CHAPTER VII 

 WYOMING, LAW-GIVER OF THE ARID REGION 



A SINGLE railroad traverses the length of Wyoming, 

 taking the traveller through that portion of the State 

 possessing the least attractions in the way of scenery and 

 development. As a consequence, thousands of people 

 who have made the transcontinental journey think of 

 this new commonwealth as a barren wilderness of withered 

 grass and stunted sage-brush, with an abundance of 

 rugged mountain views along its southern horizon, but 

 without visible means of support for population save a few 

 cheerless trading towns and grimy coal-mining camps. 

 These tourists find the altitude disagreeably high and the 

 atmosphere generally chilly, if not cold. They behold no 

 cultivated fields, no homes framed in trees and vines ; 

 hence do not marvel that the population of this vast 

 State is no larger than that of fourth-class cities in the 

 East. 



Spite of this popular prejudice, which may hardly be 

 complained of as unreasonable, Wyoming is a very great 

 State in its natural resources, and must some day sustain 

 a population as large as that of Ohio and Illinois. If 

 its first railroad had penetrated its central or northern 

 counties it would even now be as celebrated and as pop- 

 ulous as Colorado. Because of its stores of coal and 



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