Wyoming's fascination with a Hollywood version of itself has pushed the state toward economic distress, an aging population and a drain on young people who leave to find work, a Sheridan author says.

The state hasn't been able to shake the long-held idea that Wyoming is a rugged cowboy haven where riches will spill out of farming, ranching and mineral development, says author Samuel Western.

"This mythology broke us," says Western, whose recently released book, "Pushed Off the Mountain, Sold Down the River: Wyoming's Search for its Soul," has already sold out. A second printing is scheduled.

Wyoming is the fastest aging state in the country. Only Teton County saw growth in school enrollment between 1990 and 2000. The birthrate is at an all-time low. University of Wyoming graduates are leaving the state in droves.

"Any university where 70 percent of graduates leave to find work is a system that needs to be discussed," Western said. Wyoming didn't recover from the Depression until 1973,

when the oil embargo drove up prices. But during the lean years between, when ranching and farming were supposed to be king, Wyoming's economy continued its slump. Western says that when one governor took office in the 1960s, there was $80 in the state's general fund.

"The more dependent on natural resources, the poorer we're going to be on a local basis," he says.

Western has been criticized at previous speeches for appearing to be anti-agriculture. He believes there is a place for farming and ranching in Wyoming, but they need to be viewed in real terms, not in some fictionalized ideal about what they should be or might be one day.

The economic realities of ranching and farming are not encouraging, he says. About two-thirds of the production of irrigated crops in Wyoming is hay, which has one of the lowest profit margins. And in Goshen County, which has some of the state's most widespread agricultural production, there are more children living at the poverty level than anywhere else in the state. Western believes Wyoming needs to re-examine its perception of itself, accept a diversified economy and invest in education and infrastructure. And it needs new vision within its communities.

"It's up to us, the people in this state, to take risks that are not related to natural resources," Western says. "The best resources are the resources we have between our ears."

Reprinted by permission of the Billings Gazette.