Other statewide tourism leaders attending were Ken Patel of Laramie, Paula McCormick, Florian Hermann, and Owen Sweeney of Lander, Shawn Parker of Sheridan, Ken Barkey of Gillette, Leslie Jefferson of Rawlins, Jenissa Meredith of Rock Springs, Ryan Hauck, and Tim O’Leary of Cody, Anna Olson and Alex Klein of Jackson, and many others. It is because of what he went through in the last four years that was so awful, nobody wants the job! I teased him that he is not going to have any formidable competition in this year’s GOP primary. Mark Gordon presented the honor to Renee. He and wife Jennie sure make an impressive First Couple. His wife Judge Nancy Freudenthal looked dazzling at the event. Freudenthal claimed he is somewhat retired and says he “is just an old country lawyer from Thermopolis.” Yeah sure. Other past winners include author Chuck Box of Saratoga, John Johnson and Pat Sweeney of Casper, Dave Freudenthal and Darren Rudloff of Cheyenne, Ted Blair and Rick Hoeninghausen of the Cody-Yellowstone area, and yours truly.įormer Gov. We think 2022 might be even a little better.Ĭasper Hotelier Renee Penton Jones won the BIG WYO Award this year, the top honor from the hospitality industry. Wyoming was bursting in tourism with 2021 the best year ever. It sure is futuristic.Ĭheyenne was hosting the Governor’s State Tourism Conference. We checked out the NCAR supercomputer site and the Microsoft server center. Sam’s restaurant The Metropolitan in downtown Cheyenne is terrific. Matt Mead and his wife Carol, and is now owned by Sam Galeotos. I love the Tivoli Building, which was restored by former Gov. Every day when we left the hotel we could take in what could be called “The Skyline.” Big bank buildings and old restored buildings like the Plains Hotel show progress.

We were staying in the massive Red Lion hotel, where Jennifer Walker took good care of us. Bishop Steven Biegler was not around on this day. The woodwork is as good as I have ever seen. And he doesn’t smoke! He was joking, of course, and then gave us an inspirational message. We attended Ash Wednesday services at the cathedral and heard Father Tom Cronkleton say he was giving up cigars and limburger cheese for Lent.

It was also announced that Frontier Days did $40 million in local economic impact in 2021, compared to the 2018 figure of $27 million. Last year was the city’s best-ever for tourism revenue. The Depot also houses the offices of Visit Cheyenne, where Dominic Bravo and Jim Walter make sure Cheyenne is promoted everywhere. For most of our history, the people in these two buildings truly guided the economic fortunes of our state. The Union Pacific Depot building mirrors the State Capitol and the two huge buildings are bookends on Capitol Avenue. This place deserves an entire column, but let’s just say this amazing building belongs to all of us – and it is doing us proud. Mike Moser and Jonathan Downing gave us a brief tour and I am eager to go back and see even more. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral.Īfter $300 million spent on the Capitol complex, the building is now refurbished and stands as one of the most beautiful state capitol buildings in the country. Let’s talk about three monumental buildings – the State Capitol Building, the Union Pacific Depot, and St. We just spent four days in the Capitol City and this place and its people are just so doggoned wonderful. Cheyenne is such a terrific western cowtown.

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