Sheep Putting Town on Fast Track : Dubois went from logging to nature. Now, due to bighorn center, things are humming.

People here used to think of natural resources in terms of millions of board-feet of lumber. But when the U.S. Forest Service scaled down the nearby timber supply, the town’s 1,000 residents discovered another asset that had been there all along: Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.

“Dubois is home to the largest bighorn sheep herd in the country,” boasts Stan Blakeman, who owns a busy campground in town. “It’s a real draw for visitors to the area. Now we’re trying to protect the herd.”

Blakeman and other residents helped interest the U.S. Forest Service, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Bureau of Land Management in building the National Bighorn Sheep Interpretive Center--completed in July--to expand the tourist economy and offer education about wildlife.

This town’s somersault from logging camp to nature camp has not been without bruises. In 1987, when the Louisiana-Pacific Co. shut down its two-by-four stud mill, the largest of its kind in the country, 30% of the work force in Dubois became unemployed and the town lost 35% of its tax base. Many families moved away.

But now, the $1-million center draws more than 100 visitors a day, many of them en route to Yellowstone National Park, and the local economy is humming with wilderness tour businesses, second-home development and new cottage industries.

“From our perspective, the attitude of the town has changed dramatically from being in favor of resource extraction to supporting preservation over the long term,” says Tom Ryder, district wildlife biologist with the state Department of Game and Fish.

Pat Neary, director of economic development for Fremont County, says: “I think we may be one of the few places in the country basing our economic revitalization on wildlife and wild-land rehabilitation.”

“When the mills closed, everyone thought the town would just up and blow away,” says Mayor Jan Swift. “Now our economy is steadier and stronger than ever.”

By next year, the bighorn center is expected to draw 120,000 annual visitors, Neary says, enough to bring more than 200 jobs to the area, approximately the same number as the timber mills provided.

Many of the town’s affluent newcomers were attracted to Dubois because it does not have a heavy industry, says resident John Murdock, a retired professor of economics. “It would appear that the timber mills actually prevented growth,” he says. “People move here because of its non-economic attributes, its physical surroundings, its wildlife and its community.”

It is a lesson not lost on nearby communities, also facing the decline of extractive industries. Rawlins, Wyo., is planning a pronghorn antelope interpretive center, and the state has begun a new campaign of advertising its wildlife on major interstates.

“It’s clear to me that this type of amenities-driven economic development is happening elsewhere, particularly in the greater Yellowstone area,” says University of Montana economist Thomas Power.

One study prepared by the Wilderness Society in 1991 found that while most counties in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana grew only slightly or lost population during the 1980’s, those bordering wilderness areas and national forests grew an average of 10%. In the same period, while jobs related to agriculture and manufacturing fell, those in the service sector rose and ultimately generated more revenue.

Last year, in a move that would have been unthinkable half a decade ago, the town council opposed a Forest Service proposal to lease a nearby lakeside for oil and gas drilling. The Forest Service pulled the plan.