Johnson signs the Wyoming Organic Act as territory takes shape along the rail line
By 1868, the Union Pacific Railroad was pushing west across a patchwork of jurisdictions that had already changed hands half a dozen times since the Louisiana Purchase. On July 25, President Andrew Johnson signed the Wyoming Organic Act, carving a new territory from pieces of Dakota, Idaho, and Utah territory. Cheyenne became the territorial capital. Wyoming entered the Union in 1890, twenty-two years later, with almost the same borders.
Wyoming Territory's 1869 grant of women's suffrage, adopted partly to draw settlers, was one of the earliest in the United States to grant women full voting rights. A repeal attempt later died by a single vote in the legislature after the governor's veto. That 1869 law remains a foundational part of Wyoming's identity and is frequently cited in discussions of the history of women's suffrage in the United States.
QHow many different territories claimed pieces of Wyoming before 1868?
At least six. The land moved through Nebraska Territory, Dakota Territory (twice, in 1861 and again in 1864), Idaho Territory, and Utah Territory before Congress finally drew Wyoming's own boundary in 1868. The southwest corner alone passed through Utah and Nebraska Territory before landing in Idaho Territory by 1863. Few American territories were reassembled from so many prior jurisdictions in so short a span.
QHow close did Wyoming's women's suffrage law come to being repealed?
One vote. After the territorial governor vetoed a legislative attempt to repeal the 1869 suffrage law, opponents tried to override his veto and fell exactly one vote short. Had that single vote gone the other way, Wyoming would have lost its claim as the first U.S. jurisdiction to grant women the right to vote.
QWhy did Wyoming's 1872 counties look like tall, narrow rectangles?
The territory's five original counties, Albany, Carbon, Laramie, Sweetwater, and Uinta, were each carved to span roughly one-fifth of Wyoming's width, running north to south in long strips rather than compact blocks. The narrow, elongated shape of each county reflected the territory's overall land division into five roughly equal north-south strips.
