Tourism holds steady

Kim Dean
Managing Editor
 
Tourism numbers appear to be holding steady, compared with last year’s traffic at this time, according to local businesses. 
Rachel Householder, owner of the Pines Motel said that tourist traffic seems comparable with last season’s.
Andrew McKay, director of the Newcastle Area Chamber of Commerce, has only been at the helm a little over two months, so he doesn’t have a base to make the comparison, he said. However he has seen a steady amount of tourists seeking maps and information. 
“We have lots of people come in for a Wyoming map, and we also get requests for South Dakota maps. I have been very surprised with the frequency of people stopping in here,” he said. 
Visitors have been from the Netherlands, Uruguay, Quebec, Massachusetts and Maryland, including many from Minnesota, he said. 
“A lady and her daughter stopped in from Barcelona, Spain. Her daughter had been a foreign exchange student in Minnesota,” McKay said. McKay and his wife ended up having an enjoyable lunch with the duo, he said.
McKay has found the people who come in to the visitors center to be very friendly, and they are also searching for fun and unique things to do.
“If you give them a suggestion, they are more than happy to try it,” he said.
For the past few years, the Weston County Museum has seen some year-round visitors, said Director Bobbie Jo Tysdal. According the museum district’s assistant director, Mandy Williams, traffic started to pick up in May. The month of June and first couple weeks of July were really busy for the museum, she said.
“We do get a lot of people coming in to
do family research,” Williams said. Tysdal added that they have gone along to the cemetery with these researchers, and even shared a tear with them.
“We have people come in and say, ‘We hear you have a ghost town here.’ And some ask to see the two-headed calf,” Williams said. They usually direct the two-headed calf seekers to the Red Onion Museum in Upton, where the specimen now resides.
Museum visitors from Australia, Germany, Norway, New York and many more places have made a stop this season and have left registry comments such as “very interesting,” “very clean and well kept,” “amazing, wonderful displays,” and “exceptional collection, great history.”
A couple visiting from Wyoming’s sister city, Newcastle Upon Tyne in England, stopped by this year, leaving a comment that “this museum is the town’s jewel.”
According to Weston County, Wyoming The First 100 Years book, Newcastle received its name from the first superintendent of the Cambria coal mine, Joseph Hemingway. Hemingway, a native of England, had mined in England and Pennsylvania and had the honor of naming the new town and mine, which he named after two coal towns in England: Newcastle and Cambria.
Another recent visitor included Bob Spencer, grandson of J.C. Spencer, whose comment read, “J.C. Spencer was the founder of the LAK.”
Linda Ahlers, senior executive hospitality management for Newcastle Lodge and Convention Center said that business is up over last year’s. The convention center held its grand opening on July 10, 2018.
“We were new, so nobody really knew about us, so I’m sure that was some of it. We are having a great summer, of which we are thankful for,” she concluded.