10 facts about Wyoming: the smallest state in the United States (2023)

Wyoming Facts: America's Smallest State by Population

What is the smallest state in the United States?

Wyoming is one of the 50 states of the United States. The keystone landlocked state is located in the Mountain Divide on the western mainland of the US.

A census makes a systematic estimate of the population of a given geographic area. As of 2010, the fiveminor statesBy population they are Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska and South Dakota, according to AzCentral.

Of the 50 states, Wyoming has thelower population, with 563,626 people. Wyoming's capital and largest city is Cheyenne, and the state's land area is 97,100 square miles with a population density of 5.8 people per square mile.

It is the tenth largest state in the United States with a total area of ​​253,348 km² (97,818 sq mi).^[2]By comparison, Wyoming is slightly larger than Great Britain. Compared to other US states, Wyoming would be nearly three times the size of Texas, but 11 times the size of New Jersey.

Its most famous national park, Yellowstone, was the first national park in the United States and is now home to many animals, including the rare American bison. Located to the west, Wyoming is two-thirds covered by mountain ranges in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

The original inhabitants of the region include the Arapaho, Crow, Lakota, and Shoshone peoples. Southwestern Wyoming was claimed by the Spanish Empire and then Mexican territory until ceded to the United States.US. 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American War. The region was given the name "Wyoming" when a bill was introduced to Congress in 1865, providing for an interim government for the territory of Wyoming. Formerly used for the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, the name derives from the Munsee word xwé:wamənk, meaning "on the great river plain".

Where is Wyoming on the map?

Where is Wyoming in the US? Location map of Wyoming, United States.

Six states border Wyoming: Wyoming borders Montana to the north, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Colorado and Utah to the south, and Idaho to the west.

The Wyoming location map references the precise geographic position of the state, which is 43.0°N and 107.5°W. Wyoming is located in the northwestern region of the United States of America, in the Rocky Mountains section, and covers a total area of ​​97,809 miles (253,325 square kilometers).

Keep reading:10 facts about Rhode Island: America's smallest state by area

wyoming history

Foto: Coolkidfacts

The United States acquired the land that includes Wyoming from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. John Colter, a fur trapper, is the first known white man to set foot in the region. In 1807 he explored the Yellowstone area and brought news of its geysers and hot springs.

Robert Stuart pioneered the Oregon Trail through Wyoming in 1812-1813 and in 1834 Fort Laramie, Wyoming's first permanent trading post, was built. Western Wyoming was preserved by the US in the 1846 Oregon Treaty with Great Britain and as a result of the 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican War, according to InfoPlease.

When Wyoming Territory was organized in 1869, Wyoming women were the first in the country to receive the right to vote. In 1925, Mrs. Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first female Governor of the United States.

Wyoming's towering mountains and vast plains offer spectacular scenery, pasture for sheep and cattle, and rich mineral deposits.

Wyoming is a major coal-producing state and a major producer of oil and natural gas. Wyoming has the largest sodium carbonate (Natrona) deposits in the world and the second largest uranium deposits in the country.

A major producer of sheep and wool, Wyoming is also a major producer of cattle and hogs. The main crops are wheat, oats, sugar beet, corn, barley and alfalfa.

Second only to Colorado in average elevation, Wyoming has many tourist attractions, most notably Yellowstone National Park. Hikers, campers, and skiers are drawn to Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole National Monument in the Teton Range of the Rocky Mountains. Cheyenne is famous for its annual Border Days. Flaming Gorge, Fort Laramie National Historic Site, and Devils Tower and Fossil Butte National Monuments are other sites cited by InfoPlease.

Wyoming was chosen as the official state of the Free State Project, a political migration. The plan was for all Libertarians to be resettled in one state so they could live freely. The project started in 2001. Members voted in the states selected for migration. Wyoming received 498 votes and was ranked second behind New Hampshire.

10 facts about Wyoming - the smallest stateus united states

1. Experts aren't sure where the name Wyoming came from. The name may come from a Delaware Indian word meaning "alternating mountains and valleys" or "great plains". It can also come from the Munsee language, which means "on the great river plain", or from the Algonquian language, which means "a great meadow".

It is known as the Equality State because it was the first state to grant women the right to vote and to prohibit women from serving on juries and public office.

2. Buffalo, pronghorn, black bear, grizzly bear, and bighorn sheep are among Wyoming's many mammals. Red-tailed hawks, hawks, needle jays and mountain thrushes are just some of the birds that fly over the region. Reptiles include western painted turtles, rubber boas, Great Basin lizards, and uncounted Great Plains lizards. Amphibians such as Columbia spotted frogs, Wyoming frogs, and western tiger salamanders can be found here, according to National Geographic.

Grasses, semi-desert shrubs, and desert shrubs cover most of the state. Mugwort and Rocky Mountain juniper are examples of these plants. In the wooded areas you will find ponderosa pine, lodge pine and Douglas fir. Yarrow, sticky purple geranium, pink fairy, and Indian brush (the state flower) are just a few of the wildflowers that grow throughout Wyoming.

3. The Territory of Wyoming was the first in the country to grant women 21 and older the right to vote in 1869.

Motivated more by an interest in free advertising than a commitment to gender equality, Wyoming Territory legislatures pass laws granting women the right to vote.

Western states led the nation in enacting women's suffrage, but some had rather nasty motives. While some men recognized the important role of women in colonizing the frontier, others voted only for women's suffrage to bolster the strength of the conservative electorate. In Wyoming, some men were also motivated by sheer solitude: in 1869, the area was home to more than 6,000 adult men and only 1,000 women, and men in the area expected women to be more likely to settle on the hard, rugged ground. isolated. if the law allowed it, they would choose according to history.

Some of the leaders of the suffrage movement had more serious reasons for supporting women's suffrage. William Bright, a territorial legislator in his mid-forties, had a persuasive young wife who convinced him that denying women the right to vote was a grave injustice. The other big supporter, Edward M. Lee, the territorial secretary who championed the cause for years, argued that denying the mother a privilege granted to African-American men was unfair.

Ultimately, however, the bills fell short of calls for fairness and equality: Most Wyoming lawmakers supported Bright and Lee's bill, believing it would give the territory free national publicity and attract more single women of marriageable age for the area. Appreciating the publicity of the policy, Territorial Governor John A. Campbell signed the law into law, making Wyoming the first territory or state in the nation's history to grant women this basic right to citizenship.

4. The country's first female governor was also elected in Wyoming

Photo: Casper Star-Tribune

Nellie Tayloe Ross, née Wynns, (born November 29, 1876, St. Joseph, Missouri, USA - died December 20, 1977, Washington, DC) was the first woman in the United States to serve as governor of a state and, to Britannica, the first woman to head the United States Mint.

Ross was elected Governor of Wyoming in 1924, succeeding her husband, incumbent Democrat William Bradford Ross, who died shortly before the election. After narrowly losing to a Republican gubernatorial candidate in 1926, Ross was named vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Ross Director of the United States. Mint, making her one of the first women to hold a federal office of that magnitude. During her 20-year tenure, the Mint introduced the Roosevelt penny, the Jefferson penny, and the steel penny, the latter as an emergency measure during World War II.

Ross won the distinction of becoming the first female governor by a narrow margin; Just 16 days later, Miriam Ferguson was named Governor of Texas.

5. Wyoming is the least populated state in the country, despite being the 10th largest by area. According to census records, approximately 586,000 people live in its 97,818 square miles. For comparison, the smallest state in the United States, Rhode Island, has an area of ​​just 1,212 square miles and is home to around 1.055 million people, according to Mental Floss.

6. The official motto of Wyoming is Equal Rights.

Although Wyoming is affectionately called the "Cowboy State," Wyoming's true nickname is the "Equality State." And for good reason. On December 10, 1869, Wyoming passed the first unconditional law in the United States, permanently granting women their inherent right to vote and hold public office, according to Travel Wyoming.

On September 6, 1870, in Laramie, Wyoming, Louisa Swain made history by becoming the world's first woman to vote in the electoral college under laws granting women full civil and political equality with men. The same laws were never changed, even when Wyoming was admitted to the Union in 1890.

And those weren't the only female debuts in Wyoming. The first female governor was elected in Wyoming, and the country's first woman appointed to public office was elected in South Pass City, Wyoming. Additionally, the State of Equality is home to the world's first female jury, the first female sheriff, and the first city governed entirely by women.

Asked to enter the Union only if women's suffrage was repealed, the Wyoming legislature said, "We will stay out of the Union for a hundred years rather than enter without women." .

7. Most of the country's first national park, Yellowstone, lies within the limits of Wyoming. Yellowstone is home to nearly 300 species of birds, 67 species of mammals, and 16 species of fish. More than 4 million people visit the park each year.

Old Faithful, a geyser in Yellowstone National Park, got its name because its eruptions are predictable. The geyser erupts almost every hour and a half.

The park service can accurately predict eruptions from Old Faithful within a 10-minute window.

Photo: Travel + Leisure

8. Outlaw Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, also known as The Sundance Kid, got his nickname from the town of Sundance, Wyoming, where he was arrested at age 15 for stealing a horse.

Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (1867 - November 7, 1908), better known as the Sundance Kid, was an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch in the American Old West. He likely met Butch Cassidy (real name Robert Leroy Parker) after Cassidy was released from prison around 1896. The Wild Bunch gang carried out the longest string of train and bank robberies in American history. Longabaugh, along with his wife Etta Place and Butch Cassidy, fled the United States to escape continued pursuit by the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The trio fled first to Argentina and then to Bolivia, where most historians believe Cassidy and Longabaugh were killed in a shootout in November 1908.

9. Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming, a town named after the man who founded it, William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Pollock's family then moved to Arizona and California, and Jackson later followed his older brother Charles to New York.

Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and the main force behind the abstract expressionist movement in the art world. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. Jackson Pollock's greatness lies in developing one of the most radical abstract styles in the history of modern art, separating the color line, redefining the categories of drawing and painting, and finding new ways to describe pictorial space.

Photo: Wolf Art

10. The bison is the official state mammal of Wyoming, but the relationship between the animals and their human neighbors is complicated. According to the National Park Service, more people are injured by bison than bears in Yellowstone each year. Because conservation efforts have been so successful, there is also an initiative to keep the bison population down: According to Mental Floss, the goal this year is to capture and kill between 600 and 900 animals.

A bull bison can weigh over 1,800 pounds and stand 6 feet tall at the shoulder. Bison once roamed the American prairies by the tens of millions and provided a way of life for the Native Americans of the Great Plains, but European settlers hunted bison to the brink of extinction (an estimated 300-500 animals remained). when the federal government passed stricter hunting laws in 1889).

Foto: Peapix