LYMAN — The idea had been kicked around and talked on the street for a long time due to what some deemed inactivity at Wells Fargo when residents were in the bank’s interior.

And, true to speculation, the Wells Fargo bank is closing with Aug, 17, at noon, the time when the bank officially locks the door bringing an era to the end.

During September through December last year, the bank was only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon. This was necessitated by the Wells Fargo in Evanston needing help, due to its own employees quitting or transferring out of Evanston, so Lyman’s employees were working at the Evanston bank. Evanston rebuilt its staff, and the Lyman employees were again back at work full time in Lyman.

As the calendar pages continued to turn and the bank continued operation, activity at the bank seemed slow. Speculation in the community continued concerning the bank’s longevity.

Depositors and others using the bank received letters telling them of a forth-coming closure, and they would have to close their accounts and safety deposit boxes. Events that seemed almost unbelievable. But, change was in the air and depositors heeded the letters, moving their banking efforts elsewhere.

And now, Aug 17, noon, the Wells Fargo Bank will lock its doors for the final time.

Sherri Bluemel, long-time director of the Lyman branch, said comments concerning the reasons for the closing would have to come from corporate

When asked about the bank employees’ future, Bluemel said employees were given severance pay. She also said Wells Fargo was selling the building, but not the bank.

Numerous calls to Wells Fargo and directives to call an Idaho office and then several others in the Wells Fargo Communication department in the last two weeks have unveiled no returned calls except one, and the person declined to comment as comments had to come from Wells Fargo’s Communications Department

Wells Fargo has had an on-going situation in which they say they have been ‘consolidating banks’ to operate more efficiently. Several others in Wyoming had already been consolidated, and Lyman was the last of the small banks to meet this new organizational move.

In 2021, Wells Fargo sold its asset management division, Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM) to Chicago’s private equity firms GTCR and Reverence Capital Partners for $2.1 billion. WFAM had $603 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2020, of which 33% was invested in money market funds.

Wells Fargo Asset Management has officially changed its name. As of Nov. 1, the asset manager is now called Allspring Global Invesments, with its previously reported sale to GTCR and Reverence Capital Partners now complete.

But banking in Lyman has a history of changed names and entities since the start-up of the bank in 1978. According to local rancher and businessman Carl Larson, a group out of Casper originally was involved in setting up the bank. Now, 44 years later, the story is coming to a close.