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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
926 - A totally unique Wyoming July 4 experience
While watching televised images of the nighttime bombing of Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, I turned to someone and said: “I’ve seen that before.”
It looked just like a typical night of July 4 in my hometown of Lander, Wyoming.
The Independence Day holiday has always been a big deal for Lander since it is the home of the oldest paid rodeo on earth – predating Cheyenne’s by one year.
But in recent years, this holiday has become a pyrotechnic maniac’s dream.
In this town of barely 7,000 people, you can find at least forty different locations where neighbors have banded together to light big displays of fireworks.
And this is in addition to the fire department’s official fireworks on the night of July 4. Plus Lander folks enjoy the largest private fireworks show in Wyoming, which is held on July 3 by local orthodontist Dr. Brent Bills and his family. For years, they have put on a tremendous patriotic display that is unmatched in Wyoming. He fires off the fireworks from his home overlooking the town and the event is even carried on the local KOVE radio station.
Sharing the credit (or blame) for Lander’s pyrotechnic excesses is Mayor Mick Wolfe. A Lander native, he has always felt this was a “tradition” that he can remember during his entire life of growing up in the town.
“We want people to be safe and to be responsible,” he says. “But I think people deserve to enjoy fireworks on the fourth. It has always been a tradition here, where Independence Day is our biggest holiday of the year. As long as I am mayor, we will try to make it as much fun as possible for our folks.”
There is another side to the story. Resident Nancy Debevoise had this to say about all the racket: “From sun up until late at night on July 4, I feel as if I`m in some bomb-besieged third-world country.
“While some people are fairly responsible about fireworks, too many seem to spend the entire day and evening (and their paychecks) setting off round after round of peace-shattering noise, with no consideration for neighbors, others` property or passersby’s.
“As a result, each July 4, I flee Lander early in the morning to spend the day and night at a friend`s house out in the country. I find nothing interesting or funny about this mindless siege, and neither do most of my friends, who also plan to get out of town on July 4,” she concludes.
It should pointed out that the Lander Pioneer Days holiday includes three days of rodeo, a wonderful parade on the morning of the fourth, a huge Buffalo Barbeque at City Park at noon on that day plus lots of other activities. Because the 4th is such a big deal in my town, just about all the high school reunions are held during that time, too. It is truly a homecoming for folks to remember.
In our case, my family always shoots off fireworks on the evening of the 4th, but not to the extent of our neighbors. One of our traditions is to use cigars to light them.
Some years ago I had been to Europe and smuggled home five Cuban cigars to smoke at some later time.
Imagine my surprise (and horror) to come home to where our fireworks display was already starting and seeing that my wife Nancy had passed out my Cubans to the folks there to use to light the fireworks instead of my traditional Swisher Sweets. Incredible!
Lucie Whisler recalled a fun-filled July 4 when her neighborhood at Lucky Lane in Lander, which consisted mostly of mountain climbers, lived there. “Some bright souls decided to put a big firecracker in a bowling ball. The ball went to pieces, flying over houses, cars and people. Fortunately, no one was hit or hurt, and nothing was damaged. Don`t try this at home,” she cautions,
The folks in Indian Lookout neighborhood pool their resources and explode a serious show. People are stationed with hoses to extinguish fires that may erupt in the neighboring nature preserve.
It is almost impossible to adequately describe what Lander on the night of July 4 looks like. You just have to experience it. The sight is incredible. Lander sits in a valley and a lot of folks live in the hills around town. They tell amazing stories of what it looks like, peering down at the siege.
Probably somewhat like Baghdad, huh?
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