Geography and Industry

Wyoming is one of only two states in the Union that is a perfect rectangle. Can you guess the name of the other one? (It's Colorado, Wyoming's neighbor to the south.) Like Montana, Wyoming is part mountain state and part plains state. The Bighorn, Teton, and Wind River ranges of the Rocky Mountains all run through western Wyoming. So do the Laramie, Medicine Bow, and Absaroka ranges. Wyoming really is a mountain state!

The Powder River runs through the central part of the state, just east and south of where South Dakota's Black Hills run into Wyoming's northeastern corner. The mighty Snake River starts in Wyoming's western mountains and then runs into Idaho.

And there is the Yellowstone country. Lake Yellowstone is the largest lake in the state, and is the center of world-famous Yellowstone National Park, which is the world's first national park. Yellowstone National Park is home to a large herd of buffalo, lots of grizzly bears and wolves, and cougars and other predators that are endangered elsewhere. Also, Yellowstone is an area where there is a lot of volcanic activity, so there are many geysers and hot springs in the area.

Less than twenty miles south of Yellowstone National Park lies Grand Teton National Park, and it is gorgeous! Majestic peaks rise over the valley of the Snake River as the river makes its way into southern Idaho. The Continental Divide runs right through both of these amazing parks!

Wyoming's main economic venture is still cattle and sheep ranching. Just as the state has as many mountains and as much scenery as Montana and Colorado, it also has as much mineral wealth. Petroleum drilling is especially important.

History

When the first French fur traders visited Wyoming, such tribes as the Crow, Cheyenne, Shoshone, and Sioux lived there. The Sioux lived in and around the Black Hills, the Crow lived in the south central part of the state, and the Cheyenne lived in both the north central and eastern part of the state (which is why the state's capital city, located in that region, is named after them). When white settlement began to push the Sioux out of their hunting grounds in South Dakota and the Black Hills region, they in turn pushed the Crow westward into the mountains.

The first American to visit what later became Wyoming was a former member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, a man named John Colter. Colter visited the Yellowstone region, saw its wonders, and told people about them when he returned east of the Mississippi. They laughed at him and thought he was lying. People back then talked about what they came to call Colter's Hell the same way that people today talk about Atlantis and Shangri-la.

The Oregon Trail runs east to west across Wyoming. It was the main route that people used to cross the continent and go to either Oregon or California before the coming of the railroads. In fact, in many places in Wyoming, you can still see the 150-year-old ruts left in the trail by the wheels of the settlers' wagons!

Wyoming became a territory in 1868. In 1869 women in Wyoming were the first w men in the United States to get the right to vote. Wyoming became a state in 1890, and in 1924 continued to be out in front in the struggle for women's rights, when Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected the first woman governor by any state (she was elected to finish out her deceased husband's term). Later on the same day, another woman, Miriam Ferguson, continued the trend by being elected governor of Texas!