People & Peoples

Gerry Spence, born, reared and educated in Wyoming, is recognized nationwide for his powerful courtroom victories.

President Cleveland appointed George W. Baxter Territorial Governor in 1886. The new Governor took the oath of office November 11, 1886 and served until December 20, 1886.

The Tongue River in northern Wyoming must have been as beautiful as it is now when George Bent saw it in 1865, with big, lazy curves under cottonwoods, the grass thickening on its banks and the trees sending out their first green shoots in early May. Nowadays, irrigated hay fields and the tiny towns of Dayton and Ranchester lie along the river. In May of 1865, however, one stretch of it was packed with human beings. That month, there was as large a town on the Tongue as that river has ever seen.

Frank Lucas took over as acting Governor upon Governor Ross' death and filled that post until the election of 1925.

Frank Houx became Acting Governor with the resignation of Governor Kendrick. Governor Houx served two full years of Kendrick's term from February 26, 1917 to January 6, 1919.

Frank Emerson was elected Governor for two terms. He served one full term and until his death one month and two weeks into his second term.

In 1951, Frank A. Barrett was elected Governor and served two years until he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He served one term as Senator from 1953 to 1959.

During Francis Warren's second term as Territorial Governor, Wyoming was granted statehood on July 10, 1890. Territorial Governor Warren was then elected Wyoming's first State Governor September 11, 1890.

Businessman, family man, territorial and state governor, U.S. Senator: Francis E. Warren succeeded in all of these roles, but he is best known for long service in the U.S. Senate on behalf of Wyoming. A Massachusetts native, Warren arrived in Cheyenne in 1868, when the city was still a mass of tents and other temporary structures, and quickly became involved in its business and politics. By around 1900 he was Wyoming’s most powerful Republican, and ran his party’s so-called Warren Machine for decades by patronage and pork-barrel politics.

The Finley Site, located near Eden in Sweetwater County, Wyo., was used by early American Indians to trap and kill bison. The Finley Site is an early Holocene Paleo-Indian bison-kill and processing area, dating back about 7,500 to 12,500 years before the present. This was the first place where Eden points and two kinds of Scottsbluff projectile points were found together, showing that the three were contemporaneous. The Finley Site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.