If You've Got It, Flaunt It

copyright 2002 by Virginia Vallee Delaney

In the history of the American West, Wyoming holds an enviable and uniquely valuable position. Almost everything that happened in the West, happened in Wyoming -- both more so and less so. It is more so because the windswept prairies are a little windier, the high plains a little higher, the dry streams a little drier, the clear sky a little clearer, the friendly neighbors a little more friendly. It is less so because the population per square mile has been fewer, the time frame shorter, and the research is easier than other states.

The sparse population over a large area in a short period of time makes the history of Wyoming the historian's delight. As the scientist likes to isolate a small specimen and examine it minutely, so the historian likes to find a contained event to study angle by angle. This Wyoming has with a neatness impossible with other states. Wyoming is the west under a magnifying glass.

To add to the value of Wyoming history, the material that makes history has been well preserved. Court Houses saved the first Grantee/Grantor records and other information. Historians can trace original property transactions. They can look up vital statistics; births, marriages, deaths and wills and relive the coming of the pioneers. In some areas, cemetery lists have been compiled. Census information is available. With its outstanding library system, museums, and historical preservation, Wyoming has kept the documents that make research reliable. All states have saved similar material, but in Wyoming, with our smaller population and dry air, records are more contained, easier to manage and in better condition than many other places.

But this is not all. The physical topography of Wyoming displays the marks of the west in a grand style. Wyoming has mountains, canyons, deserts, geysers, bad lands, sand dunes, and prairies. Yellowstone Park was the first national park. The Tetons, Flaming Gorge, Thermopolis Hot Springs, Devil's Tower are a few of the many other attractions. The Continental Divide gives the state backbone and sends waters of Wyoming spilling in all directions. Water drains to the Atlantic by way of the Yellowstone and the Platte, to the North Pacific by way of the Snake, To the Gulf of California by way of the Green. Some of Wyoming's water even drains into the Great Salt Lake and evaporates in the desert air.

Much happen in Wyoming. Across this land came the Oregon Trail, The Mormon Handcarts, the Pony Express, the Overland Stage, the telegraph and the first Transcontinental Railroad. Soon after the invention of the telephon, ranchers used barb wire for communication. Thomas Edison did some of his experiments in Bob Galbraith’s chicken coop in Rawlins.

Emigrants crossing Wyoming passed landmarks, such as Register Cliff, Independence Rock, Devils Gate, Rocky Ridge, Crossing of the Green, that became well known in pioneer lore. Some of the most famous forts in the West are in Wyoming -- Fort Bridger, Fort Fred Steel, Fort Laramie.

Most of all, Wyoming has South Pass. No state in the Union has anything quite like it. The discovery of South Pass is one of the major reasons the United States is united instead of divided into smaller countries. Not only do we have South Pass, but it has returned to its natural state. This treasure is in our hands and is ours to preserve.

And what is history without people. Wyoming has a storehouse of assets in its people. Here, from prehistoric times, lived Indians leaving a few artifacts to prove their antiquity but keeping the pristine beauty untouched. Later came the explorer, the trapper, the hunter, the gold miner, the emigrant, the soldier, the forts, the stage, the pony express, the telegraph, the railroad, the cattle baron, the cowboy, the school marm, the mail carrier, the frontier doctor, the newsman, the western humorist, the gambler, the saloon keeper, the hog rancher, the railroader, the coal miner, the Chinese workers, the Negro troops, the Mexican gauchos, the Stock Growers, the Cheyenne Club, the European nobility, the hunting expeditions and Buffalo Bill. Even the prototype of the cowboy story, The Virginian, was written about Wyoming. Here, also, the first American women of nineteen century went to the polls to vote. This list can go on and on. All the character types of the west are here in person interacting with each other as a small group, in a foreshortened time frame, in a square-shaped box.

As an added interest, no particular religion or culture dominated. There was a wide variety of churches, economic levels, education, politics and national origins. Scatterings of people came to Wyoming from all states and from abroad. Reading the census reveals origins from every direction.

Wyoming history will grow more valuable as the years pass. It is a resource that can never be exhausted. In contrast to other assets, the more it is used, the more it accrues. As such, Wyoming's history is one of Wyoming's major values. It should be enjoyed, used, preserved, and -- pardon the word -- flaunted.

The End

(Note: This is a rewrite of a similar article I published in the Bridger Valley Pioneer, Lyman Wyoming, July 16, 1987.)