Wyoming is a state defined by distance. Just seven people per square mile. We are a big state with big trips required to get around within it.
Is it no wonder, we easily top the nation in average miles driven.
So, with all this room, what ties us all together? To me, after 56 years, this is a personal question.
We can start with rodeo, high school football, everything at UW, unique weather, roads to nowhere, plus unique people and experiences that provide us with common denominators. Both a sense of purpose and a sense of place come into play.
We are a place with more space than people, more miles than neighbors, and more wind than seems anywhere. That is part of our appeal. It is also part of our challenge, because when people are spread this far apart, identity gets stretched thin, too.
If you live in Cheyenne, your pull is toward Denver. In Evanston and Rock Springs, it is Salt Lake City. Sheridan looks to Billings. Gillette leans toward Rapid City. Even Laramie feels the tug from Fort Collins. We are a state of outward glances, and that makes it harder, sometimes, to feel like one people.
You can drive seven long hours in Wyoming and still be in Wyoming. But it may not feel like the same Wyoming.
Former Gov. Mike Sullivan always described Wyoming as like a small city (about the size of Fresno) with VERY long streets. I used another popular Cowboy State motto as a title of my second book: “High Altitudes, Low Multitudes.”
Far Flung Locations
We are separated by huge swaths of land defined by our rivers and our mountains. We have gigantic basins like the Big Horn Basin in NW Wyoming. The Wind River Basin in the center. The Powder River Basin in the northeast. The North Platte Basin in the Southeast. The Green River Basin in the Southwest plus the Great Divide Basin in the Red Desert.
Is there a secret formula on what ties all this together? There is something. It does not shout, it whispers.
Start with our land. Not just the scenery, although we have the Tetons, Yellowstone, the Winds, The Big Horns, and the Red Desert, I am talking about something deeper. In Wyoming, the land shapes you. It humbles you. It reminds you who is in charge. It is not you.
You learn that when the wind is howling and the roads are closing and you still have to get where you are going. Plans change. Priorities shift. The land wins. Those lessons are shared from one end of the state to the other. They leave a mark.
Then there is scale. Wyoming is big, which means everything else is small. Communities are smaller. Circles are tighter. Reputations matter more. In a state this size, your word travels fast and sticks. You cannot hide. You cannot fake it.
That creates a certain integrity, or at least encourages it. It also creates responsibility. People have to step up because there is no one else to do it.
You see it in volunteer fire departments. School boards. County commissions. Church dinners. Wyoming runs on people who show up.
The weather helps, too. Shared adversity brings people together. When you have all driven through the same blizzard, fought the same wind, endured the same long winter (maybe, not this year!), you develop a bond.
You see it in a quick nod at the gas pump when it is twenty below. You feel it when someone pulls over to help without being asked. It is not dramatic. It is just understood.
Our Independent Streak
Then there is independence. Wyoming people do not like being told what to do. That goes back generations to ranches, mines, and wide-open country where you had to rely on yourself. That streak is still strong today.
But it comes with a companion trait that matters just as much: Neighborliness. You may not want interference, but you will stop to help. You will shovel a walk, fix a fence, lend a hand, show up when it counts. No fuss, no speeches, no expectation of anything in return.
That mix, independence paired with quiet generosity, is a true Wyoming signature.
History also plays a role. This is a state that has always punched above its weight. Wyoming was first to grant women the vote. It was a famous “pass through” place. A place of trails, highways, railroads, ranches, energy, and open space. A place that helped define the West. That shared story still matters. It reminds us that small does not mean unimportant. Out here, small is good.
Is there a “Wyoming attitude?” It is hard to pin down, but easy to recognize. It is not flashy or loud. It does not seek attention. It is a quiet confidence that what we have here is enough.
We cherish our big spaces. A sense that we do not need to be bigger or busier to matter. So yes, Wyoming is spread out. Yes, outside cities pull at us. Yes, we can feel disconnected at times.
We Are In It Together
But underneath all that is something steady. That shared experience. A shared mindset. A shared understanding that life here is not always easy, but it is real. And that still counts for something. Maybe for everything.
What holds Wyoming together is not one thing. It is a collection of small things: the land, the weather, the people, the history, the attitude. Taken alone, each may seem minor. Taken together, they define us.
And maybe that is the most Wyoming answer of all.
Bill can be reached at bill@cowboystatedaily.com
