Aug 25, 2023 – Cowboys and Equality

Welcome to Wyoming, the proudest state in the U.S. Show your respect and a genuine interest and you will meet the friendliest Wyomingites that will reciprocate those feelings and engage you in conversation while proudly sharing their state’s history and many firsts. Wyoming has a lot of firsts too – national park (although technically Montana can claim the same), county public library system, women voters, woman governor in the U.S., artificially lit evening football game, and so on.

My guess is that Wyoming, known as the “Cowboy State” is most proud of its cowboys. We spent several weeks in Sheridan and Laramie where you can’t spit without hitting the iconic bucking horse and rider (BH&R) logo. It appears everywhere. Wyoming is so proud of its cowboys and cowgirls that its official state sport is rodeo, and its state code is derived from a book titled “Cowboy Ethics”.

When it comes to cowboy culture, the small town of Sheridan is as authentic as they come. We stayed at a campground (Peter D’s RV Park, I highly recommend) near the Sheridan Inn where Buffalo Bill Cody once lived and held auditions for his ‘Wild West’ show. We got a taste of that authenticity while enjoying a couple beers at the Mint Bar. Since 1907, the Mint has been a favorite meeting place for local cowboys on Sheridan’s famous main street. The popular watering hole is very much a cowboy museum with all sorts of things on display including stuffed wild animals, local brands carved on the shingled walls and lots of photos of rustlers and wranglers.

If you want to immerse yourself in cowboy culture without going to a rodeo, a block down from the Mint is the Kings Saddlery store and museum where you can easily spend a couple hours perusing the crowded inventory of saddles, boots, ropes, and hats. It’s a one-stop shopping location for cowboys and cowgirls. And the museum does a great job of peaking an outsider’s interest in cowboy history with its rich display of ranching relics from long ago.

Wyoming has its share of cowboy art as well. Not far from Sheridan is the Brinton Museum, built on the historic Quarter Circle A Ranch and the best place to see a collection of Western art that makes Wyomingites proud. The ranch was bought by Bradford Brinton in 1923 who later left it to his sister Helen who used it as a summer home. During their time on the ranch, the Brintons collected artwork from several well known American artists like Charles M Russell and Frederic Remington. The ranch home is part of the museum, and a guided tour allows you in to see the collection of fine art, furnishings, and historic artifacts, bringing “alive the heart of the west”.

Wyoming is also known as the ‘Equality State”. I get the cowboy reputation, but I was a bit skeptical of equality because equality is something not considered much unless you find yourself on the short end of the stick, so to speak. To learn more about Wyoming’s equality reputation, we visited the Wyoming Women’s History House in Laramie. In 1869, Wyoming territory was attempting to get enough voting citizens to meet the population requirement for statehood, so they granted women the right to vote, thereby doubling the number of voting citizens. Smart move Wyoming! As a result, Wyoming won statehood and unlike Nevada, it did not take the voting right away from women. Keeping that spirit alive, the country’s first female justice of the peace, jurors and bailiffs were sworn in the following year. And in 1924, the country’s first female governor was elected to the state of Wyoming.

Many firsts for Wyoming for sure, but my skepticism remains because the disconnect between Wyoming’s equality fame and reality is stunning. In a 2022 analysis, U.S. News ranked Wyoming 45^th out of 50 for gender equality in areas such as representation and power (i.e., first female governor in the country, but Wyoming’s ONLY female governor), family planning, and college graduation rates. It also faces one of the largest gender wage gaps in the country, relatively high maternal mortality rates and increasingly limited access to birth control. Cokie Roberts described Wyoming’s gender equality with this witty statement – “Wyoming has a lot of firsts, but not a lot of seconds”.

Nevertheless, Wyoming has many other things it can be proud of, including its state capital building which had just undergone a 4-yr renovation. On a tip given to us by the Women’s History House docent, we drove to Cheyenne from Laramie and visited the capital. We’ve seen several impressive state capital buildings on our travels – Iowa, Utah, Illinois, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, but Wyoming stood out among them. See for yourself.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Wyoming with its hospitality and openness. Wyomingites are friendly and will proudly offer you some local knowledge to enhance your visit. They should be proud, because from what I’ve seen, Wyoming contains some of the most spectacular mountain country in the U.S., and that doesn’t even include Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. So stayed tuned for the next blog where I take you on a tour of Wyoming’s Bighorn and Snowy Range.

If you enjoyed this blog, check out our previous one titled “Cowboys – the Art and Soul of the American West“, about some time spent in Montana.

RV TIPS

Dealing with the black tank is no picnic but it has to be done. So why not make it as easy and painless as possible? When it comes time to empty the tank, I also flush it and give it an extra clean out. To do this, I use a regular garden hose (separate from our drinking hoses, BTW). After a few years of traveling and wrestling those unforgiving hoses, I found one that is so easy to use and store. Check out this Gilmour 869251-1001 AquaArmor Lightweight Hose 1/2″ x 25′, 25 Foot, Black/Aqua. Even in cold weather, it is flexible and easy to unkink. You’ll love it!