(Part 2)
(Note: Last
week, we wrote how Lander lost 550 high paying iron ore mining jobs and Fremont
County lost 2,000 high-paying uranium-mining jobs in the 1980s. This is how
local leaders turned the town around.)
Impartial observers like the late
Gov. Ed Herschler would point at Lander as the “worst hit” town in Wyoming
during the 1980s depression. To those of
us who lived through it, we certainly agreed with him, although that
distinction brought us no solace.
There was work to do. Our
progressive Mayor Del McOmie appointed an Economic Development Commission (EDC)
in the early 1980s.
That involved
some interesting work, but it was also frustrating. The FDIC had closed one of
our most aggressive banks and its president was sent to prison. It never reopened. Other banks were running
tight and didn’t have money to lend to start-up businesses.
Our local EDC
talked to lots of entrepreneurs but without money few of these folks could get
started.
I went to the
mayor and suggested we form a for-profit corporation to provide money for new
businesses.
We called it
LEADER Corporation. We recruited 100 people who invested $1,000 apiece. With this $100,000 nest egg, we launched an
effort that over the past 32 years accomplished a lot.
Our treasurer, Rick Fagnant, estimated LEADER
leveraged $4.5 million over the past 32 years, created or saved 200 jobs and
helped more than 35 businesses, besides working on every other type of economic
development activity imaginable.
There were
many wonderful people who worked to create the Lander Renaissance, such as
chamber manager, the late Linda Hewitt. She had heard Bill Schilling talk about
Main Street beautification in Cody and decided to duplicate it.
The Denver Rocky Mountain News sent reporters to Lander to cover how
our business district had been decimated.
There were even broken windows in stores on our 300 block, formerly the
most expensive real estate in town. Now,
most of those stores were closed.
It was
ghostly, like in “ghost town.” In fact their headline read “Modern Ghost Town”
for their news story about Lander’s decline.
We weren’t
ready to give up yet.
LEADER met
every week. I was the president for the
first three years. It became a support
group for the folks who hadn’t left. I
called those weekly meetings “Workaholics Anonymous,” because everyone there
was so desperate.
More than 600
homes were empty, Main Street was almost devoid of operating businesses, our
main industries had been shut down for years by then and the future didn’t look
much better than the present.
A targeted
industry study determined there were four bright economic opportunities:
• Government. Because of Lander’s location, large federal
offices like Bureau of Land Management, U. S. Forest Service. U. S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and state offices like Game and
Fish, not only would be staying, but might even expand. All did.
• Outdoor education. Lander is home to
the National Outdoor Leadership School.
It was turning into a terrific employer.
Today, it employs 300 people. A few years ago, they finished
construction of a $9 million international headquarters under the guidance of
their progressive CEO John Gans.
• Medicine. Despite the economic depression, there were
over 85 medical doctors on the staff of the new 107-bed hospital. Medicine
continued to be a huge money-generator to the local economy and many doctors
invested in other businesses.
•Art. The most interesting loan made in
its early days of LEADER was to Monte and Bev Paddleford who founded Eagle
Bronze. Today it’s the largest art
foundry in the country.
The bottom of
Lander’s depression probably hit in 1987, when we launched a “Vigorous Retiree
Recruitment Program” as a way to find people to buy all those 600 homes. It
worked well. The Welcome Wagon said at the end of the first year, more than 99
new people had bought homes.
The
hard-working people of Lander pitched in and made a dream become a
reality. By 1992, author Norman Crampton
selected Lander as the number-five best small town in the nation out of the 100
he listed.
His book was
published the following year and Lander was on its way. The Chamber had over 400 inquiries from
outsiders wanting to know about Lander. Soon, most of the houses were sold and
Main Street filled up with thriving new businesses.
The mines had,
indeed, closed. But good people in key
positions were able to visualize a bright future that could be created without
having to rely on mining. That goal has been accomplished.
Meanwhile,
LEADER continues to meet. You can find me there.
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