Seniors Find Excitement in Gillette

Gillette , with a population of 25,000+, is located in northeast Wyoming, halfway between the Black Hills and the majestic Big Horn Mountains. Gillette is one of the fastest growing cities in the state of Wyoming. Senior visitors can easily locate Gillette just off of Interstate 90.

The city was named for Edward Gillette, a surveyor and engineer for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. For a brief period Gillette was the rough and ready terminus of the Burlington and Missouri Railway, boasting twenty saloons, a large stock yard, and more than its fair share of rustlers, stock detectives, and shady characters.

Gillette is famed for being a first-rate coal mine town and the coal mine is extremely active with coal cars moving out of the plant about twice per day. That is why it is labeled the “Energy Capital of the Nation.”

Seniors Discover a Town Alive

In the late 1800s “Donkey Town,” aka Gillette, was homesteaded by cattle ranchers. This town was alive from the start; the cowboys and followers of the railroad saw to that. Like many a frontier town in the West, it finally settled down to an orderly development.

Gillette is the best city a cowboy can get. It commands the trade of a large section of country. Its stock raising, farming and coal resources, with the probability of oil fields adjacent, will, no doubt lead to growth in the future. Historically Gillette was incorporated on January 6, 1892, less than two years after Wyoming became a state.

The city boasts excellent parks, golf courses, recreational facilities and the state’s premier multi-use facility, CAM-PLEX. Residents rarely mutter the phrase, “There’s nothing to do!” with the variety of events that are offered throughout the year, from rodeos to fairs to concerts and theatrical productions, to hockey games and music festivals.

Wildlife, Devils Tower and Big Horn Mountains

And, if senior visitors are wild about wildlife, nearly 77,000 pronghorn call this region home, along with a multitude of mule deer, turkey and sage grouse. I well recall driving across the state and as I came over a hill, right in the middle of the road was a pronghorn antelope.

 A natural commodity that sets Gillette travel apart is the majestic 1.8-million-acre Thunder Basin National Grassland. The grassland is located near the Powder River Basin, between the Big Horn Mountains and the Black Hills. The film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” was shot at nearby Devils Tower Monument.

It is worth a trip just to encounter Devils Tower. The town is located 60 miles west of Devil’s Tower National Monument, 130 miles east of the Big Horn Mountains, and 50 miles south of the Montana border. It is certain you will enjoy every moment you spend in and around Gillette. jeb