Cheyenne Wyoming History & Facts

Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming, with 65,132 residents. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne metropolitan statistical area which encompasses all of Laramie County and has about 100,000 residents. Local residents named the town for the Cheyenne Native American people in 1867 when it was founded in the Dakota Territory.

Cheyenne is the northern terminus of the extensive Southern Rocky Mountain Front, which extends southward to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and includes the fast-growing Front Range Urban Corridor. Cheyenne is situated on Crow Creek and Dry Creek.

At a celebration on July 4, 1867, Grenville M. Dodge of the Union Pacific Railroad announced the selection of a townsite for its mountain region headquarters adjacent to the bridge the railroad planned to build across Crow Creek in the Territory of Dakota. At the same celebration, Major General Christopher C. Augur announced the selection of a site three miles (5 km) west of Crow Creek Crossing for a U.S. Army fort to protect the railroad.

The Union Pacific Railroad platted its Crow Creek Crossing townsite on July 5, 1867. Residents named the town Cheyenne for the Cheyenne Native American people. On August 8, 1867, the Town of Cheyenne, Dakota Territory was incorporated, and on August 10, 1867, H. M. Hook was elected as Cheyenne's first mayor. The tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad reached Cheyenne on November 13, 1867, and the first train arrived the following day. Cheyenne grew so quickly it gained the nickname of "Magic City of the Plains".

On September 8, 1867, the United States Army established Fort D.A. Russell in honor of Brigadier General David Allen Russell. Initially a cavalry encampment, construction of the fort began the following month. The fort was renamed Fort Francis E. Warren in 1930 in honor of the first Governor of the State of Wyoming, Francis E. Warren. The fort was transferred to the new United States Air Force and was renamed Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in October 1949.

On July 25, 1868, the United States organized the Territory of Wyoming. Territorial Governor John Allen Campbell arrived in Cheyenne on May 7, 1869, and named Cheyenne the temporary territorial capital. Cheyenne has remained the only capital of Wyoming. On December 10, 1869, the first session of the Wyoming Territorial Legislature met in Cheyenne. That day, the legislature passed and Territorial Governor Campbell signed an act to re-incorporate the Town of Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, and an act granting white women the right to vote, the first U.S. state or territory to grant suffrage to women.

Lying near the southeast corner of the state, Cheyenne is one of the least centrally located state capitals in the nation (together with cities such as Carson City, Nevada; Juneau, Alaska; Tallahassee, Florida; and Topeka, Kansas).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 24.63 square miles (63.79 km2), of which 24.52 square miles (63.51 km2) is land and 0.11 square miles (0.28 km2) is water.

Famous Peoples From Cheyenne Wyoming

Cynthia Marie Lummis Wiederspahn

is an American attorney and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Wyoming. Before her tenure in the Senate, she served in the Wyoming House of Representatives from Laramie County, Wyoming Senate from the 5th district, as treasurer of Wyoming, and in the United States House of Representatives from Wyoming's at-large congressional district.

Lummis was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and educated at Cheyenne East High School and the University of Wyoming. She was elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives in 1978 and reelected in 1980, becoming the youngest woman to serve in the state legislature. Despite choosing not to seek another term in 1982, Lummis returned to the state House and served there until being elected to the state Senate in 1992, defeating incumbent Senator Harriet Elizabeth Byrd. After serving one term in the state senate, she served on Governor Jim Geringer's transition team and as his general counsel.

In 1998, Lummis was elected treasurer of Wyoming, and she was reelected in 2002 without opposition. She served as the chair of Mary Mead's gubernatorial campaign in 1990 and Ray Hunkins's gubernatorial campaign in 2006. She also served on Bob Dole's presidential steering committee in Wyoming and chaired Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign in Wyoming.

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