Next to petroleum, coal is the most important mineral in the State. Coal-bearing formations underlie about 6o% of its area. The largest area known to contain workable coal lies east of the Big Horn mountains and extends from Douglas northward to the boundary, an area of 15,00o sq. miles. Coal mining, however, is carried on in every county of the State, the largest production at present being from the mines of the Union Pacific railway near Rock Springs. The coal is all of the bituminous or sub-bituminous variety. The U.S. geological survey estimates Wyoming to con tain over 1,076,000,000,000 tons of coal.
This amounts to about one-seventh of the coal resources of the nation. The output of the coal-mines rose from 5,971,000 short tons in 2922 to 6,705,000 short tons in 1929. In 1933 production was 4,013,000 short tons; in 1935 it was 5,150,00o short tons. The value of the 1933 output was $8,636,00o and of the 1934 output $9,591,000.
The copper output, valued at $642,213 in 1916 and $553,605 in 1917, mostly from the Encampment district, was worth no more than $28o in 1934. Gold production rose following the raising of the purchase price by the U.S. Treasury in 1933 ; in 1934 4,871,000 fine oz. were produced, valued at $170,254,000. Other mineral pro duction, 1934, was 1,589,156 short tons of sand and gravel valued at $822,931; 655,030 short tons of stone valued at $658,375;
162 short tons of raw clay valued at $246,562. Unclassified min eral production, 1934, was valued at $802,995, this includes iron ore, gypsum and lead whose production fell off after 1929.
There are i i national forests in Wyo ming with a total area of 8,472,o22ac. and a timber stand esti mated at 28,158,000 thousand board feet. These forests are all high up in the back country, rugged and remote. About 6o% of the timber stand is lodge-pole pine, used mostly for railroad ties. The next most abundant varieties are the Englemann spruce and Alpine fir, which displace the lodge-pole pine at between 8,000 and 9,000ft. above sea-level. In addition to these main types, there are the Douglas fir and limber pine, both restricted in their distribution to favoured localities, the Douglas fir between the lodge-pole-spruce line, especially on moist north slopes, and the limber pine on exposed rocky sites rising toward the timber line, where it usually takes the frontier stand. The timber cut in 1919 was 25,876,000 board feet, in 1929, 26,000,000 board feet, in 1934, 19,000,00o board feet. There is very little cut except on the national forests where it is supervised by the forest rangers. The forests also pastured 125,000 head of cattle and horses, and 575,00o head of sheep for the farmers and ranchers living in the valleys below.
Except for petroleum refining, manufactures are of little importance in Wyoming, most of them being local in character and dependent on local products for their raw material.
In 1935 there were 212 establishments, employing 4,243 workers, paying $5,733,029 in wages, and producing products valued at $45,289,546, of which $14,366,996 was added by manufacture. Of the total value of products $24,653,827 was the output of 22 oil refineries employing 1,074 men, and paying $1,687,030 in wages. Other important industries and the value of their products in 1935 were: bread and other bakery products, $1,047,200; printing and publishing of newspapers and periodicals, $988,920; lumber and timber
flour and grain mill products, $956,380; butter, $755,945; wholesale meat packing, $632,043; and job printing and publishing, $222,513.
Wyoming was fortunate in being in the path of the Union Pacific, the first transcontinental railway, which crossed it in 1869. Branches, however, were slow in building, and they are still few, the aim of most railways being to reach Pacific coast connections rather than local development. This handicap has been offset somewhat by good roads and the use of motor vehicles. There were 2,05 m. of railway in the State in 1934, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy system leading with 686 m., the Union Pacific following with 537 miles. The total taxation assessment against the railroads in 1934 was $1,900,000, or $1,034 per mile of line.
In 1930 there were 39,825 m. of highway in Wyoming, of which 9% or 3,414 m. belonged to the State highway system which touched 59 of the 73 incorporated towns in the State. Construction work on the State system was begun in 1917, and by 1934, 82.2% of the State highway mileage had been com pleted to a gravel surface standard. The 1934 legislature made available sufficient revenue to complete the remaining 57.8% within the ensuing ten years. One-half of the highway fund comes from the Federal Government, the State matching the Federal appropriation with its own. The State highway income consists of 38% of the oil and mineral royalties, the fees for licences, and a tax of 4˘ a gallon on gasolene. There were 55,405 passenger automobiles and 54,593 motor trucks in 1935 Wyoming contains land from all four of the principal annexations which made up the territory of the United States west of the Mississippi river. Except for a small portion in Carbon and Albany counties, the land east of the continental divide was acquired from France by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The remaining portion formed the northern tip of the Texas annexation in 1854. The north-western corner of the State, drained by the Snake river into the Columbia, formed a part of the old "Oregon Country," held jointly by the United States and Great Britain until the British relinquished their claims in the treaty of 5846. The portion of the State drained south-west into the Colorado river or into the Great Basin was secured by the Mexican cession of 1848.