Wyoming Flag on Our Flagpole

Wyoming – The Equality State

Wind River Canyon
Wind River Canyon

The Snowy Range in the south central part of the state is an extension of the Colorado Rockies in both geology and appearance.  The Wind River Range in the west central part of the state is remote and includes more than 40 mountain peaks in excess of 13,000 ft tall in addition to Gannett Peak, the highest peak in the state.  The Big Horn Mountains in the north central portion are somewhat isolated from the bulk of the Rocky Mountains.

The Teton Range in the northwest extends for 50 miles, part of which is included in Grand Teton National Park.  The park includes the Grand Teton, the second highest peak in the state.

Grand Teton Range
Grand Teton Range

The Continental Divide spans north-south across the central portion of the state.  Rivers east of the divide drain into the Missouri River Basin and eventually the Gulf of Mexico.  They are the North Platte, Wind, Big Horn and the Yellowstone rivers.  The Snake River in northwest Wyoming eventually drains into the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, as does the Green River through the Colorado River Basin.

The Continental Divide forks in the south central part of the state in an area known as the Great Divide Basin where the waters that flow or precipitate into this area remain there and cannot flow to any ocean.  Instead, because of the overall aridity of Wyoming, water in the Great Divide Basin simply sinks into the soil or evaporates.

Continental Divide
Continental Divide

Several rivers begin in or flow through the state, including the Yellowstone River, Bighorn River, Green River, and the Snake River.

History:

Several Native American groups originally inhabited the region now known as Wyoming.  The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were but a few of the original inhabitants encountered when white explorers first entered the region.  What is now southwestern Wyoming became a part of the Spanish Empire and later Mexican territory of Alta California, until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War.  French-Canadian trappers from Québec and Montréal went into the state in the late 18th century, leaving French toponyms such as Téton and La Ramie.  John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, itself guided by French Canadian Toussaint Charbonneau and his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, first described the region in 1807.

Lewis and Clark Expedition
Lewis and Clark Expedition

At the time, his reports of the Yellowstone area were considered to be fictional.  Robert Stuart and a party of five men returning from Astoria discovered South Pass in 1812.  The Oregon Trail later followed that route.  In 1850, Jim Bridger located what is now known as Bridger Pass, which the Union Pacific Railroad used in 1868, as did Interstate 80, 90 years later.  Bridger also explored Yellowstone and filed reports on the region that, like those of Colter, were largely regarded as tall tales at the time.

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