From 1890-1911, the University of Wyoming faced an existential threat when legislators repeatedly attempted to establish a separate agricultural college in Lander that would receive critical federal funding. Read more about how political maneuvering nearly killed Wyoming’s flagship university before it could fully establish itself.
Suffragist and temperance orator Theresa Jenkins delivered a key address at Wyoming’s statehood celebration on July 23, 1890. Later, she spoke widely in Colorado and other states, promoting Wyoming’s example in women’s rights, and spoke at the 1920 W.C.T.U. World's Convention in London.
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.