Cheyenne History

This month is the 110th anniversary of the first "Wyoming traffic jam" when a cow in the road spoiled the debut of Cheyenne's new race track.

In "The Girl Guards of Wyoming: The Lost Women's Militia", Cheyenne author and historian Dan Lyon recounts the legendary tale of Company K, the first all-female military troop in American history.

Of the 32 men to serve as Governor of Wyoming, and the 10 Territorial Governors before them, only one was born in Cheyenne.

In 1937, two lawmen were killed in Nebraska. The getaway car was found in Cheyenne, abandoned and riddled with bullet holes. 80 years later, the case has finally been closed.

September 25, 1963, is a day that many people in Wyoming will never forget. 54 years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Cheyenne, Laramie and Jackson.

"Wild" Bill Hickok was one of the most famous gunslingers in American history. He was also a hopeless romantic.
141 years ago, on August 2, 1876, the old west icon was shot and killed at a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. Several months earlier, Hickok had written a love lette…

August 1, 1985, was one of the darkest days in Wyoming history. 32 years ago, a tragic flash flood in Cheyenne claimed 12 lives and caused over $60 million in property damage.
The torrential storm rolled in with a fury, dropping six inches rain during the evening hours...

Here's a little known fact, Wyoming was part of the very first flight to include a "stewardess" (as they were referred to in those days).
In 1930, the new commercial airline industry wanted to insure their customers that flying was safe...

Television and movie fans were shocked to hear about the passing of actor Powers Boothe this weekend. Booth was well-known for several iconic roles, including one fictional character with a "real-life" Wyoming connection.
For three seasons, from 2004 through 2006, Boothe p…

Imagine a world without coffee. That's the world Wyoming woke up to on April 7, 1943, when the sale of coffee was officially banned in Casper and Cheyenne.
Another casualty of World War II was a nationwide coffee shortage. Several months earlier, the United States Office of Price Administration&…

As we observe Black History Month, here's the remarkable story of Wyoming's first prominent African-American businessman, Tilford Ashford.
Ashford was born in Missouri during the Civil War. In 1884, at the age of 22, he arrived in Cheyenne and opened a barber shop...

Today marks an interesting anniversary in Wyoming history. 134 years ago, on January 5, 1883, Cheyenne became the first town in the west to install electric lights.
Wyoming's facination with electricity began five years earlier when Thomas Edison and a group of scientists conducted an experiment…