Out Here on Our Own

J.J. Anselmis Out Here on Our Own tells the story of Rock Springs, Wyoming, a mining boomtown with a history of brutal racial violence, widespread addiction, prostitution, and a staggeringly high per-capita suicide rateyet a place that has proved remarkably resilient. Anselmi stitches together an array of original interviews with people whove seen those things firsthand, tracing the boom-bust trajectory of a town known for its corruption, vice, and violence. Amid such horrors as the massacre of Chinese miners in 1885 and the ongoing methamphetamine and opioid epidemics, the town has fought hard to keep its identity of rugged individualism intact. In 2022 Rock Springs is slipping into yet another bust. Anselmis narrative offers searing personal accounts of a community in crisis, whose problems are fanned by severely limited mental health resources, dying industries, and Wyomings still-pervasive idea that people should deal with their troubles alone. In a communitys own words, Out Here on Our Own depicts a place thats as tough and weathered as the sagebrush and sandstone surrounding it.