July 10 Is Wyoming’s 135th Birthday As A U.S. State

Today, July 10, 2025, marks the 135th Anniversary of Wyoming Statehood.

Wyoming became a state on July 10, 1890. That followed it being declared a territory in 1869, but the path to full statehood took what, at the time, was an unusual turn.

Wyoming Grants Women The Right To Vote

The territorial legislature had in 1869 taken the then-radical step of granting women the right to vote. According to the State of Wyoming "Wyoming History" webpage, that made the territorial government the first anywhere in the world to enact women's suffrage.

Mrs. Louisa Swain became the first woman to actually vote in Laramie in 1870. That was followed by the first-ever election of a woman to a state office when Estelle Reel was voted in as the Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1894.

But when delegates from around the state, all of whom were men, gathered in Cheyenne in 1889 to draft a state constitution, some were nervous about the possibility that allowing women to vote might make it harder to win admission to the union. But by this time the delegates had experienced 20 years of allowing women to vote and weren't willing to try to turn back the clock.

Article VI, Section 1 of the state constitution reads as follows: "The rights of Citizens of the State of Wyoming to vote and hold office, shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. Both male and female Citizens of the State, shall equally enjoy all civil, political and religious rights and privileges."

While there was in fact some opposition in congress to allowing a state with female suffrage, the U.S Senate on June 27, 1890 approved a bill for Wyoming Statehood by a margin of 29-18 following the passage of the measure in the U.S. House in March. President Benjamin Harrison then signed the bill into law on July 10, 1890, making Wyoming the 44th state to join the union.