"Progress"

Well, folks, I think we can all agree. Many changes are ahappenin' in our fair part of the state. The great pull of Yellowstone to the Industrial Tourist is too much to bear. Everyone who has to deal with the tourists on a daily basis complains and whines about how traffic is backed up on Main Street, or how some ASS (Associated [by our area] Simply By Speed) is busy telling people wrong advice, usually in a loud voice full of exuberance and great self worth. Telling people how to get to Newton Lake, Shell Creek, the back side of Heart Mountain, but not how to appreciate these areas. People who, incidentally, are the ones with their carry-alls, bringing their speed boats, their stereo systems, never taking the time to slow down to appreciate things. Growth! Industry! Advancement! But, when do we say, "Whoa, this isn't the town I grew up in!" When do we realize that growth for the sake of growth has a name, one we are all familiar with. Cancer. Tumor. Malignant Melanoma. The time has come when our growth, our blind growth, has destroyed our very reason for living here. Ask a local why they enjoy this area. Most will agree wide, open spaces, less crowding, with secondary and tertiary responses being wildlife, and a deep family history. Four generations of my family were raised and born within 100 miles of Yellowstone National Speedway, and I think at least two of them are rolling in their graves over what it has become. Development! Do we not realize that in the process of rampant, unregulated, and uncontrolled development, we are losing our grasp as to what this area used to be for so many people? The North Fork Highway, no longer the "Most Scenic 50 miles in America" but the site of the Elk's Last Stand, the closing of a wildlife corridor, and the end of the way of an era in Wyoming and Cody. What do we value more, friends? Our wildlife, our land, our reasons for living here? Or the few dollars and jobs brought in by developing wide open hay meadows, diverting world class trout streams, and losing more and more access to our public lands. Where do YOU draw the line??

Seldom Seen