Wyoming Trivia & Tidbits - Page 14

Looking for Wyoming trivia? Try our list Wyoming little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Platte County is one of the smallest of the state’s 23 counties. It’s, nonetheless, twice as large as the entire state of Rhode Island, even though Rhode Island has about twice the population of the entire state of Wyoming.

first appeared: 2/2/2003

Jackson is nearer to three other state capitals (Salt Lake City, Utah; Boise, Idaho; and Helena, Mont.) than it is to its own state capital in Cheyenne.

first appeared: 2/2/2003

The state’s first modern food market, in which customers selected their own items, was a Piggly Wiggly, which opened in Cheyenne in 1922. Before that, stores were essentially warehouses where clerks retrieved items from a customer’s list. The local newspaper recorded 2,000 shoppers on opening day, while an orchestra played outside.

first appeared: 1/26/2003

Wolves have been successfully restored to Yellowstone National Park. They were hunted to extinction in the area early in the 20th century, but in 1996, wolves captured in Canada were relocated to the park, and today Yellowstone boasts a thriving wolf population.

first appeared: 1/19/2003

The first national forest ranger station in the country was built, aptly, in the country’s first national forest reserve. The Wapiti Ranger Station was constructed in 1903 near Cody (pop. 8,835) in what was then the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve—later to become the Shoshone National Forest.

first appeared: 1/19/2003

The Vedauwoo area of the Medicine Bow National Forest contains unique rock formations of granite spires, domes, and pinnacles. The name Vedauwoo (pronounced VEE-dah-voo) means earthborn spirits in Arapaho. The rocks look like familiar objects and animals such as Seal Rock, Bison, Loaf of Bread, and Hawk.

first appeared: 1/12/2003

More pronghorn antelope make their home in Wyoming than in any other state. Estimates put the population of the speedy creature at more than 360,000. The number of slower, two-legged humans in the state is only slightly higher—493,782.

first appeared: 1/5/2003

The oldest polo field in the West was built in Big Horn (pop. 198) as a testing field for horses. Oliver Wallop and Malcolm Moncrief in the 1880s captured and broke horses for sale to the British Army. The British liked to test the horses by riding them the length of a polo field—so Wallop and Moncrief accommodated them by building one. The field is still in regular use.

first appeared: 12/29/2002

The state territorial prison in Laramie (pop. 27,204) once housed some of the West’s most notorious outlaws, including Butch Cassidy. Today, it’s a museum with displays, tours, and interactive exhibits on frontier law and justice.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

Yellowstone Lake was once called Lake Eustis after Secretary of War William Eustis. The name is on explorer William Clark’s 1806-1811 map of the Yellowstone region.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

What is believed to be the first play set in Wyoming focused on—and starred—one of the state’s most beloved figures. Scouts of the Plains, written in 1872 by dime novelist Ned Buntline (reportedly in four hours), focused on the exploits of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and other scouts. The play produced in New York starred Cody, Buntline, and scout “Texas Jack” Omohundro. Although the play was intended to be a drama, critics agreed the acting was so bad that it became a comedy—and a popular one. It launched Cody’s later career as a showman.

first appeared: 12/15/2002

Legendary aviator Amelia Earhart picked a spot near Meeteetse (pop. 351) for the construction of her summer home. Construction on the home began in 1937—just months before Earhart’s disappearance.

first appeared: 12/8/2002

The country’s least-populated town with an operating post office is Lost Springs, Wyo., with one resident.

first appeared: 12/8/2002

Buffalo created difficulties for telegraph crews installing lines in 1867 in Wyoming. The buffalo thought the poles were great scratching posts and rubbed them out of the ground faster than crews could put them in. Eventually, the poles were spiked, but local folklore maintains the buffalo thought that made them even better scratching posts.

first appeared: 12/1/2002

William “Buffalo Bill” Cody came up with an interesting way to raise money to build one of the first churches in Cody (pop. 8,835). The Western showman and several friends were playing poker one night when he mentioned the winner should donate his take to the Episcopal Church’s building fund drive. The players agreed, and the winnings helped finance the construction of the church that opened in 1902.

first appeared: 11/24/2002

Green River (pop. 11,808) in the 1930s became famous for its law prohibiting door-to-door selling of items for profit. The town’s 1931 ordinance was the first such law in the country and became the model for similar “Green River laws” in other communities.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

Wyoming’s first permanent business was—not surprisingly—a fur trading post. William Sublette and Robert Campbell established Fort William in 1834. The fort was later purchased by the federal government and became Fort Laramie.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

The state’s oilfields were publicized before production began in the state in 1884. In his 1837 book The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, Washington Irving wrote that the explorer looked for “the great tar springs” near what is now Lander (pop. 6,867). Irving said men on the expedition used the oil to soothe their aches and pains. The tar springs were later the site of Wyoming’s first oil well.

first appeared: 11/10/2002

The Indian Paintbrush, named the state flower in 1917, is a shrubby perennial that grows up to 2 feet tall. Its tops are tipped in red, hence the name. American Indians had many uses for the plant, including dye making.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

Robert Leroy Parker may have hung out with a wild bunch near Kaycee (pop. 249), but he boasted that he had never killed anyone. The outlaw, who was better known as Butch Cassidy, was involved in a number of robberies while a member of the “Hole-in-the-Wall Gang”—but there is no record that he ever took a life.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

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