How Lander survived (and prospered) after losing all those mining jobs in the 1980s

(Note: Last week, we wrote how Lander lost 550 high paying iron ore mining jobs and Fremont County lost 2,000 high-paying uranium-mining jobs in the 1980s. This is how local leaders turned the town around.)

Impartial observers like the late Gov. Ed Herschler would point at Lander as the “worst hit” town in Wyoming during the 1980s depression. To those of us who lived through it, we certainly agreed with him, although that distinction brought us no solace.

There was work to do. Our progressive Mayor Del McOmie appointed an Economic Development Commission (EDC) in the early 1980s.

That involved...