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WYOMING
Pronghorn antelope all but outnumber people
in wide-open WYOMING, the ninth largest but least
populous state in the union, with just 460,000
residents. Above all, this is classic cowboy country
– the inspiration behind Shane, The Virginian
and countless other Western novels – where the
days of the open range are evoked by rodeos, country-and-western
dance halls and ranchwear stores. The state emblem,
seen everywhere, is a hat-waving cowboy astride
a bucking bronco.
Northern Wyoming is the prime tourist goal, with
well over three million per year heading for the
simmering geothermal landscape of Yellowstone
National Park, and the craggy mountain vistas
of the adjacent, and equally outstanding, Grand
Teton National Park. Wedged in between Yellowstone
and South Dakota to the east are the helter-skelter
Bighorn Mountains, likeable Old West towns such
as Buffalo, and the otherworldly outcrop of Devils
Tower.
The meager supply of buffalo in early Wyoming
caused fierce intertribal wars over hunting grounds
and kept the Native American population down to
around 10,000. However, Sioux, Cheyenne and Blackfoot
combined to inflict notable defeats on the US
Army before it could clear the way for pioneer
settlement in the 1870s. The cattle ranchers and
sheep-farming homesteaders who followed engaged
in violent range wars over grazing rights to the
wiry grasslands.
Unlikely as it may seem, this rowdy, heavily male-dominated
state was the first to grant women the vote in
1869 – a full half-century before the rest of
the country, on the grounds that the enfranchisement
of women would attract settlers and increase the
population, thereby hastening statehood. A year
later Wyoming appointed the country's first women
jurors, and the "Equality State" elected the first
female US governor in 1924. The absence of rivers
to irrigate farmland has effectively put a lid
on agricultural and population growth. These days,
any weather-beaten, denim-clad stranger is more
likely to be an oil roustabout than a genuine
cowboy, fuel and mineral extraction having replaced
livestock as the mainstay of the economy in the
early part of the twentieth century.
Northwest and north central Wyoming
Northern Wyoming has a lot more to offer than
just a handy route between the Black Hills and
Yellowstone. The surreal volcanic monument of
Devils Tower, the abrupt Bighorn Mountains and
the desertscape of the Bighorn Basin are the major
natural attractions in a land steeped in the history
of Native American wars, outlaw activity and pioneer
hardships. Small towns such as unassuming Buffalo
and the more commercialized Cody, developed by
Buffalo Bill himself, are potential stopovers.
South and central Wyoming
State capital Cheyenne is the only town of real
note in the lower two-thirds of Wyoming. Set in
the heart of rich prairie – a surprise after the
scrubland, mountain and desert of most of the
region – it has closer economic ties with Omaha
or Denver than with the rest of Wyoming, a point
the more northerly oil city of Casper stressed
in its unsuccessful bids to become the seat of
government. West of Cheyenne, smaller Laramie
possesses an agreeable frontier feel, while the
spectacular wilderness of the Wind River Range,
accessible from Pinedale and Lander, accounts
for most of the west central portion of the state.
Southwest Wyoming
The long and monotonous drive across southern
Wyoming on I-80 – the route also followed by the
old train track – holds little to delight the
eye, though geologists and fossil enthusiasts
will be in their element, and it may provide some
travelers with their first glimpse of the red-rock
scenery of the West.
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