The Oldest Candy Bar In Wyoming

Can you remember when a Snickers bar was just 25 Cents?

If you can then stop, next time you are outside, and look at the dirt under your feet.

You are older than that dirt.

The last time a candy bar sold for 25 Cents was in 1985.

That was 38 years ago.

At The Hanger Restaurant in Bar Nunn Wyoming is an old candy machine with prices on it that are hard to believe by today's standards.

This candy machine just might have the oldest candy in the state of Wyoming.

The packages are faded to the point that, well, it just looks gross.

You might be tempted to buy one and open it just to see its condition.

DARE YOU EAT IT?

Don't. Really- just don't!

Yeah, that's my reflection in the mirror. 

That makes a person wonder if there is any more candy up inside the machine, not just what we see on display.

One of the first questions often asked is, does the machine still work?

If you were to drop a quarter into it right now, would you get that old candy out?

Nobody seems to know and so far nobody wants to find out.

Are those candies still edible?

Generally, chocolate bars like Snickers can easily last for one year without changing their texture or taste.

All of the candies in that machine will have an exploration date printed on them.

Though, when the zombie apocalypse happens and you get desperate for food you might give anything a try.

Snickers is a delicate chocolate bar because it contains caramel and peanuts.

Those ingredients go bad, especially if they are not kept cold.

Still, don't you just want to open the package to see what condition these candies are in after all these years?

Printed in metal on the machine are the words "FRESH CANDY".

I don't think so.

You think the candy machine is WEIRD!

Let's have a look at the restaurant and the town.

Bar Nunn Wyoming is a FREAKY TOWN.

If you drive up their streets you'll start to notice an odd layout.

Why are the town's roads like this?

My introduction to the most bizarre streets of any town in America came after some aviator friends of mine said that I had to try The Hanger Restaurant in the town of Bar Nunn Wyoming.

Anyone driving past Bar Nunn on Interstate 25 might think, 'What a dump. Who would live there?' But as with most towns, what you see from the interstate does not represent what is not seen from the interstate.

3 WIDE BOUVLEARDS: As I drove up one of Bar Nunn's 3 main billiards I could not help noticing how wide it was, and how long. Off to the right was a green area, almost like a highway median, with a smaller road on the other side and homes.

These 3 wide boulevards did not run parallel to one another. They all began at the same point but angled out in different directions. Each of the 3 boulevards had the same odd grassy tree-lined median and a smaller road on the other side where the homes were.

The mysterious layout was something I had seen before. I knew it as soon as I looked at this map that you can view here. I then looked at this satellite image and sure enough, these roads look like airport runways and taxiways.

The reason behind the town's roads are laid out like airport runways and taxiways is because, before it was a town, Bar Nunn was an airport.

The Hanger Restaurant that my aviation friends had told me about was, at one time, actually the main hangar at the airport.

The airport was constructed in 1927, just north of Casper as the Natrona County Airport.  The airport was later closed and relocated to the former Casper Army Air Base.

That left a bunch of paved taxiways, service roads, and runways just north of Casper Wyoming.

Seeing an opportunity Mr. Romie Nunn purchased the land and began building a subdivision. He named it The Bar Nunn Ranch Subdivision. This is now the town of Bar Nunn

As for the old airport hanger, that is now The Hanger Restaurant.

Suspended inside the old hanger is a biplane flown by Jim Good, a famous American aviator who lived in Casper.

There is a museum dedicated to Jim at the new Natrona County Airport.

You'll also find at the website for The Hanger Restaurant a series of photos from what the place looked like back when it was actually a hanger.  You will also find more history on the airport that became a town.