Episode Details

Wendy Corr:

Well, hey there, folks, welcome to The Roundup! We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, focusing on interesting people in the Cowboy State. And I'm telling you, I have known our guest today since I first started doing radio, but I've known his family even longer than that. That's one of the things about living in Wyoming for any length of time - people you meet, yor your paths overlap. And Cody Beers and I, our paths have overlapped many times over the years - and I'm so tickled to have him on as a guest today!

Cody has just celebrated 20 years with the Wyoming Department of Transportation. He's the spokesperson for district five up here in Northwest Wyoming, but he has lived the Wyoming life, and I'm just thrilled to be able to bring his experience and his knowledge and his stories to the listeners of The Roundup. So Cody Beers, good day to you! I'm so glad to have your face on here. You and I used to talk in person a lot more than we do now, but Cody, good morning. How are you?

Cody Beers:

Hey, good morning. It's always a beautiful day in Wyoming and I'm glad to be here with you, Wendy. And yeah, you've got the golden voice of Wyoming, and I'm very proud of you and what you've been doing in your career. And I've brought my parents do your music show, and I want to do that again. And because my dad loves music, he's getting to the point in his life where he'll probably just be dancing on stage with you guys. So well, all good stuff, and it'll be fun, but life is what it is. It's what we make of it. And every day in Wyoming has been a joy, even though some days are a little bit more stressful than others.

Wendy Corr:

You have had those days, Cody, because you're the one that has to tell us when there's a rock slide in Wind River Canyon, and when the highway over the Bighorns is closed, and when there's construction going on on the road to Yellowstone. These are the stories and the information that you have to impart to all of us, and you've been doing that now for 20 years.

But let's go back to your Wyoming roots. Cody, you were born in Torrington, and that's a fun story in itself, but you've lived everywhere, including on South Pass. And not everybody can say that. Tell us a little bit about your growing up in Wyoming.

Cody Beers:

Well my dad was drafted in the Vietnam era, and he was stationed in Hawaii. That's really where they put a lot of troops right before they sent people to Vietnam. And so my mom went over there. Mom and dad lived the bare bones life over there, and that's where I was conceived. And then they didn't want me to be born there, so they shipped me home - inside my mom - and I was born in Torrington. My mom was staying with my grandparents then, and then dad got discharged, thankfully, and was able to come home.

And we moved to a ranch up in Lusk, worked for the Reed family, which has Fremont County roots. And about a year later, my uncle in Lander - who celebrates his 90th birthday this weekend - my uncle Jerry Hecker was also a WYDOT guy, and he let my dad know about a job on South Pass. And so dad applied, got the job.

They threw all of our worldly possessions, probably including my crib, in the back of an old stock truck, and off to South Pass we went. We lived in South Pass for about nine years. I used to ride a bus 28 miles one way to town to go to kindergarten, and then first, second and third grade. We moved to Cody when I was in third grade, about '73 or so. And dad became the maintenance foreman at the Wyoming Highway Department in Cody.

You know, my mom worked various jobs, and then ended up being one of the longest serving employees ever in the, I believe the bank's called BMO now, but it started out as First State Bank in Cody. It probably