Despite working for a design firm with an office in Wyoming and loving John McPhee, I’d forgotten this passage from his seminal Annals of the Former World:
The most inclement stretch of [Interstate] 80 is east of Rawlins where it skirts the top of the Medicine Bows, where anemometers set on guardrails beside the highway frequently catch the wind exceeding the speed limit.
I’d forgotten this passage—part of a longer and wonderful section on the power of the wind in Wyoming—until hearing one of my colleagues reflect on the challenge of west-facing building entries in Casper.
“During the winter, people couldn’t get out of the building. The wind literally held the door closed. And when they did manage to get the door open, it would break the hinges.”
Beside the cold, another reason to avoid the Wyoming winter!
Taylor Coe 