Wyoming Themes

Themes of Wyoming

Wyoming has had a roller coaster history of ups and downs. There have been many scandals for one, along with massacres; then we can look at the good that has come with the history of Wyoming such as transportation and womens rights. These themes are important because they have been a big component into why Wyoming is the state it is today. Every state has its individual and unique history, but Wyoming's has its up and downs and from the past few months I have realized that Wyoming has benefited from its history.

Transportation became a huge part of Wyoming’s history when people from the East wanted to travel west to homestead. The Gold Stage Line was proposed and approved in 1848. This stage line followed the Oregon
There were many massacres that occurred in Wyoming. On September 22, 1885 coal miners in Rock Spring, Wyoming took action within an hour 28 Chinese miners were killed and houses were destroyed. This riot was caused by miners who were furious that they were getting paid absolutely nothing because miners would get paid for the amount of coal produced. The white miners were paid a dollar per ton and the Chinese were paid seventy-five cents per ton. The Chinese were getting more work producing coal because they didn't get paid as much. This made the white miners furious and after a night at the bar the Rock Spring Massacre took place. UP consults F.E Warren and immediately federal troops are sent to Rock Springs and 16 ring leaders are arrested. The army sets up a Camp Pilot Butte Fort and they stay for 13 years due to this fiasco and they want to maintain the town so that a massacre like this never reoccurs. To apologize to the Chinese 150,000 dollars was paid to the Chinese Gov. and the Chinese population began to return to the Rock Springs area. The Johnson County War was not the worst massacre in Wyoming history but it was significant because it was a war between the small ranchers and the cattle kings. Tension between the two began when James Averell and Ella Watson purchased land to start a small ranch. However, this land was used by a famous cattle king known by the
Credit Mobilier was the construction company that the UP hired little did many know that Credit Mobilier was actuallly created by Thomas Durrant the vice president of the union pacific railroad. Durrant used this company to pocket cash that was given to the UP from congress(tax payers money). More men begin to join this scandal such as Oliver Ames and Oak Ames who was a member of congress. Later on throught the scheme the Ames brothers want to kick Durrant out. Little did they know that General Grenville Dodge wanted in and when he was denied he bought stocks in his wife’s name and turned Credit Mobilier in to congress. When all was out in the open nothing happened to Oliver or Durrant, but Oak Ames was kicked out of congress and all three of them made out with 15 million dollars. When learning about Wyoming history you would think that most scandals occurred when Wyoming was just becoming a territory/state, but in the 1920's the Tea Pot Dome Scandal had happened. Tea Pot Dome is oilfield land that is located near Casper, Wyoming. This oil was reserved for the Navy in case of national emergency's. Albert Fall had leased the oil reserve to small private companies such as Mammoth Oil owned by Harry Sinclair because Harry bribed Fall. This became a scandal because not only was it not Fall's rightful place to lease Tea Pot Dome, but other oil companies became curious as to why it was being in