Cowboy Culture: Pinedale, Wyoming

The photographs are about a small ranching community, which is experiencing a natural gas boom. Wyoming is the third largest contributor of natural gas behind Alaska and Texas.  Sublette County has been a ranching community since the late 1800s when most of the resident’s great grandfathers settled the land.

Until recently, it had been a tight knit community, which had never experienced crime, drugs, prostitution, or even fast food restaurants. The county does not even have a stoplight, and it’s the largest county in Wyoming! It was the kind of place where everyone knew each other, and credit could be received with a handshake.

This idyllic community is now experiencing the horrors and the benefits of a natural gas boom. While the school systems are improving and a series of new jobs are being created; the county is losing its identity. Wyoming has a “Split of State” policy, which means land owners only own the surface of their land, and the government owns the subsurface. Residents can lose their homes and privacy at any given time if a gas company buys the mineral rights to their property. Ranchers are greatly affected by the lose of land, because its not only their home but also their way of life. No longer can they support themselves by ranching, as they have no land on which to raise their cattle. Also, the new generation of ranchers is being lost because of high wages on the oilrigs (starting pay in the oil fields is thirty-five thousand dollars a year.)

The community is also experiencing high levels of drug abuse, crime, and overcrowding due to the gas boom.  The gas companies have provided new jobs and more money for Sublette County but are destroying a way of life this community has known for over one hundred years. The boom and bust of a natural gas industry affects a community deeply, because when the bust occurs, it tends to create a ghost town.

The identity of Sublette County is being changed by a group of strangers who will disappear when the natural gas supply goes bust. Though the community is experiencing great change, a core group of residents are fighting against the typical outcome of a boom and bust equation.

I am working with these residents through The Green River Valley Land Trust to portray the beauty the community still holds, despite the Oil and Gas shadow. I am interested in showing all aspects of the community, including the oil & gas industry, ranching, and the environmentalist. All three are key players in the fight for Sublette County. The situation acts as microcosm of what is occurring all over The United States.

As of late, we Americans have all become keenly aware of the gas situation, because it has begun to affect our everyday life. The effects of the oil & gas industry are magnified in Sublette County, because it exists directly in each resident’s backyard. My photographs will visually tell their story, while drawing a larger picture of what we are all experiencing in the U.S.A.