SHERIDAN — The morning after Wyoming’s tourism industry honored state Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, with a lifetime achievement award, the Devils Tower Republican wasn’t headed home.
He went the opposite direction.
His destination was Thermopolis, where he and Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, planned to meet with the new concessionaire at Hot Springs State Park to hear about the vision for its future.
There was no particular problem they are trying to solve, Gierau told Cowboy State Daily. They just want to listen.
“We believe in Hot Springs State Park,” he said. “Just like we believe in all our wonderful cultural and recreational areas.”
For Gierau, the detour was just the latest of many examples of the work that made Driskill deserving of the Clarene Law Award, presented to him Thursday at the Wyoming Hospitality and Travel Coalition’s awards banquet in Sheridan.
“People don’t realize how much spare time, off time, non-compensated time legislators spend on doing that,” Gierau said. “And I put Ogden at the top of that list.”
More Than Just A Professional Honor
The Clarene Law Award recognizes a lifetime of service to Wyoming’s hospitality and tourism industry.
For Driskill, the name attached to it makes the honor especially personal.
Long before he became a legislator, Law helped mentor him. That’s why, when Driskill hugged her daughter Charisse Haws at the ceremony, there were tears in both their eyes.
Driskill met Law while lobbying the Legislature to buy a 4,349-acre chunk of the Moskee land area, located near the Grand Canyon of the Black Hills and Cold Springs Creek.
“It was an incredible piece of ground that really made sense,” Driskill said. “It was all surrounded by national forest ground and I really wanted the state to try to buy it.”
That effort brought him into contact with Law and fellow legislator John Schiffer.
“You know, you’re a visionary,” Driskill recalled her telling him.
Law understood what he was trying to do.
She told him about her own unsuccessful effort to protect a large piece of Spring Creek Ranch in Jackson and encouraged him to keep thinking about the state’s future.
“She invested a lot of time in me to help me be a better leader,” Driskill said. “And was a friend right up to the day she died.”
That history made accepting an award in her name more than a professional honor.
“If it was just the Wyoming Tourism Award, it’s a great award and I’d be proud of it,” he said. “But the Clarene Law Award …”
Saving Hulett’s Old School
For all the statewide projects Driskill has worked on, what he's proudest of is close to home — helping save Hulett’s old school from demolition.
“They were weeks away from taking a wrecking ball to it,” he said.
Others had already worked to save the building. Driskill said bringing residents together at a community meeting helped turn those efforts into a viable way forward.
“A huge chunk of the community showed up,” he said. “And we got it done.”
The school became a community center, preserving a building that now hosts gatherings ranging from turkey shoots to funerals.
“It’s one of the nicest buildings in town,” Driskill said.
Saving it stands out partly because of the odds against it, and partly because he lives in the community it serves.
He also credits the project with helping establish a model for turning other former schools into community centers.
But when Driskill looks at the potential economic impact of his tourism work, he points to two more recent efforts — bringing the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association to Wyoming and helping bring Indian horse racing to Cheyenne.
The PRCA relocation remains a work in progress, but he believes the two together have the potential to bring millions of dollars to Wyoming while strengthening the state’s Western identity.
“It really anchors Wyoming as the Cowboy State,” he said. “It’s what we are.”
Crazy Ideas That Work Out
Gierau remembers being skeptical when Driskill first mentioned to him the possibility of bringing the PRCA to Wyoming.
“You’re kidding! You’re crazy! No way,” he recalled responding.
But connecting people with an ambitious idea is one of Driskill’s strengths, Gierau said.
“He’s got a Rolodex bigger than anybody I know,” he said.
The two senators belong to different political parties and don’t always agree on everything. Tourism, though, has been common ground as both work in the hospitality industry.
Gierau counts Driskill’s work on tourism funding among his biggest accomplishments.
The changes gave the state tourism office a dedicated lodging-tax funding source, rather than requiring it to compete for general-fund dollars each budget cycle.
Gierau said the arrangement is “an unqualified success story.”
For Driskill, such work has always depended on teamwork, a point he particularly emphasized when he accepted the Clarene Law Award.
“Tourism really builds teams,” he told the banquet audience. “And it’s not one person, but groups of people that do stuff together.”
Driskill thanked his wife and children, along with the mentors and colleagues who helped him along the way, beginning with Law.
For all his interest in new attractions and tourism projects, though, Driskill isn’t just concerned about what Wyoming can add. It’s also about what the state should keep.
Wyoming still has so much untamed country worth protecting, he said.
“If we can find a way to maintain that, it will treat us very well down the road,” he said.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
