History of Wyoming

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Big Horn Medicine Wheel 2011
Wyoming, 1883
Big Horn medicine wheel

There is evidence of prehistoric human habitation in the region known today as the

Plano cultures have been discovered throughout Wyoming. Evidence from what is now Yellowstone National Park indicates the presence of vast continental trading networks since around 1,000 years ago.[1]

The Union Pacific Railroad played a central role in the European colonization of the area. Wyoming would become a U.S. territory in 1868. It was the first state to grant women the right to vote in 1869 (although it was then still a territory). Wyoming would become a U.S. state on July 10, 1890, as the 44th state.

Native American settlement

There is evidence of prehistoric human habitation in the region known today as the

Ute
.

Early European observations

Main articles: New Spain, Louisiana (New Spain), Treaty of Aranjuez (1801), New France, Louisiana (New France), Louisiana Purchase, District of Louisiana, Louisiana Territory, Missouri Territory, Republic of Texas, Texas annexation, Oregon Treaty, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexican Cession, Kansas–Nebraska Act, Nebraska Territory, Dakota Territory, and Idaho Territory

Europeans may have ventured into the northern sections of the state in the 18th century. Most of the southern part of modern-day Wyoming was nominally claimed by Spain and Mexico until the 1830s, but they had no presence.

Yellowstone area were considered at the time to be fictional. Robert Stuart and a party of five men returning from Astoria, Oregon discovered South Pass in 1812. The route was later followed by the Oregon Trail. In 1850, Jim Bridger located what is now known as Bridger Pass, which was later used by both the Union Pacific Railroad in 1868, and in the 20th century by Interstate 80. Bridger also explored the Yellowstone region and like Colter, most of his reports on that region of the state were considered at the time to be tall tales. During the early 19th century, fur trappers known as mountain men flocked to the mountains of western Wyoming in search of beaver. In 1824, the first mountain man rendezvous
was held in Wyoming. The gatherings continued annually until 1840, with the majority of them held within Wyoming territory.

Immigration trails

Main article: Emigrant Trail in Wyoming
1859 map of route from Sioux City, Iowa, through Nebraska, to gold fields of Wyoming, partially following old Mormon trails.
Big Horn Basin
respectively.

Indian Wars

Fort Laramie
in eastern Wyoming.

The influx of emigrants and settlers into the state led to further encounters with the native people there, and settler military presence along the trails increased; military posts such as

Black Hills War in 1876, which was fought mainly along the border of Wyoming and Montana
.

Cattle

In 1866,

Wild West
, and over the years variations of the storyline have come to include some of the west's most famous historical figures and gunslingers. The storyline and its variations have served as the basis for numerous popular novels, films, and television shows.

Railroad

In 1870, roughly three-eights of Wyoming's population was foreign born, coming primarily from Ireland, Germany and England.[12] The Union Pacific Railroad played a central role in the settlement of Wyoming. The land was good for cattle ranches, but without transportation it was too far for a cattle drive. The UP railroad companies had large land grants that were used to back the borrowings from New York and London that financed construction. UP was anxious to locate settlers upon the land as soon as possible, so there would be a steady outflow of cattle, and a steady inflow of manufactured items purchased by the ranchers. UP also built towns that were needed to service the railroad itself, with dining halls for passengers, construction crews, repair shops and housing for train crews. The towns attracted cattle drives and cowboys.[13][14]

The UP reached the town of

Rock Springs Massacre broke out when white miners drove out Chinese miners employed by the Union Pacific Coal Company in Rock Springs.[17]

Territory and statehood

Main articles: Organic act § List of organic acts, Wyoming Territory, Admission to the Union, and List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union

The name "Wyoming" was used by Representative J. M. Ashley of

Delaware (Munsee) name xwé:wamənk, meaning "at the big river flat", originally applied to the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania.[20]

historical coat of arms
(illustrated, 1876). This territorial design was re-adopted at statehood (1890) until a complete redesign in 1893.

After the arrival of the railroad, the population began to grow steadily in the Wyoming Territory, which was established on July 25, 1868.[21] Unlike Colorado to the south, Wyoming never experienced a rapid population boom in the 19th century from any major mineral discoveries such as gold or silver.

Inclusion of women's suffrage in the Wyoming constitution was debated in the constitutional convention, but ultimately accepted. The constitution was mostly borrowed from those of other states, but also included an article making all the water in Wyoming property of the state. Wyoming overcame the obstacles of low population and of being the only territory in the U.S. giving women the right to vote, and the United States admitted Wyoming into the Union as the 44th state on July 10, 1890.[22]

Suffrage

In 1869, Wyoming territory granted women the right to vote, becoming the first U.S. state to extend suffrage to women. Wyoming was also the home of many other firsts for U.S. women in politics. The first time women served on a jury was in Wyoming (Laramie in 1870). Wyoming had the first female court bailiff (Mary Atkinson, Laramie, in 1870), and the country's first female justice of the peace (Esther Hobart Morris, South Pass City, in 1870). Wyoming became the first state in the Union to elect a female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, who was elected in 1924 and took office in January 1925.[21]

Yellowstone National Park

Main article: Yellowstone National Park
The Hayden expedition in Wyoming as photographed by William Henry Jackson

Following on the reports of men like Colter and Bridger, a number of organized expeditions were undertaken in northwestern Wyoming. The

National Park in 1872. In August 1886, the U.S. Army was given administration of the park. In 1917, administration of the park was transferred to the new National Park Service. Hundreds of structures have been built and are protected for their architectural and historical significance, and researchers have examined more than 1,000 archaeological sites. Most of Yellowstone National Park is located in Wyoming.[23][24]

Wyoming is also home to the nation's first

national forest (Shoshone National Forest
created in 1891).

Settlers

The

Hole in the Wall Gang
. It was used from the 1860s through the early 20th century by outlaws operating throughout Wyoming.

Mining

Precious metals were never discovered in great quantities, though a small amount of gold was discovered near

Teapot Dome Scandal. Natural gas, bentonite and uranium
have also been mined through the state's history.

One exception is the copper mines in Carbon County west of Encampment. The Ferris-Haggarty Mine Site supplied copper for the electrification of the world in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Historical memory

After 1890, Wyoming pageants and parades, as well as school courses, increasingly told a nostalgic story of Wyoming as rooted in the frontier West. During the 1940s, Wyoming millionaire William R. Coe made large contributions to the American studies programs at Yale University and at the University of Wyoming. Coe wished to celebrate the values of the Western United States in order to meet the threat of communism.[26]

See also

History of Wyoming

References

  1. ^ a b Nash, Gary B. Red White and Black: The Peoples of Early North America. Los Angeles 2015. Chapter 1, p. 6
  2. ^ Grey, Don. 1962. Summary Report of the Medicine Wheel Investigation, Seventh Annual field Conference.
  3. ^ Wilson, Michael. 1981. Sun Dances, Thirst Dances, and Medicine Wheels: A Search for Alternative Hypotheses. Calgary: University of Calgary. Original edition, Megaliths to Medicine Wheels: Bolder Structures in Archaeology, edited by Wilson, Road and Hardy, Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Chacmool Conference, Calgary: University of Calgary, 1981.
  4. ^ The Majorville Cairn and Medicine Wheel Site, James M Calder, National Museum of Man Series, Archaeology Survey of Canada No. 62, Ottawa, 1977
  5. ^ "Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark". Archived from the original on 2008-01-25. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  6. ^ "Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites & Trails - Medicine Lodge Archaeological Site". Archived from the original on 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2016-10-20.
  7. ^ Edelman Mining District ClassIII 110 Cultural Survey of the Cloud Peak Wilderness, W. Mc. Matthews, West Zone Archaeologist, Bighorn National Forest, 2013, Bighorn National Forest R2012020206041
  8. ^ "John Colter, the Phantom Explorer—1807–1808". Colter's Hell and Jackson Hole. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 14, 2006. Retrieved November 16, 2006.
  9. ^ Sources on the actual number of cattle in the 1866 Nelson Story cattle drive vary widely. The most commonly seen numbers are 1000 and 3000. (Johnson, 1971 500–3000), (Kennedy ~1000), (Brown, 600)
  10. ^ Jackson, W. Turrentine. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 33, No. 4. (March 1947), pp. 571.
  11. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review
    , Vol. 33, No. 2. (September 1946), pp. 285.
  12. ^ Wyoming: A Bicentennial History By Taft Alfred Larson pg. 82
  13. ^ David F Halass, Hell on Wheels: Wicked Towns Along the Union Pacific Railroad (2013)
  14. ^ John C. Hudson, "Towns of the western railroads". Great Plains Quarterly 2#1 (1982): 41–54. online
  15. ^ Robert G. Athearn, Union Pacific Country (1971).
  16. ^ David A. Wolff, Industrializing the Rockies: Growth, Competition, and Turmoil in the Coalfields of Colorado and Wyoming, 1868-1914 (2003).
  17. ^ Craig Storti, Incident at Bitter Creek: The Story of the Rock Springs Chinese Massacre (1991).
  18. ^ Bartlett, Ichabod S. (1918). "11". History of Wyoming. Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company.
  19. ^ Pflieger, Pat "'Gertrude of Wyoming', by Thomas Campbell (1809)", merrycoz.org, Retrieved on July 3, 2008.
  20. ^ Bright, William (2004). Native American Place Names of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, pg. 576
  21. ^ a b "General Facts about Wyoming". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  22. ISBN 1-55566-163-7
    .
  23. ^ Yellowstone Park Foundation, The Yellowstone Park Foundation's Official Guide to Yellowstone National Park (2013)
  24. ^ Aubrey L. Haines, The Yellowstone Story: A History of Our First National Park (2 vol. 1999)
  25. ^ "Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid". Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  26. ^ Liza Nicholas, "Wyoming as America: Celebrations, a Museum, and Yale", American Quarterly, Sept. 2002, 54#3 pp. 437–465

Further reading

Main article: Bibliography of Wyoming history
  • Bartlett, Ichabod S., ed. (1918). History of Wyoming Volume 1 (PDF). Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing company. (+ link); Bartlett, Ichabod S., ed. (1918). History of Wyoming Volume 2 (PDF). Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing company.
  • Bancroft, Hubert Howe; Frances Fuller Victor (1890). History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 (PDF). San Francisco: The History Company.
  • Bonner, Robert E. "Buffalo Bill Cody and Wyoming water politics." Western Historical Quarterly 33.4 (2002): 432–451. online
  • Cassity, Michael. Wyoming Will Be Your New Home: Ranching, Farming, and Homesteading in Wyoming, 1860–1960 (Cheyenne: Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources, 2011) 342 pp.
  • Cassity, Michael. Lives Worth Living, History Worth Preserving Wyoming: A Brief History of Wyoming 1860 - 1960 (2010)
  • Cassity, Michael. Building Up Wyoming: Depression-Era Federal Projects in Wyoming, 1929-1943 (Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, 2013)
  • Chamblin, Thomas S. ed. Historical encyclopedia of Wyoming (2 vol Wyoming Historical Institute, 1954) 952 biographies in 1040 pages.
  • Chapple, Simon. “Writing Law into ‘New Western History’: Law and Order in Wyoming and New Mexico.” Australasian Journal of American Studies 27#2 (2008), pp. 44–65. online
  • Chisum, Emmett D. "Boom Towns on the Union Pacific: Laramie, Benton, and Bear River City". Annals of Wyoming 53#1 (1981): 2–13.
  • Coutant, Charles Griffin (1899). The history of Wyoming from the earliest known discoveries (PDF). Laramie: Chaplin, Spafford & Mathison.
  • Dick, Everett. Vanguards of the Frontier: A Social History of the Northern Plains and Rocky Mountains from the Earliest White Contacts to the Coming of the Homemaker (1941) online
  • Gardner, A. Dudley. "You Could Still Live Off the Land: Sweetwater County During the Great Depression". Annals of Wyoming (2011) 83#1, pp 2–20.
  • Gardner, A. Dudley, and Verla R. Flores. Forgotten frontier: A history of Wyoming coal mining (Routledge, 2019).
  • Gould, Lewis L. Wyoming: A Political History, 1868–1896 (Yale UP, 1968) online book see also online review
  • Gould, Lewis L. "A. S. Mercer and the Johnson County War: A Reappraisal." Arizona and the West 7.1 (1965): 5-20.
  • Hansen, Arthur A. “The 1944 Nisei Draft at Heart Mountain, Wyoming: Its Relationship to the Historical Representation of the World War II Japanese American Evacuation.” OAH Magazine of History 10#4 (1996), pp. 48–60. online
  • Hebard, Grace Raymond (1919). The history and government of Wyoming; the history, constitution and administration of affairs (PDF). San Francisco: C. F. Weber Co.
  • Hebard, Grace Raymond (1922). Teaching Wyoming history by counties (PDF). Wyoming State Dept. of Education.
  • Hendrickson, Gordon Olaf, ed. Peopling the High Plains: Wyoming's European Heritage (Wyoming State Archives, 1977).
  • Hewitt, William L. “The ‘Cowboyification’ of Wyoming Agriculture.” Agricultural History 76#2 (2002), pp. 481–94. online
  • Knobloch, Frieda. “Creating the Cowboy State: Culture and Underdevelopment in Wyoming since 1867.” Western Historical Quarterly 32#2 (2001), pp. 201–21. online
  • Larson, Taft Alfred. Wyoming: A bicentennial history (WW Norton & Company, 1977).
  • Lavender, David. Fort Laramie and the Changing Frontier: Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming (United States Government Printing, 1983). link
  • Nicholas, Liza. “Wyoming as America: Celebrations, a Museum, and Yale.” American Quarterly 54#3 (2002), pp. 437–65. online
  • Stamm, Henry E. “Boom-Town Evangelism: The Reverend Joseph W. Cook and St. Mark’s Church, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 1867-1870.” Anglican and Episcopal History 66#2 (1997), pp. 132–53. online
  • Woods, Lawrence Milton. Wyoming's Big Horn Basin to 1901: A Late Frontier (Arthur H. Clark Company, 1997).

Primary sources

  • Swindler, William; Vexler, Robert State (1979). Wyoming: Chronology and Documentary Handbook. New York: Oceana Publications.
  • Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Wyoming. Wyoming, a Guide to Its History, Highways, and People (1940), famous WPA guide.

External links

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