Robert King, Lincoln County Economic Development, stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Tuesday, May 12 to introduce the scavenger hunt and commemorative coins for Lincoln County as part of the America 250 celebration. Details, instructions and the list of locations can be found by clicking the America 250 tab at the top of LincolnCountyWY.gov.

(0:00) Labarge to Big Piney and Cokefield to Alpine. (0:04) This is the weekday wake up on the SVI Radio Network. (0:08) 848 this morning on SVI Radio, Swift 98 and The Spur (0:11) heading into our second guest interview segment today here on the weekday (0:15) wake up and Robert King in studio this morning.

(0:18) Robert has five, six, a hundred different hats that he’s currently wearing. (0:23) But for today’s purpose, he’s with Lincoln County Economic Development. (0:26) Robert, good morning.

How are you today? (0:28) Oh, I’m very well. Thanks, Duke. (0:29) How are you? I’m doing fantastic.

Appreciate your time. (0:32) This is a project that you’ve been working on extensively for quite some time. (0:37) And I’m excited for it to kick off and get launched.

(0:40) It’s, of course, with America 250 and the scavenger hunt (0:44) that you’re doing countywide and with the commemorative coins. (0:48) And so just start from the very beginning on this, how the idea came about (0:53) and what what led to this point to kick this thing off? (0:55) Well, you know, we saw this thing coming, of course, (0:58) and we put together a committee of different folks within our community (1:03) and and discussed some of the things that we might be able to do. (1:07) And one of the things that came up was a challenge coin (1:12) and challenge these challenge coins that we have designed (1:16) and and had printed, by the way, (1:19) are two inches in diameter.

(1:22) We went around and encouraged each one of the incorporated communities (1:26) to participate in doing their own coin. (1:31) You know, they’re just good to hand out, to advertise for your community (1:35) as well as this scavenger hunt. (1:38) So what we did is is we put together 20 sites, (1:43) 20 in the north, 20 in the south.

(1:46) The reason we did that is just because of fuel prices these days. (1:51) You know, just keep it a little less expensive, perhaps on the traveling (1:57) you can visit the 20 in the north, the 20 in the south, (2:01) or you can combine 20 of any of them that you want to go to. (2:07) So the scavenger hunt, (2:10) if you visit all 20 sites or visit 20 sites, (2:14) you will be eligible at that point to win a coin (2:20) from each one of the incorporated towns that participate in this.

(2:24) And right now, as far as I know, every community incorporated (2:28) towns participated. (2:30) I wish we had visual radio, but we don’t. (2:34) And I could show you the coins.

(2:36) I’ll make sure I get them posted to our social media, though. (2:38) Yeah. Or if you can get this visual radio thing going, that would be good to do.

(2:43) I’ll put you on camera any time you want, Robert. (2:45) That’s fine. (2:47) The if you go to our website, the Lincoln County website, (2:52) you’ll notice at the top banner up there, (2:55) it will have America’s 250th or something similar to that at the top.

(3:02) And if you go to that that site, you’ll have the opportunity (3:06) to look at the map or download the map if you’d like. (3:10) You can also download the coordinates, the lats and the latitude (3:15) and longitude for each one of the sites that you could plug into your phone (3:19) and be guided to those those individual sites. (3:25) So the scavenger hunt, we want to start that soon.

(3:30) Like today, I’m going to print off (3:34) maps and the little packet that I’ve got together here, (3:37) which is the coordinates and the instructions on what to do (3:40) when you go to the sites. (3:42) And I’m going to put them at the banks as well as the town halls (3:46) that will go out today. (3:48) Now, probably later in the day, but today, (3:52) you know, I have people doing the same thing down in the Kimmer area, (3:55) as well as the Cokeville, LaBarge, Opal, anyway, all the communities.

(4:02) And it may take me a day or two to get those distributed, by the way, folks. (4:06) So if you do go online, you can certainly print them off there. OK.

(4:11) So what we want you to do is when you go to the site, (4:14) we want you to take a picture, a selfie (4:19) at the site itself, showing that you were there with your (4:23) individually or as a family (4:27) and post that to (4:30) email that picture to scavenger hunt (4:34) at Lincoln County W.Y.G.O.V. (4:38) And then what we will do on the 20th of June, (4:41) we’ll go through all the emails and see who visited 20 sites. (4:47) And we’ll have an award on the fourth one. (4:50) We’ll be here at the Civic Center or (4:53) at the Civic Center, we think.

(4:55) And then Diamondville, where they have the celebration (4:59) for Kimmer and Diamondville down there. (5:01) We’ll also do it in the park down there on the fourth. (5:04) And we’ll present those those a set of coins for that.

(5:09) Now, if you only make it to 15 of the sites, (5:12) we’ll make sure you get a county coin for sure. (5:17) I think they look pretty good, Duke. (5:19) I, I think it’ll be a great thing for a family.

(5:26) It’ll just be an engaging way to explore Lincoln County’s history. (5:30) Yeah. The communities, the landscape.

(5:34) And, you know, invite your family and friends. (5:37) I think it’s fantastic. (5:38) I love the thought of celebrating the 250th (5:42) anniversary of America and birthday of America with with getting out (5:45) and seeing the sights and sounds of Lincoln County and doing the scavenger hunt.

(5:49) So Lincoln County W.I.G.O.V. (5:51) And there is an America 250 tab right at the very top. (5:55) So you just click that. (5:56) And yeah, all the details, all the instructions are right there.

(5:59) Pictures of the coins, list of locations. (6:01) So 40 total locations, 20 north, 20 south. (6:04) And any combination of 20 that you’d like to hit.

(6:09) Right. OK, get you the full set of the of the coins. (6:12) That’s fantastic.

(6:13) And this is beginning right now. (6:15) So go out and begin. (6:17) And you have until the 20th of June.

That’s the deadline, right? (6:19) That’s the deadline. (6:20) That way we I would say, do we want to say midnight on the 20th? (6:25) Whatever. Yeah.

(6:26) Anyway, we’ll we’ll start judging after that (6:29) so that we have time to go through everything. Perfect. (6:32) I know there’s a lot of people that are going to get involved.

(6:34) I know there’s people that are coming from out of state to do this as well. (6:39) Family and friends that want to get these coins (6:43) after the after the celebration, after the awards. (6:47) If if there’s any coins available, (6:50) they will probably be for sale at the town halls for those that have them.

(6:55) And then we’ll let the towns decide how much they’re going to charge. (6:58) Sure. But yeah, we as a county (7:05) we we’ve got quite a few coins.

(7:07) So I’m hoping that we can give every one of them away. (7:09) Yeah, no, I love it. (7:11) And you showed me the county coin and it’s it’s not a piece, (7:15) a cheap piece of plastic.

(7:16) I mean, these are these are I mean, there’s they’re big and they’re sturdy (7:20) and solid. And it’s a cool commemorative piece for sure. (7:24) For America to 50.

It is. (7:25) And I think it’s going to be a great thing for each community as well (7:28) to kind of advertise who they are and get people into their town hall (7:32) to learn more about them. (7:33) Yeah.

So tell us about the Lincoln County coin itself. (7:36) What’s on it? (7:37) OK, on the Lincoln County coin, you would ask me, and I’ve got it in my pocket. (7:43) We’ve you know, I went through several iterations (7:46) to get this the way it is.

(7:48) And on the front of it there, it’s you know, it just says Lincoln County, (7:52) Wyoming, 1776 to 2026. (7:56) Semi-quincentennial. (7:58) We have a Pioneer wagon.

(8:00) We have a Pony Express. (8:04) We have an old trading post on the front there with mountains in the background. (8:08) And these are high relief coins.

(8:11) So, you know, it really stands out. (8:14) Then on the back of it, it says the Western Frontier (8:18) heritage, industry and courage, all the things that make us (8:22) who we are and the people that actually came here. (8:25) It also it shows an anvil (8:30) depicting some of the mining activities, trains, Indian cattle, (8:36) as well as the old J.C. (8:37) Penney store in Kimmer, all on there and high relief.

(8:41) Plus a compass rose, which, you know, points to true north. (8:46) Love it. So again, the scavenger hunt underway today.

(8:49) Lincoln County, WI dot gov. (8:52) You’ll have the instructions and packets at post offices and banks (8:55) across the county within the next few days, right? (8:57) I don’t know about post offices. (8:59) Town town halls.

(9:00) I’m sorry. Town halls. (9:02) Yeah.

Over the next few days. (9:03) And but you can always find them at Lincoln County, WI dot gov. (9:07) Just click America to 50 at the top.

(9:09) Robert, anything we missed? (9:10) I think that covers it, dude. Thank you. (9:12) Perfect.

It’s all part of the weekday. (9:14) Wake up this morning on SBI radio.