Nonexistent Sleepy Hollow named Wyoming's richest small town, raising AI concerns
Two national lists named Sleepy Hollow as Wyoming's wealthiest small town, but the place is an unincorporated subdivision near Gillette, not a standalone town, creating confusion for residents and real estate markets. The error highlights growing questions about how online outlets and artificial intelligence use census data, and what that means for local accuracy and housing perceptions.
On December 6, 2025, two national outlets published lists identifying each state's richest small town and named Sleepy Hollow for Wyoming. The profile attributed a population of 1,812, a median household income of $119,451, and a median home price of $399,800. Local reality did not match the headline. Sleepy Hollow is an unincorporated neighborhood southeast of Gillette in Campbell County. It lacks a post office, gas station, or municipal government and is centered around Conestoga Elementary School, which opened in 1982 and serves about 330 children from nearby subdivisions.
Realtor.com credited GoBanking.com for the analysis, but Realtor.com’s link directed readers to listings with Gillette addresses, not to any community near Laramie or the Snowy Range. A GoBanking representative told Cowboy State Daily the analysis was not generated by artificial intelligence and that Sleepy Hollow qualified as a census designated location, though the representative did not respond to further inquiries. Realtor.com did not respond to questions about the mismatch.
The discrepancy prompted skepticism from local real estate professionals. Dominic Valdez said, “My guess is this was AI generated content,” and added, “And maybe it was a hallucination. It’s just one of those weird things. I don’t know where that would come from.” Latham Jenkins noted the frequent conflation of unincorporated places in national rankings, saying, “Like Wilson is an unincorporated area of Teton County.” He added, “Just from my gut, not a data backed up statement, I would argue within incorporated areas, Jackson has to be the wealthiest in the state.”
Forbes data provide a contrasting benchmark. Using the 2022 American Community Survey, Forbes identified Hoback as Wyoming’s most expensive small town with a median home value of $930,700 and a median household income of $130,236 across roughly 830 households.
The episode matters locally because misleading national rankings can distort buyer perceptions, complicate marketing for Wyoming realtors, and confuse residents about civic identity. It also underscores a broader trend of errors in online content sourcing and AI assisted reporting. Representative Daniel Singh warned, “The slop is coming,” and urged caution, noting, “Because these large language models are running off the entire internet, they’re going to find all sorts of information and try to piece it all together in a way that’s statistically most likely to be the result. So, it’s not really founded on what is true and what isn’t true. It’s just what exists on the internet.” As national outlets continue to mine census data for clickable headlines, Albany County and Campbell County residents face the immediate task of correcting public record and reminding publishers to verify geographic and demographic claims.
