WAMSUTTER — It’s not surprising that even many Wyoming residents don’t know the first thing about this blink-and-you-miss-it dot on Interstate 80. After all, what could they be missing in a town with fewer than 200 permanent residents?

More than you’d think.

Not unlike the truckers and travelers who undergird its economy, the people here have mostly blown in from elsewhere.

There are no native Wamsutterites serving on the town council. There is only one locally raised teacher at the K-8 Desert School.

Ask any of the town's staple employees — from the service stations to the trickle of rig workers who sometimes shoot pool at the otherwise vacant Desert Bar — and they’ll all tell you the same thing.

“No one in Wamsutter is actually from Wamsutter,” said a woman who goes by Sabre, who in

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