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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. |
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