$6,249,000. The principal industries embrace flour and grist mills, printing and publishing establishments and railroad repair-shops.
Education. With a school population sparsely scattered over the state and not over 33,000 in number, there were 24,584 pupils enrolled in the public schools in 1910-11, while the average daily attendance was limited to 16,673, with 1109 teachers. There were also 1442 students enrolled in the high schools the same year. Higher education is represented by the University of Wyoming at Laramie, with 40 instructors and 300 students. The institution, besides a normal school department, has schools of agriculture, mining, commerce, mechanical engineering and music. Of penal and charitable institutions the state maintains a hospital at Rock Spring, with an auxiliary branch at Sheridan, an insane asylum at Evanston and a penitentiary at Rawlins.
History and Government. Though Wyoming (a part originally of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803) was by Congressional Act erected into a territory in 1868, the region in early days was visited by hunters and fur-traders; while explorers, as Verandrye in 1743-4, are known to have gone over the district in pioneering expeditions and in search of game and furs even before the middle of the 18th century. Early in the 19th century trappers from Montana are also known to have visited the Yellowstone region and gone as far inland as Laramie Fork of Platte River, where a fort was built in 1834, which in the following year was acquired by the American Fur Co. and later sold to the Federal government. Captain Bonneville and General Frémont, moreover, were among those familiar with the region in the thirties and forties. Settlement, however, was slow. Indeed it did not begin to be made until the passing through of the Mormons on their way to Utah and the subsequent finding of gold in the valley of Sweetwater River, aided by the construction of the Union Pacific. In 1867 Cheyenne began to be settled, in 1868 Wyoming became a territory, and in 1869 Cheyenne became the capital. Before this there had been trouble with the Sioux, who resented the coming of white settlers. Subsequently the Indian difficulties were settled, reservations were assigned to the tribes, and about one and a half million acres were bought from the Shoshones and other natives and thrown open to settlement. Forest-reserves were also set apart in Yellowstone Park and othersections, and a chain of forts was erected by the government for the security of the region and the protection of the incomers and settlers. The population having grown, especially in the south the movement originated to form a constitution and apply for statehood. This occurred in 1889, and on July 10, 1890, Wyoming became a state. Wyoming sends a single member to the lower House of Congress. Its chief executive officers besides the governor include a secretary of state, a treasurer and a superintendent of public instruction. Consult Resources of Wyoming; Bancroft's Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming; and U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey Reports.
Wyoming Valley is a beautiful valley on Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, inclosed by mountains. During the Revolutionary War 400 British troops, with 700 Indian allies, entered the valley, where there was a town of 2,000 inhabitants. Many of the defenders of the place were absent in the Continental army, and only 300 men could be gathered to meet the attack. After a desperate struggle, July 3, 1778, they were driven back to the fort, which surrendered on July 5, when the Indians indiscriminately massacred all who could not escape by flight. Campbell has preserved the story in his poem of Gertrude of Wyoming. It is now thought that Brant, the Mohawk chief, according to Campbell one of the chief actors, was not present at the attack. In 1843 a monument was erected on the battlefield. Consult Peck's Wyoming.
