WLM | history
WYOMING HISTORY
You Didn’t Learn in School
J
uly 10, 2015 marks 125 years
of Wyoming Statehood! To
celebrate this momentous
occasion, we decided to split up our
coverage over the remaining issues
of the year. When we were debating
what to cover, especially with the
momentous day passing in this issue,
we were at a loss … not because we
couldn’t find anything, but because
there is so MUCH to cover! How on
earth do you even begin to condense
125 years of history into a series
of features, let alone one!? So to
begin with, we decided to take a
little different approach … to look
at nuggets of historical information
from Wyoming’s rich past. However,
we thought listing all those things
that many of us already know – the
first National Monument (Devils
Tower, 1906), the hanging of Tom
Horn (1903 in Cheyenne), the first
woman to vote (Louisa Swain 1870
in Laramie) or the Johnson County
War (1892) – may be a little expected
as those to cover. Now please don’t
write in to tell us that we didn’t think
these things were important – that’s
absolutely not what we’re saying –
but we decided we wanted to hit
some of those things that people may
not know…those things that make
people say ‘Huh, no kidding!’ Hence
– a rather off-the-beaten-path look at
Wyoming history…
I want to thank all the fine folks
who helped us pull this list
together, especially James Fuller of
Discovering History & Heritage,
LLC of Cheyenne, a very fascinating
business that makes my history-
loving entrepreneurial brain buzz!
James was kind (and patient)
enough to interrupt his time at
the Wyoming State Historical
Society’s conference to help me
Google, brainstorm and collaborate
this list. If researching history is
a need of yours, you must contact
James! Thank you also to author
Kim Viner, Mary Mountain of the
Laramie Plains Museum, Tamsen
Hert of UW’s Emmett Chisum
Special Collections and Dicksie
May of Albany County Wyoming
Ranch Histories, who are always
treasure troves of information. I say
this often, but Phil Roberts of the
University of Wyoming is a walking
Wyoming history book – thank
you to him for his amazing website,
where I gathered much information
– it is included in the resources box
in this feature along with the other
gems of information! Thank you to
the many who aid us in our historical
research!
www.wyolifestyle.com
55