WYOMING — On July 10, 1890, Wyoming was admitted to the Union as the 44th state.
According to the State of Wyoming, the territory of Wyoming included 13 counties when it was admitted, including the first county created: Laramie. Teton County is actually Wyoming’s youngest county, established in 1921.
The State of Wyoming also confirms that the road to statehood was not an easy one. When the Territorial Assembly sent Congress a petition for admission in 1888, the bills failed in both houses of Congress. However, the governor at the time decided to move forward as if the bills had passed and held an election of delegates to Wyoming’s only Constitutional Convention. In September 1889, 49 men wrote the state constitution and approved the document by a vote of 6,272 to 1,923.
Bills for statehood were introduced again in both houses of Congress in December 1889. The House passed the bill in 1890 and it was signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
Wyoming is officially known as the Equality State, which the U.S. Senate says originated because Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote. National Geographic confirms that the Wyoming territorial legislature passed the first women’s suffrage law on December 10, 1869, and women voted for the first time in 1870, two decades before the territory achieved statehood and half a century before the 19th amendment.
