Dear HCN,
Although poetic license
and the First Amendment no doubt allow Chris Ransick the right to
perpetuate a myth if s/he wants to, still I have to comment on the
mean-spirited “Advice for Visitors to Rock Springs’ (HCN,
8/19/96).
If people who so freely criticize Rock
Springs ever left I-80’s truck stops they might notice air so clear
you can see the snow-capped Wind River mountains 100 miles to the
north. Or they would see a town with a low crime rate, many
churches, good public schools, a progressive community college, a
fine arts center, museums, libraries, first-class public recreation
facilities and yes, even a few good restaurants. At the edge of
town they would find antelope grazing and might glimpse the wild
horse herds that live on nearby White Mountain and the surrounding
desert.
They might develop an appreciation for a
landscape designed by nature, not real estate developers. They
might meet the gutsy, hard-working people who live there. Some are
descendants of coal miners and railroad workers, sheep and cattle
ranchers representing 56 nationalities who pioneered the town. They
might meet some of the folks who decided to stay on after the boom
of the “70s went bust to work in the trona mines, the oil fields,
the schools, the banks, the health-care facilities, and small
businesses.
These are people who work on
environmental issues, create food banks, serve in local government,
coach Little League, lead Scout groups, attend concerts, poetry
readings, and public lectures, take their families camping, hiking
and fishing. In short, people who care about their community and
love the place where they live.
Montana has been
dubbed “the last best place,” but Rock Springs is one of the last
“real” places in the West, where people aren’t elitist and every
downtown business isn’t a gallery or a cappuccino
shop.
Marcia Hensley
Rock
Springs, Wyoming
The writer is
an assistant professor of English and director of Western American
Studies at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock
Springs.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Don’t listen to bad advice.
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