kthiemann

Anybody know anything about the Gillette Wy. area? I'm about to get laid off in St. Louis and just talked to a head hunter about a possible job in that area and am curious about what I might be getting into. Thanks for any suggestions.

Copenhagenjunkie

What kind of job? It's not my favorite part of wyoming. It's fairly breezy there all the time and low humidity. It would be quite a change from the midwest. It a good growing town, like most with numerous natural resources close by.

I would recommend visiting before doing anything, its Wyoming and either you hate it or love it.
Also, call the chamber there and they can send you a packet about the area.

joe189man

no offense intended to anyone from Gillette or partial to the area but i had an awful experience there. i was surveying with a coworker south of there and we got in to our hotel there fairly late 7pm ish the hotel was going though renovations so our rooms werent ready... we said what what do you mean then they said that they were re-tiling one of the rooms and you cant use the sink or toilet in one othe rooms for another our and the shower couldnt be used at all... they had saved one room to use as a comunity shower room... we were not impressed. there were gravel roads through the town and the resturante we ate at was a chain sit down place and the food was real bad the breakfast at the hotel was rotten fruit and donuts, needless to say we drove an extra hour that night to stay in a nice place in casper. make sure you visit the area to see if you can live there
granted this was the summer of 2007 in the middle of the energy boom there. i travel to wyo all the time for work and it is pretty nice most places but Gillette interesting to say the least.

jbjarko

My brothers business is based out of Gillette. He lives down here when he is home. I have been up there, and have many friends who live up there. I personally like it. I would MUCH rather live in the Buffalo area though.

pwknapp

Just remember it takes a wife 1.5 - 5 years to get to like Wyoming. Mine's been here 6 and is starting to come around. I just tell her it's where the front door key fits!!!!!!!!!!

halfpint23

"I would recommend visiting before doing anything, its Wyoming and either you hate it or love it"

Truer words were never spoken. From perspective of an old woman who raised up chasing cows and putting up hay and silage there as a teenager:

I personally LOVE Wyoming - all of it, even the badlands high wind warning is a normal day parts. But then, I am kinda sorta anti-social at best, like cows better than people and a good saddle horse better than cows.

It snows sideways - you measure from the sides of the fence posts. It gets COLD. Bone crunching freeze your truck doors shut cold. The natives are owlie, God love 'em. The idiotic hollywood types have flat taken over both Jackson Hole AND the beautiful area around Buffalo/Sheridan.
Gillette? pretty blah, but there's worse - for certain.

If you can afford to do it, take your spouse or SO and check it out first - could save a marriage!

Colo_River_Ram

Well said halfpint...

Colo has many of the same problems that winderful Wyoming has with the rich and beautiful people from hollyweird...

slorocco

We fell in love with wyoming so much that we bought property out there the second time we went out. Gillette didn't seem like anything special but if you're into the outdoors, Gillette is surrounded by some of the most beautiful country I've seen. Definitely visit there before you make the decision, if you can.

Iron Mike

Good advise. I work with a guy that has lived in Wyoming all his life. He is currently living in Casper. He said, "People either love Wyoming or hate it, there doesn't seem to be any in between."
All that said, too me, most places are what you make of them. If you go there with a good attitude and try to focus on the positives you will probably do fine. I think that Gillette actually has a little longer summer than many parts of Wyoming. It is a little lower in elevation I believe. I think summer is almost a month long there.

Pull Ya

I think halfpint said it best. Most people I know from Wyoming walk sideways. It's really pretty in Wyoming but it's a matter of taste. If you get a chance, go outside one night when it's real clear and look straight up at the sky, then you'll understand why people like it up there.
Jay

Bluedually4x4

It is a booming town, most of them are with the gas and oil. However finding a place to live is another thing entirely. Rent and housing costs are ridiculous out here, its expensive to rent a crappy place. As every one else said take a trip and check it out first.

powermad

i work as a painter for a apartment management company out of the oakland berkely emeryville area and a studio with nothing updated but a fresh coat of paint no parking no elevator old windows high crime rate and those go for around 1200 bucks. i went on craigslist and looked at places in montana and saw a 2 story house on 148 acres with a guest house horse barn and hey barn for 1125 a month and the owner doesnt believe in leases. he believes in a man keeping there ward now thats were i want to live

wyododge

Well assuming that you live in st louis, Gillette is obviously much, much smaller. This is good and bad. Depending on your personality. I can tell you that Gillette is hot in the summer, COLD in the winter, very dry and pretty windy. It will be a pretty severe climate change. You will definitely chap and chaffe!!! If I were to make one suggestion I would say to move outside the city and into the closer in rural areas around Gillette. I would not want to live in the city proper, they do have some crime problems, nothing like where you are, but it is there. You will find that in the rural areas of wyoming, the people are fantastic. There are always exceptions, but in my experience the people of Wyoming is the reason to live here. When I first got here from Denver I was having some equipment problems and my neighbor (1/2 mile away) got out of bed to go to the head and saw I was in the field and looked like I was having trouble. he rode over on his bike on his own (he is about 70) and got me all straightened out. BTW it was 4:00 AM!!!! This is just one of many, many examples.
On the bad side, things are a bit tougher out here. If you go into the country you will have to learn to fend for your self, but living just outside of Gillette, you will have a FEW of the creature comforts that you are used to, no fancy restaurants, no 5 star hotels, not many frills. Life is more difficult here, but it WILL make you stronger. life and people here are pretty simple, pretty straight forward and for the most part tough as nails.

I would say go for it, shake it up a bit, make a change, If you don't like it, move on. But in my opinion your time here will make you a better person. I like to think that it has made me a better person. I think I have become more independent, more self reliant, more grateful for what I have and much hardier of an individual. I think that if you decide to make the jump, you will be the same way.

I'm not sure if this was what you were looking for, but I hope it helps you out.

67HotRod

Its a good 2 day drive from STL. We had some friends try to live there, they lasted 6 months and came back. They said its a lot of driving to go anywhere. I too suggest a trip if possible to check it before making such a decision. I enjoyed visting Wyoming, but wife will never live there. Good Luck and take some pics if you go!

kthiemann

It looks like the prospective employer is going to fly us out at the end of next week so we can both look over his operation and check out the area. Before we moved to St. Louis we lived out in New Mexico and west Texas so we are used to flat and windy....will have to get used to real winter again but such is life....I would much rather deal with real winter than the desert heat from NM and the humidity here. Thanks for the suggestions and keep em coming.