Journalism from Square One: Peter Gartrell, holding it down in Wyoming

I promised Peter a while ago that I would post about his adventures (hence the "from abroad" topic) in Gillette, Wyoming. Peter was driving back to Oregon (i might have mixed up the details here) where he was working on an organic farm, decompressing after his illustrious Macalester career.

As he drove through Gillette, he picked up a newspaper in a gas station and thought, wouldn't it be a good idea to see about getting a job here? So he pestered them for a while in his usual polite yet indefatigable fashion, and the Gillette News-Record hooked him up with the cub reporter slot. Fortunately, rather than the cats-in-trees beat, he is now covering the energy industry (mostly natural gas), which is a very big deal out in those parts. He has spent a hella long time figuring out all these weird drilling techniques and stuff, going to visit drilling sites and hanging out with the roughnecks.

I think it is a very cool venture for him to go with, because what better place to get a grip on things than the most sparsely populated state in the country? I don't really have a lot more useful to say about it, but here are links to most of Peter's stories. i think the paper publishes like 5 or 6 days a week, so he's pretty darn busy.

My favorites were his recent major feature about new gas drilling technology & ventures, and the story of the gas technicians who rescued fifteen people from a trailer park that got wasted by a sudden tornado. So here is the set of Peter's stories so far, via the newspaper site's search function. Keep holding it down, P, that's Cheney country out there, and we need to keep an eye on 'em:

Pumped up Sep. 4, 2005
With rigs peppering the Rocky Mountain region, Gillette-based Cyclone Drilling s business has more than doubled since 2000. Rigs operate around the clock and they still have a hard time keeping pace with demand. We were running 10 (drilling rigs) in ...
Local gas prices climb to 2.90 Sep. 6, 2005
As gas prices rise across the country, drivers in Gillette are responding, as the average increased to 2.90, more than 1 higher than a month ago on Aug. 4. Felix Vondracek, on his way back to York, Neb., after visiting his son in Billings, Mont., s...
Latest Avenues of Art display includes 27 pieces Aug. 12, 2005
Standing next to his most recent piece of public art, Karl Saliter, his daugter and four Gillette Street Department employees smiled for a publicity photo as hail began to fall. The semi-circle of smiling faces cradled Saliter s work of granite, stee...
Gillette feels pinch of nationwide shortage of cement Aug. 28, 2005
When Basic Energy s cement supply was cut by 40 percent in July, Rod Geil called suppliers in Utah, Colorado, Texas, Iowa and Alberta, Canada, in search of more. Each time he was told the same thing: We don t have any. The drilling company is still i...
Scavenger hunt for new teachers Aug. 24, 2005
Campbell County s 58 new teachers spent Tuesday searching for cowboy hats, rhinos, toys and firefighters during a scavenger hunt that was part of new employee orientation. New teachers were paired with experienced teachers who are helping the new emp...
President declares Wright a disaster area Aug. 23, 2005
President Bush signed a disaster declaration Monday, making federal relief funds available for Wright residents affected by the Aug. 12 tornado that struck the town. The declaration came 10 days after the tornado destroyed or severely damaged 92 home...
Jacobs Ranch wins mine rescue contest Aug. 21, 2005
The blood-covered and headless body of a mine worker had fallen more than 30 feet off an overburden drill, and his co-workers were stranded. In Saturday s simulated accident, one worker was lying only feet from the smashed skull with a badly broken l...
Kids donate money from stand to Wright tornado victims Aug. 17, 2005
Logan Wasson and Ashlyn Pearson were selling juice and baked goods at their old-fashioned lemonade stand on Tuesday. But the money they make isn t for them. The Gillette fifth-graders will donate their profits to help the victims of the Wright tornad...
Rescuers pull 15 from the wreckage Aug. 14, 2005
Scott Lindsey, Bob Shock and Luke Reddy leapt from their rig and headed toward the voice of a woman screaming hysterically. She was standing near a mobile home that had been flipped over, a home so mangled that all the things that were on the floor w...
Latest Avenues of Art display includes 27 pieces Aug. 13, 2005
Standing next to his most recent piece of public art, Karl Saliter, his daugter and four Gillette Street Department employees smiled for a publicity photo as hail began to fall. The semi-circle of smiling faces cradled Saliter s work of granite, stee...
Head-on kills 3 Gillette men Aug. 30, 2005
Three people were killed and one is hospitalized after a two vehicle accident west of Wright on Monday afternoon. Anthony Vance, 21, of Gillette, and two passengers died instantly when their pickup truck, traveling northbound on Highway 387, drifted ...