|
Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie, Gillette, Evanston, Jackson, Rock Springs, Centennial, Carpenter, Carlile, Byron, Burns, Burlington, Buford, Buffalo, Boulder, Bosler, Bondurant, Bill, Big Piney, Big Horn, Beulah, Bedford, Basin, Banner, Bairoil, Baggs, Auburn, Arvada, Arminto
|
|
The area that would become Wyoming was inhabited by several
Native American groups before the arrival of Europeans. The
Shoshone, Arapaho, Cheyenne and Crow lived in the eastern
portion of the area. They hunted bison, following the
tremendous herds through their seasonal migrations, and
lived in tepees. The Ute people inhabited Wyoming's western
mountains, depending less on bison and more on the gathering
of wild foods, the hunting of smaller game (antelope,
rabbit, deer, elk) and fishing.
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
present Wyoming. 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
1812–13 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 was elected first
woman governor in the United States
Historians believe the first Europeans to see Wyoming were
Francois and Louis Verendrye, who arrived in 1743, but it
wasn't until 1807 that John Colter, who had been a member of
the Lewis and Clark expedition, first explored the area that
would become Yellowstone National Park. Fur trappers and
traders followed, and by the 1840s, large numbers of
westward-bound pioneers were trekking across Wyoming on
their way to Utah, Oregon and California. This influx led to
conflict with the Native Americans.
In the late 1860s, the Union Pacific Railroad began
stitching Wyoming to the rest of the country, and the
population increased dramatically. By the 1870s, the Native
Americans had been confined to reservations, which opened
lands for the new settlers. Cattle ranchers began arriving
in Wyoming (many of them having driven herds north from
Texas), and they were later joined by sheep herders. Bitter
and violent range wars ensued between the two groups, though
cattle became the more vital business in the long run.
Talk of statehood for Wyoming began as early as 1869 after
the organization of Wyoming Territory in that year. The road
to statehood, however, did not begin until 1888 when the
Territorial Assembly sent Congress a petition for admission
into the Union. Bills were introduced in both houses of
Congress, but did not pass.
Though no legislation passed Congress enabling Wyoming to
follow the steps that lead to statehood, Governor Francis E.
Warren and others decided to continue as if an "enabling
act" had passed. On July 8, 1889, Wyoming Territory held an
election of delegates to Wyoming's one and only
Constitutional Convention. Forty-nine men gathered in
Cheyenne during September, 1889, and wrote the constitution.
The voters approved the document November 5, 1889, by a vote
of 6,272 to 1,923.
Carved from sections of Dakota, Utah, and Idaho territories,
Wyoming Territory came into existence by act of Congress on
July 25, 1868. The territorial government was formally
inaugurated May 19, 1869. The first territorial governor,
John A. Campbell, appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant,
took his oath of office on April 15, 1869.
At the time of its organization, Wyoming had already been
divided into four counties: Laramie, established January 9,
1867; Carter (later Sweetwater), established December 27,
1867; Carbon and Albany, December 16, 1868. These counties
extended from the northern to the southern boundaries of the
territory. Upon the organization of Wyoming Territory, a
portion of Utah and Idaho, extending from Montana (including
Yellowstone Park) to the Wyoming-Utah boundary, was annexed
and named Uinta County. As the territory and later the state
became settled, the following counties were carved from the
original five until there are now twenty-three counties in
Wyoming.
The Ninth Territorial Legislative Assembly authorized the
construction of the building in 1886, and on May 18, 1887,
the cornerstone was laid.
Flagstone for the building's foundation was quarried near
Fort Collins, Colorado, 45 miles south of Cheyenne, while
sandstone from quarries near Rawlins, Wyoming, was used in
the construction of the upper floors. Additional wings on
each side of the original structure were completed in 1890
and the final two wings were finished in 1917. The interior
is finished in cherry, oak and butternut woods. The original
cost and the two later additions totaled $389,569.13. The
murals in the Senate and House chambers were painted by
Allen T. True. They depict industry, pioneer life, law and
transportation. The ceiling of each chamber is stained glass
with the State Seal in the center.
|
