The History of Presidential Visits In Wyoming
Here's a President's Day trivia question: What future President once called the Cowboy State home?
Including President Trump, 25 of the last 27 United States Presidents have visited Wyoming. Ulysses S. Grant travelled though the Cowboy State while he was in the Army and returned during his second term as President.
The longest Presidential visit took place in 1883, when Chester A. Arthur spent two months vacationing in Wyoming. Locals teased the New York aristocrat for wearing business suits during his rugged adventures across the state.
Of all the Presidents, nobody spent more time in Wyoming than Gerald Ford. Ford’s grandfather Charles Henry King was a prominent banker and philanthropist in Casper, Douglas, Riverton and Shoshone. King also founded the First National Bank of Casper and built the First Union Bank in Shoshoni, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
As a boy, future President Ford spent summers vacationing in Wyoming. In college, returned to the Cowboy State, working as a Park Ranger at Yellowstone National Park every summer. Two years after leaving office in 1976, fomer President Ford returned to Casper to explore the town his grandfather once helped put on the map.
Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison are the only two Presidents since Grant that never visited Wyoming. Harrison’s grandson William Henry Harrison, the great – great grandson of his namesake, 9th President William Henry Harrison, was a long-time Wyoming resident, who served five terms in the United States Congress representing the Cowboy State.