Editing Wyoming (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Wyoming}}
[[File:Alfred Jacob Miller - Fort Laramie - Walters 37194049.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The first [[Fort Laramie]] as it looked before 1840 (painting from memory by Alfred Jacob Miller)|left]]

Several [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] groups originally inhabited the region today known as Wyoming. The [[Crow Nation|Crow]], [[Arapaho]], [[Lakota people|Lakota]], and [[Shoshone]] were but a few of the original inhabitants European explorers encountered when they first visited the region. What is now southwestern Wyoming was claimed by the [[Spanish Empire]], which extended through the Southwest and Mexico. With Mexican independence in 1821, it was considered part of [[Alta California]]. U.S. expansion brought settlers who fought for control. Mexico ceded these territories after its defeat in 1848 in the [[Mexican–American War]].

From the late 18th century, [[French-Canadian]] trappers from Québec and Montréal regularly entered the area for trade with the tribes. French toponyms such as Téton and [[Jacques La Ramee|La Ramie]] are marks of that history.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The Fur Trade in Wyoming {{!}} WyoHistory.org |url=https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/fur-trade-wyoming |access-date=2024-01-05 |website=www.wyohistory.org}}</ref>

American [[John Colter]] first recorded a description in English of the region in 1807. He was a member of the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]], which was guided by French Canadian [[Toussaint Charbonneau]] and his young Shoshone wife, [[Sacagawea]]. At the time, Colter's reports of the [[Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem|Yellowstone]] area were considered fictional.<ref>{{Gutenberg |no=42112 |name=The Yellowstone National Park |bullet=none }}</ref> On a return from [[Astoria, Oregon|Astoria]], [[Robert Stuart (explorer)|Robert Stuart]] and a party of five men discovered [[South Pass (Wyoming)|South Pass]] in 1812.<ref name=":1" />

The [[Oregon Trail]] later followed that route as emigrants moved to the west coast. In 1850, mountain man [[Jim Bridger]] first documented what is now known as [[Bridger Pass]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=A Map of the West in his Head: Jim Bridger, Guide to Plains and Mountains {{!}} WyoHistory.org |url=https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/jim-bridger |access-date=2024-01-05 |website=www.wyohistory.org}}</ref> Bridger also explored Yellowstone, and filed reports on the region that, like Colter's, were largely regarded at the time as [[tall tale]]s. The [[Union Pacific Railroad]] constructed track through Bridger Pass in 1868.<ref name=":2" /> It was used as the route for construction of [[Interstate 80 in Wyoming|Interstate 80]] through the mountains 90 years later.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-02-06 |title=Jim Bridger: The man, the myth, the legend |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/jim-bridger-the-man-the-myth-the-legend/ |access-date=2024-01-05 |website=The Seattle Times |language=en-US}}</ref>

After the Union Pacific Railroad reached [[Cheyenne, Wyoming|Cheyenne]] in 1867, population growth was stimulated. The federal government established the [[Wyoming Territory]] on July 25, 1868.<ref>[http://wyoming.gov/state/wyoming_news/general/history.asp State of Wyoming—General Facts About Wyoming] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927200649/http://wyoming.gov/state/wyoming_news/general/history.asp |date=September 27, 2007 }}</ref> Lacking significant deposits of gold and silver, unlike mineral-rich [[Colorado]], Wyoming did not have such a population boom. But [[South Pass City, Wyoming|South Pass City]] had a short-lived boom after the Carissa Mine began producing gold in 1867.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wyoparks.state.wy.us/Site/Brochure/SouthPassCity.pdf |title=South Pass City Historic Site |publisher=Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites & Trails |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227040747/http://wyoparks.state.wy.us/Site/Brochure/SouthPassCity.pdf |archive-date=February 27, 2009 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Copper was mined in some areas between the [[Sierra Madre Range (Wyoming)|Sierra Madre Mountains]] and the Snowy Range near [[Grand Encampment, Wyoming|Grand Encampment]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M8pIAAAAMAAJ |title=Mines Register: Successor to the Mines Handbook and the Copper Handbook, Describing the Non-ferrous Metal Mining Companies in the Western Hemisphere |year=1911 |last1=Stevens |first1=Horace Jared |last2=Weed |first2=Walter Harvey |last3=Neale |first3=Walter Garfield |last4=Rand |first4=Lenox Hawes |last5=Sturgis |first5=Edward Barney |last6=Zimmerman |first6=Joseph |display-authors=2}}</ref>

Once government-sponsored expeditions to the Yellowstone country began, Colter's and Bridger's descriptions of the region's landscape were confirmed. In 1872, [[Yellowstone National Park]] was created as the world's first, to protect this area. Nearly all of the park lies within the northwestern corner of Wyoming.

[[File:3c Wyoming Statehood 50th anniversary, 1940 issue.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|On July 10, 1940, the U.S. Post Office issued a postage stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of Wyoming statehood. The engraving depicts the Wyoming state seal, which features a central figure of a woman in front of a banner reading 'equal rights']]
On December 10, 1869, territorial Governor [[John Allen Campbell]] extended the right to vote to women, making Wyoming the first territory to do so, and upon statehood became the first state to grant [[women's suffrage]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Women's History Collections |url=https://www.uwyo.edu/ahc/collections/by-subject/women.html |accessdate=April 14, 2023 |publisher=[[American Heritage Center]]}}</ref> Women first served on juries in Wyoming ([[Laramie, Wyoming|Laramie]] in 1870). Wyoming was also a pioneer in welcoming women into electoral politics.<ref name="Helton">{{cite web|last=Helton|first=Jennifer|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-american-west-led-way-women-politics-180975573/|title=How the American West Led the Way for Women in Politics|work=[[Smithsonian]]|date=August 14, 2020|accessdate=April 14, 2023}}</ref> It had the first female court bailiff (Mary Atkinson, Laramie, in 1870), and the first female [[justice of the peace]] in the country ([[Esther Hobart Morris]], South Pass City, in 1870). In 1924, Wyoming was the first state to elect a female governor, [[Nellie Tayloe Ross]], who took office in January 1925.<ref>{{cite book |last=Larson |first=T. A. |title=History of Wyoming |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9zVKYtdsUDEC |year=1990 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-803-27936-0}}</ref> Due to its civil-rights history, one of Wyoming's state nicknames is "The Equality State", and the official state motto is "Equal Rights".<ref name="WyoFacts" />

Wyoming's constitution also included a pioneering article on [[water right]]s.<ref>{{cite book |title=Frontier Spirit: The Story of Wyoming |last=Sodaro |first=Craig |author2=Adams, Randy |year=1996 |publisher=Johnson Books |isbn=978-1-55566-163-2 |pages=136–39}}</ref> Bills for Wyoming Territory's admission to the union were introduced in both the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] and [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]] in December 1889. On March 27, 1890, the House passed the bill and President [[Benjamin Harrison]] signed Wyoming's statehood bill; Wyoming became the 44th state in the union.<ref name="WyoFacts" />

Wyoming was the location of the [[Johnson County War]] of 1892, which erupted between competing groups of cattle ranchers. The passage of the [[Homestead Act]] led to an influx of small ranchers. A [[range war]] broke out when either or both of the groups chose violent conflict over commercial competition in the use of the public land.