Wyoming

I moved my family to a tiny Wyoming town for 2 years to save money. Despite the drawbacks, our brief sacrifice paid off.

Published

3 months ago

December 2, 2025

I moved my family to a tiny Wyoming town for 2 years to save money. Despite the drawbacks, our brief sacrifice paid off.

The moment my wife and I finished earning our college degrees, we were ready to leave Utah.

We’d been living in Orem, a city with about 95,000 residents, while attending school nearby. Now that we weren’t tied down to the area, we wanted to move elsewhere — ideally, someplace cheaper.

I’d started working as a remote freelance writer, so we were flexible on location and interested in seeing where my modest income would stretch furthest.

Most of all, we wanted to live somewhere that would help us save for a down payment on our first home. Eventually, these goals led us to a tiny town in Wyoming.

Wyoming’s Bridger Valley offered lower rent, taxes, and gas prices

Moving to a smaller, more rural town was a great move financially, but it came with trade-offs.

Christian Allred

After learning about our moving plans, my wife’s aunt suggested looking in Bridger Valley, where she and her husband lived. We’re glad we did.

Located on the southwestern tip of Wyoming by the Utah border, the area had a lot of relatively affordable rentals, and we settled on an apartment in its small town of Mountain Valley.

Our rent was $650 a month — nearly half of what our existing lease would’ve renewed at for about the same living space. Both apartments were two-bedroom, one-bathroom units in a fourplex.

Over the next two years, we discovered other financial benefits of living in Wyoming, such as not having to pay a state income tax or sales tax on most groceries. Even gas was significantly cheaper here than it was in Orem.

As a result, we were able to save more of our income each month.

But living in a small Wyoming town also had its drawbacks

Mountain View has a population of just over 1,000, and many residents work at one of the nearby trona mines, making them a hardy group. I felt like an outlier as a remote worker, and I only met one other person who worked from home while we lived here.

Meanwhile, though we were only a two-hour drive from my wife’s family in Utah, it was far enough that we saw them much less — maybe five or six times a year.

Compared to Orem, there were also fewer amenities: We had a gas station, a grocery store, a bowling alley, a tiny library, a handful of restaurants, and little else. However, we didn’t mind much, especially since we made good friends at church and in the community.

The hardest part was the cold. Winter weather in the area basically lasts half the year, from about November to April, and temperatures regularly drop below freezing.

On occasion, the freeway connecting Mountain View to Utah was even closed due to dangerously icy road conditions. We stayed indoors a lot and missed Utah’s milder winters.

After 2 years, we’d saved enough to buy land in Washington, where we plan to build our first home

There’s a lot to like about small-town living, including how much we were able to save.

Christian Allred

Our move ultimately paid off.

During our time in Wyoming, we saved $20,000 to put toward just over an acre of land near my family in rural Washington.

Today, we own the land outright as we prepare to have our first home built on it. In the meantime, we’re living in my parents’ newly renovated ADU nearby.

Looking back, those cold Wyoming winters and quiet weekends were worth it. We traded convenience and proximity to family for financial breathing room — and in two years, that breathing room helped us buy real estate.

Plus, we came to love so much about remote small-town living, like its slower pace of life and the friends we made. For us, it was exactly the sacrifice we needed to make homeownership possible.

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Wyoming

Wyoming 3A and 4A Boys Basketball Regionals Tip Off Postseason Play

Published

2 hours ago

March 6, 2026

Press Room

Wyoming 3A and 4A Boys Basketball Regionals Tip Off Postseason Play

The 2026 postseason has arrived for Wyoming High School boys’ basketball teams in Class 3A and 4A. They participate in regional tournaments from Thursday through Saturday. The regionals will be in Buffalo, Evanston, Gillette, and Lovell. Three sites will use the format: two wins qualify a team for the state tournament next week in Casper, or two losses eliminate a team. The 4A East Region has three loser-out first-round games on Thursday, followed by two days of games for seeding. The 4A East Regular Season champ draws a first-round bye and has qualified for the state tournament.

WYOPREPS 3A-4A BOYS BASKETBALL REGIONAL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULES

Except in the 4A East Regional, Friday starts with elimination games. The regional semifinals are on Friday night. The final seeds for next week’s state tournament will be determined on Saturday. The schedules below for this weekend are based on the brackets sent to WyoPreps. It is subject to change.

THURSDAY, MARCH 5:

Final Score: (3) Pinedale 58 (6) Mountain View 40

Final Score: (2) Cody 58 (7) Powell 46

Final Score: (1) Lovell 75 (8) Lyman 43

Final Score: (4) Lander 65 (5) Worland 40

FRIDAY, MARCH 6:

Game 5: Mountain View vs. Powell, noon – loser out

Game 6: Lyman vs. Worland, 1:30 p.m. – loser out

Game 7: Pinedale vs. Cody, 6 p.m. – semifinal

Game 8: Lovell vs. Lander, 7:30 p.m. – semifinal

SATURDAY, MARCH 7:

Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 8, 11 a.m. – loser out

Game 10: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 7, 11 a.m. – loser out (at LMS)

Game 11: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10, 5 p.m. – 3rd Place Game

Game 12: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 2 p.m. – Championship Game

THURSDAY, MARCH 5:

Final Score: (3) Douglas 85 (6) Rawlins 50

Final Score: (2) Wheatland 57 (7) Burns 40

Final Score: (5) Torrington 35 (4) Newcastle 28

Final Score: (1) Buffalo 69 (8) Glenrock 44

FRIDAY, MARCH 6:

Game 5: Rawlins vs. Burns, noon – loser out

Game 6: Newcastle vs. Glenrock, 1:30 p.m. – loser out

Game 7: Douglas vs. Wheatland, 6 p.m. – semifinal

Game 8: Torrington vs. Buffalo, 7:30 p.m. – semifinal

SATURDAY, MARCH 7:

Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 8, noon – loser out

Game 10: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 7, 1:30 p.m. – loser out

Game 11: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10, 7:30 p.m. – 3rd Place Game (if necessary)

Game 12: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 4:30 p.m. – Championship Game

Read More Boys Basketball News from WyoPreps

WyoPreps Boys Basketball Week 11 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-25-26

WyoPreps Boys Basketball Week 10 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-18-26

WyoPreps Boys Basketball Week 9 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-11-26

WyoPreps Boys Basketball Week 8 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-4-26

Nominate A Boys Basketball Player For Athlete Of The Week 2025-26

THURSDAY, MARCH 5:

Final Score: (NW-3) Kelly Walsh 64 (SW-2) Riverton 49

Final Score: (NW-1) Natrona County 77 (SW-4) Jackson 23

Final Score: (NW-2) Green River 50 (SW-3) Evanston 40

Final Score: (SW-1) Star Valley 62 (NW-4) Rock Springs 60 – Erickson makes a turnaround jumper at the buzzer off an offensive rebound for the Braves.

FRIDAY, MARCH 6:

Game 5: Riverton vs. Jackson, noon – loser out

Game 6: Evanston vs. Rock Springs, 1:30 p.m. – loser out

Game 7: Kelly Walsh vs. Natrona County, 6:30 p.m. – semifinal

Game 8: Green River vs. Star Valley, 8 p.m. – semifinal

SATURDAY, MARCH 7:

Game 10: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 7, 11:30 a.m. – loser out

Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 8, 1 p.m. – loser out

Game 11: Winner Game 10 vs. Winner Game 11, 4:30 p.m. – 3rd Place Game (at EMS)

Game 12: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 4:30 p.m. – Championship Game

THURSDAY, MARCH 5:

Game 1: (1) Sheridan = Bye

Final Score: (2) Cheyenne Central 75 (7) Cheyenne South 35 – Bison are eliminated

Final Score: (3) Thunder Basin 75 (6) Laramie 59 – Plainsmen are eliminated; Bolts qualify for state

Final Score: (4) Campbell County 59 (5) Cheyenne East 39 – loser out; Thunderbirds are eliminated; Camels qualify for state.

FRIDAY, MARCH 6:

Game 6: Cheyenne Central vs. Thunder Basin, 4:30 p.m. – semifinal

Game 5: Sheridan vs. Campbell County, 7:30 p.m. – semifinal

SATURDAY, MARCH 7:

Game 7: Loser Game 5 vs. Loser Game 6, 11:30 a.m. – 3rd Place Game

Game 8: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 2:30 p.m. – Championship Game

James Johnson Winter Showcase Basketball Tournament 2026

Photos from game action at the James Johnson Winter Showcase tournament in Cheyenne.

Gallery Credit: Courtesy: Shannon Dutcher

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Wyoming

Explore small streams of Wyo. with WGFD XStream Angler challenge

Published

14 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Explore small streams of Wyo. with WGFD XStream Angler challenge

WYOMING — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) is rolling out its 2026 XStream Angler challenge, open to anyone looking to fish the smaller streams of Wyoming. The XStream Angler challenge is an opportunity for anglers in the state to explore over 150 streams with instream flow water rights. According to WGFD, instream flow […]

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Wyoming

Governor Gordon attends signing of Wyoming’s Healthy Choice Waiver in Washington D.C.

Published

1 day ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Governor Gordon attends signing of Wyoming’s Healthy Choice Waiver in Washington D.C.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Governor Mark Gordon’s office recently announced that the governor and Director of Family Services (DFS) Korin Schmidt traveled to Washington D.C. on Wednesday to meet with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as other Trump Administration officials, to sign the Wyoming’s Healthy Choice Waiver. A release […]

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