Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming

A railroad town

Cheyenne grew up in 1867 along the route of the Union Pacific Railroad. When Wyoming Territory was organized, Territorial Governor John A. Campbell arrived there in May 1869 and named it his temporary seat of government, and the first territorial legislature met in Cheyenne that fall. By the late 1880s it was the territory’s most populous town.

A capital by default

When Wyoming prepared for statehood in 1889, its constitutional convention could not agree on permanent sites for the state’s institutions, so it left them where they were for at least ten years and required a later popular vote. That vote came in November 1904. Cheyenne received 11,781 votes, Lander 8,667 and Casper 3,610, with a few hundred more scattered, but no town won a majority. The state canvassing board declared that no town had won, and Cheyenne simply stayed the capital, as it has ever since.

The Capitol

The territorial capitol was started in 1886 to a design by David W. Gibbs and Company, in the Renaissance Revival style. Its central section was finished in 1888, the first east and west wings in April 1890, just before statehood, and the larger House and Senate wings, designed by William Dubois, in 1917. The dome is copper covered in gold leaf, and the top of the spire stands about 146 feet above the ground.

The Capitol is one of 20 state capitols designated National Historic Landmarks, in part because its Territorial House Chamber is where women’s suffrage was written into the state constitution. A multi-year restoration closed the building in 2016, and it reopened for Statehood Day, July 10, 2019.

Visiting

The Capitol is open on weekdays for self-guided tours. See the state’s Visit the Capitol page for details.