The Cowboy Carousel Center

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Wall Street Journal Puts Buffalo, Wyoming Cowboy Carousel on Front Page

The historic Cowboy Carousel was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal on December 11th, 2012 to the delight of the board of the Cowboy Carousel Center

Buffalo, WYO — The historic Cowboy Carousel that will be the “jewel in the crown” of the newly opened Cowboy Carousel Center in Buffalo’s Downtown Historic District got a somewhat unexpected honor yesterday (December 11th, 2012) when the Wall Street Journal put the historic carousel on their front page.  The Cowboy Carousel was featured not only on the WSJ front page, but also on WSJ Radio as well with author Miguel Bustillo talking about coming to Buffalo and researching the Cowboy Carousel.

The story was not entirely unexpected as Bustillo had shown up in late November to check out the carousel for a possible story idea with WSJ.  The board and several community leaders met with and were interviewed by Bustillo for the story — including Mayor Randy Dyess (pro) and City Councilman Russ Humphrey (against).  Then the Arts Along the Bighorns board (the non-profit group who purchased the old Beutler’s Building for the Cowboy Carousel Center) waited and waited and waited to hear if the story would get final approval and be published.  According to Tiller, who headed the drive to get the article in the WSJ, there were  ”no guarantees, but we were finally told it was approved and would almost certainly be published. But not when.”  Several dates came and went then, at last, Tiller got the word they would publish an online version Monday night followed by the front page version the next day (December 11th). After some last-minute scrambling for needed photos, the story launched.

Mini and BighornmountainExpress.com Senior editor and AAB board member, Vanessa Vogel, recounted how she had a steady stream of Buffalo citizens coming in all day telling her the exciting news.  ”People came in telling me that “my brother called me at 7am this morning to tell me that the Carousel was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal! And I didn’t know a thing about it!”.  Others were just as surprised and delighted. One man exclaimed, “how the hell did Buffalo get on the front page of the Wall Street Journal?”  His surprise and delight was shared by many as people twittered and Facebooked the WSJ article all day.

New home for the Cowboy Carousel and the CC Center for Creative Economies that will promote the arts and education

The Wall Street Journal story about the Cowboy Carousel was part of the famous A-Hed section in the WSJ that focuses, as author Miguel Bustillo explained it, on the quirky stories that have an edge of controversy or humorous twist to them.  It is a much beloved part of the WSJ that many folks go to and read first.  The A-heds are almost always placed on the lower front page of the Wall Street Journal so these stories are easily viewed in print and online by just about everyone who reads the WSJ daily.  In this case, the online version also included an embedded audio of a national WSJ Radio interview with Bustillo talking about the carousel, and three embedded video links with in the article on the history of the Cowboy Carousel, the horses and childhood memories about carousels. The videos feature AAB board members Cheryl Madden and Vanessa Vogel being interviewed by Bustillo with the Carousel horses behind them.  The story also includes several photos of the horses, the AAB’s Come Along for the Ride Day, and AAB Board member Arnette Tiller who spear-headed both events and the WSJ article.

Fame, however, is fleeting and today other articles replace the local story of the little town in Wyoming with a carousel project.  Back in Buffalo, though,  the AAB is busy organizing their first public event at the Cowboy Carousel Center — a book signing for over 12 Wyoming authors.  They are hoping that a first event that promotes writers in Wyoming will be just the occasion for topping off a great week of free publicity nation-wide.

BHMX Note: Readers can still view the WSJ article online. Please follow the link here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324020804578149201395995418.html

Also, if anyone gets the WSJ and has a copy from December 11th, the folks at AAB would very much like if you could donate your copy … and in a few days they are hoping to have their Kickstarter.com campaign up and going and would love your donations on Kickstarter too!

Republished with permission from The Mini and BighornMountainExpress.com articles