Grass Creek Oilfield in the early days. At the time of this photo, oil entrants could still patent their claims, in the same way that mining claims could be patented, and indeed as "placer oil claims".
The incredibly bad idea that is circulating on both the Congressional level and the local legislative level that we spoke about here, (and elsewhere):
Lex Anteinternet: "This land is my land, but shouldn't be your land"...: This land is your land This land is my land From California to the New York island; From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters ...
turns out to have even seeped down to the county level.
We learn in today's Star Tribune that, in spite of the fact that the majority of Wyomingites oppose the concept, Natrona County is one of four Wyoming counties that have sent money to an entity called the American Lands Council, headquartered in Utah, backing this bad idea. Big Horn, Lincoln, and Weston also have. Two other counties, Teton and Albany, have gone on record opposing it, and a third, the heavily mining district of Sweetwater County, earlier sent a resolution to the Legislature opposing it.
An interesting thing about this is that it would seem to reflect an ancient split in Wyoming's politics. At least two of these counties, Natrona and Sweetwater, have traditionally been dominated by the extractive industries in terms of their economies, but politically Sweetwater has traditionally been dominated by the rank and file of the mining industry, i.e., the miners. In the 1932 Presidential election a majority of Sweetwater County votes went to the Socialist candidate that year, and the county has tended to be fairly Democratic up until very recently (and perhaps remains somewhat old school Democrat today). Natrona, which is the local petroleum industry center, together with Fremont County (whose local GOP, the only real party there following the demise of the Democratic Party in Wyoming) at this point in time feature politics which tend to reflect the views of the industry itself, although the influence of mining in Fremont County meant that it was actually a conservative Democratic county up until some point in the late 1980s, when mining there shut down and the national Democratic Party began increasingly to loose its conservative wing.
Note, I'm not arguing about this, merely noting that it tends to be the case. History and reality are what they are, so there's no point in arguing about this. Locally, however, the average citizen in Natrona County would most likely be very much against this view, and occasionally the county's sportsmen have really risen up when provoked. This happened in the early 1990s, when that was seen statewide in an effort to privatize wildlife in the state, and it also happened in reaction to the earlier Sagebrush Rebellion, which had very little sympathy in the towns and cities. Indeed, for that matter, the rank and file of the petroleum industry, i.e., the guys on the rigs, if they are local (and often if they are not) are outdoorsmen themselves and aren't really keen on anything that might disrupt that.
One additional thing I should note is that the last time this sort of idea went around it was really spearheaded by the ranching industry. No longer. Agriculture really has more reason to be worried about the Federal government and its regulations than anyone else, and last time this movement expressed that. Since then, however, the real threat to agriculture has become increasingly clear, and that's the sale of ranch land to developers, often out of state, and to very well monied out of state interests. This has caused local ranchers to no longer really conceive of the Federal government as a threat and it further has slowly started to recognize that keeping Federal lands in Federal hands also keeps that land in local ranching hands as well. So, this time, we don't see any angry ranchers in the mix. What sportsmen have long dreamed of, an alliance of sportsmen, conservationist, and agriculture has actually occurred, although in the Taylor Grazing Act era, it took nearly 80 years for it to become a reality.
Anyhow, this story is particularly interesting in terms of Natrona County, as at the same time that the commissioners voted in favor of backing this concept, reflecting the view that what's good for the local industry is good for the county, the county has supposedly been undergoing a major demographic and economic shift which would, in the relatively short term, make that industry much less significant. Indeed, the county is boosting its natural (i.e, sporting and wild) attributes as part of this, which would mean that the residents who are attracted to this county now, as the oil industry goes into a slump, would tend to not be particularly sympathetic with it. Acts like this are therefore likely, in very short order, to be dimly viewed, and the politicians who support them likewise dimly viewed. Something local politicians never seem to be able to grasp is that encouraging new industries, and new residents, means the importation of new political ideas, and those ideas are often totally opposite of their own. As a rule, new residents to Natrona County aren't likely to be from Niobrara County, and are more likely to be from the Napa Valley. Whether this is good or bad can be debated, but a person can't really simultaneously back the county as a good place to live due to its natural attributes while also backing an idea that would possibly imperil them, and then have the people you induced to move look at you charitably.
Indeed, one of the original drafters of the act that passed the State Legislature to study transferring management of the lands did not specifically mention it in his post legislative success sheet. That he'd omit it should not be regarded as an accident. He's from this county, and he's no doubt already gotten an unhappy earful from sportsmen and conservationist. He's likely to keep getting one, in spite of not mentioning this in his recent sheet.
Now, I'm not seeking to pick on the oil industry here, and the national industry didn't ask for this at all and is probably regarding it as absurdly naive. The local industry hasn't openly supported it. So this tends to be a bill backed by the locally naive, who have so poorly thought this all out that should it pass, in the future they'll look very poor indeed. But they may look very poor in the short term as well. With Natrona County changing its economy rapidly, Sweetwater County returning to its traditional politics, and Fremont County, where one of the major backers resides, is involved in a huge struggle with the Democratic Wind River Reservation which may shrink the practical impact of the county politically. Riding the crest of this waive may end up getting some of the riders drowned. That tended to be the case a couple of decades ago, the last time this happened.
And if they do drown, perhaps its somewhat deserved. One of the penalties for riding the waive of trends is not being able to recognize the swell behind them. And one of the penalties for failing to have learned history is not grasping when something fundamental has changed. The Taylor Grazing Act brought in an 80 year history of slight antagonism between agriculture and conservationist in this state, or perhaps more accurately between ranchers and townsfolk, over the public land. But that struggle has now really ended. The state was built by agriculture, but it hasn't done much to assist and support it over the years, and various counties, including Natrona County, certainly have not. The petroleum and mining industries have been the heavy employers, but they tend not to be local and are buffeted by the swings of the international economy. The political swing to the right nationally and locally in recent years didn't really reflect much of a change on many key local issues, and all politics is local. The Democratic Party in Wyoming may not be dead, but it's a mere shawdow of its former self, but those who looked to middle of the road Republicans and Democrats for protection of public lands are still there, but are seemingly being ignored. Last time that happened, they rose up and slapped the politicians who forgot that.
The Niobrara County Courthouse, the thread on which remains freakishly popular here. The windows of the chambers are visible in the upper right of the photo.