Wyoming

A name from Pennsylvania

Wyoming’s name was borrowed from the East. It comes from a Delaware, or Lenape, word, recorded in forms such as mecheweami-ing, usually translated as “at the big plains” or “extensive meadows.” Settlers first gave it to the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, and Thomas Campbell’s poem “Gertrude of Wyoming” spread it as a place name across the country. Congressman J. M. Ashley of Ohio used it in an 1865 bill for a new western territory, and in the 1868 Senate debate it beat alternatives such as Cheyenne, Shoshoni, Big Horn, Sweetwater and Lincoln. A former state historian, A. J. Mokler, argued that the Delaware people had carried the word west with them, so the choice was less arbitrary than it looks.

The Equality State

On December 10, 1869, Wyoming’s territorial governor signed a law that made Wyoming the first US territory to give women the right to vote. When Wyoming applied for statehood it kept women’s suffrage in its constitution, and December 10 is still celebrated as Wyoming Day. The legacy runs through the state’s symbols: the nickname is the Equality State, the motto, adopted in 1955, is “Equal Rights,” and the woman at the center of the Great Seal holds a banner reading “Equal Rights,” with broken chains at her wrists.

Wyoming became the 44th state on July 10, 1890, when President Benjamin Harrison signed the statehood bill introduced by the territorial delegate, Joseph M. Carey.

Cheyenne

Cheyenne grew up in 1867 along the route of the Union Pacific Railroad, and in 1869 Territorial Governor John A. Campbell named it his temporary seat of government. It has been the capital ever since, although it has never formally won the title: in a 1904 statewide vote it led every other town but fell short of a majority, so it simply stayed. Its Capitol, with a gold-leafed dome, was begun in 1886. The capital page tells the story.

Bison and the bucking horse

The state flag, adopted in 1917, shows a white bison on a blue field with the state seal branded on its side, inside a red and white border. Wyoming’s other famous emblem, the Bucking Horse and Rider, began as a National Guard insignia in World War I and has been on the state’s license plates since 1936. Wyoming is also known as the Cowboy State.

Paintbrush, meadowlarks and Triceratops

Wyoming has 22 official state symbols. The Indian paintbrush, whose scarlet color comes from bracts rather than petals, became the state flower in 1917, the same day as the flag. The western meadowlark is the state bird, the plains cottonwood the state tree and the American bison the state mammal. The state dinosaur, Triceratops, was chosen by an election, the state fossil is Knightia, a fish found in great numbers in the Green River Formation, and rodeo is the state sport. See them all on the Wyoming symbols page.

Land and people

Wyoming covers 97,813 square miles, 10th among the states, but it had only about 589,000 residents in 2025, the fewest of any state, with about 6 people per square mile. It borders Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. Nearly all of Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872 as the world’s first national park, lies in Wyoming. Cheyenne, with about 67,000 people, is the largest city, followed by Casper, Gillette, Laramie and Rock Springs.