LARAMIE - Something good is happening on Second Street.

From one end of the historic retail district to the other, shiny new storefronts have opened up, and tourists now fill the stores on weekends.

On one corner, custom gunsmith Nathan Heineke has turned a historic bank building into an impressive, yet subdued showroom for the high-end rifles he creates in his basement workshop.

Across the street, Big Hoss Mountain Sports has opened a new store that's eight times bigger than its former location. The only full-service ski shop in this corner of the state, Big Hoss draws customers from towns across southeast Wyoming for the services it provides and the rock-climbing gear, backcountry ski equipment and snowboards it sells.

Just up the block, Scott Ebinger of Atmosphere Mountainworks also has recently moved from his former location on First Street. The new shop sells an array of Ebinger's rugged creations - ski pants, backpacks, messenger bags and fleece gloves and hats - bearing a diamond-shaped label saying the products were made in Laramie.

"We have a definite cluster of these types of businesses," said Jane Daniels, executive director of Laramie's Main Street Program. "All of them sell a little niche that someone would get at a store like REI. It's kind of rare nowadays."

In Laramie, like most of Wyoming, the great outdoors - skiing, hiking, fishing, hunting, target shooting and other pursuits - are just outside.

Access to some of the West's most challenging terrain, combined with low property taxes and no personal or corporate state income tax, makes Wyoming an ideal location for businesses that cater to outdoor enthusiasts.

Tom Lacock, spokesman for the Wyoming Business Council, said the council is paying more attention to companies that produce hunting, fishing and other outdoor sporting gear and services.

"There's a mystique about things that are made in Wyoming," Lacock said. "In the industry, there's an inherent credibility."

Wyoming, with its relatively lax regulatory climate, is uniquely situated to attract companies that produce outdoor gear.

"You can test things out in your backyard, and it's a very friendly state for industry," he said.

In August, the Wyoming Business Council hosted its first Outdoor Product Days event to help get the word out about shooting, hunting and fishing companies in the state.

The council invited writers from major outdoor magazines to a Casper fishing ranch, where a small group of Wyoming companies showed off their products.

The idea for the event was first conceived last year by Business Council staff at the SHOT Show, an international shooting sports convention.

"We thought, wouldn't it be great if we could have people shoot Cast Performance Bullets in a Freedom Arms gun with a Brunton scope?" Lacock said. He found Wyoming companies to be enthusiastic about the idea.

Bob Baker, president of Freedom Arms, said he was eager for an opportunity to meet writers and promote his company in national media outlets.

Speaking from the company headquarters in Freedom, along the Idaho border, Baker said it's hard to get publicity. "With a lot of your magazines, if you don't advertise much, you don't get much in their articles."

But an event like Outdoor Product Days has the ability to generate stories that get published quickly, he said.

Because magazine writers work six to nine months in advance, it won't be clear until next year how many stories will come out of Outdoor Product Days.

Freedom Arms has been making single-action revolvers on Wyoming's western border since 1978. Baker said he didn't do much with the Wyoming Business Council until the media breakfast at the SHOT Show and Outdoor Product Days event. But he thinks the council is on the right track.

"When you do things like this on a consistent basis, writers start to look at you differently," he said. "It makes a big difference."

Not only did the two-day event get Wyoming products in the hands of some of the hunting and fishing media's top writers, but it also got some of the companies to work together.

"A lot of the companies operating in Wyoming didn't even know each other," Lacock said.

High-end firearms

In Nathan Heineke's Laramie showroom, the antique wooden counters and cabinets date back to the 1930s, when the building housed a bank.

Instead of renovating the space into a modern showroom for his handmade firearms, Heineke embraced the history of the place when he bought it in 2004.

At street level, the shop is Spartan, and Heineke says its decor is one of many "filters" through which customers pass before they start talking seriously about buying one of his custom guns.

Flashy is not Heineke's style.

His elegant, understated products appeal to a tiny sliver of the shooting population who can afford high-end luxuries. Heineke's basic rifles start at $13,600 - with prices depending on the type of rifle, the kind of wood in the stock, the amount of engraving and the overall level of complexity.

Machine work makes up less than half the time Heineke puts into his guns - the rest is done by hand.

Heineke, 32, was born in Gillette and graduated with an art degree from the University of Wyoming. He gained most his gunsmithing experience working for Griffin & Howe, a renowned New Jersey gunmaker that has been in business since 1923, then returned to Wyoming to open his own business. The location alone adds cache to his products.

"People associate Wyoming with big-game hunting, and I make big-game sporting rifles," Heineke said. "It lends an immediate credibility."

Out of the garage

Eight years ago, Leo Pueblitz was tuning skis in his garage. Often, he was paid in six-packs of beer.

But in 2004, all that changed for the 33-year-old UW grad.

He opened a small shop on Grand Avenue and offered ski and snowboard repair and waxing. He also filled the tiny store with backcountry skiing and rock-climbing gear, hoping to tap into a market that wasn't being met by other outdoor stores in town.

To Pueblitz's surprise, it worked.

"It just, like, exploded," Pueblitz said from the store's new location.

"Sometimes I wonder what I got myself into," Pueblitz said. "All this stuff used to be in my garage."

The front of the store sells skis, snowboards and backcountry options like telemark and cross-country skis and bindings. The middle features a climbing wall where customers can try out climbing shoes before buying. In the back, the shop has all its grinding and waxing machines and tools. The store also resoles climbing shoes.

Among his inventory, Pueblitz carries outdoor products made in Wyoming, including telemark bindings made by 22 Designs in Jackson, rock climbing gear by Alien Cams of Laramie, chalk bags and crash pads by Organic Climbing of Laramie and climbing guidebooks from Extreme Angles Publishing of Laramie.

Soon, the store will establish an online presence, Pueblitz said.

At the sewing machine

Just up the block, Scott Ebinger sat at his sewing machine on a recent afternoon inside Atmosphere Mountainworks, working feverishly to finish an order of fleece doggie coats.

Ebinger's hand-sewn products have a dedicated following - some customers come from as far as Casper to shop at his store.

His heavy-duty ski pants, windproof coats and messenger bags are built to last and block any of the elements of Wyoming's sometimes challenging weather.

At his new location, Ebinger, 49, said he sees lots of new faces.

"I still have my regular clientele," he said. "But there are lots of tourists."

After owning a store in Santa Fe, N.M., for 13 years, Ebinger opened his Laramie store in 2001 with a few basic designs.

Since then, his product line has expanded and he's added dozens of new items from other manufacturers.

"I can't make everything," he said, "but I am making probably twice or three times what I was making when I started."

Ebinger consults with Pueblitz at Big Hoss Mountain Sports to ensure that they're not carrying the same products.

"It's nice when we can kind of feed off each other," he said. "That way the people in town have the opportunity to not have to travel to get what they need."