Goodbye Wyoming: A Couple's Love Letter To The Cowboy State

Charles and Kay Bohlen fell in love with Wyoming over 30 years of living, working and raising family here, developing a deep emotional bond with the people, places and spirit of the Cowboy State.

That's why it was so emotional when they left their longtime home for good. That day came last week.

The couple said one final goodbye to their summer mountain home in the Snowy Range and the state they’ve called home for 33 years and headed south to Mesa, Arizona, where they’ve been snowbirding for nearly two decades.

The move is a bittersweet one for Bohlen, an Idahoan by birth. The couple moved to Wyoming in 1992 so he could become president of Laramie County Community College, a role he held until 2006. 

Their adopted home state and Snowy Range home served as the backdrop for all sorts of family memories with their three children and the “absolute blessing” of watching their granddaughters grow up. 

And saying goodbye to Wyoming also means saying goodbye to a very special way of life.

“You can get away from the hecticness of life pretty quickly in Wyoming,” Bohlen said. “And Wyoming people are straightforward and honest, we’ll miss that.”

‘Time to Call an End an End’

But Arizona beckoned for several reasons.

The Bohlens decided to move primarily because of age. They’re both 82 and their Mesa home is close to several “wonderful” medical facilities, while the annual back-and-forth trek was becoming really hard.

When they returned to Wyoming in June after spending the winter and spring months in Arizona, the couple made up their mind.

“We looked at each other and knew it was time to call an end an end,” he said. “We said: ‘We better quit doing it while we can pack up ourselves.’”

By the end of June, they’d put their home on the market and started making plans for their big move.

Before that final packing job, however, the couple decided to go out with a bang of sorts and hosted more than 50 friends and family from near and far in Foxborough for a 60th wedding anniversary celebration 

“It was really gratifying to have everyone together,” Bohlen said.

More Time for Geezer Gang

Even if the decision to leave Wyoming brought mixed emotions, the couple has a group of friends awaiting them in Arizona — including a few Wyomingites who live in their 55-plus community.

And then there’s the “geezer gang,” a group of guys that Bohlen helped get together for weekly rides on their 4x4 side-by-side vehicles in the Sonoran Desert. 

Now that some of the older gang members have cashed out, Bohlen said he ranks as among the oldest to go out on these adventurous trail rides.

“It’s really a lot of fun,” he said. “We have a good time.”

Building a Home

Though a new chapter will bring new memories, it’s also the end of an era that meant watching the snow falling in winter while reading a book and sharing Dutch oven-cooked meals with neighbors, among the other charms of mountain living.

They fell in love with the Snowy Range in 1993 on a camping trip with some friends and decided to shop for property in the area with the help of the real estate husband of one of Bohlen’s colleagues.

The couple ultimately bought a property in 1994 and then undertook quite a project: They found an old, abandoned cabin that was perfect for the mountains.

But first, they had to disassemble the cabin, number each log, and then reassemble it. 

Though rebuilding a log cabin wasn’t something Bohlen had previously done, he called on one of his nephews who is a skilled craftsman for help.

Of course, that experience holds many fond memories.

“After work on a Friday afternoon, we would load a trailer up with building materials and go up there,” Bohlen recalled. 

The cabin rebuilding project began in the summer of 1995, and they were ready to host Christmas there several months later.

“It was a special place for us," Bohlen said.

But all of that hard work went up in smoke in 2020, when the Mullen Fire raged through the area burning some 175,000-plus acres and destroying the Bohlens’ cabin. 

Like many victims of home fires, when the couple sorted through the ash, they found some of those items that inexplicably survived — remnants of a family Bible dating back to the 1800s, say, or plates that Kay had painted for each of their children.

At the time, they decided they were too old to rebuild so they opted instead for a manufactured home and were able to return in 2021 so they could still enjoy the land.

Fairy Village and Friends

In addition to the human neighbors they befriended, the couple would often be greeted by moose, deer, elk, foxes, pine martens, and lots of varieties of birds. “It was unbelievable the amount of wildlife we had there.”

And then there were the fairies.

When their granddaughters were young, every tree stump became a fairy home and letters might be swapped back and forth with these mythical creatures. The new owners will inherit an entire fairy village, Bohlen said.

These sorts of memories made leaving Wyoming tough, even if they can be transported across state lines. 

But there will be some tangible reminders: On the gate of their home in Mesa, they have a sign for the Moose Willow Bohlen Cabin, as it was called, and inside they have a painting of the old cabin that one of their artist friends made for them. 

And there’s a spare bedroom for friends to come visit.

“We want to thank everybody who’s been a part of our lives in Wyoming,” Bohlen said. “We’re very social people—we like people—and that continues on.”

Anna Jackson can be reached at: Jackson.Anna@gmail.com