State Capitols - Cheyenne, Wyoming - Part !

Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne (21 August 2011)

Constructed: 1886-1917

Architects: David W. Gibbs

State Admitted to Union: July 10, 1890 (44^th)

State Population [2010]: 563,626 (50^th)

Back in the saddle again.  This seems an appropriate cliché, since I’m blogging about a cowboy state.  The visit to Wyoming was last August but something always seems to get in the way of my writing.   There was the blackout due to tax season distractions.  Then there was the major hassle after I learned that my e-mail notices of blog postings were not going through.  Other things were going on but they are just excuses.  Truth is I’m undisciplined and easily distracted.  I believe everything is fixed now [except for the undisciplined, distracted parts] and we’re back on line again.  Maybe.  I hope.  We’ll see. 

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Time to return to a favorite subject…and already, I’m changing the format.  I began this series with Montpelier, VT and Concord, NH intending to present the State Houses in the order that I visited them.  That doesn’t matter.  The next two will be the last two I saw.  Blogs are supposed to be topical and current after all…and this story is only nine months after the fact.  I’m not getting any younger so figure I need to offer up the fresher memories before they fade like the rest.

Last August, Becky had a job in Denver.  Tagging along on this trip presented a good opportunity to bag two capitols since Cheyenne is only a hundred miles from Denver…a definite bargain in these big, western states.  If the capitols were in Cody and Alamosa for instance, the 700+ mile trek would have made it a less appealing ‘two-fer’.

We got to town on a Sunday afternoon.  Surprisingly, this state with the smallest population (~564,000) has a capital city with a population (59,466) greater than fourteen others. 

Bison Statue, Wyoming Capitol, Cheyenne (22 August 2011)

A fine, preserved bison also stands inside the capitol. 

They really love the old buffalo here. 

Good thing they stopped exterminating them in time to save the now

Official Wyoming State Mammal from extinction.

This was going to be one of the ideal capitol visits for me.  We wandered the grounds in the late afternoon light and then returned the next morning.  It’s better to see light on all sides of the area.  A great building in shadows does not make a good picture. 

Since it was Sunday, the entire capitol complex was closed and you could count the people you saw on one hand.  There was this father with two young children.  He directed them to pose in front of every sign and statue as he documented their adventure...his adventure, I suspect.   Overheard – “This is Number 11 of 13 on this trip!  We see Denver next, then Lincoln”.  This was a serious, capitol-collecting trip.  I hope he included some more exciting things for the little nippers to experience...something with rides or animals or clowns.  ‘Bring the Kids to Capitol World!!’   Zzzz...though some might suggest there would be plenty of clowns there.

The picture at the top of the story is actually the rear of the building.  I have a better shot of the front in the morning light but already posted it here on 9/2/11, when the State Capitol Odyssey was introduced. 

Chief Washakie, Wyoming Capitol, Cheyenne (22 August 2011)

A terrific statue of Chief Washakie stands to the left of the main entrance.  The grateful state has acknowledged the Shoshone leader who granted the railroad right-of-way through his territory.  Apparently, no good deed goes unpunished since we took the rest of his land after that. 

Cheyenne began as a Union Pacific depot with a machine shop and other facilities that supported the first transcontinental railroad.  It seems that when the territories in this vast nation were settled, the population centers were often in places that supported transportation.  The colonial seaports came before the river towns and the railroads moved people into the drier lands of the west.  Because of the Union Pacific, Cheyenne quickly grew to become the territorial seat and the state capital. 

There are more things to see here but, rather than put you to sleep with something that’s too long, we’ll save the rest for a second installment.