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by Cyndy Cox
Wyoming ALHN
State Coordinator: Cinde Georgen
Wyoming was admitted as the Union on July 10, 189o. It is called "The Equality State."
History
"It would have been possible to have gone back to 1591 and traced the expedition of Don Juan de Onate from Mexico through Colorado and the northwest. It is believed that he explored the South and North Platte and if he did he must have reached Wyoming. While interesting speculations might be indulged in regarding numerous Spanish expeditions to the north, I have refrained from this for the reason that these are tradition and not history. The more modern explorations and occupations are quite as interesting as those of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The searcher after facts will find many surprises in regard to the early occupation of this country by white men. When Robert Stuart passed down the Sweetwater and North Platte in 1812-13, he met Dornin and Roi, two white traders, not far below Grand Island on the Platte River. At that early date there were many white trappers in this part of the west. John B. Sarpey, his brother Peter A. Sarpey, Godfrey Gerry and Elbridge Gerry, two brothers, came during the twenties and remained permanently. The Gerrys were grandsons of Elbridge Gerry, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence." (Source: The History of Wyoming from the Earliest Known Discoveries, Volume 1, by Charles Griffin Coutant.)
