Wyoming Futures Project

Feb 19, 2020
WFP Volume I (WTC Vol 1, Database 1 of 4)

The “Wyoming Futures Project” (WFP) has come up several times over the years in our research on the Wyoming Business Council, and while digging into various economic development plans and recommendations for the State of Wyoming. There are elusive mentions of WFP here and there online, and various people associated with it, but the only real documentation that we could seem to put our hands on (to understand what WFP was and did) was pages 8-9 of this document, Summary of Economic Development Publications and Recommendations for the State of Wyoming printed in Jan 2005.

It has been on our list to follow the WFP thread at some point, but when Governor Mark Gordon made it a point to specifically mention the WFP in his gubernatorial acceptance speech (Jan 7, 2019) we decided it was time to research this topic in earnest.

What we have finally obtained is a tremendous amount of documentation via a volume set of reports titled, Wyoming Futures Project – History and Critique, 1985 – 1988, In Three Volumes.

The reason why we are only placing Volume I in our PROJECTS for now is because we are still digitizing Volumes II and III – which will be uploaded in increments until done. In other words, this is a work in progress. All material is presented in the exact order as it occurs in the originals. We are taking great care to present the content exactly as it was printed – including misspellings. Volume I, digitized, amounts to 24 pdfs that come to approximately 690 pages. Most all of the pdfs are word-searchable. We are attempting to display all 24 pdfs for Volume I on 4 separate pages (data dumps) to keep things from bogging down. (If the pdfs do not display initially you may need to click your refresh button a time or two. Click and scroll within a pdf to move through the pages; click and scroll outside of the pdf to move down to the next separate pdf.) Quick links to all 4 data dumps for Volume I can be found at the bottom of this page. Every pdf is yours to download – and we really hope you do.

These reports and documents were written, organized, coordinated, assembled and printed by the Ucross Ranch staff and WFP co-directors Patricia Nagel and Linda D. Nix. The date of this volume set, which is not copyrighted, is April 1988. Furthermore, we – Wyoming Taxpayers – paid for it with an initial appropriation of $100,000 that was approved by the WY State Legislature in 1986-1987. Additionally, the Ucross Ranch specifically stated that they made no copyright claims via a contract that was agreed to between Governor Ed Herschler, acting on behalf of the State of Wyoming, and Raymond Plank, founder and acting on behalf of the UCross Ranch (our pdf #23 in WTC Vol 1, Database 4 of 4).

These are public documents and we feel certain that Wyomingites should have access to them. Be forewarned they are voluminous. We have not read every page ourselves yet, but there is much here to wrap your head around. One thing we are certain of: it was the WFP that directly led to the creation of the Wyoming Business Council. Certain members of the WFP most likely played a hand in writing and passing that legislation so long ago.

Coincidentally, yesterday Governor Mark Gordon made a stunning announcement that he is supporting a “significant land purchase”. This is stunning for a number of reasons:

The reasons for this purchase are extremely vague and have many WY Citizens questioning, “WTH?!”
The current legislative bills that appropriate money for this significant land deal never state the $$ amount! (See HB0249 & SF0138)
HB0222 provides for SLIB to make exceptions to our public meetings laws!
Just 9 days ago Gordon made his State of the State speech and he never uttered a word of this land deal.
Just under 4 months ago Gordon said, “Wyoming is facing leaner times. We will have to find a few new holes in our belt.” (AP News)

So, is there a connection between Governor Gordon’s significant land purchase announcement and the Wyoming Futures Project? Based on what we have already read, we think the answer is, most likely, yes.

Once all three volumes have been posted to our site we will begin disseminating the impact that WFP has had on us and our state. But don’t wait for our analysis – we encourage citizens far and wide to delve into these records and begin drawing their own conclusions.

Again, we feel certain that Wyomingites should have full access to these documents. So here you go… we strongly encourage you to download and share them. They belong to every WY Taxpayer!