The abundant vertebrate fossils of the Green River formation in western Wyoming have been known to science since the 1860s. Most are fish, buried in lime-rich mud at the bottom of freshwater lakes about 50 million years ago. Fossil Butte National Monument, west of Kemmerer, Wyo. was created by Congress in 1973 to protect a site extremely rich in these fossils.

Wiliam Ross worked his way from prosecuting attorney of Laramie County to the nomination for Governor on the Democratic Party's ticket. He died in his office and his wife was elected to take his place.

In 1951, Frank A. Barrett was elected Governor and served two years until he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He served one term as Senator from 1953 to 1959.

President Harrison appointed William Richards surveyor general of the Territory in 1889. He was elected governor and served from January 7, 1895 to January 2, 1899.

Old West adventurer, orator, barber, reported bigamist, and passionate defender of civil rights, Kentucky-born William Jefferson Hardin was Wyoming’s first African-American legislator in its territorial days.

William Henry Jackson’s artistic passions began during childhood in upstate New York. By age 15, he was retouching photographs for professionals. His photos of the West, especially Yellowstone Park, many of them made in the 1870s with the Hayden survey, had an enormous influence on public perceptions of the American West.

President Arthur appointed William Hale Governor of Wyoming Territory July 18, 1882. Governor Hale took the oath of office August 3, 1882 and served until his death at Cheyenne, Wyoming, January 13, 1885.

President Cleveland appointed George W. Baxter Territorial Governor in 1886. The new Governor took the oath of office November 11, 1886 and served until December 20, 1886.

Trail End, the mansion home of cattleman, banker and politician John B. Kendrick, was completed on a hilltop overlooking Sheridan, Wyo. in 1913, 16 months before Kendrick was elected governor. Kendrick later served three terms in the U.S. Senate and died in 1933. The Kendrick family continued to use the house until 1961. In 1968, the Sheridan County Historical Society bought the building, and in 1982 transferred ownership to the state, which operates the 14,000-square-foot mansion now as a state historic site.

As many as half a million people crossed what’s now Wyoming in the mid-19th century before the transcontinental railroad was built. Their trails followed the North Platte and Sweetwater rivers west to South Pass, after which they divided into various routes bound for Oregon, Utah or California. They were making the journey of a lifetime, on routes blazed by Indians and trappers, and then worn deep and wide by thousands of wagons and perhaps millions of draft animals. These trails remain largely unchanged in Wyoming. Their white-topped wagons still hold an important place in the national imagination.