Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department
1959; Society of American Archivists; Volume: 22; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.17723/aarc.22.3.h113828u09165705
ISSN2327-9702
Autores Tópico(s)American Environmental and Regional History
ResumoACCORDING to the TV shows involving the West, to authors J-^L of western fiction, and to radio programs, the history of the West has been completely wild and riotous, and the name of Wyoming epitomizes all adventure.This, of course, is not entirely true, and recently we have begun to collect and rescue the records that will prove our point.But it is sometimes difficult to convince the public of the truth.In discussing Wyoming we must remember certain facts in regard to the State.Wyoming has been the eighth, and since the admission of Alaska is now the ninth, largest State in area.Yet in population it is forty-seventh on the list, having only about 300,000 inhabitants.This number would, of course, be lost in a corner of some of the metropolitan areas from which many of you come.Politically Wyoming is subdivided into 23 counties.Wyoming is a relative latecomer in the Union, admitted in 1890 as the forty-fourth State.It had been made a Territory in 1869, just 2 years after the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad at the infant town of Cheyenne.Before 1867 the only permanent settlements in what is now Wyoming were several military forts and a number of stage and telegraph stations along the Oregon and Overland Trails.The history of Wyoming is very close to the present, so close that it is difficult at times to make our people appreciate it.I have numbered among my friends and acquaintances persons who, as children, arrived in Cheyenne soon after the creation of Wyoming Territory.The history of the Territory and State was a part of their lives; and, although some of them appreciated it, many were more interested in their antecedents in the East.This is not to say that there was no early interest whatever in Wyoming history.
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