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The U.S. acquired the land comprising
Wyoming from France as part of the Louisiana
Purchase in 1803. John Colter, a fur-trapper, is the
first white man known to have entered the region. In
1807 he explored the Yellowstone area and brought
back news of its geysers and hot springs.
Robert Stuart pioneered the Oregon
Trail across Wyoming in 1812–1813 and, in 1834, Fort
Laramie, the first permanent trading post in
Wyoming, was built. Western Wyoming was obtained by
the U.S. in the 1846 Oregon Treaty with Great
Britain and as a result of the treaty ending the
Mexican War in 1848.
When the Wyoming Territory was
organized in 1869, Wyoming women became the first in
the nation to obtain the right to vote. In 1925 Mrs.
Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first woman governor
in the United States.
Wyoming's towering mountains and
vast plains provide spectacular scenery, grazing
lands for sheep and cattle, and rich mineral
deposits.
Mining, particularly oil and
natural gas, is the most important industry. Wyoming
has the world's largest sodium carbonate (natrona)
deposits and has the nation's second largest uranium
deposits.
In 2000 Wyoming ranked second
among the states in wool production (exceeded only
by Texas) and third in sheep and lambs (exceeded
only by Texas and California); it also had 1,580,000
cattle. Principal crops include wheat, oats, sugar
beets, corn, barley, and alfalfa.
Second in mean elevation to
Colorado, Wyoming has many attractions for the
tourist trade, notably Yellowstone National Park.
Hikers, campers and skiers are attracted to Grand
Teton National Park and Jackson Hole National
Monument in the Teton Range of the Rockies. Cheyenne
is famous for its annual “Frontier Days”
celebration. Flaming Gorge, the Fort Laramie
National Historic Site, and Devils Tower and Fossil
Butte National Monuments are other points of
interest. |
