Heather Shoemaker Wyoming: Cheyenne Frontier Days

Heather Shoemaker of Wyoming has lived in Cheyenne for about ten years now. Originally from Midlothian, Texas, she moved to the Cowboy State after enrolling in the University of Wyoming. After graduation she went on to study law at UW's College of Law, where she received her degree in 2004. Along the way she met and married Jeremy K. Wilson, a software engineer and proud Wyoming native with no intention of living anywhere else.

By then, Heather Shoemaker of Wyoming had fallen in love with the Cowboy State, which as a lawyer specializing in civil rights law, she prefers to call The Equality State, another of its nicknames. Ten years, three children, and many house payments later, Heather Shoemaker of Wyoming is fully acclimated to Wyoming, and like her husband has no desire to be anywhere else.

As residents of Cheyenne, Heather and Jeremy look forward to the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days, held in Cheyenne every year since 1897. The Cheyenne Frontier Days draws some two hundred thousand visitors each summer, who enjoy outdoor rodeos and the celebration of cowboy culture. The Cheyenne Frontier Days spread over ten days each July, and Heather Shoemaker of Wyoming says that it is almost non-stop activity from start to finish.

"One of the things that Jeremy likes about Frontier Days is the fact that there is a Jack Kerouac connection," says Heather Shoemaker. Jack Kerouac is the celebrated author of On the Road and other novels. "He mentions the Frontier Days about thirty pages into On the Road. That was back in the 1940s that he was here, and he just happened to be passing through when – well, when he was on the road. But he wrote about it in his book. And Jeremy thinks that's pretty cool."