The longer I stay in Wyoming, the more I find to love. I came to Wyoming last year looking for a place to live. Cheaply. There’s more than one reason Wyoming is the least populous state. But those reasons have resulted in some cheap rent, and I’m happy for that. But that’s not the only reason I’m here.

My great-grandfather was adopted by a man of Irish heritage named McLaughlin. Growing up I was proud of my Irish heritage. I loudly celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, cheered for Notre Dame, and made sure when giving my name it was, “Capital m, small c, capital L…” My mom had t-shirts made with the Mclaughlin family crest. Why?? We weren’t Irish!

Supposedly the child that was adopted Mr. McLaughlin was a Native American kid adopted from the Wind River reservation. So that made us part Shoshone! My grandad had very bushy eyebrows. That was supposedly because of his native heritage. My grandparents lived out there retirement years in Arizona. They adopted Native dress and jewelry. As if they were elder indians living on the reservation. We’d call that cultural appropriation today. I guess they thought it was just easier to pretend they were what they looked like, rather than be what they were. It sort of makes sense for my grandad, after all he was supposedly secretly native. But my Grammy?

I got a DNA test done. 0.0% Native American. There’s some hint of Irishness, but mostly my ancestry comes from England and Northern Europe with a trace of African ancestry. My suspicion is my biological great-grandfather was of mixed-race African ancestry and his dark complexion was attributed to Native instead of African for acceptability reasons in 1890s Wyoming.

The puzzle-solver in me wants to find out where my great-grandfather came from. But now I have to try and find the birth, baptism, or adoption records from 1890s Wyoming. It was just barely a state! I think he came from either Wind River or one of the Catholic missions/schools of the area. I don’t know if I have enough interest to maintain an investigation.

Especially when there’s so much to look at! If you like looking at geologic strata tilted at angles when you’re driving, Wyoming is the place for you! Just don’t bring a light trailer as it is likely to get blown over in the near-persistent 50mph winds the state is know for! But my goodness the views you’ll see out your window as you drive across the beautiful state!

Ok, just one example of how awesome this place is that I just discovered. In northern Wyoming there’s a beautiful majestic whit mountain called Heart Mountain. It’s like a huge white rock plunked down on a base of lesser rock. It turns out unlike most of the rest of the world, the older rock is ON TOP of the younger rock. Rocks are supposed to get older the deeper you dig. How’d this huge big old rock end up on top of the younger base? Millions of years ago a 40,000 square mile section of a mountain broke free and slid at about 50 mph for over 30 miles. Heart Mountain is just the tiny remainder of the result of the world’s greatest landslide!