(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 Lander around.)
Impartial observers like the late
Gov. Ed Herschler would point at Lander as the “worst hit” town in the state
during the 1980s Wyoming depression. Those
of us who lived through it 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 next 34 years accomplished a lot.
Our treasurer, Rick Fagnant, estimated LEADER
leveraged $4.5 million over the past 34 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. Most
of those stores were shuttered.
It was
ghostly, like in “ghost town.” Their News headline read “Modern Ghost Town” for
their 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.”
More than 600
homes were empty and being foreclosed on. Downtown was almost devoid of
operating businesses. Our maiiron and uranium mines had been closed for years
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 1,200 people. A few years later NOLS completed construction
of a $9 million international headquarters.
• Medicine. Despite the economic depression, there were 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
the early days of LEADER was to Monte and Bev Paddleford who founded Eagle
Bronze. Over time it became 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 had 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 of Commerce had over 400
inquiries from outsiders wanting to know about Lander. Soon, most of those
empty houses were sold and Main Street had 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.
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