At the Cowgirls of the West Museum, peruse an impressive collection of authentic cowgirl costumes and memorabilia, then hit up its emporium next door to shop everything western, from antiques to apparel.įor perfectly cooked wood-fired pizza served with a side of history, stop for dinner at Bella Fuoco. Pass through the capital city’s historic districts aboard a Cheyenne Trolley Tour from May through September, daily guided tours depart from downtown’s Depot Museum and stop at spots of historic interest, such as the Wyoming State Museum and the Governors’ Mansion. The revitalized capitol is also home to a statue of Esther Hobart Morris, a women’s suffrage pioneer in Wyoming and the first female justice of the peace in the United States. “All those debates took place in this room-including the debates on women’s suffrage,” Wendy Madsen, special projects manager for the Wyoming Legislative Service Office, told us on a sneak peek inside the construction site in September. When the $300 million Wyoming Capitol Square Project is completed in summer 2019, visitors to the newly refurbished state capitol, which was built in 1888, will be able to step inside the former Territorial House Chamber, site of Wyoming’s constitutional convention.

Here’s how to plan a celebratory road trip around the state, including stops at essential historic sites, as well as some recommendations for women-led businesses that you’ll be psyched to support.Ĭheyenne: Where suffrage was signed into Wyoming law surviving in a new frontier.”Īs Wyoming prepares to fete the 150th anniversary of women’s suffrage in 2019, travelers can get in on the action, too. there was just that equal respect.” She added, “To survive, you had to pull your weight. Others, such as attorney and State Senator Tara Nethercott, credit Wyoming’s progressiveness to the fact that “because we’re more independent and more rural.

Some say the motives for the pioneering stance stemmed from an effort to attract people to Wyoming, in order to grow the territory’s population to the 60,000 required for statehood. In later years, the appropriately nicknamed “Equality State” gave the nation its first female jurors, bailiff, justice of the peace, and governor.

In 1869, as a western territory, Wyoming granted women of all races the right to vote and to pursue public office-21 years before reaching statehood, and 51 years before the U.S. When it comes to empowering women, arguably no state in the United States has historically taken a more progressive position than Wyoming.

Edward Ivinson by Kim Viner