Wyoming is the 44th State Admitted to the Union
Carved from sections of Dakota, Utah, and Idaho territories, Wyoming Territory came into existence by act of Congress on July 25, 1868.
The territorial government was formally inaugurated May 19, 1869. The first territorial governor, John A. Campbell, appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant, took his oath of office on April 15, 1869.
At the time of its organization, Wyoming had already been divided into four counties: Laramie, established January 9, 1867; Carter (later Sweetwater), established December 27, 1867; Carbon and Albany, December 16, 1868. These counties extended from the northern to the southern boundaries of the territory. Upon the organization of Wyoming Territory, a portion of Utah and Idaho, extending from Montana (including Yellowstone Park) to the Wyoming-Utah boundary, was annexed and named Uinta County. As the territory and later the state became settled, the following counties were carved from the original five until there are now twenty-three counties in Wyoming.
On July 10, 1890, the territory consisting of the thirteen counties was admitted into the Union as a State.
In July 1890, the Territory of Wyoming, which allowed women to vote, was admitted as a state. Wyoming became the first state with women suffrage. By 1900, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho joined Wyoming in allowing women to vote.
The first territorial legislature of the Wyoming Territory granted women suffrage in 1869. In the following year, the Utah Territory followed suit. However, in 1887, the United States Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1890, Wyoming was admitted to the Union as the first state that allowed women to vote. In 1893, voters of Colorado made that state the second of the woman suffrage states and the first state where the men voted to give women the right to vote. In 1895, Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of woman suffrage. In 1896 Idaho approved a constitutional amendment in statewide vote giving women the right to vote.
