Place:Wyoming, United States


NameWyoming
Alt namesWYsource: Webster's Geographical Dictionary (1988) p 1258
Wyo
TypeState
Coordinates44°N 105.833°W
Located inUnited States     (1890 - )
Contained Places
Area
Ash Hollow
County
Albany ( 1868 - )
Badcounty-Sublette and Fremont
Big Horn ( 1890 - )
Campbell ( 1911 - )
Carbon ( 1868 - )
Converse ( 1888 - )
Crook ( 1875 - )
Fremont ( 1884 - )
Goshen ( 1911 - )
Hot Springs ( 1911 - )
Johnson ( 1875 - )
Laramie ( 1867 - )
Lincoln ( 1911 - )
Natrona ( 1888 - )
Niobrara ( 1911 - )
Park ( 1909 - )
Platte ( 1911 - )
Sheridan ( 1888 - )
Sublette ( 1921 - )
Sweetwater ( 1867 - )
Teton ( 1921 - )
Uinta ( 1869 - )
Washakie ( 1911 - )
Weston ( 1890 - )
Former county
Yellowstone National Park
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Wyoming is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. The 10th largest state by area, it is the least densely populated state in the contiguous United States.

Wyoming is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the south. Its population was 576,851 in the 2020 United States census, making it the least populous state. The state capital and most populous city is Cheyenne, which had an estimated population of 63,957 in 2018.

Wyoming's western half is covered mostly by the ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the eastern half of the state is high-elevation prairie called the High Plains. It is drier and windier than the rest of the country, being split between semi-arid and continental climates with greater temperature extremes. Almost half of the land in Wyoming is owned by the federal government, generally protected for public uses. The state ranks 6th by area and fifth by proportion of a state's land owned by the federal government.[1] Federal lands include two national parks (Grand Teton and Yellowstone), two national recreation areas, two national monuments, several national forests, historic sites, fish hatcheries, and wildlife refuges.

Indigenous peoples inhabited the region for thousands of years. Historic and current federally recognized tribes include the Arapaho, Crow, Lakota, and Shoshone. During European exploration, the Spanish Empire was the first to "claim" Southern Wyoming. With Mexican independence, it became part of that republic. After defeat in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded this territory to the U.S. in 1848.

The region was named "Wyoming" in a bill introduced to Congress in 1865 to provide a temporary government for the territory of Wyoming. It had been used earlier by colonists for the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, and is derived from the Lenape language Munsee word , meaning "at the big river flat".

Bills for Wyoming Territory's admission to the union were introduced in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives in December 1889. On March 27, 1890, the House passed the bill and President Benjamin Harrison signed Wyoming's statehood bill; Wyoming became the 44th state in the union.[2]

Historically, European Americans farmed and ranched here, with shepherds and cattle ranchers in conflict over lands. Today Wyoming's economy is largely based on tourism and the extraction of minerals such as coal, natural gas, oil, and trona. Agricultural commodities include barley, hay, livestock, sugar beets, wheat, and wool. It was the first state to allow women the right to vote and the right to assume elected office, as well as the first state to elect a female governor. Due to this part of its history, its main nickname is "The Equality State" and its official state motto is "Equal Rights".[2] It has been a politically conservative state since the 1950s. The Republican presidential nominee has carried the state in every election since 1968.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Several Native American groups originally inhabited the region now known as Wyoming. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were but a few of the original inhabitants European explorers encountered when they first visited the region. What is now southwestern Wyoming was claimed by the Spanish Empire, which extended through the Southwest and Mexico. With Mexican independence in 1821, it was considered part of Alta California. U.S. expansion brought settlers who fought for control. Mexico ceded these territories after its defeat in 1848 in the Mexican–American War.

From the late 18th century, French-Canadian trappers from Québec and Montréal regularly entered the area for trade with the tribes. French toponyms such as Téton and La Ramie are marks of that history.

American John Colter first recorded a description in English of the region in 1807. He was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which was guided by French Canadian Toussaint Charbonneau and his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea. At the time, Colter's reports of the Yellowstone area were considered fictional. On a return from Astoria, Robert Stuart and a party of five men discovered South Pass in 1812.

The Oregon Trail later followed that route as emigrants moved to the west coast. In 1850, mountain man Jim Bridger found what is now known as Bridger Pass. Bridger also explored Yellowstone, and filed reports on the region that, like Colter's, were largely regarded at the time as tall tales. The Union Pacific Railroad constructed track through Bridger Pass in 1868. It was used as the route for construction of Interstate 80 through the mountains 90 years later.

The region acquired the name Wyoming by 1865, when Representative James Mitchell Ashley of Ohio introduced a bill to Congress to provide a "temporary government for the territory of Wyoming". The territory was named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. Thomas Campbell wrote his 1809 poem "Gertrude of Wyoming", inspired by the Battle of Wyoming in the American Revolutionary War. The name ultimately derives from the Lenape Munsee word ("at the big river flat").[3][4]


After the Union Pacific Railroad reached Cheyenne in 1867, population growth was stimulated. The federal government established the Wyoming Territory on July 25, 1868. Lacking significant deposits of gold and silver, unlike mineral-rich Colorado, Wyoming did not have such a population boom. But South Pass City had a short-lived boom after the Carissa Mine began producing gold in 1867. Copper was mined in some areas between the Sierra Madre Mountains and the Snowy Range near Grand Encampment.

Once government-sponsored expeditions to the Yellowstone country began, Colter's and Bridger's descriptions of the region's landscape were confirmed. In 1872, Yellowstone National Park was created as the world's first, to protect this area. Nearly all of the park lies within the northwestern corner of Wyoming.

On December 10, 1869, territorial Governor John Allen Campbell extended the right to vote to women, making Wyoming the first territory to do so. It kept that franchise when it established its state constitution. Women first served on juries in Wyoming (Laramie in 1870).

Wyoming was also a pioneer in welcoming women into electoral politics. It had the first female court bailiff (Mary Atkinson, Laramie, in 1870), and the first female justice of the peace in the country (Esther Hobart Morris, South Pass City, in 1870). In 1924, Wyoming was the first state to elect a female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, who took office in January 1925. Due to its civil-rights history, one of Wyoming's state nicknames is "The Equality State", and the official state motto is "Equal Rights".[2]

Wyoming's constitution included women's suffrage and a pioneering article on water rights. Congress admitted Wyoming into the Union as the 44th state on July 10, 1890.[2]

Wyoming was the location of the Johnson County War of 1892, which erupted between competing groups of cattle ranchers. The passage of the Homestead Act led to an influx of small ranchers. A range war broke out when either or both of the groups chose violent conflict over commercial competition in the use of the public land.

Timeline

YearEventSource
1870Wyoming's first censusSource:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
1872Creation of Yellowstone National ParkSource:Wikipedia
1890Wyoming becomes a stateSource:Wikipedia
1892Johnson County WarSource:Wikipedia

Population History

source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
Census Year Population
1870 9,118
1880 20,789
1890 62,555
1900 92,531
1910 145,965
1920 194,402
1930 225,565
1940 250,742
1950 290,529
1960 330,066
1970 332,416
1980 469,557
1990 453,588

Note: Although most of Wyoming was acquired as early as the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, organized government began with the establishment of Oregon, Nebraska, and Utah Territories (1848-54). Later the area was included in Idaho, Dakota, and Utah Territories until Wyoming Territory was established in 1868 with the present State boundaries. Wyoming was admitted as a State on July 10, 1890. In 1850 and 1860 present-day Wyoming had only limited census coverage, as part of Utah and Nebraska Territories. In 1870 census coverage included the whole of Wyoming Territory.

Research Tips

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Research Guides

Outstanding guide to Wyoming family history and genealogy (FamilySearch Research Wiki). Birth, marriage, and death records, wills, deeds, county records, archives, Bible records, cemeteries, churches, censuses, directories, immigration lists, naturalizations, maps, history, newspapers, and societies.


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