s overall efforts. Travelers passing through Sublette County are looking for directions and places to eat and unexpected adventure.
That means they’re actually very open to suggestions about things to do in Sublette County. It’s a great chance to snag a tourist, who might decide it’s worth spending a night or two before moving on to Yellowstone.
“We do have some great assets,” Paulin said. “Our museums are fantastic. The Museum of the Mountain Man, the Green River Valley Museum down in Big Piney — thousands of people come to experience those places as well.”
There’s also the White Pine Ski Area & Summer Resort just 10 miles from Pinedale. In winter, they offer downhill skiing and snowboarding. But summer is great too, with horseback riding, hiking, mountain biking, and camping that’s paired with 360-degree views of the Wind River Mountains, Wyoming Range, Gros Ventres, and the high desert.
“This is a big recreation area where people can experience the Wind River and the Wyoming ranges,” he said. “And they are a lot quieter than say (Grand) Teton Park and Yellowstone. And I think people are realizing that they can get a great experience down here and save maybe little bit of money than at other places.”
Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
