A few years ago, I mentioned in this space that one of the items on my Wyoming Bucket List was a return trip to Bill, Wyoming.

         There were two reasons for this:

         First, it might be interesting to visit a town of the same name as my first name.

         Second, we nearly ran out of gas there 42 years ago during our initial visit to Wyoming, and some friendly construction guys helped us get some gasoline so we could get home.

         Now before you start yawning and before you leave this page, just give me a few more paragraphs. Hopefully this column can be salvaged?

         Today, Bill consists of a whole bunch of trains. Probably a hundred million dollars of trains. If you don’t like trains, you had better avoid Bill, Wyoming. 

         It also has a small motel and a diner. And a Post Office, which barely escaped getting closed. And 11 official residents, according to the census.

         My most recent visit to this tiny spot in Converse County, about 36 miles north of Douglas, actually took place on the first day of the pro football season two and a half years ago. More on that in a moment.

         I managed to figure out two reasons it was named Bill. One was that a local doctor’s wife gave it that name because every rancher in the area had a first name of Bill. 

         A second version claims that, indeed, there were four ranchers named Bill and they decided to name the town.

         Am I still holding your interest? I hope it gets better.

         One of my main remembrances of the town of Bill on this trip was listening to the Denver Broncos defeat the Cincinnati Bengals on a last-second play. It was amazing. I was starting to get sleepy from the big double burger that I had devoured at the diner and that victory kept me awake all the way home. 

         Not sure this column can be helped by anything that exciting, but I digress.

         What brings me to write about Bill is that I have waited an entire lifetime to see my first name come back to popularity. It is now official. The most popular name for newborn baby boys in Wyoming in 2011 was William. Is that amazing or what?

         Not sure why it has taken so long.

         About 15 years ago, I was feeling pretty uppity because the President of the United States was named Bill. The richest man in the world was Bill Gates. Heck, this was becoming a right popular name, after all.

         I even had a nephew named Willem Charles Sniffin born to my brother Jerry and his wife Tiena out in San Diego. Bills, all around.

         Another famous Bill (Cosby) always said that “I don’t know the key to success but I know the key to failure is trying to please everyone.” He also said: “Women do not want to hear what you think. They want to hear what they think, only in a deeper voice.” And finally, he concluded: “The past is a ghost. The future a dream. And all we ever have is now.”

         My older brother Tom (I have eight brothers) down in Columbia, South Carolina, says: “We have lots of Bills down here. We call them Billies, like in Hillbillies!”

         Retired legislator Doug Osborn of Buffalo suggests this column would be more interesting with more focus on the town of (and name of) Douglas. Maybe next time, Doug.

         Here in Wyoming we have perhaps the most famous Bill of them – Buffalo Bill Cody. And speaking of the NFL, he even has a pro football team named after him.

         Some years ago I had a contest in my column to see who was the most famous Wyomingite in history. 

         We were speculating that then-Vice President Dick Cheney might have become the most famous. 

But lots of other folks thought Buffalo Bill was probably the most famous person in the world back when he toured the globe with his Wild West Show around 1905.   He also was the subject of thousands of dime novels about the west.

         I actually concluded, in that column, that the most famous visage of all was Darrell Winfield of Shoshoni, whose face was the worldwide poster image of “The Marlboro Man” back in the 1980s and 1990s.

         But since we are celebrating Bill’s here, I now believe that Buffalo Bill was the most famous Wyomingite of all.

         We Bills have to stick together, you know.

         Was that sound just the wind or was it the noise generated by a vast herd of bison that roamed this place for thousands of years? 

Or was that the cry of a lonely Indian brave in the center of a vision circle evoking whatever image he was trying to conjure? 

         Maybe it was the plaintive cry of the gold miner lost in a snowstorm, knowing full well that his death was imminent? Maybe it was the sound of a lonely traveler trying desperately to work his way across this vast expanse alive?

         Perhaps it was a combination of all of these?

         Red Desert expert Jim Smail had planned this trip for me to shoot some photos and see some ancient Indian sites. 

         We were standing on a lonely knob about 25 miles southwest of Jeffrey City. 

         Strange rocks covered this knob and occasionally, powerful gusts of wind would come from nowhere and almost knock you down.   My three companions and I all looked at each other following these gusts. “What the heck was that? Did you feel that?” our traveling companion, veteran Jeep driver Joe Motherway exclaimed.

         But we were not there to check out the wind. Unusual ancient rock structures and symbols were our goals.

         Instead of the more common term teepee rings, Smail prefers the term “vision circles,” which can be found in old sites along worn Indian trails.

         His theory is that young Indian braves or perhaps old medicine men used these circles as ways to experience visions and communicate with the spirit world.

         Instead of perfectly round circles, often the rings of rocks would have an opening and most often, they actually had a spiral effect, as if “to let the spirits into the circle,” he speculates.

         Jim is not a college professor but has spent much of his 75 years in this desert, having originally grown up in Farson and spending the rest of his life in the Lander area.

         My favorite place in the Red Desert is the Oregon Buttes area, which is full of wondrous rock formations and strange canyons. If Wyoming had a vortex area, it is here.

         Aging hippie-types believe that certain places in the world have special energy fields called vortexes. Not sure I believe it, but there are places that sure give me a positive energy boost.

         Smail agrees and took us to a nearby site that was created by humans but offered up no logical reasons for what its purpose could be, except that it would be a spiritual area. He discovered it 40 years ago and I encouraged him to have an archeologist look it over.

We continued on riding in his Jeep, along the well-worn trail to a location rarely visited near the Honeycomb Buttes. There, we found 19 of these vision circles, which were the best I had ever seen.

         We were in the northern part of the Great Divide Basin, a vast 2.25 million acre area where the Continental Divide splits in two. Water inside that basin does not go outside of it, not East or West.

         Wyoming is the lowest populated state in the country. And the least populated place in Wyoming is this basin. 

         Then Motherway told us about these weird circles he and his wife Bonnie had found.   We headed off to the east through this maze of old dirt roads and two-tracks. Occasionally there were roads blocked by signs listing that area as part of a wilderness study area. Jim also said we were not allowed to drive off the road with a jeep or ATV.

         This new spot was hard to find and after a miss or two, we finally arrived. And then the aforementioned wind really started to blow. Eerily so.

         The place was littered with what Joe called “flying saucer rocks,” which appeared to have been burned and had other little rocks stuck to them. The site was a small barren knob surrounded by many square miles of sagebrush.

         It was obviously a special place. And it was full of these vision circles only these really featured that spiral effect. Doubt anyone would call them teepee rings because of the unique shape.

         Of course, we did not disturb them. Just took some pictures and tried to keep from getting blown over by the wind.

         Then it was time to go home. We traveled a few miles before stopping.

         Is it possible that many of the great truths that you graduates have come to take granted about the future just are not true, after all? Let me share with you three examples:

         Example number one: here in Wyoming energy is a big, big deal. You were told your entire lives that America would be relying on foreign energy imports forever. You were taught that our destiny, as a country, is to make Arab Sheikhs rich as we continually import their oil.

         Today we are a net energy exporting country. With our vast coal deposits, gigantic natural gas reserves and amazing new oil discoveries, we are now sending out more energy than we are importing. Amazing.

         Example number two: you were told that manufacturing was dying in America and, no matter what you do, do not get into that dinosaur business. We expect everything of importance to be built in China. Surely the experience of Wal Mart and Apple Computer would seem to verify this.

         Surprise, the USA is still, by far, the biggest manufacturer of everything on the planet. And manufacturing is bigger across the land than it was a generation ago.

         Example number three: and finally, you were told that loyalty to your boss or your company was a total waste of time and a relic of your fathers and grandfathers (and mothers, too).

Instead loyalty may be the most important factor going forward in getting and keeping that job that you covet. Do you remember the key component of the state of Wyoming’s official philosophy, called the Cowboy Code of Ethics? To me, the big one is “Ride for the Brand.”

Sort of seems like much of what was drilled into you over your brief lifetime of about two decades was not as true as it was told to you.

         So what happened?

         Just when everything had a gloomy but predictable look to it, we find out that many assumed truths in the world really are upside down. What you thought was true is false. What was passé is back in fashion. 

         To someone sitting in a hot, crowded auditorium pondering that biggest of all questions: “What am I going to do?,” well, these times can be times of opportunity just as easily as they can be times of despair.

         And because of all the above, that is why I write.

         This is my annual column to high school and college graduates. I have given these speeches in person and it just seems like this is an important time to peer into our crystal ball and help you graduates in any way that I can.

         I remember my high school graduation in 1964 back in Iowa. A future U. S. Senator predicted a long and gloomy Cold War with the Soviet Union (Russia) that could last a millennium. No one in that room would have believed the USSR would come crashing down just a generation later.

         Today the national focus is on the economy. Our country is enduring massive debt and inflation is probably in our futures. These factors could make getting and holding a good job look dismal.

         But there are jobs out there, lots of them.

         If you are a mess, then you will have a problem. And probably what I am writing here is not for you.

But if you are a hard worker with wonderful work habits and good ethics, the future is very bright.

         Employers are looking for good workers. And they are looking for good people. And most of them want to hire you for a long, long time. They are looking as hard for you as you are looking for them. Don’t give up too soon.

         I always tell young people that it is not who you know OR what you know. It is who you know AND what you know that will ensure your future.

         Time is on your side. It helps that 15 million baby boomers are retiring in the next five years.

         Another big tip is to locate mentors who are in the field of business you are interested in. Cultivate friendships with them and ask them for advice. You will be surprised at how helpful they can be to your career.

         Businesses rise and fall. And with that trend so do jobs and careers. 

         You grads heading out into the world of new jobs need to be alert and savvy to trends in your fields. Always stay ahead of the curve.

         I see a future that is as bright as ever for the young person wiling to work hard, make friends and perhaps, most of all, “keep learning” as you grow into your careers.

         Good luck and Godspeed.

         Wyoming and some of its citizens were featured prominently in an insightful series of programs about our country, which aired on Public Television in late April.

Called America Revealed, one of the programs was all about energy and, of course, focused on the coal in the Powder River Basin. Josh Gardner, who drives a gigantic truck at the Black Thunder Mine (biggest in the country), was interviewed and gave the host a ride around the mine site.

         The program also showed how trains of coal headed out of the basin to literally all parts of the country and in some case, around the world.

         Another of their programs concerned networks and focused on the TCT Company in the Big Horn Basin and that company’s efforts to lay fiber cable. The point was that even in these isolated towns way out on the frontier of Wyoming like Tensleep had access to modern tools because of progressive companies like TCT. Rod Collingwood of that company was interviewed and followed around during his duties.

         Meanwhile here in Lander, a local young man, Josh Denhardt, has started his acting career in Hollywood and recently made a movie called Louis Lake, filmed near a lake of that name on the Loop Road above Lander. Look forward to seeing the Red Carpet event on that.

         Another Lander native, Larry LaRose, was also featured in major news events in late April. He was one of six members of the NASA Shuttle support crew to fly around the country in that big 747 carrying the shuttles on its back.

         Larry was the guy who stuck the American flag up just after it landed in New York City,

         Also here in my Lander back yard, we have had two gaggles of goslings hatched one group of five and one of eight. Looks pretty neat seeing these little buggers paddling around behind the big old wary parents in our pond.

         Also saw a squirrel fall out a tree into that same pond. Funny as can be. The little feller paddled furiously to the edge and ran off. I think he was a lousy swimmer but luckily had a big fluffy tail that probably saved him. He seemed incredibly embarrassed.

         On a fine day last Saturday, I saw a jogger veer off the road and stop by some blooming lilacs and take a big whiff. Now that is what I call “stopping to smell the roses.”

         I was in Denver not long ago buying an iPad at the Apple Store there. When I told the salesman (referred to as geniuses by Apple) that my email address ended with @wyoming.com, he asked me: “Does everyone in Wyoming get a wyoming.com email address?”

         Not sure how small he thought our state was, but I am sure wyoming.com owner Steve Mossbrook would be glad to “sell” everyone in the state such an address.

         An old colleague of mine, Jack Nisselius, 91, of Gillette passed away recently. At his funeral, they read a list of things that he had written a few years ago “of what he was thankful for.” Might make a good thing for all of us to do and then stick in the family bible.

         Read an interesting article recently about the biggest regrets people reveal when they are near death. They are:

         I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself and not the life others expected of me.

         I wish I had not worked so hard.

         I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

         I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

         I wish that I had let myself be happier.

         Powerful stuff.

         When Nancy and I travel, she does crossword puzzles and she often asks me for help. Back on April 8, she asked me: “What is the county seat of Fayette County in Iowa?”

         “West Union,” I answered.

         Hey, wait a minute. What newspaper are you reading from? I asked.

         It was the Casper Star and it was a national crossword. What an odd coincidence. That is my hometown county, one of 99 counties in one of the 50 states in the USA.

         Why would they pick that county and why would we happen to be doing that crossword puzzle on this day?

We had been in Casper at the annual Jefferson Award dinner where Cheyenne physician John Urbigkit was named the 2012 statewide winner. Congrats to him for a lot of wonderful volunteer work. I can proudly say that my crossword-loving wife was the 2011 winner.