The census of 1910 gave a total population of 145,965. In 1916 the popu lation was estimated at 179.559. Of the There en 1910, 29.6 per cent was urban. There was a sex ratio of 168.8 males to 100 females. Among the native whites the ratio was 147.1 to :00, and among the turcign-born whites, 2g 7 2 to 100. Of the total native-born popu lation only 272 pet cent were born in Wyoming, the remaining 72.8 per cent being natives of other States in the Union. Of the foreign-horn, 14.6 per cent were Austrians, II per cent Eng lish, 9.7 per cent Germans, 92 per cent Swedes, 72 per cent Italians, 6.7 per cent Scotch. The counties of Albany, Laramie and Sheridan had, in 1910, a density of two to six to the square mile. All the other counties had less than two to the square mile.
History.— Wyoming was the meeting point of a number of Indian tribes. In the south east were the Arapaho and Cheyennes of Algonquin stock; in the north and east, the Crows and Sioux; and in the west and south west, the Utes of Shoshonean stork. There are ancient traditions of Spanish exploration into southern Wyoming at a very early date hut no adequate proof has been offered of their pres ence prior to the 19th century, although some what earlier the Indians seem to have been familiar with the Spaniards and to have had commercial intercourse with Santa Fe. The first white man to enter Wyoming of whom there is definite record was de la Veretidrye, who, in 1743, advancing from Lake Sepigon, penetrated the eastern portion of the State to within sight of the Big Horn Mountains. This was an isolated venture, however, and was not followed up by further exploration on the part of the French. The expedition of Lewis and Clark did not touch Wyoming al though a number of the men who accompanied it subsequently joined the various fur-trading expeditions that were quick to take advantage of the information about the west brought out by these earliest American explorers. A num ber of these companies operated in Wyoming, including that of Manuel Lisa. who set out from Saint Louis in 1807 and established a post at the mouth of the Big Horn River in Montana. That fall or early next spring. lohn Colter set out southward up the Big Horn and entered Wyoming. He advanced perhaps as far south as the site of Lander where he turned north west and, in the course of his wanderings. probably penetrated the wonderland of Yellow stone National Park. Others of Lisa's men or the employees of the Missouri Fur Company (established 1808-09) may also have pene trated Wyoming from the north about this time. In the summer of 1811 the overland company sent out by John Jacob Astor to engage in the fur trade with headquarters at the mouth of the Columbia, traversed central Wyoming, crossed the Wind River Mountains by the Union Pass, entered the upper drainage of Green River, and thence, by another pass in the divide, followed down the Hoback River to its confluence with the Snake. They crossed the Snake and journeyed over the Teton Pass into Idaho. The following year the returning Astorians crossed the western boundary of the State, traversed once more the upper reaches of Green River and, after circuitous wanderings, crossed the Continental Divide by or near South Pass to the valley of the Sweetwater and the Platte, which they followed eastward into Nebraska. The next white men to enter Wyoming, of whom there is definite information, were a detachment sent out in 1824 from a post estab lished at the mouth of the Big Horn by the finn of Ashley and Henry. In the spring of
this year, Thomas Fitzpatrick and probably Andrew Henry, himself, one of the partners, led a division of the company up the Big Horn to Wind River and thence through South Pass to the waters of Green River. Henry probably returned by the same route, while Fitzpatrick, turning back later, descended the Sweetwater and the valley of the Platte. There is an unsubstantiated tradition that Etienne Provot, in the fall of 1823, preceded Fitzpatrick through the South Pass. In the fall of 1824 two other detachments of the Ashley-Henry men were sent through South Pass, one under command of Jedediah Smith to operate north west into Idaho and the other under William Sublette to operate westward into Utah. Ash ley, himself, was the first white man to pene trate southern Wyoming, entering the State some 20 miles south of the city of Lara mie. He moved northward along the eastern slopes of the Medicine Bow Mountains and then northwest across Great Divide Basin to Green River which he descended in boats into Colorado and Utah. After 1825 the fur trad ers criss-crossed the State in every direction. The firms of Smith, Jackson and Sublette, of Fitzpatrick, Sublette and Bridger and the American Fur Company were among the more prominent operating in this State. The sum mer rendezvous of these companies was usually conducted in Green River Valley or in Wind River Valley, near the eastern end of South Pass. In 1827 the Yellowstone National Park was again penetrated. The fur-trading opera tions of Captain Bonneville took him into this State. The first scientific explorations of the State were made by Fremont in 1842 and 1843, who examined the southern portion, and by Brevet Brig.-Gen. W. F. Raynolds, who, in 1859, examined the northern portion. The first white settlement was at Fort Laramie on the Platte in 1834. This fort was purchased by the American Fur Company in 1835, rebuilt by them and subsequently sold to the United States government. In 1843 James Bridger, the fur trader, scout and guide, established Fort Bridger on Black's Fork in the extreme south western corner of the State. Forts Laramie and Bridger were stations on the famous Ore gon Trail, which crossed the State by way of the North Platte, the Sweetwater. South Pass, the Sandvs, (;reen River, Black's Fork and Bear River. Over this trail moved Rev. Marcus Whitman and his wife and Rev. and Mrs Spalding, the Oregon missionaries, in 1836, and soon after the Oregon pioneers. In 1847 came the first Mormon migration and, following them, thousands of others of their faith_ The ill-fated Donner party crossed by the same route. With the discovery of gold in Cali fornia other thousands poured over this fist great trans-continental highway. About 18:4) the Overland Trail through southern Wyoming (the route in general followed by Ashley in 1825) began to supplant in large measure the Oregon Trail. This soon became an excellent highway used by the overland stage and the pony express. In 1861 a telegraph line par alleled it. Six years later the Union Pacific en tered Wyoming near Cheyenne and the follow ing year completed its line across the State.