News Release
July 2, 2007

Hopes high for UW extension educator’s efforts in Wamsutter

There has been more than one classic novel set in Wyoming in which someone coming to town changes everything.

Lisa Colson would probably be embarrassed to compare her cross-country trek from Missouri to Wamsutter with fictional characters like “The Virginian” or “Shane,” but many hope her community development efforts in this energy-rich and infrastructure-poor town may be just as exciting.

Brown hair framing her face and highlighting blue-green eyes, personable and confident, Colson is responsible for marshalling forces to transform this here-and-there, now-and-then town into a bona fide community – replete with houses and a majority of year-round residents.

This is the birth of a community, said Colson, who likes the challenge. “I like to implement, be creative,” she added. “I like the satisfaction of completing projects, and there is a lot for me to accomplish. I don’t like to be stagnant. This is a lot of fun.”

Mobile homes and fifth-wheel trailers south of Interstate 80 make this south-central Wyoming village of 1,000 about 40 miles west of Rawlins bulge at sagebrush seams. The town expanded from 260 to about 1,000 in four years, and the population is expected to balloon to 6,000 in the next 10 years.

Colson and her 6-year-old half girly-girl, half-tomboy daughter, Emma Jane, or Em, arrived last November. Hired by the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service (UW CES), she holds a position that is a collaborative partnership between UW CES, Sweetwater County, and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, BP America, Devon Energy Corporation, Hyland Enterprises Inc., and Love’s Travel Shop.

Colson’s charge is assisting the mayor and town council in managing development projects. She said her work has been nonstop: there are water and sewer lines to get installed, breaking ground for a housing development, taking the pulse of the medical needs in the community and enticing businesses to locate to Wamsutter.

The mayor acknowledges her efforts. “Lisa has worked very hard to become a part of the community,” noted Rich Freudenberg. “She is doing a great job for the town. We are very fortunate to have her here.”

The principal at Desert Elementary, Freudenberg added, “If you want me to grade her performance, she is somewhere between an A and an A+.”

You could say she is a transfer student. Colson spent the last seven years working for the Green Hills Regional Planning Commission in Trenton, Mo., as a developer and research and development specialist. She was a contract employee for 72 rural communities and 11 county commissions. Living about a quarter-mile from where she was born, she began looking at job opportunities such as in Bellingham, Wash., and Durham, N.C., and she wondered how she would adapt to living in a metro area.

Then she heard about Wamsutter.

“This is more me,” said Colson. “I had the desire to work with one community long-term, make more of an impact, and gain a sense of accomplishment. I could see how much potential is here.”

Boom and bust cycles have blown through Wamsutter for decades, but this time the boom may be sustained. BP has committed a $2.2 billion investment in the area’s gasfields that includes drilling 2,000 wells in the next 15 years. The company recently moved into its $12 million, 47,000-square foot facility north of the interstate.

Town residents still simmer over a newspaper article a few years ago that pointed out the town’s worst side and a major news network’s piece quoting one oil worker who said the town was hell on earth.

The news items galvanized community improvement efforts. The articles caught the attention of Governor Dave Freudenthal’s office, which began leveraging efforts to help the energy-focused area. Representatives from his office contacted UW CES to see if it could help community development efforts, said Glen Whipple, associate dean in the UW College of Agriculture and director of the CES.

Duane Williams, associate director of the CES, said, “While the needs are clear and very pressing, this partnership represents a new, unique, and exciting venture for all parties involved. The public and private sectors are stepping up to work together to foster civic involvement that will guide positive community change in Wamsutter.”

Freudenberg said Colson’s position is key to Wamsutter becoming a sustainable community. “We are fortunate to find someone that knowledgeable, who is such a hard worker, an excellent person, and is so much help with grants,” he said. “She is so crucial to our success.

The oil and gas field work creates a decided maleness about Wamsutter. Colson first felt that when she arrived at the Rock Springs airport. She was the only woman there.

“I was informed shortly after moving here the man-to-woman ratio is 10:1. As a single woman, I didn’t know whether to be excited or scared,” said Colson, and laughed.  The Missouri farm girl with an older and younger brother says she has always been one of the guys and, working in a career managing contractors, isn’t easily intimidated.

An avid reader, Colson recreates by walking, jogging, or riding bikes with Em. Colson majored in geography and minored in geology, and Wamsutter kisses the heart of the Red Desert.  “I’m also a rock hound, and I can’t wait to get out in the desert this summer,” she said.

UW Photograph/Trice Megginson

Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor
Phone: (307) 766-6342
E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu
Archived News Site http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/UWAG/news.asp

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