Baby boomers migrate to Rocky Mountain West

John Kerr wasn’t dreaming of palm trees and balmy winters when he retired from WGBH, the Boston public TV station known for producing such hits as Antiques Roadshow. His thoughts had gone West.

The 69-year-old put on a green uniform and Smokey Bear hat and became a seasonal ranger in Yellowstone National Park, where snow can fall every month of the year, including July.

"That’s why they have wood stoves and furnaces," Kerr said. "Warm weather isn’t the issue for me. It’s keeping vital and interested and involved."

Demographers say thousands of people like Kerr are heading to the Rocky Mountain West in their later years. Forget the warmth of Florida and Arizona. Baby boomers, in particular, are gravitating toward the peaks and sagebrush basins of Wyoming and Montana, promising to turn these states from relatively young into two of the nation’s oldest.

By Mead Gruver, Associated Press

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-28-agingwest_N.htm?csp=34