5 Reasons The Rest Of The State Should Aspire To Be More Like Douglas

Do you ever wonder to yourself how a town of 6,100 people gets to host the state fair every year? It's because they fight for it. They build the proper facilities to host it and average about 50,000 visitors during the week long event every year. They've hosted every fair since 1905 and it appears it will be there for the foreseeable future. 

At the forefront of many youth activities available in the small town, there is hockey. Douglas youth hockey plays every year in what is basically, a giant barn. It is set up and organized completely on a volunteer basis. The community rallies together so that kids can play the sport they love. This spring, Kraft nominated Douglas as one of their "Hockeyville USA" finalists. 

In what is a unique story, the first ever horse racing triple crown winner, Sir Barton, wound up being buried in Douglas. Instead of letting that just be a rare piece of trivia, Douglas decided to turn it into a giant party. Every year during Kentucky Derby weekend they throw a big downtown party. There's food, drinks, music, and many horse racing related activities.

In downtown Douglas, there stands a giant jackalope. The fiberglass creature stands at just over 80 feet tall, and was once the world's largest. The jackalope itself isn't the reason you should envy Douglas. It's the benefits that it brings. Every day dozens of tourists stop to take a photo of the creature and "Douglas, Wyoming" sign. That sign advertises the city to every one of the tourists Facebook friends. The jackalope also helps get people off of the interstate and into downtown Douglas.

A lot of communities do a good job at embracing their history, but Douglas excels. The Douglas WWII P.O.W. Camp, Douglas Railroad Interpretive Center, Pioneer Memorial Museum, Fort Fetterman Historic Site, and Oregon Trail landmarks are all listed as some of TripAdvisor's best things to see in Douglas.