Echoes: Cheyenne at America 250
Forging a Civilization
“Workers lay railroad ties as ranchers drive cattle across the distance, with Fort Laramie, the bastion of an expanding nation, rising on the horizon. Draft horses haul rails into position as linemen erect telegraph poles behind them, and bales of hay remind the viewer that agriculture is the basis of Wyoming civilization. Miners gathering at a mine shaft remind us of Wyomings vast mineral inheritance and the human labor of recovering it. In the far pass, a locomotive crosses a bridge, recalling that Wyoming’s history is inseparable from the railroads. “
beneath a cottonwood, while a moose moves through sageness and a fox flushes pheasants from the grass. Pronghorn leap the river as a meadowlark rises from western wheatgrass and Indian paintbrush. A bison heard anchors the foreground, brown-headed cowbirds riding their backs. Two wolves watch from the heights. Wyoming was a vast and diverse animal kingdom ages before it became an American state.”
Kingdom of Plains, Mountains and Wildlife
“Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, the Belgian Jesuit missionary who celebrated the first mass in Wyoming, stands at the center of the scene, brokering the trade of a bearskin between Chief Washakie of the Eastern Shoshone and the legendary explorer Jim Bridge. Around them stand Shoshone warriors, a mother with her infant, and children at play. John Colter watches from among the trapper, while Lewis and Clark survey the valley from high ground. Above all, an eagle soars - national emblem and Shoshone messenger between worlds. "
Brokering the Frontier
“Esther Hobart Morris, the first female judge in theUnited States, presents a flag with the 44 stars- the last representing Wyoming- to Francis E Warren, Wyomings last territorial and first state governor. Nellie Tayloe Ross, the nations first female governor, turns toward the capitol steps, rendered as they appeared in 1890 when Wyoming was admitted to the union. At the right, a procession of woman ascend to cast their ballots, led by Louisa Swain, the first woman to bote in a federal election, with Governor J.M. Carey presiding.