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Words you need to know living in Casper Wyoming! Every town has their “own words.” Watch this video and we will fill you in on all the things you need to know about how to say what! Like how do you say CY?
Hi, I’m Alisha Collins with “RE/MAX The Group” and the Alisha Collins Real Estate Team. As a real estate agent, I pride myself on knowing the ins and outs of my local area. And that includes knowing the local lingo. Of course, I might not be familiar with some of our local terminology, but let’s see what I do know.
Hmm, should I start with the words we use or the pronunciation of words that you aren’t likely to know unless you are local? What about place names? Working in real estate, as you might guess, I need to know how to navigate through Casper and all of our nearby towns and know it well enough to help others navigate through the area, too. So, I’m going to start with some of our street names.
If you travel through the middle of Casper and are heading towards the west side uptown, we have a major, for our town anyway, street that some people call “The Strip” or “The Main Drag”. No, it’s not Vegas or a racetrack, just a strip of asphalt leading from around Natrona County High School, all the way out until it turns into Highway 220. A road, which goes west out of Casper on the way to two of our amazing reservoirs. For those of us that live here, we know it as “CY Avenue”. For those that are new to the area and maybe reading a map or may decide to ask directions from Siri or Alexa, you might think it’s pronounced “Sai” Avenue. So why is it pronounced CY when it looks like it should be “Sai”? CY Avenue is named after ranch of the same name from around the 1800s. So if you ask a local where “Sai” Avenue is you will definitely be marked as an outsider.
Let’s talk about Outter Drive. You’ve just gotten to town and you’ve asked directions and you were told, “Take Outter Drive to CY Avenue.” You look on your navigation system, map, or ask Alexa or Siri, and you won’t find it. Why? Well, Outter Drive is the common name used by the locals who fondly call that section of Highway 258 named “Wyoming Boulevard” that we use when you want to travel all the way from the east side to the west side, with very minimal lights to slow you down. Wyoming Boulevard stretches from the outskirts of the town of Evansville, a small town located on the north east side of Casper, south and west making its way along the foothills around the city of Casper and turning back north towards Mills, another small town on the north west side of Casper. But to make it even more confusing, Outter Drive isn’t the whole boulevard. Rather, it’s just the part that, yep you guessed it, the part that goes out around town. I have always considered the stretch from Wyoming Boulevard and 2nd Street on the east end to the intersection at Wyoming Boulevard and CY on the west to be Outter Drive. Occasionally some people may even call it Outter Loop or the Outter Belt. But most commonly it’s called Outter Drive.
So as you’re driving on Outter Drive, be sure you keep an eye out for a goat or a pronghorn or an antelope. Huh? Three different animals all roaming around? Well, actually there are a variety of animals that tend to wander across the streets of Casper. But none are more prevalent than what we call antelope, pronghorn, goat, speed goat. Wait, what do we call them? Well, I call ’em antelope, but what are they really called? According to the Wyoming Game and Fish, they are called antelope. Officially, it is actually a pronghorn. The technical Latin name is… Oh I can’t say that. Which translates to American Antelope Goat. But apparently it isn’t a goat or an antelope, just a pronghorn, whatever you call them. They’re a common sight in Casper and throughout Wyoming. Many enjoy hunting them. And many of us spend at least some of our drive time avoiding them.
Phew, that’s a whole lot to take in. But we’re not finished yet. Another animal name that has always seemed to be up for debate, well, maybe just discussion is the Coyote or is it the Coyot-e? So which is it? Coyote with two syllables or Coyot-e with three syllables? That depends on who you ask. I hear that there are even some people who call a single one a coyot-e, but if there are two or more, then they call ’em coyotes, not coyot-es. Maybe it’s because of all the cartoon influences of Wiley Coyote. But I feel like I have heard it as coyot-e more often than not. How do you pronounce it? I have heard it both ways throughout Wyoming.
What about the Pokes? And I’m not talking about the electronic nudging that people do on the internet. I’m talking about the Wyoming Cowboys, the athletic team at our only state university, The University of Wyoming. They’re officially the Cowboys and Cowgirls, but are often referred to as simply the Pokes. I’m pretty sure that term came from the history of actual Cowboys. Traditionally, cowboys have to keep cattle in check, especially free-range cattle that are typically in Wyoming, possibly through the whole cattle prod thing. Thus leading to the term “cowpoke”, leading to the nickname for our UW Cowboys as the Pokes. Wyoming is after all the Cowboys’ state. Well, wherever the term came from, it’s definitely a Wyoming thing and we love our Cowboys. Go Pokes!
I know there are plenty more local-only terms, weird punctuation’s and local lingo out there. Be sure to comment below if I forgot your favorite. I’m sure I forgot something. Casper area real estate is what I know best, but I do know a lot about Wyoming and I wanna share it with you.
So for more information on Wyoming be sure to subscribe to my channel. Maybe my next video should be about the city names you won’t be able to pronounce unless you’re a local or become one. I love it here. And remember, I want you to love where you live, too. We love chatting with you on the phone or in person. You can even send us an email. See you soon!