December 8, 2023
Wyoming Day has been observed on December 10th ever since it was made official in 1935. Why is it that the day it became a state is December 10th, rather than July 10th? The reason for the desire to commemorate it in December came from the women of the Wyoming Federation of Women's Clubs. Every state legislature issued a resolution designating December 10th as Wyoming Day between 1917 and 1935, when it was formally declared.
The women's suffrage legislation was signed into law by Territorial Governor John A. Campbell on December 10, 1869, making that day particularly significant in the history of Wyoming and the United States of America. This was the first piece of law that guaranteed women the ability to run for public office and to cast ballots in all state-wide elections. The statute was in effect 51 years before the 19th Amendment.
Since that day, not a single member of the Wyoming legislature has voiced opposition to it. It has evolved into one of the fundamental laws of the nation, and in our opinion, it would be inappropriate to challenge it now just as it would be incorrect to question the fundamental rights that every person of this area is given.
Notwithstanding the dubious intentions behind this historic occasion, Wyoming—later dubbed "the Equality State"—kept up its progressive legislative tradition, passing the nation's first state constitution in 1889 that gave women the right to vote in all states.
When Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected as the country's first female governor in 1924, the state achieved yet another milestone.