“Ag is cool!” Ribbon is cut at CWC Ag & Equine Center’s Grand Opening

August 28, 2023

PXL_20230826_165347050 — Right to left: CWC Dr. Brad Tyndall, Senator Eli Bebout, and CWC Board of Trustees Chair Craig Tolman cut the ribbon on the new CWC Ag & Equine Center on Saturday. (h/t Carol Harper)

(Riverton, WY) The large orange ribbon was cut for the new and long-awaited Central Wyoming College Rustler Ag & Equine Complex, with a ceremony that drew a local, regional, and national audience during the Rendezvous City Beef Roundup last Saturday.

Providing music for the event was the CWC College Band, directed by Dr. Jeremy Cochran, playing prelude music and the Star Spangled Banner. The Presentation of Colors was provided by the American Legion Post #81, Richard Pogue of Fort Washakie.

Program speakers were Dr. Kathy Wells, who served as the event’s emcee, CWC Board of Trustees Chair Craig Tolman, CWC President Dr. Brad Tyndall, Senator Eli Bebout, and CWC students Jaclyn Buckley and Kall Mayfield.

After the program and ribbon cutting, the crowds were invited to enter the main entrance area for the unveiling of Donor Recognition, where special thanks were given to CWC Art Professor Nita Keyhoe and Lorraine Bebout. The arena sign was created by Kehoe and CWC Welding Faculty Darryl Steeds and Matt Dripps.

Lorraine Bebout recognized at the Donor Recognition Wall. h/t Carol Harper

The sculpture “Gathering” by Michael Young (photo below) is on loan to the center by the Wyoming State Art Museum. The sculpture represents the region and animal science. It is and is 11 feet high and 16 feet in diameter, and is built from stainless steel, LED lights, and teak benches.

“Gathering” sculpture by Michael Young. h/t Carol Harper

The facility was then open for both self-tours and those guided by CWC staff, including the Bebout Arena, classrooms, offices, dressage arena, day pens, outdoor arena, hay, feed and bedding storage area, manure bunker, stall barns, stock, calf and working pens, goat shed, animal scale, pastures, and a retention pond. Tours were also given of the meat processing wing, and a branding project was held in the Animal Health Area.

The CWC Rustler Ag & Equine Complex is an 85,000-square-foot facility sitting on 22 acres, with the entrance located at 1110 Day Drive. It was designed by Amundsen Associates and Populous Architectural Design, with FCI Constructors, Inc. as the general contractor. Sources of funding came from the State of Wyoming, U.S. Economic Development Association, Central Wyoming College, Fremont County Economic Development Tax, and numerous private donors.
For details on how to rent the facility, visit cwc.edu/community.

“Ag and equine are important industries and a huge part of our identity and our pride. So very proud that with this facility, undergirded by the Bootstrap Collaborative business startup and support, we’re really doing this and we’re seeing successes. We are measuring the amount of local food that is getting into the hands of people…it’s significant. If we are really trying to help farmers and ranchers, we have to be a part of the system that markets and shouts from the mountaintop, “Ag is cool!’ We’re centered for this…you can see what we’re trying to do here, and I’m very excited about it. I’m all in, and I know you are, too…this is family and friends and supporters, and I’m so grateful for all of you, for lots of little things and big things you all have done, and I think we can do this if we work hard together.” – Dr. Brad Tindall, CWC President

“What a celebration for Central Wyoming College, for our community, for Fremont County, and for the state. It’s so special to be here…Riverton has always been blessed with such wonderful people who love this community and give it their all…so many good things are going on in Riverton. This is an exciting place to live, an exciting place to work, a great place to raise your family, and guess what? The best is yet to come.” Senator Eli Bebout

“I was raised on a ranch, and ubiquitous with ranches and farms in the state of Wyoming and probably the West are barns. Big red barns. They are spectacular. Those ranches with barns…those are their ag and equine complexes. Now Central Wyoming College has an ag and equine complex, and we are just so excited to have it.” – Mr. Craig Tolman, CWC Board of Trustees Chair

*CWC students Jaclyn Buckley and Kall Mayfield both expressed their gratefulness for the new CWC Ag & Equine Center,*
*and thanked the donors and builders who made it happen. h/t Carol Harper*

“It’s always a great honor to be involved in the opening of a new academic facility designed to meet the educational needs of our students. It’s an even greater honor to be a part of a facility that not only meets our students’ needs, but will serve as an economic driver for our region…this facility has been a long time in the making. But I have to say, it’s also coming at exactly the right time, when we are all collaboratively reimagining the role that both agriculture and the equine industries can play in CWC’s service region.” – Dr. Kathy Wells, CWC Vice President of Academic Affairs