Wyoming |
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| Entered the Union: July 10, 1890 (44) | Capital: Cheyenne | |
| Origin of Name: A contraction of the Native American word "mecheweamiing" meaning "at the big plains." | ||
| State Nicknames: The Equality State • The Cowboy State • Big Wyoming | ||
| State Flower: Indian Paintbrush | State Tree: Plains Cottonwood | |
| State Bird: Western Meadowlark | State Mammal: Bison | |
| State Fish: The Cutthroat Trout | State Gem: Jade | |
| State Reptile: The Horned Toad | State Song : “Wyoming" | |
| State Motto: Equal rights | ||
| National Forests: 5 • National Parks: 2 • State Parks: 16 | ||
| Famous For: Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks, Old Faithful Geyser, Jackson Hole, Flaming Gorge, Frontier Days Celebration | ||
| Famous Wyomingites: James Bridger (trapper, guide), Dick Cheney (Vice President), Buffalo Bill Cody (scout), Curt Gowdy (sportscaster), Washakie (Shoshone Chief), James G. Watt (secretary of the Interior), Nellie Tayloe Ross (first woman elected governor) | ||
| Animals and Birds: Click on photos of the animals and birds on this page to find out more about them and to hear the sounds they make. | ||
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| Cheyenne, Crow, Shoshone, Sioux, and Ute Native American tribes lived in the Wyoming region. | |||||||||||||
| 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. | |||||||||||||
| In 1872, Yellowstone was designated as the first National Park in the nation. The majority of Yellowstone National Park lies within the boundaries of Wyoming , with smaller portions in Idaho and Montana. | |||||||||||||
| Yellowstone National Park has more geysers than any other geyser field in the world. | |||||||||||||
| Devils Tower was designated as the first National Monument in 1906. | |||||||||||||
| Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote. | |||||||||||||
| In 1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected governor of Wyoming, becoming the nation's first woman governor. | |||||||||||||
| Wyoming's license plates feature a man on a bucking bronco. The horse has a name -- "Old Steamboat" -- after a bronc that could not be ridden. | |||||||||||||
| The largest coal mine in the USA is Black Thunder located near Wright. Wyoming leads the country in coal production in 1994 with 3 million tons per week. | |||||||||||||
| The JCPenney stores were started in Kemmerer. | |||||||||||||
| The first Dude Ranch in Wyoming was the Eaton Ranch, near Wolf. The Eaton's came up with the term "dude" | |||||||||||||
| Wyoming is the 9th largest state, but has the fewest people (475,000). | |||||||||||||
| Any person who fails to close a fence in Wyoming is subject to a fine of up to seven hundred and fifty dollars. | |||||||||||||
| The first business west of the Missouri River was a trading post established at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers by fur traders William Sublette and Robert Campbell. | |||||||||||||
| Harry Longabaugh became known as “the Sundance Kid” because he served a jail term for horse stealing in Sundance, Wyoming. | |||||||||||||
| The town of Kemmerer is known as the Fossil Fish Capital of the World -- it has over 100,000 fish fossils. | |||||||||||||
| The pronghorn is the second fastest land animal in the world, almost as fast as the cheetah. It is the fastest in the Western Hemisphere. In 1915, after the American pronghorn was almost hunted to extinction. Today there are approximately 700,000 pronghorns. | |||||||||||||
| Wyoming ranks second in wool production, and has over 810,000 sheep. | |||||||||||||
| Flaming Gorge has become nationally known as the "fishing hot spot" of America. The reservoir offers quality trout fishing year-round. | |||||||||||||
| Wyoming's highest point is Gannett Peak - 13,804 feet (4,207 m). The lowest point is the Belle Fourche River - 3,099 feet (944 m). | |||||||||||||
| Wyoming has over 2000 miles of groomed and ungroomed snowmobile trails. | |||||||||||||
| The Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range is home for more than 200 free roaming wild horses. | |||||||||||||
| More than 600 species of wildlife inhabit Wyoming. | |||||||||||||
| The largest ethnic groups in Wyoming are: German 25.9%, English 15.9%, Irish 13.3%, Norwegian 4.3%, Swedish 3.5% | |||||||||||||
| Religion in Wyoming: Christian 69% (Protestant – 53%, Catholic 16%) LDS 11%, No Religion 21% | |||||||||||||
At a Glance
Wyoming Quick Facts
| Entered the Union | July 10, 1890 (44) |
|---|---|
| Capital | Cheyenne |
| Nickname | The Equality State • The Cowboy State • Big Wyoming |
| State Bird | Western Meadowlark |
| State Flower | Indian Paintbrush |
| State Tree | Plains Cottonwood |
New for 2026
More Wyoming Facts & Photos
The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone is the largest hot spring in the United States and the third largest in the world. Its rings of red, orange, and green come from heat-loving microbes living in the cooler water around the deep blue center.
Wyoming named Triceratops its official state dinosaur in 1994, chosen by a vote of the state's elementary school students. The three-horned plant-eater roamed the region about 66 million years ago and was one of the most common dinosaurs of its time, with many fossils found in Wyoming rock.
Yellowstone Lake, sitting at 7,732 feet, is the largest freshwater lake above 7,000 feet in North America. It covers 136 square miles and has about 110 miles of shoreline.
The Teton Range is the youngest range in the Rocky Mountains, and its jagged peaks rise straight from the floor of Jackson Hole with no foothills. The mountains climb along an active fault more than 40 miles long, even though the rock in the core of the range is among the oldest in North America.
Voices of America
In Their Own Words
Ronald Reagan
"Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged."
President
Benjamin Franklin
"It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous."
Founding Father
Francis Scott Key
"He will therefore seek to establish for his country in the eyes of the world, such a character as shall make her not unworthy of the name of a Christian nation."
Author of National Anthem
Theodore Roosevelt
"The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get rich quick theory of life."
President
William H. Rehnquist
“It is truly surprising that the state must assign a greater value to a mother's decision to cut off a potential human life by abortion than to a father's decision to let it mature into a live child.”
Supreme Court
Harry S. Truman
"We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God."
President
Last updated: July 2026