Never Leaving Laramie

Author and alumnus John W. Haines speaks about his travel memoir. 

By Micaela Myers 

In the winter of 1985, John W. Haines (B.S. ’82) was eating in a nearly empty hotel in Chengdu, China, after searching and finding sky burials in Tibet, when in walked his friend from Laramie, fellow UW graduate Jeff Alford (who later became a food writer and co-author of several acclaimed cookbooks). What are the chances? For Haines and his compatriots, it didn’t seem that unusual. There was something about growing up in self-contained Laramie that invited exploration beyond the city limits. After skiing, kayaking, climbing and hiking the mountains and rivers of Wyoming, the next logical step was a passport and a plane ticket.

“The landscape serves as an escape for kids and eventually, inevitably, as a launchpad for wanderers into a wider world,” he says.

Alone and with a few Laramie friends, Haines traveled the world, undertaking adventures that few—if any—had before. His recent book, Never Leaving Laramie: Travels in a Restless World (Oregon State University Press, 2020), details many of these adventures, including biking through Tibet and spending five months kayaking the length of the Niger River in Africa. The book also covers how Haines broke his neck leaping off a train in the Czech Republic.

“I always enjoyed writing,” he says. “I wrote for travel and other magazines to fund the travel habit. I always kept detailed journals. After I broke my neck, I wanted to write the real stories.”

While Haines grew up with UW as his playground, the university still proved an adventure in academics, and he found himself taking classes outside of a degree path.

“We had great professors at the university, and I was very distracted by everything except what I got my degree in,” he says. “I joke that I have a five-year degree in undecided.”

But Haines eventually followed in the Wyoming banker footsteps of his father, grandfather and great grandfather, earning his degree in finance.

“At the end of the day, I’m grateful for a practical, mobile and applicable degree,” he says. “Now I work for a big non-government organization, Mercy Corps. Mercy Corps, based in Portland, Ore., works in 40-plus countries for the past 43 years helping communities address crises, conflict and economic collapse. With me in a wheelchair, it’s interesting and inspiring to work for an organization that has their eye on the world.”

Haines created a U.S.-based Community Investment Trust aimed to close the racial wealth gap by offering people with low or no financial assets the opportunity to invest and build equity via shared ownership in real estate in their neighborhoods. Many of the leading think tanks—such as Brookings, Urban and Aspen Institute, and Stanford Social Innovation Review—have advocated the model as an actionable post-COVID and wealth-gap strategy. 

“We’re working in 15 cities around the country and have a plan to work with 100 cities in the next five to 10 years,” Haines says.

He still returns to Laramie, usually twice a year, and was here this past summer working remotely and writing at his family’s cabin in the Snowies. He urges UW students to take advantage of the range of education avenues available at UW and to seek travel opportunities.

“Traveling globally is only as difficult as getting a passport and seizing an idea,” Haines says. “It’s easy to do.”

And don’t worry: You can leave Laramie, but Laramie will never leave you.