Spring 2005 #2

frontiersVolume XVII, Issue 2

The University of Wyoming student magazine

Mount St. Helens was even more pathetic – releasing a paltry puff of not even a quarter of a cubic mile of ash. In short, the Island Park and two

Yellowstone eruptions were like nothing seen in recorded history … A new eruption of Yellowstone on a scale comparable to past events would be an unpleasant event for our civilization… Page 5.

Photo Illustration by Kevin Wingert

Native birth of a commercial enterprise…Page 9

On the road to no-man’s land…3

Juggling school and athletics…Page 20

Frontiers 2005 • 3

Who hasn’t ever wished they could go back in time…

Older generations often complain things were better back in the day,

and with sparkling eyes they recount stories from when they were young.

The weather was more reliable, children more polite and politicians

somewhat trustworthy.

Don’t we all sometimes wonder how life actually was before? Siri

Nordvall does.

“I try, but I cannot imagine a life like this,” she writes in “On the road

to no man’s land.” “I’ve seen pictures of them — young, tanned, always

smiling, so strong — and it’s tempting to think that I was born 50 years too

late. But I know better.”

While technology advances our society to make some aspects of our

lives more painless, there is of yet no machine to ensure someone’s success.

Witness John Turner, the Wyomingite who built the prosperous restaurant

chain Taco John’s from a little shack, and the UW athletes who manage to

excel simultaneously in school and sports. The price for success is usually no

higher than the dedication and hard work invested.

But while ardor can ensure great history, one cannot overlook the

present or the future. How sad the people who never had time to savor

the zest of living — who never saw life because it flashed before their eyes.

Live, seek, explore. Like Hannah Wiest says in homage to wanderlust in

her story on studying abroad: “Now is the time students can rove restlessly,

understand the unknown and search for their souls. The world is your

classroom. Go.”

Victoria Sæland

Editor

Contents‘The place where

hell bubbles up’Patrick Banks

Beneath the tranquil beauty of Yellowstone slumbers

a giant caldera capable of catastrophic damage.

From rust to richesLauren Beard

Taco John’s can trace its origins to a taco stand in the back of a Wyoming restaurant.

On the road to no man’s land

Siri Nordvall

In the land of boom and bust, Kirwin sprung up

as a gold mining town of 200 only to recede into history.

Knocking out the nation’s best

Photos by Max Miller

There’s a reason Brian Gallagher is one of the best in the world

at what he does.

The art of balancing science and sport

Robert Mills

In one breath, these individuals must be both students and

athletes – a proposition with its own unique challenges.

Wanderlust: Medicine for restless souls

Hannah Wiest

In wandering, one can find something precious: the self.

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18

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4 • Frontiers 2005

Frontiers MagazineUniversity of WyomingStudent PublicationsDept. 36251000 E. University Ave. Laramie, WY 82071

Editor: Victoria Sæland

Layout & Graphic Design: Kevin Wingert – Editor Shantana Banta Ashley Colgan Garrett Dodson

Assistant Editors: Robert Townsend Carrie May

Photographers: Jeremy Stegall Max Miller Siri Nordvall

Writers: Patrick Banks, Lauren Beard, Siri Nordvall, Robert Mills, Hannah Wiest

Advertising: Barbara Thorpe

Frontiers is produced biannually by students of the University of Wyoming through Student Publications. To my family: Thank you for your support and dedication – it means every-thing.

Robert MillsBobby is a graduate student in history. After he earns his master’s degree, he hopes to attend law school. Bobby is the Branding Iron Sports Editor, and in his spare time he reads books and sports articles, plays racquetball and attends church meetings. He considers his two-year LDS mission in Brazil the greatest experience of his life.

Lauren BeardLauren is a sophomore majoring in Business Administration andJournalism. She is from Toronto and is on the swim team at UW.

Max MillerMax is a senior majoring in Geography. He grew up in Rawlins and has lived in Laramie since 2001. He enjoys photography and has been shooting for Student Publications since 2003.

Hannah WiestHannah will graduate this May with a degree in journalism. She loves coffee, tennis, Teva sandals, sunshine, being outdoors and laughing. She also loves travel. Her most exciting trips include driving around the U.S. in a motor home, teaching English in China and exploring England by canal boat. She thinks everyone should travel, even if it takes a little sacrifice.

Siri NordvallSiri is a graduate student at UW in the English department. She will be receiving my MA in Creative Non-Fiction writing next month, and she will then move to Santa Fe where she will be biking, skiing, cooking, and writing a book.

Patrick BanksPatrick was a UW student from 1998 until 2005. He is now preparing to move to Portland, Maine, where he hopes to become a freelance writer.

Kevin WingertKevin is a senior journalism student from Keflavik, Iceland, who has held the role of editor in chief for the campus newspaper for two years. He served in the United States Navy from 1993 to 1998.

Jeremy StegallJeremy is a journalism and graphic design major, arriving at UW after serving for six years aboard the U.S.S. Wyoming - a ballistic nuclear submarine. He is pursuing a career in photojournalism and fine art photography.

Victoria SælandVictoria is a senior journalism student from Norway who’s been involved with Student Publications for two years. In addition to writing and reporting, she enjoys being in the outdoors and spending time with her family and friends.

‘The Place Where Hell Bubbles Up’

Patrick Banks © 2005 Frontiers

M ost people who live in an actively seismic region of the world

are aware that the rocks beneath their feet are hardly rock solid. Earthquakes in 1906, 1985, 1988 and 2004 reminded residents of San Francisco, Mexico City, Armenia and Indian Ocean coastal countries of this. Volcanic eruptions have served as timely reminders as well, as survivors of the 1883 eruption of Krakatau in Indonesia, the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington and the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines would readily confirm.


Wyoming doesn’t have as many of these seismic memos – at least not on the scale seen in California, Indonesia or Japan. Even so, our little corner of North America is not what would be considered quiet when it comes to geology. In 1984, I was a kindergartner at Nellie Isles Elementary in Laramie when a 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck northern Albany County. While I don’t remember the quake, it was felt throughout much of the state. I remember my father, a graduate student at UW at the time, telling my family he thought something was going on with the wind tunnels on campus.

That 1984 earthquake was small beans compared to the 7.5 magnitude quake that hit the Yellowstone region on Aug. 17, 1959, near Hebgen Lake, Montana. As John McPhee recounted in his 1982 book “In Suspect Terrain,” the quake was rather devastating:

The tornado sound had been made by eighty million tons of Precambrian mountainslide, whose planes of schistocity had happened to be inclined toward the Madison River, with the result that half the mountain came falling down in one of the largest rapid landslides produced by an earthquake in North America in historical time. People were camped under it and near it. Among the dead were some who died of the air blast, after flapping like flags as they

clung to the trees. Automobiles rolled overland like tumbleweed. They were inundated as the river pooled up against the rockslide, and they are still on the bottom

of Earthquake Lake, as it is called – a hundred and eighty feet deep.

Twenty-eight people died in the Hebgen Lake earthquake – not such a gentle reminder that Yellowstone National Park is a seismic hotspot. Scientists have studied the area closely for decades. Not only are they painfully aware that Yellowstone is prime earthquake country, they know it is a giant volcanic caldera. Wyoming State Geologist Ron Surdam said Yellowstone is the latest in a series of volcanic centers that was born in the Snake River Plain 17 million years ago. Over the eons, each successive volcanic center migrated further toward the northeast until the Yellowstone caldera was born about two million years ago. The eruption that gave birth to this caldera was violent, indeed, belching 600 cubic miles of ash into the atmosphere. Another eruption at Island Park, southwest of Yellowstone, released 67 cubic miles of ash 1.3 million years ago. The last major eruption in Yellowstone occurred 630,000 years ago and coughed up about 240 cubic miles of ash. To put this in perspective, the 1883 eruption of Krakatau – one of recorded history’s most notorious natural disasters – managed only to release 4.3 cubic miles of ash. Mount St. Helens was even more pathetic – releasing a paltry

Mount Vesuvius pictured in a 2000 satellite image from NASA that covers an area of 36 by 45 km.

Image: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science TeamAmong the dead were some who died of the air blast, after flapping like flags as they clung

to the trees.

Map of Yellowstone indicating the caldera that developed about two million years ago.

Image: National Park Service

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puff of not even a quarter of a cubic mile of ash. In short, the Island Park and two Yellowstone eruptions were like nothing seen in recorded history. The only eruption that comes close was that of the Indonesian volcano Tambora in 1815. The 36 cubic miles of ash released by that little hiccup was responsible for a year without summer in the young United States the following year.

A new eruption of Yellowstone on a scale comparable to past events would be an unpleasant event for our civilization.

Jim F. Blake, an area writer and owner of the Cowboy Bar and Restaurant in Meeteetsee, said he is well aware of the threat posed by the Yellowstone caldera. Especially worrying to Blake is how people in the immediate area would escape in the event of an eruption.

“They can’t evacuate this whole area. Where would we go? … we’re so much bigger than Vesuvius – the amount of displaced earth would be huge,” Blake said.

Blake’s analogy to Vesuvius – which erupted in 79 A.D. and buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum – may perhaps be a bit overwrought. According to Surdam, a grand total of one foot of ash might fall on Laramie, though he is not sure what would happen to a place like Cody. Even so, Surdam said such an eruption would be a major disaster. The amount of ash and debris tossed into the stratosphere

would have a noticeable affect on the global climate, perhaps resulting in a repeat of the year without summer caused by Tambora. In any case, there would be an increase in respiratory problems, massive disruption to transportation systems, crop failures and polluted water supplies as rivers and streams became clogged with volcanic ash.

“There would certainly be extensive disruption, especially with regards to the economy of the rural west,” Surdam said.

Emergency responders in the area are already preparing for such a disaster. Robert Swanson, coordinator for the Park County Emergency Management Agency, said their disaster mitigation ranks a Yellowstone eruption as a major hazard.

“We would mainly try to get people out of the way if we felt something coming this way,” Swanson said.

Swanson said people in the area should always maintain a 72-hour emergency kit containing food, light and medicine in the event of not only an eruption, but any disaster. The best escape route, according to Swanson, would be to head north or south to avoid the ash cloud, which would probably be carried by winds coming from the southwest.

Though emergency response agencies would be faced with severe challenges in the event of a Yellowstone

Emergency responders in the area are already preparing for such a

disaster.

Image: National Park ServiceYellowstone Lake



eruption, Surdam said there would probably be some advanced warning that the caldera was about to blow, thanks to extensive monitoring by the United States Geological Survey.

“There would be early warnings. This would not be something that would be a big surprise,” Surdam said.

Concern about a Yellowstone eruption has risen slightly over the past couple of years. However, Surdam said this has more to do with the fact that scientists know more about the caldera than they did in the past. For instance, a bulge which appeared on the bottom of Yellowstone Lake in 2003 received a lot of attention from scientists and the media. Since then, Surdam said, scientists have determined that the rising and falling of that bulge is a regular occurrence.

Knowing that eruptions tend to happen about every 600,000 years, and it has been 630,000 years since the last eruption, one might be forgiven for thinking Yellowstone is overdue for another eruption. But both Swanson and Surdam say the Yellowstone caldera is nothing to lose sleep over.

Although these things tend to happen in a geological blink of an eye, this period of time may translate into many thousands of years in human terms. According to Swanson, the next eruption could occur next year or it could happen 25,000 years from now.

“A few people have called me with concerns,” Swanson said. “After talking to them about the situation, they feel more comfortable.”

Surdam is likewise relatively sanguine about the situation.“It’s something to be aware of but not to worry about,” he

said. “Respect nature and be aware that there are potential problems that exist.”

Image: National Park Service

Aerial of Excelsior Geyser Crater & Grand Prismatic Spring July 2001

RichesRRRust

From…

to

Lauren Beard© Frontiers 2005

The story began in the late 1960s. John Turner, an air force veteran stationed in Cheyenne before being honorably discharged in 1952, was determined to make a living in the fast-food industry.

What began as a homemade unit called “Taco House,” Turner’s vision transformed into what is known today as Taco John’s — Wyoming’s only national restaurant chain.

“(Turner) was a tall lanky cowboy — the funniest guy you’d ever meet. You’d never know he was an entrepreneur,” said Daryl Stilwell, owner of six Taco John’s franchises in

Wyoming.Turner worked in

various types of fast-

food restaurants, including being manager for McDonald’s and establishing a drive-in restaurant. According to a memorial display in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle after Turner’s death in 2004, Turner learned of a place in Colorado that made $700 to $800 per day selling tacos and burritos. At first Turner did not think the idea plausible. But as he realized the potential, Turner got to work. He began collecting authentic Mexican recipes and blends of seasonings from neighboring cities, such as Greeley, Colo. In 1968, he

launched the Taco House in Cheyenne.


Turner built the first Taco House, a rusty tin house, on the back lot of an old hamburger stand he owned in Laramie. He then moved it to East Lincolnway in Cheyenne where it became the town’s first fast-food taco restaurant and quickly proved successful.

The next chapter in Taco John’s history features Harold Holmes and James Woodson — two men who envisioned great things for the Taco House.

“They were larger than life; believed in a dream, and expanded it,” Stilwell said.

Holmes owned a camper and equipment manufacturing company, and Woodson was involved with real estate and insurance. In early 1969, they bought the franchise rights from Turner and began developing the restaurant that would introduce many Westerners to tortillas and tacos.

On April 1, 1969, after changing the restaurant’s name to Taco John’s, Woodson and Holmes’ opened the first Taco John’s in Rapid City, S.D. Later that month, Wyoming’s first official Taco John’s restaurant opened in Torrington.

Today, Wyoming has 27 restaurants across the state, and as of January 2005, there were 411 restaurants among 27 states.

As news of Taco John’s success spread, businessmen across the state grew increasingly interested and Holmes constructed a number of trailers for the eager franchisees. The restaurants were built in Laramie, then loaded on trailers and transported to their new locations.

Turner remained involved in the company, making tortillas for the different franchises with a customized a recipe that accommodated for the high altitude of Wyoming. He developed another business called Tortilla Manufacturing and Supply and owned the company’s trademark, recipes and distribution rights until 1985 when he sold those to Woodson and Holmes, according to the Tribune-Eagle memorial.

In the early 1970s, the franchising expanded rapidly. Taco franchises were spreading out of the original states of Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska to such places as Montana, Minnesota and Iowa.

The company’s new aim was to fill the core territory of the Midwest. In the mid 1970s, a few of the restaurant’s signature items, such as the Taco Bravo® and the Potato Ole®, were introduced. The Potato Ole® has since become one of Taco John’s most popular items and is included in more than 60 percent of all

They were larger than life; believed in a dream, and

expanded it.Daryl Stilwell

Owner of six Taco John’s franchises in Wyoming

Photo: Max Miller


transactions, according to Neal Levy of Taco John’s marketing department in Cheyenne.

Taco Tuesday® originated in Rapid City and made Tuesdays the restaurant’s most profi table day of the week, according to Levy.

Each separate franchise helped the others succeed and allowed for internal development of the company. Many of the franchise owners began their career with Taco John’s by working at the

restaurant while in high school, earning

minimum wage, cooking tacos and scrubbing fl oors.

Stephanie Baran, 19, a junior at the University of Wyoming, has been an employee at Taco John’s for three years.

She began working with Taco John’s in Rapid City, but transferred to the location on Grand Avenue after moving to Laramie to attend UW. Baran said her sister, who worked at Taco John’s before her, had such a good work experience in Rapid City that Baran decided to try the restaurant for her fi rst job.

Th e objective of the 1980s was to become a more consistent fast food restaurant chain. Th e franchises had been built at diff erent times and diff erent locations, so there was no constancy from one to the next, Levy said.

In the early 1990s, a franchise-wide brand image was developed, but franchises also received more freedom to choose items that were not on the original menu as long as the rest of the chain-wide menu persisted.

“Th e Meat and Potato Burrito® originated as a ‘grandfathered’ item at a location in Casper and eventually became part of the chain-wide menu,” said Rivers Stilwell, Daryl’s son and former Taco John’s employee.

In 1997, the slogan, “A Whole Lot of

Mexican,” was introduced, which is still in use today.

Another reason for Taco John’s success, according to Levy, was that it originated in the Midwestern United States before its main competitor Taco Bell. For some in the Midwest, it was the fi rst Mexican food they had ever tasted.

“Taco John’s has taught a lot of people in the Midwest what Mexican food is,” he said.

Taco John’s food also appeals to a more mature clientele than most other fast food chains, according to Levy. Th e food tends to appeal to adults between 25 and 54; whereas most other fast food chains aim their products toward customers in the 18 to 49 age range, he said.

Minnesota and Iowa are currently have the most restaurants with 69 and 64 respectively.

Although Taco John’s has become popular throughout the United States, the company still wishes to stay loyal to its Wyoming roots.

Rivers Stilwell said, “Taco John’s off ers great franchise opportunities that

development of the company. Many of the franchise owners began their career with Taco John’s by working at the

restaurant while in high school, earning

minimum wage, cooking tacos and scrubbing fl oors.

Stephanie Baran, 19, a junior at the University of Wyoming, has been an employee at Taco John’s for three years.

wide brand image was developed, but franchises also received more freedom to choose items that were not on the original menu as long as the rest of the

Photo: Max Miller


create jobs and money for Wyoming communities. It gives a lot of diff erent people job opportunities.”

According to Taco John’s Web site, www.tacojohns.com, the restaurant has also created other opportunities in the community.

Collaborating with the Wyoming Department of Family Services (DFS), they have launched the “Make a Diff erence Program.” As part of the program, information on parenting, encouragement for adoption, foster parenting and other information benefi cial to families will be distributed in Taco John’s restaurants in Wyoming for the next year. According to DFS Director, Rodger McDaniel, DFS encourages supporting parents and families within local communities, and that communities should accept more responsibility for their own families. Th e program also honors good Samaritans in the state, and customers can nominate local heroes to be recognized at their neighborhood Taco John’s.

In 2004, Taco John’s also started a Wyoming History Day scholarship. Th e company will award a

$3,000 scholarship to a Wyoming high school senior participating in the History Day competition and who plans to attend a Wyoming college.

2004 marked Taco John’s 35th anniversary as Wyoming’s only national restaurant chain.

Harold Holmes and James Woodson are now retired and live in Arizona. Th ey are still active in the company, serving on the board of directors, and the business remains privately owned within their families.

Turner, who lost much of his money in an IRS dispute, ended up devoting the rest of his life to Habitat for Humanity,

which according to the memorial was the most “gratifying and rewarding” years of his life.

John Turner died in September of last year, at the age of 73. In the days preceding his death, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal wrote a letter to Turner, where he thanked Turner for his contributions to the state:

“For many years, you have worked hard to improve our city and state through providing jobs for many of our citizens, as well as giving tirelessly to community programs such as Habitat for Humanity and the YMCA. I also want to commend you for your hard work, entrepreneurial spirit, and sense of philanthropy which serves as an example to our citizens of true success in the state of Wyoming.”

Today, Taco John’s is one of Laramie’s prosperous fast-food restaurants. Crammed amid a number of other restaurants on Grand Avenue, Turner’s dream may seem to be just another taco joint. Taco John’s, however, is a Wyoming success story that

became one of the Midwest’s most popular Mexican fast-food chains.

benefi cial to families will be distributed in Taco John’s restaurants in Wyoming for the next year. According to DFS

encourages supporting parents and families within local communities, and that communities should accept more responsibility for their own families. Th e program also honors good Samaritans in the state, and

also started a Wyoming History Day scholarship. Th e company will award a

in an IRS dispute, ended up devoting the rest of his life to Habitat for Humanity,

for Humanity and the YMCA. I also want to commend you for your hard work, entrepreneurial spirit, and sense of philanthropy which serves as an example to our citizens of true success in the state of Wyoming.”

Today, Taco John’s is one of Laramie’s prosperous fast-food restaurants. Crammed amid a number of other restaurants on Grand Avenue, Turner’s dream may seem to be just another taco joint. Taco John’s, however, is a Wyoming success story that

became one of the Midwest’s most popular Mexican fast-food chains.


Legendwy_strm

WY_ROAD_174

191

ValueHigh : 4002

Low : 1152

2.5 0 2.5 5 7.5 101.25Miles

G reybull River

Wood

River

WY -120

On the road On the road Siri Nordvall © 2005 Frontiers

I am squeezed in the cab of a mint-green Forest Service pickup. To my right sits Clara Mae Yetter, a 74-year-old volunteer for the Shoshone National Forest. Driving the pickup is her cantankerous husband, Sam. He is bald and

slightly hunched and wears yellow aviator glasses with huge convex lenses. He mutters that the prescription is 10 years old and that he’s as blind as a bat. The oxygen tank at his hip hisses intermittently, pushing air through the tube attached to his nose. His huge hands grip the steering wheel as he squints through the windshield.

I am admittedly nervous. We have been driving for an hour and have covered barely 10 miles, bumping along a rocky slice of road carved into the Absaroka Mountains southwest of Meeteetse.

We’re headed to Kirwin, an abandoned mining town, to take care of a job for the Forest Service. Sam has complained almost nonstop since we left. He doesn’t care much for long, bumpy drives — they make him tired; or government agencies — they steal his money; or the countries of the Middle East — they’re troublemakers; or for the job we’ve been asked to complete today — it’s a goddamned waste of time. All these things make him very cranky.

The only thing that distracts Sam from complaining is story telling. In a moment of brief silence, I ask, “So, Sam, did you ever live in Kirwin?”

“Sure we did. In the 60s, working with AMAX,” he said,

referring to the mining company American Metals Climax. “I helped to build the Dakota mine just up from Kirwin.”

“Oh? What was that like?” I ask.Clara Mae chimes in. “It was damn hard work, and we

didn’t get much for it.” This is not a complaint. Clara Mae is a realist. Her statement merely sums up the life and work that she and Sam have been doing in this area since they married in 1948. They herded sheep and lived in a tent when Clara

Photo: Siri Nordvall

All photos courtesy of Clara Mae & Sam Yetter, unless otherwise noted.

14 • Frontiers 2005 Frontiers 2005 • 15

Mae was just 18 and already several months pregnant. She shakes her head, smiling, when she talks about it. “Oh, it was so dirty, and I was so tired and so pregnant.” After that, they built fences; they gouged roads in the sides of mountains; they harvested lumber; they drilled for oil; they ran a ranch for a friend; they opened an auto repair shop; Sam drove truck, and Clara Mae waitressed during a brief stint in Cody; and, apparently, they helped build the Dakota mine above Kirwin. Theirs is a married life spent in the Wyoming wind and sun, filled with 16-hour days and small paychecks, injury and setback, fevered hopes and

lost possibilities. One of Sam’s stock jokes is, “I’ve done just about everything ‘cept make money.” Some years — too many, they say — they barely made enough to feed themselves and their three children.

But it is clear that they love this place. Clara Mae says, again, “It was damn hard work. It’s near impossible to survive here, but it’s been home almost all my life.”

“You got that right,” says Sam. “When we lived on the Gooseberry, at the saw-mill, she’d run around those hills like a damned coyote. She’d come home after dark, pockets full of arrowheads and flowers.” Clara Mae knows the plants of this region as though she made them

herself, and she knows the various uses of each plant: which flowers make a good tea for headaches, which leaves soothe a rash, which roots cure nausea.

Sam points through the windshield of the pickup to a far mountain.

“Over there’s where we built the Dakota. Early on, when we were setting up the support beams for the mine, we were using catclaws to grab the logs and pile them in front of the mine entrance.” A catclaw is a large hand held metal hook with a sharp point that sticks into the log. Sam nudges the bill of his cap and scratches his forehead — a sure sign that he is ready to tell a story.

“One afternoon I slipped and accidentally skewered my hand with the point of the claw, right through my glove. It hurt like hell but I just kept working, didn’t pay much attention,” he said.

After a few hours, he took off his right glove and saw how bad the cut was. The blood had pooled up in the glove, soaking through the palm.

The manager came by to check their work and asked “what’s this?”, pointing to the logs. On about half the pile, there were dark red hand prints: the blood had soaked through, and he had left a mark each time he had steadied the pile.

“Now, miners are a suspicious bunch,

and they don’t take any damn chances. Bloody hand prints on the support beams of a mine is just plain bad luck,” Sam said.

The manager made them unload the stained logs and burn them. They weren’t even allowed to take them home.

“It was a wasted afternoon of work, and those men were furious with me. You can be sure I bandaged my hand the next day,otherwise they would’ve killed me.”

I look at Sam’s hands; they are so rough and scarred that it’s hard to tell which mark is from the cat claw.

I try, but I cannot imagine a life like this. I’ve seen pictures of them — young, tanned, always smiling — so strong, and

it’s tempting to think I was born 50 years too late. But I know better.

In four-wheel-drive, we continue to pull the 15-foot flatbed trailer along the narrow road. Kirwin is tucked in a wild, steep valley along the upper Wood River and is surrounded by 12,000-foot peaks.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service at Shoshone National Forest assumed management for Kirwin in 1992 and initialized a restoration project of all the major buildings that were a part of the town, including two mine shaft houses, an assay office, livery stable, storage sheds and several cabins. Each summer since July 2001, about 40 volunteers have come





from all over the country to donate time, tools and materials to the project. The Wyoming Environmental Quality Abandoned Mine Lands Division provides funding for the restoration.

Because getting to Kirwin is a rather rugged experience, volunteers are required to have four-wheel drive vehicles (in addition to the primitive road, several river crossings are required) and come with tents, food and camping gear. They stay for as little as two days or as long as a few weeks. Travel in and out is limited, and 40 people generate a lot of trash in a short time. Because of bears, garbage is stored in a locked on-site shed. That is why we’re on this trip: we are to load the trash onto the trailer, tie it down and head back to the city dump in Meeteetse. This is easily and all-day affair since it takes two hours to get from Meeteetse to Kirwin. And Sam is quick to remind us — he’s not happy about it.

Finally, we round the last switchback. The road inches along the lip of a steep ravine. Eighty feet below us, the Wood River snakes gently through the valley. The town of Kirwin comes slowly into view: the remains of a log cabin rest on the far facing slope, the pointed green roof of a mine shaft peeks out from the trees, the boxy walls of the assay office rise from the valley floor. Coming upon this ghost town is like going back 100 years. I expect to see horses and men in dirty clothes, expect to hear the faint music of a player piano lilting from the valley below, expect to smell the smoke from cabin fireplaces. But as we finish rounding the curve, pickups and trailers appear, North Face tents dot the landscape and a backhoe is clearing log debris from an old cabin site.

We pull up to the camper belonging to the project’s head contractors, some building company out of Denver. We are close to the shed where our garbage is locked. A rudimentary kitchen is set up under a draped awning. Dirty dishes are piled on the picnic tables, and black pans with congealed bacon grease sit on the camp stove burners.

“Goddamnit,” Sam mumbles. “Why don’t they just send out a goddamned invitation to the bears?” He shakes his head in disgust. He doesn’t think much of big-city contractors. “I’ll tell you what: these jokers would never have made it out here 50 years ago. They would’ve been an afternoon snack for some grizzly.”

Sam is probably right — they might not have lasted long in Kirwin — and he and Clara Mae would know as well as anyone. They’ve really only been “townies” for about a decade. Their saw-mill on the Gooseberry folded in 1992, and that’s when they finally relented and moved to Meeteetse, a town of about 350 souls. They know exactly what it takes to survive here. But, then again, no one has lasted long in Kirwin. It doesn’t seem to be a place suited for human existence, even though many people have tried.

The area around Kirwin was first prospected in the early 1880s. Gold was found in 1885, and entrepreneurial explorers staked claims. Robust men with names like C.L. Tewksbury and R.L. Chapman and Henry Schnitzel bought land and built mines. Over the next decade, several mining companies prospected the land, hoping for a windfall. In its heyday, between 1904 and 1907, Kirwin boasted more than 200 people and 38 buildings. The mines were not yielding much profit, but hopes were high and funding kept coming.

But the landscape was inhospitable, remote and filled with dangers, and it was as if the place did not want human inhabitants. The avalanche of February 1907 was the beginning of Kirwin’s downfall. After nine days of heavy snowfall, an avalanche careened down Brown Mountain, destroying major buildings and killing three people. The surviving residents were trapped in the town until spring. As soon as the snow melted enough to make roads passable, most of the residents fled, leaving dishes in the cupboards and sheets on the beds. Over the next 25 years, several attempts were made to revitalize interest in mining operations in Kirwin, but to no avail. Still, people kept coming. Kirwin has an undeniable appeal; its beauty is fierce and wild, and people who see it never forget it.

In 1931, rancher Carl Dunrud bought the area around Kirwin. He built the Double D Dude Ranch six miles from town. His frequent guests included Amelia Earhart and her husband, George Palmer Putnam. They fell in love with the mountains and were in the process of building a cabin a mile from Kirwin when Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in




1937. The foundation logs of that cabin still stand. Clara Mae was 6 years old at that time, living and going to school on Carter Mountain, near Cody. Sam would arrive in the area 10 years later from his family farm in Nebraska. In the 1960s, the mining company AMAX attempted to revive operations, but funding ran out and AMAX eventually left.

Finally, in 1992 — the same year Sam and Clara Mae left life in the wilderness for good — the Richard King Mellon Foundation purchased the Kirwin area from AMAX and donated the land to the public. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service at Shoshone National Forest assumed management that year and shortly after initiated the restoration project.

After loading the trash, we wash up and eat a quick lunch and then squeeze back into the pickup. Sam looks tired, and he struggles to breathe the thin air up here. He puts in his oxygen tube and is quiet for the first time all day as Clara Mae tells soft stories of life in the mountains, her short gray hair ruffled by the Wyoming wind. Even knowing what I know about this place — the unpredictable and violent conditions, the human loss, the failure to conquer or even survive — I still detect the romance of the wilderness in her voice. She belongs here, and being here makes me want to belong, too. In many ways, Kirwin’s story is the quintessential story of the West: its very resistance to human presence makes it an irresistible challenge, a great adventure for cowboys, explorers and investors. But for now, the only residents of Kirwin are temporary ones, summer visitors whose job is to retell stories, to rebuild what has decayed and to resurrect the ghosts of an impossible and alluring home.



Kirwin timelineTimeline information obtained from Gordan Warren, who works for the Shoshone National Forest and is the head of the restoration project at Kirwin.

1870: The first gold prospecting expedition to the Wood River area, which was under Indian treaty.

1881: Henry Schnitzel prospected the area.

1885: William Kirwin and Harry Adams prospected the area and found gold.

1894: Shoshone River Mining Company established by Henry Schnitzel, T.J. Greer, P.W. Gates and Ernest May.

1897: The first ore shipment was transported on mules.

1899: The Galena Ridge Mining Corporation was formed by Henry Schnitzel, T.J. Greer, P.W. Gates and Ernest May.

1902: Exploration was established in Kirwin.

1904: The Shoshone Mining and Development Company of Kirwin was incorporated.

1904-1906: There were more than 200 people and 38 buildings in Kirwin. The buildings were a hotel, a boarding house, two general stores, a sawmill, a post office, an assay office, a headquarters building, cabins and meat storage sheds. There were no saloons, brothels or cemetery. A stagecoach ran from Meeteetse to Kirwin on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday and ran from Kirwin to Meeteetse on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

1904-1907: The Shoshone Mining and Development Company, Galena Ridge Mining Company and Wyoming Mining Company did extensive development of mines in the area investing between $1 and $4 million.

1907: After nine days of heavy snowfall, an avalanche killed three people. Most of the town’s residents left later that spring.

1914: C.L. Tewksbury closed his mine but continued to visit Kirwin every summer to operate his store for sheepmen in the area until 1922.

1922: The first car, a Dodge, came to Kirwin.

1925: Henry Schnitzel tried to instigate mining in the area, but to no avail.

1931: Carl Dunrud bought Schnitzel’s holdings from his widow. He built the Double D Dude Ranch six miles below Kirwin.

1934: Amelia Earhart visited the Double D Dude Ranch and wanted to build a cabin near Kirwin. Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to fly around the world. Her cabin was never completed.

1962: The American Metals Climax (AMAX) Mining Company purchased the Kirwin properties from Duke Wilson.

1992: The Richard King Mellon Foundation and Conservation Fund purchased the Kirwin properties from Amax and donated tehm back to the public.

1999: Stabilization and restoration of the historic buildings in the Kirwin Mining District began.


Brian Gallagher, one of UW’s promising athletes, is pictured demonstrating some of his tae kwon do moves. Gallagher,

19, earned a national tae kwon do title in the bantamweight division on March 3 and is ranked number one in the nation. From April 13-17 Gallagher was in Madrid, Spain, to compete in the World Championships, but by press time he had not yet fought. Gallagher is the youngest male member on the national team and the only fi ghter on both the National and Collegiate U.S. teams.

A native of Miami, Gallagher moved to Cody in 1994 with his family. Th e sport is well embedded in the family, and he has competed since he was 3 years old. His inspiration at that time came from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His father, Bob, who is Gallagher’s head coach, opened a tae kwon do school in Cody, but the family now lives in Littleton, Colo.

For years, Brian and his sister, Shannon, have exhibited their Tae kwon do skills by performing to the beat of Christian Rock and Rap music as their way of “spreading the word.”

Information obtained from a Branding Iron article by Bob-by Mills.

Knocking outthe nation’s best

promising athletes, is pictured demonstrating some of his tae

April 13-17 Gallagher was in Madrid, Spain,

the national team and the only fi ghter on both

A native of Miami, Gallagher moved to Cody in 1994 with his family. Th e sport is well embedded in the family, and he has competed since he was 3 years old. His inspiration at that time came from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His father, Bob, who is Gallagher’s head coach, opened a tae kwon do

I used to like Michelangelo a lot, so I saw all the tricky stuff he could do and told my parents I wanted to start this. Since then I’ve been dedicated to it and it’s been my passion for 16 years.

Brian Gallagher

All photos by Max Miller, unless otherwise noted.

Photo: Jeremy Stegall

For Taekwondo, the World Championships … is the biggest

event that you can go to, be a part of, or even medal at, because it is bigger than the

Olympics. It’s bigger than anything.

Brian Gallagher



Bobby Mills© Frontiers 2005

Getting through college is tough for most students but may pose extra challenges to the student athletes. Work,

exercise, housework, social life and other extra-curricular activities may be enough to turn any student’s brain into spaghetti.

So, what is it like for the student athletes who must dedicate extra time for practice, conditioning, games and travel?

A number of student athletes at the University of Wyoming have found ways to juggle their priorities and excel academically as well as athletically. Take Wyoming backup quarterback J.J. Raterink for example. UW football fans have long recognized Raterink as one of the guys who enters the fi eld after the

Cowboys score a touchdown. His normal job is to hold the ball for the point after touchdown attempts.

However, Raterink had to relieve starting quarterback Corey Bramlet numerous times in 2004 when Bramlet went down with injury. He had to prepare every week as if he was going to start at quarterback — because he was essentially one snap away from getting into every game.

Bobby Mills So, what is it like for the student Cowboys score a touchdown. His normal

Thefine art ofbalancing

sport

&scienceAll photos by Jeremy Stegall

Against Nevada-Las Vegas on Nov. 6 last year, Raterink went in to relieve Bramlet and threw for 227 yards and four touchdown passes en route to the Pokes 53-45 triple overtime victory — the program’s fi rst conference road triumph in fi ve years. For his services, Raterink was named Mountain West Conference co-Off ensive Player of the Week.

Off the football fi eld, Raterink is a 4.0 senior studying business administration and fi nance. He was also named a fi nalist for the Rhodes scholarship, which is the oldest international fellowship where winners receive two years of covered admission to the University of Oxford.

Academic and athletic success are nothing new to Raterink, who scored a perfect 4.0 at his Longmont, Colo. high school of Skyline, while leading his football team to a Northern Conference championship his senior year and being named an All-State selection in basketball. Colorado television station KCNC-TV named him Colorado Academic Prep Athlete of the Year for the 1999 to 2000 school year.

How do people like Raterink manage to do so well in athletics and academics? According to Raterink, it all boils down to time management and help from those around him although not everyone believed he could accomplish such feats in college.

“I was told that when you come

to college, especially playing a sport, that it’s not going to happen like that,” Raterink said. “It’s not that you listen to those people, but it kind of motivates you to prove them wrong.”

With such dedication to academics, it is easy to imagine other players looking at him as some sort of geek. Although they respect his scholastic achievements, they never fail to poke fun at him.

“A lot of guys kid me about being the ‘smart one’ on the team. I had one guy ask me for a job later on down the road,” Raterink joked. “Th ey look at me as an intelligent player as well, which is a nice compliment.”

Th e man from whom Raterink receives the ball has also proved his academic abilities during his time at UW. Senior center Trenton Franz was also named a fi nalist for the Rhodes scholarship, posting an impressive 3.814 GPA in civil engineering and water resources.

Being a Rhodes Scholar has been Franz’s dream ever since his days at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, Colo. Franz also attributes his academic success to managing his time eff ectively and not wasting precious pockets of potential study time.

Chances are if you can’t fi nd Franz on the football practice fi eld, he is in the engineering building where he studies until the wee hours of the night or until the janitor is locking up. And when he is

not hitting the books, he is at practice or memorizing plays.

“Th ere’s defi nitely a lot of memorization with plays, but once you’ve been here a couple years football gets a little easier,” Franz said. “You just hope you don’t get hit too hard in the head during practice before you go and take a test and lose all that information.”

Being from Fort Collins, Colo., he almost ended up at Colorado State University where his brother, Derek, played for fi ve years as the team’s place kicker.

“Growing up, I hated Wyoming and was a big CSU fan,” Franz admitted. “But when Wyoming off ered me a scholarship and CSU off ered me to walk-on the team, it was an easy choice.”

CSU’s loss was Wyoming’s gain. Franz has started 42 consecutive games at center for the Cowboys and was named fi rst team all-conference for 2004. Academically, Franz became the fi rst Cowboy to be named First Team Academic All-American since Brian Brown in 1998.

“Trenton has been the pillar of this season,” head football coach Joe Glenn said. “And he’s always fi rst in line to volunteer.”

With fi ve players named to the 2004 Academic All-District VII football team, UW continues an academic tradition that includes 12 All-Americans in program history.



A lot of guys kid me about being the ‘smart one’ on the team. I had one guy ask me for a job later on down the road They look at me as an intelligent player as well, which is a nice compliment.

J.J. RaterinkUW Quarterback

In recent years, the women’s basketball program has enjoyed similar academic prestige. The 2002 squad had the highest combined GPA in the nation at 3.486. Although that number has dipped a little in the last couple years (3.383 in 2003 and 3.259 in 2004), the 2004 team still reached the 25th academic ranking in the nation out of 317 schools.

“They take a great deal of pride in doing well academically,” head coach Joe Legerski said of the players on the women’s basketball team. “The process they go through every day of having to attend class and get homework done and then also trying to balance athletics is a huge challenge.”

“I take it just like I think a lot of students would take a job,” senior point guard Ashley Elliot said. “I’ve always prided myself in working hard in the classroom and putting a hundred percent into whatever I do.”

As a business administration major, Elliot has been named Academic All-Conference since her freshman year, joining fellow seniors Kristen Lenhardt and Sara Hippen on last season’s list. She was also the team’s leading scorer with 16.9 points per game in 2004.

As much as the team works hard in practice, a heavy emphasis is laid on the academic side as well.

Coach Legerski believes the program’s biggest focus should be to graduate their student-athletes, and the numbers back the program’s overall success.

The trend for female basketball players at UW graduating within four years of entering the program is comparable to that of the regular student body — 56 percent for the women’s team and 54 percent for the general student population. However, from a six-year perspective, the rate jumps significantly in favor of the basketball players. Seventy-five percent of the women’s basketball team graduated within six years of entering the program, compared to only 57 percent of all UW undergraduates.

“They make it known that you need to keep your grades above a 2.5 or you’re not going to be in there, because you don’t want to be ineligible at any point,” Elliot said.

Although there is some pressure to maintain a high grade point average, Elliot has never felt she was about to slip.

“I think a lot of it is just my will,” Elliot said. “I’m so self-driven that I don’t want to fail at anything I do, and I think that’s how a lot of the girls on the team feel.”

Hard work and dedication is also part of wrestler Bryce Leonhardt’s recipe to success.


After seeing what I could do in college, I thought, ‘Wow, I probably could’ve aced through high school … I have a limited social life, but I have my family and that’s all I really need.

Shauna SmithUW Track

Leonhardt manages to attend his full-load class schedule, student-teach algebra and geometry at Laramie High School (which includes preparing lessons and grading homework assignments), wrestle in the 125-pound weight class, and keep his body in shape by weight-lifting and practicing. On top of that, he also maintains a 3.9 GPA in his secondary education classes.

“Most of all, I think you just got to live on a strict schedule,” Leonhardt said. “It’s more about planning and how you manage your time to create windows of opportunity to get all your homework done and study for those tests.”

As a sophomore in 2003, Leonhardt did not lose a match after November and collected a 20-3 record until an injured sternum at practice ended his season.

His high GPA earned him All-American honors for 2004, but the Casper native attributes part of that success to the strong academic support staff at UW.

Academic excellence at the collegiate level may often be preceded by high achievements in high school, but that was not the case for track athlete and senior Shauna Smith.

“I got Bs,” Smith recalled of her high school career. “I wasn’t like a straight-A student, but when I got to college I really started applying myself.”

Switching her major from nursing to business management, the sprinter/hurdler from Sheridan now tops the team GPA with a 3.649.

“After seeing what I could do in college, I thought, ‘Wow, I probably could’ve aced through high school,’” Smith said.

The Cowgirl track team has stepped up in the classroom to be ranked number 15 in the nation academically with a combined GPA of 3.263.

This summer, Smith competed at the U.S. Olympic trials in Sacramento where she placed sixth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 54.42 seconds. Her mark set a new Mountain West Conference record and broke the UW record in the event by almost one second.

A three-time All-American on the track, Smith is also a believer that prioritizing is the key for success for a lifestyle that mixes academics and athletics.

“I have a limited social life, but I have my family and that’s all I really need,” she said.

Learning about some of the UW athletes’ achievements, and how they were accomplished, probably indicates that there is usually no short road to success. More than anything, the athletes’ stories reiterate the old adage, “Gold medals don’t make champions...hard work does.”



Wanderlust:Medicine for the restless soul

Hannah Wiest© Frontiers 2005

The interviews are over. I sit in the Hastings Hard Back Café perusing my notes, reliving Karl and Nadi’s study abroad

stories. Guatemala and France. Wonder, frustration, maturation and fear. Each story told with animated passion, with a trembling-voiced longing to return, to travel again and to see more.

Travel, it seems, ignites a fire in people, a restless yearning to rove, a desire to understand the unknown and an awareness of the soul. I’ve communed with two such impassioned wanderers, and each

wants to share their experiences and spark wanderlust on the University of Wyoming campus.

Karl Schnackenberg, an elementary education major at UW, leans toward me over an already small table and grips it as if to halter his excitement. He laughs.

“The first week,” he begins, and the stories tumble out.

The Guatemalan wedding. Schnackenberg and fellow UW

student, Erik Kirseh, looked like Mormon missionaries as they walked into a local wedding — became acutely aware of their white skin and failed to locate the girls who invited them and walked out again.

“We were 30 minutes late,”

Schnackenberg recalls with a sheepish grin. Already the story is good. But it gets better. Being one of two white guys at a wedding may be awkward, but it was nothing compared to the reception. There were 500 guests, dancing, drinking, and yes, there was the throwing of the garter. “I don’t know what I was thinking, but when

European Community/Courtesy


the garter flew over my head, I shot my hand into the air and caught it. Then I held it at my side, hoping no one would notice.” But the crowd parted and cheered on Schnackenberg in a Guatemalan wedding tradition: placing the garter on the leg of the girl who caught the bouquet — with his teeth. “It was awkward,” he admits, but an exciting start to his semester abroad.

The classes. Schnackenberg’s first entry in his daily journal was, “Wow. They speak really

fast.” Even with five semesters of high school Spanish and two in college, learning entirely in a foreign language was difficult. “I got a lot of sleep,” Schnackenberg says, “because translating from Spanish is tiring.” With classes such as ornithology, the study of birds; Central American anthropology and archeology; history of Guatemalan art; and history of Guatemalan music and prevention of natural disasters, one may understand his fatigue. Yet Schnackenberg realizes the advantage of being uninformed. “I was like a sponge there because I didn’t know anything.”

Luckily, however, he was also able to absorb outside of the classroom on some amazing field trips.

The howling monkeys. Although Schnackenberg

took several field trips, it is with noted delight that he recalls one archeological journey to four sites in northern Guatemala, including the famous Tikal temples. “Tikal was amazing. I never expected to be standing near or on top of the temples,” he says about the ruins of the Guatemalan city that flourished more than thousand years ago. The trip also included Topexta Island, the last Mayan area converted by Spanish settlers, and Yaxha, where Schnackenberg experienced a soothing sunset atop a temple and some not-so-soothing howling monkeys. “You can supposedly hear them for over a mile, and I woke up with them right above my shack,” he recalls. “They make this sound I can’t even imitate.” And with a tape recording of the sound, he won’t ever have to. However, just as Schnackenberg will never forget

David R. Huskins/Courtesy

I was like a sponge there because I didn’t know anything. Tikal was amazing. I never

expected to be standing near or on top of the temples.

Karl Schnackenberg

David R. Huskins/Courtesy

the piercing scream of howling monkeys, he will also never forget his experiences at the opposite end of the spectrum in utter silence.

The solitude. “I was lonely,” he admits. “Being that separated from everyone

was one of the hardest experiences of my life.” Schnackenberg says sometimes he felt like being in a car compactor, isolated in a “crushing solitude.” Although phone calls and email helped, Schnackenberg thinks there are different levels of knowing someone is alive. When there’s no contact, you have to assume people are alive. Through the Internet, you interact with people who at least claim to know you. The phone lets you hear their voices. But the greatest evidence of life occurs face-to-face. “The lack of personal interaction was huge for me,” he says. “I need people.” Schnackenberg says he coped with the loneliness through journalling, prayer and Bible reading. He also recommends that those considering study abroad check the communication systems beforehand.

The future. Schnackenberg is back in Laramie attending classes, playing sports

and enjoying living in his apartment thinks his travels definitely gave him an international focus and a lust for more travel. He would like to teach internationally and was recently given the opportunity to do his student teaching in Guatemala. Although that decision is still uncertain, he knows one thing for sure: “Now that I’ve been way out of my comfort zone, I want to go back.”

Travelers often want to go back. Either back to the country that originally arrested their passion or on another journey, to a different destination.

Study abroad student Kambili-Mayani Tambwahe, known as “Nadi,” is no different. She feels France wooing her back every day. But as she sips raspberry tea in my dining room, I can tell she doesn’t know where to begin.

“The first day,” I offer, and a memory-driven smile inches across her face. She half closes her eyes.

The “Oh my God, I’m in France!” moment. First impressions, it seems, are often statements of the obvious

felt with the intensity of a thousand exclamation points. When Nadi flew into Paris on Jan. 21, 2001, she knew she would remember the day forever. It was her first time on an airplane since her family flew to America from Zaire in 1980. It was surprisingly cold. And once she entered the airport, she immediately realized, “It’s French or bust!” After a train ride to Tours, known as the garden of France, Nadi moved in with her host family. Finally, after a lifetime of wanting to see France and an attitude that she deserved to go, Nadi was welcomed into the big, beautiful and historic Milliats home.

The integration. Living with a French family

and taking eight classes at two local universities submerged Nadi in both the culture and language. “I had to verbalize in French every day, all the time,” she says, a fact that immediately made her “textbook speech” obvious. Nadi worked hard to learn “real French” and slang, taking notes while watching “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” with her host sister and constantly tuning in to the radio. “I didn’t want to sound like a book all the time,” she says.

Nadi, like Schnackenberg, also absorbed her new culture. “I didn’t want to be a


I didn’t want to be a student;

I didn’t want to be a tourist.

I wanted to be French.Kambili-Mayani Tambwahe




student; I didn’t want to be a tourist,” she quips. “I wanted to be French.” And French she was. She reveled in the luxury of two-hour lunches, the vibrancy of market days and the sumptuous food. “I loved the yogurt; I ate myself sick on the bread; I had cheeses I’d never heard of,” she confesses. She also adored kebabs, a mutton and turkey dish that she swears makes all who enjoy them exclaim, “Yes, we worship them!”

The uncertainty. Although most of Nadi’s time in France was

viewed through rose-colored glasses, she admits there were frustrations and fears. Initially, being shy by nature, she was afraid of people, of her host family and of destroying the French language. Two days after arriving she felt devastatingly homesick. “I really missed my parents,” she says. “I would look around and wonder where they were. I even missed the feel of my carpet.” Also, she says, things in Europe are just more disorganized. “I was shuffled around offices, buildings, campuses and classes,” she remarks with obvious frustration at the unconcerned and unhurried European attitude. But, once she adjusted, Nadi learned to enjoy the slower pace and the genuine investment in people rather than programs.

The reverse culture shock. It has been said that all good things

must end. In June 2001, French Nadi had to become American Nadi again, a task that proved far more difficult than she had expected. “It bothered me that we are so American here,” she says. “I missed the international culture, the variety, the open and friendly conversations and the closeness of the people,” noting that greeting someone with a kiss in America would likely offend people and brand you as a lesbian. Also, Nadi says, before studying abroad she understood the pressure in America to learn English, but not after. She constantly wants to tell people to get some culture and to learn about different people. “I can’t wait to go back,” she exclaims, adding with breathless excitement that next spring she will. After four years of intense wanderlust, Nadi finally gets to eat and be satisfied (literally and figuratively) with another journey to Europe. Travel, she says, “is just good for you. It’s good for your health.”

Has the wanderlust infected you? Are you packed, ready to go, drooling with anticipation? Julia Whyde, international study abroad and exchange coordinator at UW, is ready to send you.

The wanderlust cure.

Whyde, who studied abroad in Beijing, and who has since lived in China for four years and spent time in numerous other countries including Guatemala, Spain and Australia, can be considered a “travel doctor.” She has the knowledge and the resources to prescribe a healthy dose of travel to any journey-craved student who seeks her help.

The destinations. Students can go about anywhere they want, Whyde

says, but UW is established in about 30 countries. There are two routes that lead out of the country: exchange

and study abroad. With an exchange program, the student pays all tuition,

room and board to UW and then changes places with a student

from the target country. In a study abroad program, the

student pays all costs to the host school. Although an exchange might be a better

deal financially, Whyde says study abroad offers more flexibility and more opportunities. Since an exchange requires that a student from the target school come to UW, it can be difficult because several students may be vying

for one spot, especially to highly desired destinations

such as Australia and New Zealand. However, Whyde says,

if a student is set on an English language exchange, as opposed

to a foreign language experience, there are several possibilities, including

Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong and Japan.

The rewards. No matter where a student goes, the

experience will most likely be invaluable. Whyde, who grew up in Wyoming, says, “I know how much study abroad has changed my life. It directly affected my life path.” Being fluent in Chinese has allowed Whyde to work as a translator for the Department of the Interior and spend time in the Gulf of Mexico translating for Chinese biologists as they were observing sea turtles.

“Students, once they come back, have a much better view of themselves,” Whyde assures, emphasizing that “the courage it takes to extract yourself from the known and place yourself in to the unknown” is

definitely a life-changing experience. Whyde agrees with Nadi that travel is good for a

person’s health. “I think everybody should have the opportunity to

take advantage of what the world has to offer before being strapped down.”

Now is the time students can rove restlessly, understand the unknown and search for their souls. The world is your classroom. Go.

Although most of Nadi’s time in France was viewed through rose-colored glasses, she admits there were frustrations and fears. Initially, being shy by nature, she was afraid of people, of her host family and of destroying the French

arriving she felt devastatingly

unconcerned and unhurried European attitude. But, once

to enjoy the slower pace and the genuine investment in people

The reverse culture shock.

two routes that lead out of the country: exchange and study abroad. With an exchange

program, the student pays all tuition, room and board to UW and then

changes places with a student from the target country. In a

study abroad program, the student pays all costs to the

host school. Although an

highly desired destinations such as Australia and New

Zealand. However, Whyde says, if a student is set on an English

language exchange, as opposed to a foreign language experience,

there are several possibilities, including Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Germany,

Now is the time students can

rove restlessly, understand

the unknown and search for their souls. The world is your classroom. Go.

Spring 2005 #2

Documents

Transcript of Spring 2005 #2