Longmire (Casper, Gillette, Buffalo: hotel, compensation, living)

[Electrician4you]

Lol Longmire is a great show for entertainment. If it was true that would mean there is more crime and killing in a small town than the big city.
It reminds me of The OC show, which depicts a area that is not OC by any means and depicts a posh life style that would require hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain.
EVERY town or city has their snooty high faluting people and areas.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by Electrician4you

(snip).
EVERY town or city has their snooty high faluting people and areas.

You obviously haven't spent much time in Wyoming ....

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by Electrician4you

Lol Longmire is a great show for entertainment. If it was true that would mean there is more crime and killing in a small town than the big city.
It reminds me of The OC show, which depicts a area that is not OC by any means and depicts a posh life style that would require hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain.
EVERY town or city has their snooty high faluting people and areas.

Yep. We have in every town I have lived in.

As far as snow is concerned, around the Big Horns, our snow averages 10% moisture. In other words, for every 10 inches of snow, it equals out to 1 inch of rain. Occassionally we get dry powder here, but it's not the norm. Sometimes we get wet, very heavy snow and nope, it's not the norm either.

I like the Longmire series, it's great entertainment. It's not a documentary, nor is it on the history channel, it is not about his books, it is likened to his books. But when it comes down to it, it's a tv show. If I wanted to watch reality, I'd watch the Kardashians, or Honey Boo Boo.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

Most NM snow is powder snow ... similar in moisture content to what we see in WY due to being at similar altitudes and temp ranges in the mountain areas.

The difference is that WY has much higher average wind speeds and instant gusts that prevail during a snow storms passage.

The result is that the wind-driven snow rarely "falls", it is blown sideways. Even after the snowfall has stopped, the winds continue to blow the snow around so the visibility continues to be reduced. This is a process which can continue for days after snowfall has stopped, creating difficult driving conditions as well as obscured roads which need to be plowed to even find the road.

Wind-blown drifts can be quite high and accumulate dense wind-packed snow. The drifts can become a significant issue around buildings and structures; for example, our couple hundred yard long driveway to the house can form 4 of these drifts across it in a modest snowfall. The driveway can be blown almost clear in spots, but the drifts can be as high as the top of our 4x4 pick-up hood, 5'-6' wide, and 20'-30' long.

You don't bash your way through those drifts to the road adjacent, it takes clearing them with equipment. At that, I've had more than one night when I've been confident that I'd clear the forming drifts in the AM with my JD4020Diesel tractor/loader that was plugged in so it would start in the AM ... and come out in the morning to find that the prevailing winds of that storm had blown a drift over the tractor, burying it up to ... if not over ... the cab. It's not uncommon to find pasture fences totally buried for many yards, if not a 1/2 mile, in the drifts. The drifts are so wind-packed that the livestock can walk over the fences that aren't there anymore to block them. I've got shelter belt trees around my house/barns area, and it's not uncommon for the 20' high trees to be totally buried for most of a winter around here with sloping drifts 100' wide leading up to the peaks ... and that's in the recent drought years of minimal winter snowfall.

One thing you'll notice in WY when driving many of the major roads through the windy areas ... are the "wind fences" for the snow. These are located to capture the prevailing wind driven snowdrifts away from the roadway. They are of two varieties: 1) planted stands of trees (in otherwise treeless areas) to create a shelter belt, or 2) wooden structures that look like the bleacher supports. You'll see the wooden structures run for many yards, sometimes well over a 1/4 mile ... and oft-times, multiple structures linked together or overlapping so as to create a wind fence for miles along a roadway. It's noticeably absent in scenes of Longmire in NM.

Boy, you DO have winter weather for sure!

I have seen wind fences in isolated spots before in NM, but they aren't common here at all. The snow usually melts pretty soon except at the most extreme altitudes (Cloudcroft, et al).

When Longmire first aired, I recognized the country immediately, and wondered if it were anything close to what Wyoming actually is. I wish they'd film at least part of it where fictional Durant is supposed to be--somewhere between Sheridan and Buffalo--as far as I can tell.

[Wm Jas]

Disconnected?????

From what? – Fiction?

From of my post on page 4:

“……. this is a TV show based on a fictional town in a fictional county with fictional characters, which in turn is based on a fictional novel….

[Craig] ….. wanted to have the reservations close by. It was the TV producers who created the map whereby Sheridan County squeezed out Johnson County to the South and has Absaraka County bordering Montana with the fictional town [of Durant] close to the border to make it close to the reservations. Craig said that he had never really thought it out that far but it works.”

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by Wm Jas

Disconnected?????

From what? – Fiction?

(snip)

Those of us who live or are closely connected to WY can spot those concerns that I've raised and well understand that this is a fictional series set in WY.

But what the show's placement has succeeded in doing for a more general viewing audience is totally different ...

Here's a typical "review" found on the 'net, posted by a fellow in Los Angeles who claims a connection with the "West" because he's an investor in a ranch in Idaho and lives in a Western state ... (I quote)

"In a world of formula cop dramas and over the top western-themed shows filled with anachronisms and melodrama, Longmire is massively refreshing, engrossing and wonderful. Conflicted, complex characters, well developed story lines and a sense of realism not generally allowed out of the Hollywood Polish machine.

As a resident of a Western state, I feel like there is finally a show that represents Westerners as real people. Intelligent, passionate, flawed & conflicted, but above all real people. Wyoming isn't fly-over country filled with fly-over simple folks who don't represent enough Electoral votes to worry about when it comes to producing good, quality television programming. In an era where Hollywood is so focused on preaching to us with News Room or telling us we're nothing but dumb hillbillies mostly missing teeth, it was amazing to find a show that got it, and so perfectly.

If you're a Westerner, you'll love Longmire. It won't insult you and it's very well produced. If you're a non-Westerner, may want to check it out to help you realize not everyone who lives between CA and NY is a Yokle or a school-teaching drug dealer. This is how good TV can be."

(emphasis mine)

That's how the show's portrayal of modern Western life is being perceived by many happy viewers; ie, that they are seeing the actual real world of Wyoming today on the screen and by golly, as a real Westerner, they know what they're seeing is spot on correct about Wyoming.

That's a Hollywood success story, but it leads to a host of misconceptions about real life in Wyoming by many folk.

Here's yet another review, along the same line of thinking ...

"If you like stories about the genuine contemporary West, or if you like character-driven mysteries, you will love these episodes." (emphasis mine)

and so it goes for many reviews about the show. Folk are thinking that they're seeing the real deal about Wyoming, not a work of fiction.



I've had chatter back from some relatives and friends from the coasts of the USA who think from watching this show that they now know what the adventure is that I've chosen by living in this area of the country. IMO, that's the essence of the disconnect this show .... folk are taking it as being a true representation of what life here is all about.

[Wm Jas]

Wonderful reviews. And neither suggested that the show's location scenery matches the eastern foothills of the Big Horn's in northern Johnson County.

Your complaints are boorish.

[sunsprit]

"boorish"

def: ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance; "was boorish and insensitive"; "the loutish manners...

So that's all you've got, huh? don't like my take on your entertainment and gotta' start calling me names which are hardly appropriate to the discussion?

There's words for that, but EH would probably ban me for life to post them here ....

Enjoy your show. Nobody's stopping you ....

What I didn't post was the numerous reviews which really panned the show. I cited my examples as representative of the folk in TV land that are being lead to believe that the show is the "real deal" about contemporary Wyoming folk and representative of life here. It was especially laughable to see a fellow from Los Angeles qualifying himself as being knowledgeable of the folk of Wyoming because LA is "out west". I've spent enough time (regrettably ...) in Los Angeles to know it's a world apart from what we deal with here; typified by so many folk that come here from CA and don't even attempt to fit in, want to make this place just like the place they left which they didn't like. Yessir, getting all his concepts of Wyoming life affirmed by watching the one show on TV, a real expert.

[MicheleStitches]

Originally Posted by nicolevm

Funny! I stumbled on this thread because I had just watched the first couple of episodes of "Longmire" and promptly wanted to live in Wyoming! And yes I knew it was a show and not a documentary but everything was so pretty and all the men in Wranglers....aaagghhhh....anyway. Thanks for the reality check. Back to dreaming.

Nicole

Uh, Nicole, I got news for you...it IS really pretty in Wyoming and there ARE lots of men in Wranglers!

[phlinak]

Originally Posted by nicolevm

Funny! I stumbled on this thread because I had just watched the first couple of episodes of "Longmire" and promptly wanted to live in Wyoming! And yes I knew it was a show and not a documentary but everything was so pretty and all the men in Wranglers....aaagghhhh....anyway. Thanks for the reality check. Back to dreaming.

Nicole

I haven't read every post, so someone may have already told you.

Although, the show is based in Wyoming, it is filmed in New Mexico.