Small Star Valley community is a ‘cute’ place to visit
Smoot, Wyo., home of … well, Walton’s General Store.
Yellowstone National Park, the Buffalo Bill Museum and Ft. Bridger State Park are all stops a tourist on a road trip through Wyoming might visit. None of which are in Smoot, a small town located two hours from Logan, on the Wyoming side of the border between Wyoming and Idaho. Smoot does have, though, Walton’s General Store and a post office.
Any person driving into Smoot would first encounter a sign that still reads, “Smoot: Population 100.” While the population of Smoot has grown since that sign was made, it still stands in memorium of the town’s humble beginnings.
“A lot of people make fun of Smoot, but I like it,” said Stephanie Welch, a junior at Utah State University majoring in psychology from Smoot. “It’s a cute little place.”
The town of Smoot is also home to the Smoot Pioneer Day Parade, Welch said, which celebrates the pioneers establishing homes in Utah. Kids dress up in costumes and walk around the Smoot park, she said.
“The first year I was in it I was little and I dressed up like a cow,” Welch said. “It was one of those costumes with two people in it. My cousin was the head and I was the butt.”
The next year she was able to redeem herself and rode her horse in the parade, she said.
Welch’s family owns hundreds of acres on which they run a dairy farm, Welch said, and a horse company complete with a stud to breed with female horses. Most people in the area make their living by either farming or teaching school, Welch said.
The high school Welch graduated from was in Afton and had 800 students, but the students are from all over Star Valley and some have to commute an hour to get there, Welch said. Star Valley consists of 15 communities, one of which is Smoot, and it takes an hour to get from one side to the other.
Driving 10 hours to get to a sporting event was normal for Welch she said.
“Things are just so far away from each other in Wyoming,” Welch said. “It was normal to drive long distances to get places.”