The tiny town of Shoshoni with a population fewer than 500 has something that would bolster many small communities — a busy crossroad that sees about 1.4 million travelers every year, said Mayor Joel Highsmith.
That gave the mayor a novel idea when he took office in 2019. Why not vacate the Shoshoni Town Hall and offer the lot for sale to attract economic development?
“I felt like we could have the Town Hall anywhere,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “That was a valuable business lot, a commercial lot, and we were hoping we could attract a business for that.”
The town bought the old school administration building and remodeled it to serve as the new Town Hall, now located at 100 W. Third St.
It then hung a “for-sale” sign on the former seat of town government. That’s a sign that gets seen by millions of motorists passing by on their way to popular tourism destinations across Wyoming.
Ultimately, that for-sale sign has done exactly what the mayor hoped it would. It’s attracted the interest of a potentially game-changing development for Shoshoni.
Wyoming Cardiopulmonary Services is exploring the potential for building a state-of-the-art cardio clinic there, according to a letter Cowboy State Daily has obtained. It’s seeking economic development money for the project from the Wind River Economic Development Fund.
Location, Location, Location
While the people in Shoshoni may have a lot of heart, they don’t have enough of them to support their own cardiac clinic. But the crossroads location can be a focal point for serving an entire region of Wyoming.
Wyoming Cardiopulmonary Services has been serving Wyoming patients since 1978 and has offices in Casper, Buffalo, Douglas, Gillette, Lander, Rawlins, Riverton, Saratoga, Thermopolis, Wheatland and Worland.
In the letter, the company proposes building a 7,620-square-foot clinic on the former town hall site, which would be open as many as four days a week.
If realized, it would be a dramatic improvement for an area that Highsmith said has become a health care desert.
“The proposed site, located in Shoshoni, spans 1.28 acres and is strategically positioned to serve Dubois, Lander, Riverton, Shoshoni, and neighboring communities, including Fort Washakie, Hudson, Arapahoe, and Pavilion,” the letter says. “The new clinic will provide comprehensive care for cardiac and peripheral vascular conditions.”
Among key services that could be offered by such a clinic are cardiac stress testing, echo stress testing, nuclear cardiac imaging and non-invasive procedures like Holter monitoring, which continuously tracks cardiac activity over a 24 to 48 hour period to diagnose heart problems.
“This facility aims to meet the healthcare needs of a region with limited access to these services,” the letter goes on to state. “The clinic’s central location will increase accessibility to this critical care, help reduce travel times and distances for patients, medical professionals and staff. Initially, the clinic expects to see 15 to 20 patients per day, with plans to expand capacity to accommodate up to 50 patients per day, four days a week, as Wyoming Cardiopulmonary Services develops its client base and hires skilled and unskilled personnel from the surrounding area.”
The Health Care Desert
Travel times are what concerns heart patients in the area the most, Highsmith said.
While Wyoming Cardiopulmonary Services does have clinic days at other locations like Lander, Riverton and Worland, many cardiac patients find themselves unable to get a timely appointment.
Highsmith himself is a cardiac patient and has experienced that problem firsthand, but he also has friends in Riverton and Lander who have told him similar stories.
That has him and many others needing a three-hour round trip on a regular basis to Casper for services.
I have one friend who is a cardiopulmonary patient that lives in Riverton who cannot get an appointment scheduled in Riverton in a timely manner,” he said. “He travels to Casper. And I have another friend in Lander who travels to Salt Lake.”
Shoshoni, with its central location, is a community the doctors staffing those clinics generally have to pass through on their way, Highsmith said.
“They’re driving by and seeing the for-sale sign on the town hall and thinking, geez, this might be a good place for us to set up shop,” Highsmith said. “It’d be a little less driving. They’d still initially be driving from Casper to Shoshoni, Riverton, Lander, Thermopolis and Worland. But they would open the office here and provide services at least four days a week, instead of scattered, so that would improve the service for our whole area.”
Shoshoni, Highsmith added, is centrally located to the communities in Big Horn, Fremont, Hot Springs, and Washakie counties.
“That’s approximately 10% or more of the state’s population,” he said. “We’re centrally located to cover the most people.”
Money Still Sought
Money could be a sticking point for the development, Highsmith acknowledged, and he, as well as Wyoming Cardiopulmonary, have been talking to various entities about the proposal, including Fremont County, the Wyoming Business Council, and Wind River Economic Development Fund.
“The county actually had money that they haven’t spent of our half-cent economic development,” Highsmith said. “That’s money our voters voted down last time. So, they have some money, but the county may have needs … to spend that money on.”
Highsmith estimated the project would cost around $5 million.
“It’s going to be a fairly expensive project,” he said, but added that if they could get even a low-interest loan, that could help take the edge off of building a new facility like that in Shoshoni.
“We’re looking at all options to try to reduce the interest rate,” he said.
If the project does find the assistance it needs to get off the ground, it would be a huge shot in the economic arm for Shoshoni, Highsmith acknowledged.
The mayor, in office now for seven years, has always believed Shoshoni has greater potential than its small population of less than 500, would suggest, thanks to its traffic statistics and its proximity to recreation sites like Wind River Canyon and Boysen Reservoir.
“The lot where our old town hall is located is a very commercial lot, with high traffic,” he said. “The majority of people go to Yellowstone Park from the east, travel through Shoshoni Mountain, either turn north to Cody or continue toward Riverton, Dubois.”
While his plan hadn’t necessarily been to bring a cardiac clinic to the community, if it comes to pass, it will cross not just one but two bucket list items off his list — growing the town and bringing medical services to what has become a health care desert.
“I grew up here and I remember in the ’60s and even ’70s, we did have some medical services here,” he said. “So that was on my bucket list when I got into office.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
