15 facts you might not know about WY

By: 
Andrea Barelle

1. You are allowed to be drunk and you are allowed to mine, but not at the same time. Drunken mining can come with a hefty fine. Apparently this is a problem?

2. Several celebrities own property in Wyoming. Folks such as Dick Cheney and Tiger Woods. But did you know that know that not only does Harrison Ford own property, but he has also offered up and used his private helicopter for search and rescue efforts? Hans Solo really is a good guy after all.

3. Wyoming is one of six states with an official state dinosaur. Ours is the triceratops, which is able to stab you in three places at the same time.

4. During the 1880s Cheyenne was the wealthiest city in the country. Did you catch that? Not one of, but the wealthiest.

5. Parts of Rocky IV were filmed in Jackson and the Teton Mountains. This is the movie where Rocky singlehandedly wins the cold war. I’d pun thewhole cold part, but it’s completely unnecessary to anyone who has survived a Wyoming winter.

6. With just under 600,000 total residents in the whole state of Wyoming, we could fit our entire state’s population into… say… the city of Albuquerque, NM. All I have to say is I enjoy my leg room.

7. Apparently it’s illegal in Newcastle to have sex in a walk-in freezer. Why you ask? Because a couple of yahoos did so and got caught, so now there is a law.

8. Almost half the land in Wyoming is owned by the US government. Apparently that doesn’t include my lawn which I am required to mow… all by myself.

9. Wyoming was the last state to raise the drinking age to 21. Up until 1988 the legal drinking age was 19.

10. Dating back to 1886, the Laramie County Library System is the oldest county library system in the country. I guess we are just old.

11. In 1906, President Teddy Roosevelt made Devil’s Tower in Crook County the country’s first ever National Monument.

12. Cody is named after Wild West showman William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Famous person, famous place. Makes sense.

13. Wyoming, as is well known, is the equality state. The state (then territory) was the first to allow women to vote in 1869. 69-year-old Louisa Ann Swain became the first woman in the UnitedStates to vote in a general election in 1870, after the homemaker rose early to buy yeast and stopped to vote on the way. Just another day in Wyoming: “I think I’ll bake bread today. And what the heck, while I’m out I’ll vote, too.”

14. In Wyoming, it’s illegal to wear a hat that obstructs people’s view in a public theater or place of amusement. I guess that means I need to downsize from my 10-gallon hat to a 5-gallon one.

15. In Wyoming, it is illegal to fish with a firearm. Again, you know some doofus did it and got caught so, alas, we have a law.

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Glenrock Independent

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