The little town of Kemmerer is a hoot! I asked a local why they called themselves "Little Chicago." She said that for many years Kemmerer supplied the West with bootleg booze while Chicago supplied the East. The locals are very proud of their bootleg history. And
even the local Fossil Butte National Monument proudly displays old bootleg stills.
Kemmerer was also very widely known as a prostitution center in the West until 1969 when a sheriff got elected who shut down all the businesses. I asked, "Well, do you know any little old ladies who sit on their front porches in rocking chairs who used to be prostitutes?"
The local laughed. She said, "This is Wyoming! They don't sit on their porches in rocking chairs. That sheriff got booted out and the old ladies operate their businesses now on the quiet. Nobody talks about it."
This local lady who I talked to was very proud of Kemmerer's stance during the Second World War. She bragged, "We were the only town who wouldn't give up our Japanese to interment camps." She described how Federal agents would knock on a door and ask, "Is Mrs. Yamamoto here?" The white woman of European stock who had opened the door would answer, "I'm Mrs. Yamamoto!" The Feds could learn nothing because all the locals would stonewall them.
I asked her: "Okay, hypothetically, let's suppose I wanted to live here and I was smuggling from Canada something the Feds didn't allow." Before I could finish my sentence she said, "When the Feds come looking for you, I'd say 'Who?'" In other words, she personally, like many others in the town, wouldn't rat on me.
Other than their willingness to buck certain laws, Kemmerer locals' other great source of pride is J.C. Penny. J.C. Penny started his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming and is a legend extremely admired by locals for his business exploits. They never used the word "free enterprise" with me, but the locals glowed when telling me what J.C. Penny accomplished.
Christian and other spiritually oriented FSPers might really appreciate this: A very prominent monument of the 10 Commandments was very publically displayed on public property in the middle of town. It was so prominent that it was almost like the locals were saying to the world: "These few common sense laws are all the laws you really need." Because of the many cattle ranches in the region, I think the part they must like best is: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's cattle."