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WYOMING. W[=i]-[=o]'ming.
First settlements, trading posts of Forts Laramie and Bridger; organized
1869.
Area, 97,890 square miles; very nearly a rectangle, and about the same area
as Oregon; length, 350 miles; breadth, 275 miles. Largest rivers, Green,
Snake, Big Horn, Powder, Big Cheyenne and North Platte. Number counties, 9.
Temperature at Cheyenne: winter, 23deg to 33deg; summer, 63deg to 69deg.
Rainfall at Fort Laramie, 15 inches.
Cheyenne is the capital and principal distributing point. Railroad mileage,
625; Union Pacific runs through extreme south from east to west, and
connects Cheyenne with Denver.
Wheat, rye, oats and barley flourish, but frosts too frequent for corn. Big
Horn country, in northwest, has area 15,000 square miles; fine agricultural
country; water plentiful; game and fur-bearing animals numerous, rendering
it one of most desirable hunting grounds of America. Grazing interest
important, and increasing rapidly, more than half the area being rich
grazing land. Mountains covered with forests of coniferae, which will prove
very useful for lumber.
Salaries of Territorial Officers.
Governor $2,600
Secretary 1,800
Treas., $800 and com.
Auditor 1,000
Supt. Pub. Inst. 400
Librarian 400
Chief Justice 3,000
2 Asso. Justices 3,000
Senators, } $4 a day
Representatives } and 20c. mileage.
Col. Int. Rev. 2,000
2 Dept. Colls. Inter. Rev. 1,400 to 1,500
Surveyor Gen. 2,500
Chief Clerk 2,000
Chief Draftsman 1,800
8 Asst. Draftsmen 1,400
6 Asst. Draftsmen 1,200
2 Transcribing Clerks 1,400
6 Transcribing Clerks 1,200
Messenger 600
Supt. Yellowstone Nat. Pk. 2,000
10 Assistants 900
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Presidential P. O.
Cheyenne City $2,400
Evanston 1,500
Laramie City 1,800
Rawlins 1,400
Mineral resources extensive; iron ore abundant; copper, lead, plumbago and
petroleum found; gold, in the Sweetwater country and near Laramie City;
valuable deposits of soda in valley of the Sweetwater. Coal abundant and of
good quality at Evanston, Carbon, Rock Springs and other points; these
deposits extensively worked, and furnish nearly all the coal used by the
railroads and by settlements hundreds of miles east and west.
But little attention has as yet been given to mechanical and manufacturing
industries. Capital, as last reported, $364,673, of which $212,603 is
invested in manufacture of iron and steel. Value of products of the latter
is $491,345; total value of products, $898,494. Number hands employed, 391.
Population, 20,789: male, 14,152; female, 6,637; native, 14,939; foreign,
5,850; white, 19,437; colored, 298; Chinese, 914; Indians, 140.
Territorial and congressional elections, Tuesday after first Monday in
November; number Senators, 12; Representatives, 24; sessions of legislature
biennial, in even-numbered years, meeting second Tuesday in January; limit
of session, 60 days; terms of Senators and Representatives, 2 years each.
Voting population, 10,180; native white, 6,042; foreign white, 3,199;
colored, 939.
Good school system started; school pop., 4,112; school age, 7-21.