Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, was most likely the first white American to
enter the region in 1807, and he gave birth to the term mountain man. He explored what
would become Yellowstone National Park and was one of the first nonnatives to see the
Grand Tetons, spending a winter alone in the wilderness as he recorded his discoveries. Col-
ter's most legendary story is when he escaped from a group of Blackfeet Indians, running
naked and evading capture for 12 days.
Another mountain man, Jim Bridger, had a profound effect on Wyoming's early frontier
days in the 19th century. Bridger established the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1830
and spent the next 30 years in the West as a fur trader and guide, establishing a trading post
on the banks of Wyoming's Green River. Bridger married Indian women—the last being
the daughter of Shoshone chief Washakie—and discovered new trading routes, including
shortcuts on the Oregon and Bozeman Trails. He later served as an Army guide and scout
in their campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne, who were attacking parties along the
Bozeman Trail.
Blazing Trails Across the State
The famous Oregon Trail passed through central and southern Wyoming on its way from
Missouri to the Northwest. Today, Wyoming contains the longest and least-changed stretch
of trail—487 miles—that can be re-created by traveling on various state and federal high-
ways. The Oregon Trail was one of the main trading routes for those migrating west and was
used by an estimated 400,000 people. Large wagon trains left Missouri as early as 1841,
and usage peaked in 1850, but the trail practically disappeared when the first transcontin-
ental railroad was completed in 1869.
With the arrival of the railroad, population gradually began to increase, and the Wyom-
ing Territory was created in 1868. Yellowstone was made the first national park in 1872, and
visitors slowly started trickling in from the East. Coal was discovered near Rock Springs in
1885, but no large deposits of minerals like gold or silver were ever discovered. Wyoming's
lack of a gold rush limited its population growth, but in 1890 the territory was officially
recognized as the 44th state.
Wyoming played a large role in the women's suffrage movement, being the first to grant
women the right to vote in 1869. Wyoming also had the first woman justice of the peace,
the first woman court bailiff, and the first woman governor in the country.
Livestock and Energy
The devastation of the West's bison herds and the subsequent placement of Native Amer-
icans on reservations led to the development of what would become Wyoming's hallmark
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