Federated state of the USA (253,326 km2 with 532,668 inhabitants in 2008), in the NO; capital Cheyenne. AS extend the extreme northern offshoots of the southern Rockies, followed to the north by the vast basin of the west and to the northeast by a large horseshoe chain, consisting of the Absaroka and Bighorn mountains, enclosing the basin of the same name. A NO is it Yellowstone National Park. It is crossed by the Continental Divide, a watershed line between the waters that flow into the Pacific (Snake and Green rivers) and the Atlantic (Shoshoni, Laramie). It has a semi-arid continental climate with cold winters, hot summers, scarce rainfall. Agriculture, favored by irrigation, produces cereals, vegetables, fodder that allow a decent breeding. The great wealth of the state are mineral resources, mainly coal, oil, uranium. Textile, food, wood, petrochemical and mechanical industries. Tourism developed.
According to abbreviationfinder, the first explorers of the Wyoming were French (1743-44); later J. Colter discovered the Yellowstone Park area (1807) and in 1834 Fort Laramie was built. From 1842 the way of immigration to the Pacific passed through the Wyoming, but few stopped there, except (for a few years) a few Mormons. The discovery of gold (1867) caused a great influx of population, against which there were numerous uprisings of Indians, definitively tamed in 1879. The territory of the Wyoming with the current borders was established in 1868, with the addition of parts of the Dakota, of Utah and Idaho. The vote was granted to women in 1869, and Wyoming was the first state to have a woman as its governor (1924). The annexation to the Union as a state took place in 1890.
According to countryaah, Wyoming has the following main cities:
Cheyenne
Capital of Laramie County, capital of the state of Wyoming; it is located at 41 ° N. and 105 ° W., in the upper basin of the Crow River, a tributary of the South Platte River (Missouri). It is about 170 km by rail. from Denver (Colorado), the great railway junction of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The city is an important railway station and owes the reason for its rise to the railway (1867); in 1869 it was chosen as the state capital. It had 14,087 inhabitants. in 1900, 11,320 in 1910, 13,829 in 1920; the main industry is that connected with breeding.
The city has, being the capital, many important public buildings, churches, convents; it is served by lines of the Union Pacific System, the Burlington and Missouri River and the Colorado and Southern Railways, which connect it directly with Salt Lake City and the Pacific coasts.
Yellowstone National Park
Large National Park of the North American Confederation, located in the northwestern corner of the state of Wyoming and for a small stretch also extending into the states of Montana to the north and west and Idaho to the west. It has a rectangular shape and measures an area of approximately 8500 sq km. The region that makes up the Park, located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains to the west of the Absaroka mountain range, culminating in the Index Peak (3578 m.), Has in the center a plateau whose average altitude ranges from 2100 to 2500 meters, surrounded by a series of imposing and suggestive peaks, among which we remember M. Holmes (3150 m.), M. Washburn (3153 m.), Cathedral Peak (3260 m.), M. Schurz (3330 m.), M. Sheridan (3124 m.).
The plateau, whose soil is formed by a substrate of Cretaceous rocks, covered on the surface by massive volcanic accumulations of various kinds, which underwent glacial action, encloses the Yellowstone lake, which is flanked by some minor lakes to the southwest like the Shoshone, the Lewis and the Heart. The Park is then crossed from south-east to north-west by the Yellowstone River, tributary and emissary of the homonymous lake. This watercourse, which has its sources south of the Park itself, after exiting the lake of the same name, forms two magnificent waterfalls; then, flowing along the eastern flanks of the Washburn, it collects in a large cañón, and then continues to flow towards the Missouri, of which it is a tributary on the right.
The rounded lake, located at an altitude of 2374 m., Presents to the SE. two inlets (South Arm, South-East Arm), separated by a promontory, and to the southwest, another breast, the West Thumb; its surface is 362 kmq., its circuit of 160 km.; its maximum depth reaches m. 90. Then some islands emerge from its waters, the most important of which are Frank Island and Stevenson Island.
The climate of the Park has a continental character and is influenced by altitude: winters are long and cold, while summers are short: daytime fluctuations are very strong. The average annual rainfall, which falls mainly from December to March, is around 500 mm.; the driest period is from July to October; considerable snowfalls.
Most of the park is covered with conifers, but there are also beeches, willows and poplars; the most common essence is black pine (Pinus Murrayana); in the highest and most humid areas, the subalpine Abies thrives.
The fauna is rich and varied: there are thousands of moose there; therefore we remember the fallow deer, the antelopes, the bison, the buffaloes and the pumas. There are few birds, but abundant fish. In the Park, while hunting is forbidden, fishing is allowed.
The attraction of the Park, in addition to the evocative landscape, is its thermal springs, but especially its geysers, among the largest in the world, divided into various groups and of varying numbers, since, while some are extinguished, others are new. arise. The most famous ones have their own names, such as the Giant, who throws his liquid column up to 60 meters high, the Excelsior, the Monarch and the Old Faithful.
From the Yellowstone region, visited by the Whites since the early years of the century. XIX, gave precise information Henry D. Washburn who explored it in 1870. In 1872 the Park area was declared a federal reserve and today there are numerous and large hotels. The most common railway access route to the Park is a branch of the Southern Pacific Railway, which runs from Livingston to Gardiner; another railroad, coming from Idaho, goes up to West Yellowstone, on the western edge of the park.
