Rock Springs, Wyoming

posted June 23rd by jake

rocksprings

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fun,” Tina said, sensing my concern.

We were in Kansas City, about to embark on a thirty-six-hour tour bus ride to San Francisco. The drive was to be broken up into two legs, so that the bus driver could get some sleep in the middle of the long haul. This meant we’d have a ten-hour mid-day stopover somewhere halfway between K.C. and S.F. My geography knowledge conspired with my math skills to give me an uneasy feeling about where this stopover take place.

“We’re stopping at a city in Wyoming. I haven’t ever heard of it, but it’s a real city,” Tina went on.

A real city? In Wyoming, which is hardly even a real state?

“It’ll be fun,” she repeated. I still had my doubts.

Having traveled along Interstate 80 many times, to me Wyoming is a four hundred mile-wide test of endurance.  I wouldn’t even call Cheyenne, the state capital and its biggest metropolitan area, a “real city”. The entire population of the town could fit into any NFL stadium. As I told Tina: if Cheyenne was the best we could hope for, somewhere in Wyoming that she’s never even heard of was nothing to look forward to. Thirteen hours later, as our driver pulled off of the freeway and I read the exit sign, my heart dropped. Maybe Tina had never heard of Rock Springs, but I unfortunately had.

Rock Springs is the first place I ever saw a  Razor Scooter. It’s also where a friend’s lung collapsed as he attempted to pass through town. Other than those two items, I can’t remember anything specific from my many, many previous visits to the place. Because those visits were only long enough to fuel up before getting the hell back on the road. Despite having nothing to look forward to but hundreds of miles of mostly-barren Mormon country (headed west) or mostly-barren redneck territory (headed east), the urge to get out of Rock Springs is city_marketoverpowering.

Continuing westward through Mormon country only leads to hundreds of miles of Nevada desert. Going east, after Wyoming you can look forward to a thousand miles of corn-rowed plains. South of Rock Springs you’ll find more– and increasingly weirder– Mormons on your way to the forlorn Four Corners region. To the north is a vast wilderness, which includes Yellowstone National Park but also includes the other  parts of northern Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. Contemplating the remoteness of  Rock Springs gives the visitor a strong sense of hopeless isolation, so I can only imagine how the residents feel.

Based on my recent time spent there, I can say these things about Rock Springs:

- Words evoking rugged nonconformity are popular for business names (i.e., the Best Western Outlaw Inn or the Renegade Cafe).

- The businesses in the “downtown” area seem to have all closed down, and Wal-Mart probably has something to do with it.

- After a single phone call, the dispatcher at the cab company will remember you by voice when you call back hours later.

- Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell is a disappointment (★★☆☆☆).

- Halliburton has some sort of presence there.

Here are some things I learned from research (as well as a Very Serious user who’s from Rock Springs):

rock_springs_coal- It started as a coal-mining town, and still is today.

- Kum & Go, with four locations, dominates the local convenience-shopping market.

- In 1885, one of the worst race riots in American history happened there, during which twenty-eight Chinese immigrants were killed.

In summary, when traveling along I-80, you might want to skip Rock Springs. The only shopping you can do there is at Wal-Mart or Kum & Go (the latter of which isn’t as pleasant as it sounds), the taxicab people will stalk you, you won’t see any good movies, your lung might collapse and if you’re Chinese you’ll probably get killed by a mob. If you must stop, make it quick.

Rating: ½☆☆☆☆

if you don't share this (on facebook) or it will get boring
category: a very serious review

→ 26 comments so far ↓

  • 1 jake // Jun 23, 2009 at 11:05 am

    Apologies to Stace.

  • 2 Stace // Jun 23, 2009 at 1:57 pm

    I laughed. Could be from all the sugar at the department lunch.

    But things to note: City Market went out of business in the later 1990s. It’s now the Toyota Dealership.

    The Rock Springs Sign by the train depot was put back up also in the late 1990s. It wasn’t up for like 50 odd years.

    The movie theater is much improved as given it’s now in the place where regular Wal-Mart had been. The mall now is boring again. Wal-Mart is now Super Wal-Mart. I worked there for 3 years. I also worked at the new McDonald’s. That Starbucks? We got that in like 2004 or 2005, just like most everything else there now.

    The Best Western is right down the street from my ‘hood’. Did you eat at TacoTime across the street? I’m jealous if you did. I eat there like 2 times a day when I’m home.

    Kum & Go is still funny. Haliburton’s owns some stupid percent of the town, but when I was home I found they’re shutting that shop down for a while. It’s only been open for a few years.

    Trust me, Wal-Mart had nothing to do with downtown. In fact, that’s the improved downtown from when I was little. It now has better sidewalks and a foutain. No more or less business.

    And also, you really don’t wanna stop anywhere else. Until 3 years ago we were the only major town in the west half of the state with a hospital. And junior college. You guys totally missed all the dinosaurs at the college. And it’s the major shopping destination for parts of Utah as well. We always drove to Salt Lake for major shopping.

    I’ve never taken a taxi there. They are serious sketchy and there’s only like two of them. I’ll pass.

  • 3 beth // Jun 23, 2009 at 2:03 pm

    I saw the Kun & Go signs through Nebraska and Iowa!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes.

    I hope someone got a promotion for that.

  • 4 beth // Jun 23, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    @Stace…is it the same TacoTime that can be found in the Pacific Northwest?

  • 5 phil // Jun 23, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    I heard tacotime was invented in Eugene OR but I’m too lazy to look it up. Jake do you feel superior to people who live in other parts of the country?

  • 6 Stace // Jun 23, 2009 at 2:30 pm

    @beth I believe it is the same! I ate at one in Portland, so I’m 99% sure it is.

    Kum & Go started as 7-11s but some time around April they were bought and started changing the signs. We all thought there was some April Fool’s joke, but it’s not. I’ve taken many a tourist pictures in front of the sign while getting gas. The best thing ever is you can get beer cool-ze (whatever the keep can cold foam things) that say Kum & Go.

    I thought of some other awesome add-ins during our afternoon meeting but I forgot on the walk back to my desk. Maybe I’ll think of them and entertain myself with posting them. As I doubt anyone would enjoy hearing about my childhood in Rock Springs as much as myself.

    I should also note I grew up wanting to get the hell out of Rock Springs, which I did. Except for a week or two a year when I journey back and it always snows.

  • 7 Stace // Jun 23, 2009 at 2:32 pm

    Oh yes, there’s now three Chinese eatries in town. One closed, it was awesome and called the Sand’s. It had a giant metal buddha in front that we would rub its tummy everytime we ate there.

    There’s now two sushi places as well but my Dad wouldn’t pony up enough cash to make me actually eat any. I’d like not to die.

    Oh and the mountain in the first picture is White Mountain. Cause of the white stripe running through it. You can find tons of fossils at its base. Free presents!

  • 8 jake // Jun 23, 2009 at 4:54 pm

    @phil: Sometimes. Do you feel superior to me now?

  • 9 phil // Jun 23, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    Yes

  • 10 heypal // Jun 23, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    In all seriousness, everything that contributed to you giving this place just half a star makes me want to go there and spend some time. but probably not in the dead of winter.

  • 11 jake // Jun 23, 2009 at 6:31 pm

    @Heypal: Even my poor rating for Drag Me to Hell and the dead Chinese?

    I can see how the place might be “for” some people, but I’m nor one of those people.

    I don’t, for the record, feel superior to Stace.

  • 12 Joe // Jun 23, 2009 at 6:39 pm

    Field trip!

  • 13 Stace // Jun 23, 2009 at 7:55 pm

    @jake I’m glad. We should feel superior [ha! Superior is a near-by town] to everyone who didn’t escape. Except my parents, who are awesome.

    I will take any of y’all on a personal tour of my wonderful hometown any time. Really!

    And if you have a couple of extra hours to kill, we’ll go see where the trees all grow sideways from the wind. Or shoot guns, go four wheeling, explore ghost towns or some other various outdoor activities. Or we can just go watch a movie.

  • 14 Joe // Jun 24, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    me, heypal, phil and Stace all > Jake.

  • 15 Joe // Jun 24, 2009 at 1:22 pm

    Sorry I meant <3 Jake. “Totally”

  • 16 Stace // Jun 24, 2009 at 1:27 pm

    @joe I’ll agree with both statements! Maybe more the latter than the former.

  • 17 Stace // Jun 24, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    Also I realized @jake totally missed the ‘best’ part of town as captured in this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/us/politics/05wyoming.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

    And more on the state & the gas boom (now ending):

    http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/wyoming/2008/index.html

  • 18 Joe // Jun 24, 2009 at 5:16 pm

    Its not our fault you are too busy in your fancy metal and glass offices of your bustling metropolis and your 5 star expense account meals to be able to appreciate a simple cup of coffee served as a “warm up” in a rustic diner or the pleasures of a delicious taco while the kids play “kick the can” with their razor scooters Jake.

    heypal, Stace, phil and I can. We are simple people, outdoorsmen/women, the common folk.

  • 19 phil // Jun 24, 2009 at 5:37 pm

    Yeah I agree. Jake is telling the chauffeur “drive faster, the natives are getting restless, eh wot?”

  • 20 phil // Jun 24, 2009 at 10:13 pm

    Jake, in all of the messing with you I left out that your review was funny and educational. I don’t know how you were able to type it while wearing dainty lace gloves though.

  • 21 Joe // Jun 25, 2009 at 6:18 pm

    Yeah, I OTOH, typed this on a typewriter.

  • 22 Rachelle // Jun 26, 2009 at 10:52 am

    What you needed to do was go and see the old houses downtown. The walking tour is a joke considering that the city council allowed “adult businesses” to move into some of the historic buildings. It makes me sad that no one wants to fix up the buildings downtown. Some of the buildings date back to the 1800′s. And you forgot to mention that Butch Cassidy lived and worked here. But you were apparently too busy noticing how bad this town sucks. Also Calamity Jane worked at a market by the Coal Sign that you took a picture of. The building is still there and has a snowboarding shop in it. But yet again no mention of that.

  • 23 phil // Jun 26, 2009 at 11:30 am

    Rachelle when you say that adult businesses are in the historic buildings do you mean strip clubs or brothels? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a strip club that was in a historic building.

    Here in SF what used to be an armory building is now being used as offices and studio for a fetish pornography studio/website:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/magazine/29kink.t.html

    Here in SF, that armory building was vacant for years. At least now it’s being put to some use.

    I don’t know the particulars of your city, but if the choice is between porn/strip clubs whatever and the buildings being unused, don’t you have to go with the business?

    Strip clubs are different though I guess because of the unsavory stuff that come along with them like fistfights in the parking lot, gray area prostitution and drugs getting sold.

  • 24 Stace // Jun 26, 2009 at 11:42 am

    Hopefully she’ll come back, but in the mean time.

    In the downtown area of RS one can find a business (or two?) that are in the business of selling adult products to help with happy fun times. I met the owner of the longest running one in town, he’s a rather nice guy with some great insights on the town and ‘bedroom behavior’.

    There is another old building in the area that started as a teen hangout, since the city was lacking one, however over night about 2 weeks after its opening, we arrived to be denied entrance. It was now a strip club.

    I’m all for the businesses myself, even if I’ve never bought anything from either of them. At least the money is staying in the community.

    And, the second part of her comment about historical events or other such things happening in and around the town. The town itself does a horrible job of promoting these things by signage or other markers. No one, unless you were serious about the town’s history, would ever know of these events. Especially if it was just a stop along the way somewhere else. In those regards, the city fails.

    I also will be amused when all the old houses/buildings eventually (either by settling or by earthquake) fall into the mining shafts underneath them. I’ll mourn the loss of them as well, though.

  • 25 Joe // Jun 26, 2009 at 12:09 pm

    “gray area prostitution” made me gag on my vom.

  • 26 Rachelle // Jun 27, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    Its a strip club. I’m not in saying they need to leave but that maybe the city should’ve looked at the historic buildings and what is in them before sending people on a historic walk downtown. My kids go to preschool by an adult shop, so I really do not have a problem with those businesses. And Stacie’s right, unless you’re from here, you have no idea about the history the town has. While watching Deadwood on HBO, I told my husband (who isn’t from Rock Springs) that Calamity Jane lived here before ever moving to South Dakota. He thought I was S*H*I*T*I*N*G him.

You must log in to comment. I tried it the other way and had to erase 1,000 ads for viagra and mortgages one by one. Register here, it takes less than ten seconds.