Happy Birthday Wyoming! July 10 Is Wyoming Statehood Day

Wyoming celebrates another year of statehood today (July 10).

According to the website wyohistory.org, Wyoming's territorial delegate to Congress, Joseph M. Carey, had proposed a statehood bill for Wyoming in March of 1890.

There had been previous such proposals which had gone nowhere in Congress, but this time Carey's proposal gained some traction.

There Was Opposition To Wyoming's Statehood

According to the website, there was some opposition to Wyoming's statehood from Democrats who suspected that Wyoming would tend to vote Republican. That suspicion certainly turned out to be true over the long term, as Wyoming is the reddest of red states.

There was also some opposition from opponents of women having the right to vote/ Wyoming was the first state to approve women's suffrage. The holiday of the nation would not follow suit until the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920

Despite those concerns, the Wyoming Statehood narrowly passed the U.S. House by a 139-127 margin. The bill had an easier time in the U.S. Senate, where a 29-18 margin approved it. President Benjamin Harrison signed the Wyoming Statehood Act into law on July 10, 1890.

That makes today--July 10, 2024--Wyoming's 134th--Wyoming's 134th birthday as a U.S. state.

The Cowboy State achieved statehood just one day after our neighbors to the west, Idaho

Wyoming became the nation's 44th state. Only Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Alaska, and Hawaii achieved statehood after Wyoming.

Happy Birthday Wyoming!