"No one bothers to plant trees or flowers in this blight on the harsh Red Desert. Trailer homes line the sad, barren streets -- ready to be hitched up and hauled away at any time. The gravel roads are a symbol of impermanence in a boomtown so temporary many of the men who live here left their families back home.</br></br>""This is about the worst, ugliest city I've ever seen in my life,"" declared Shawn Klein, a gas field worker who had just pulled into town from the Black Hills in South Dakota.</br></br>The fields surrounding Wamsutter are sprinkled with thousands of natural gas wells, and new workers arrive every day, eager for big paydays.</br></br>But pessimism hangs over Wamsutter like the blanket of smoke in the town's only bar. As far as state officials are concerned, Wamsutter is a bust just waiting to happen.</br></br>In the West, boom-to-bust tales dot the landscape. Industries come and go, and sometimes so do the communities that helped drive commerce. State and local officials know that what goes up -- gas prices are near record highs -- eventually must come down."