Wyoming Summary

A place of open ranges and honorary cowboys, Wyoming is as close as you can get to experiencing the Wild West. The least populated state, with only 493,782 citizens, Wyoming holds the West’s richest history and nature’s most resplendent scenery.

Geysers percolate in the scalded grounds of Yellowstone, the nation’s first national park. Devils Tower, the first national monument in the United States, fuses with the forests of the Black Hills, and the jagged peaks of the Grand Teton Mountains pierce the sky. East of the mountains, groves of aspen and cottonwood give way to grasslands that roll across miles of pioneer tracks — the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails from the east and the Overland Trail from the south — leading to the former cow town of Cheyenne, the state’s capital.

Wyoming has witnessed some of the bloodiest conflicts between the settlers and the Plains Native Americans and was refuge to some of the West’s most colorful characters — Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Tom Horn, Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Calamity Jane. Interestingly, Wyoming is also known as “The Equality State.” It was the first state to grant women the right to vote.

The state is a natural habitat for a number of animals, including grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, moose, and elk, as well as bald eagles. Bighorn sheep graze on rocky ledges of the Bighorn Mountains, and coyotes howl in thickets of sagebrush on the Thunder Basin grasslands. Wyoming’s economy is centered on its resources: oil, coal, natural gas, and tourism — Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks are big draw. It is perfect for activities such as skiing, whitewater rafting, dude ranching, and cattle drives — and it has some of the finest rivers for fly-fishing. In Wyoming the sky is bigger and the landscape never ends — it is the perfect place to roam the Old West.