Josh Carl Voges lives in Minnesota, but the snowmobile fanatic wants to make his home in Encampment, Wyoming.
Buying a house there would put him in his favorite snowmobiling playground and a community he’s come to know and love. Until he can move there full-time, his plan is to help pay for the property by offering short-term rentals.
That plan could become more difficult if Encampment decides to limit them.
Encampment is the latest tiny Wyoming town to wrestle with short-term rentals and housing. With just six motel rooms, it needs places for visitors to stay.
But it also needs homes that teachers and other local workers can afford.
Encampment is looking at a Jackson town ordinance as a potential model for regulating short-term rentals — a comparison that’s raising eyebrows in this mountain town of about 450 people between the Sierra Madre Mountains and Snowy Range.
“We are NOT Jackson,” longtime resident Mary Martin wrote in an outraged post on Facebook about the issue. “I have been following this through the town minutes for a while and am very disappointed. I don’t understand why the council and planning commission think this is going to ‘free up’ these properties.”
Martin, who has lived in Encampment for 46 years, told Cowboy State Daily the town has had a housing shortage for decades, predating both Airbnb and VRBO. So does its population of seasonal homeowners — people she calls “winter birds,” who spend colder months somewhere else.
“And when they’re here, the majority of them are engaging with our community, with our events and stuff,” she said.
Short-term rentals help such owners cover taxes and utilities while bringing visitors who spend money at restaurants and gas stations, Martin said.
Restricting vacation rentals won’t turn those properties into homes for year-round residents, she argues. It will just leave more vacation homes sitting empty, instead of accommodating paying guests who can help support the town’s businesses.
A Town Divided
Encampment placed a moratorium on new conditional-use permits for short-term rentals in October of last year, Councilman Steve Reichert told Cowboy State Daily. A string of three or four applications came in all at once, which spooked some in the town and prompted a call to ban short-term rentals altogether.
Reichert, who also chairs the Planning Commission, said he’s heard from both sides and the town is struggling to reach any sort of consensus. Some meetings have turned into shouting matches.
Efforts to reach supporters of tighter short-term rental restrictions for comment were unsuccessful. Cowboy State Daily also placed multiple calls to Encampment Mayor Shannon Fagan, who did not respond.
“I would just as soon we maybe changed our application a little bit and just keep allowing them,” Reichert said. “There’s maybe 15 of them we know of in the town.”
Jackson’s rules require short-term rental operators to obtain a business license and basic-use permit. In residential areas outside its lodging overlay and resort district, rentals are limited to three separate stays and no more than 60 total nights per year.
Encampment has not yet established which of Jackson’s provisions it would borrow. Another town meeting is set for Thursday, Reichert said, when the topic may get further discussion.
Reichert favors a clearer application process while continuing to allow short-term rentals. In his view, Encampment could use more visitor lodging.
He pointed to his own extended family as an example. A reunion would require more than the town’s six motel rooms. Short-term rentals would give his relatives a way to stay in town.
Councilwoman Susan Munson, meanwhile, said the town remains in the early stages of considering ordinances. She has mostly opposed restrictions, but said she remains open to suggestions.
Munson acknowledged a need for affordable housing but she sees it as part of a statewide and nationwide trend and doesn’t believe restricting short-term rentals will move the needle.
A Growing Regional Market
With Encampment’s moratorium on new rental permits in place, the number of rentals within town limits fell from eight to seven over the past year, according to data supplied by AirDNA to Cowboy State Daily.
The surrounding market, however, continued to grow. The AirDNA data showed an average of 21 active listings a month from October 2025 through September 2026, up 11.5% from the preceding 12 months.
The properties generated about $609,000 in rental revenue, up 31.5%, while booked nights increased nearly 27%. Occupancy rose to about 56% of nights available for booking.
The figures document a growing short-term rental business in the area, but don’t necessarily establish how many of those properties would become year-round housing if Encampment were to restrict vacation rentals.
Priced Out Of Town
Reichert sees another force changing Encampment’s housing market — buyers arriving with money from homes sold in more expensive communities. He said he believes that’s what is driving up home prices.
“The price of real estate in this little town anymore is just unreal,” he said.
He bought his Encampment home in 2008 and considered it a good buy. He believes he could sell it for three times what he paid then.
Prices started rising substantially around five years ago, Reichert said.
Some new homes are being built, he added, but not necessarily at prices someone on a beginning teacher or law-enforcement officer salary can afford.
“People are coming out of the big cities, finding these small towns, and they’ve got the big-city house to sell and they’ve got money to buy,” he said. “So that’s what they do, and then the people who work here and live here can’t afford to do it anymore.”
Beyond Encampment
Encampment’s debate echoes concerns seen in other Wyoming communities, such as Centennial and Saratoga, where residents and business owners have described competing needs for visitor lodging and homes for local workers.
In Saratoga, restaurant owner and Planning Commission member McCall Burau told Cowboy State Daily in a 2024 interview that short-term rentals were filling an important lodging gap.
“There aren’t enough hotel rooms to support events at the community center and general summer tourist activities, so short-term rentals definitely play a vital part in our economy,” she said.
But a shortage of housing that seasonal workers can afford was also restricting the labor pool. That prompted Burau’s restaurant to switch from full-service dining to counter service. She also simplified the menu and reduced the operating schedule.
More recent data shows Saratoga’s short-term rental market has contracted. Its average monthly active listing count fell 2.8% in the 12 months through September 2026 compared to the preceding year. Booked nights dropped nearly 20% and rental renveue declined about 17% to $1.29 million.
In Centennial, residents described a similar workforce problem in interviews for an October feature marking the community’s 150th anniversary.
“Every property that comes on the market, with maybe two exceptions that I can think of, somebody will buy it and turn it into a short-term rental,” longtime resident Vicky Haley told Cowboy State Daily.
The lack of employee housing contributed to the Trading Post closing its restaurant, while keeping its bar open, Haley added.
“They couldn’t find employees because the employees couldn’t find housing,” she said.
The shortage has also weakened the network of volunteers that keep the town going, longtime resident Kevin Otstot told Cowboy State Daily.
“We’ve got a water board,” he said. “We’ve got a library board. We’ve got a museum board. And we don’t have enough people to serve on those boards any more because there’s no place to live that’s affordable.”
From Visitor To Neighbor
For Voges, Encampment is more than a place to unload a snowmobile. He estimates he’s been visiting the area for 15 to 20 years.
Breakfast conversations at the 307 Pub & Grub have turned into friendships and over the years he’s helped stranded motorists and given people rides to Laramie.
Now he wants to make the area his home.
Voges, 49, hopes to move to Encampment after his son finishes high school, and is already watching the housing market.
If he buys before then, short-term rental income would help him carry the property until he can live there full-time. Restricting short-term rentals would make that harder.
“I would think that even with the Airbnbs that I know of that’s probably still only to a maximum of 50 people into the town in a day,” he said.
When one rental is booked, he said operators often help visitors find another.
“I mean, everybody that’s doing it is just getting along, working together,” he said. “It’s working. Just leave it alone.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
