GLENROCK - The tractors pulled, the horses paraded, the kids scarfed the candy thrown from floats, the old folks waved, and everybody had a good time, as befits a 100th birthday of small town Wyoming on Saturday.

Wyoming is almost all small towns, and some have fared better than others.

The burgs around Midwest and Edgerton during the 1920s have eroded into the prairie. Medicine Bow is a shadow of its former self when a half-dozen full-service stations catered to motorists on the Lincoln Highway until I-80 took away the cars and business.

But Glenrock, incorporated in 1909, has held on and thrived.

It became a popular stop along pioneer trails during the mid-19th century, and developed into a major trading post and a Pony Express Station. Some pilgrims decided to stay instead of traveling further west, established ranches and businesses, and some stuck oil and mined coal.

Fonda Hofstetter and her husband moved to Glenrock - named for the "Rock in the Glen" where some pioneers scratched their names - during the oil boom days of 1980, she said.

Unlike others who moved with the economic tide, Hofstetter stayed, she said. "Because it was home after six years."

Hofstetter attributes Glenrock's fortitude to a pioneer spirit, the beautiful country, and friendly people, she said. "And most of all, it's red, white and blue America."

She's active with the Chamber of Commerce, and credits its work with the town's survival, she said.

"It's being able to bring in business and the townspeople willing to work with companies and businesses, whatever, to keep the town afloat in hard times," Hofstetter said.

Even if some residents aren't happy with a business that is, or isn't, recruited, they are encouraged to feel like they're still part of the town, Hofstetter said.

Tom Stewart credits the oil and ranching industries with balancing the economic ups and downs.

Glenrock even had its own refinery, Stewart said.

The Continental Refinery produced petroleum products from the early 1920s until 1956, and the remains of the plant and its 200-foot-tall concrete chimney were razed in 2005.

"The oil stayed here long enough that the suburb of Casper moved down here," he said.

While the oil industry is fading, Glenrock is seeing new economic life with wind farms such as Duke Energy's Campbell Hill Windpower Project, Stewart said.

Even with these multimillion dollar projects, Glenrock covets its small-town atmosphere, he said. "A lot of people say when they put up a stop light (on Birch Street), they're moving away."

On the ranching side, Craig and Mary Grant can point back four generations when his great-grandfather Ulysses S. Grant (that's not a misprint) homesteaded in the area.

Since his family preceded the town's official founding, the 65 or so Grants and their extended families were honored with a No. 5 position in the parade featuring Ulysses' original buggy and two wagons, he said.

The parade had 54 entries - with some entries fielding multiple vehicles - Chamber of Commerce director Mary Kay Kindt said.

East of town at the Deer Creek Park, Michelle Lee and Aaron Knoll stood in line for lunch with their terminally cute, 11-week-old Welsh Corgi mix puppy.

"It's a tradition," Lee said. "It's one of those things that everybody celebrates, and this year it's special with the 100th (anniversary)."

While she now lives in Casper, Lee grew up in Glenrock and attended the parades in her youth and rode a float with her fast pitch softball team when she was 12, she said.

Knoll, on the other hand, had never been to Deer Creek Days until she brought him.

Casper's parade in early July has more entries and spectators, but he prefers Glenrock's energy and personal touch, he said.

"You know half the people here," Knoll said.

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at tom.morton@trib.com. Read his blog at tribtown.trib.com/TomMorton/blog.