Note: This syllabus was for a class taught in 2017. This is an “open source” syllabus and open to anyone who may wish to utilize it as a template or for ideas concerning his/her own class in History of Wyoming. Any or all of it may be used without attribution to this site, but crediting the writers of the Readings, of course. The articles will be retained and may be linked to one’s own syllabus. Contact me if you have technical problems doing it.
Other resources are available for teaching the survey course in History of Wyoming or any other class, including seminars, focusing on Wyoming history. Over the years, I used numerous other essays that are not included here, but I’d be happy to put back up on request.
Phil Roberts, 13 September 2019
HISTORY 1251 History of Wyoming
Syllabus for Fall Term, 2017 (most links still operable as of Sept. 12, 2019).
Instructor in 2017: Phil Roberts
E-mail: philr@uwyo.edu
OBJECTIVE: This course will study Wyoming history, how it relates to the history of the West and the rest of America, and how it influences the present. Students will be expected to understand the main themes in the state’s history as well as to recognize the context in the wider national/international perspective. The lectures and readings will encourage further reading in Wyoming and Western history. This course satisfies the University Studies V1 requirement. Study of the Wyoming and United States Constitutions is an important part of the class.
This semester, most lectures were follow a standard format, but a few of the lectures will begin with a “contested account” from Wyoming history. Some will involve simple disputes over facts. For example, did Edison “invent” the light bulb on the shores of Battle Lake in Carbon County while on a fishing trip? Did Esther Morris host a tea party to promote woman’s suffrage? Did the railroad or the ranchers control the politics in territorial Wyoming? Some can be resolved easily from the facts. But some opening questions will delve more deeply into motives that may have no simple or single answer. For example, how has meaning of equality evolved in the “Equality State”? Does everyone win in “boom times”? In the course of considering the historical evidence in each case, students will be expected to understand critical thinking skills and develop an ability to ask questions of both secondary and primary source materials.
For this class, students need to be aware of general chronology, provided through reading the assignments in New History of Wyoming. The chronological context is important because, in history, past actions influence later events. However, the readings will be organized by specific topics and not strictly chronological.
Obviously, the lectures will NOT duplicate the readings. There are discussion sections for this class and students will meet with discussion leaders each Friday. Once you are enrolled in a discussion section, changing to another section will not be allowed. It is ESSENTIAL for students to attend the lectures, but also very important to be at every discussion section. Occasionally, an unannounced quiz or exercise will be administered in discussion section. In a word, relentless attendance will be necessary in order to succeed in this class.
EXAMS, QUIZZES AND GRADED EXERCISES:
Total of 400 points is possible, calculated in the following way: One mid-term exam, 100 points; the final exam, 100 points; Constitution exam, 100 points; discussion section participation and exercises, 100 points. Make-up mid-term and final exams will be given ONLY IF the student informs the professor and discussion leader before the exam is to be administered with a valid reason for missing the scheduled time. Students are expected to be familiar with the university rules governing plagiarism and academic dishonesty, which will be enforced in this class. This applies to the exercises in the discussion sections as well as to the exams. The final exam for this class is scheduled for: Fri., Dec. 15, 8 a.m.-10 a.m. Exam will be in our regular classroom.
GRADING PROCEDURE: The final grade will be calculated on the 400 total “points” earned during the semester, tentatively based on the following scale: A: 360-400 points (90%-100%) B: 320-359 points (80%-89%) C: 280-319 points (70%-79%) D: 240-279 points (60%-69%) F: 239 or fewer. The grades in this course will not be “curved.” You will earn your own grade regardless of what others in the class may do. Everyone could earn the grade of “A,” but also the grade of “F.” Possible “extra credit” opportunities will be announced from time to time.
PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: Students are expected to know and understand the university’s policies on plagiarism and academic dishonesty. The university rules will be strictly enforced in this class. Academic honesty policy
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Careful reading of THREE books will be required for successful completion of this course as well as chapters and articles from two internet-based texts. One internet-only text actually contains a series of articles on main themes in Wyoming history. Titled Readings in Wyoming History, the work is a compilation of scholarly articles and, in most cases, containing footnote citations and well-developed historical arguments. Each article will require careful reading. These readings will be important to understand the various events in the state’s history and provide the thematic framework. The second internet-only text, A New History of Wyoming, will provide the chronological context and various primary documents important to the general topic. Therefore, together with the lectures, the internet readings will provide context and continuity. Each set of readings do NOT duplicate the other, nor will either of them duplicate materials discussed in the lectures. Successful completion of the class requires careful reading of the assigned books, the internet texts and good note-taking during lectures.
All three of the printed books were written for the popular audience and, consequently, are not difficult to read and are not excessively analytical. Nonetheless, reading of all three will require more than mere accumulation of bits of information. Students are expected to be able to identify the main themes in each book and follow the authors’ arguments along with understanding how the events under consideration fit into the broader history of Wyoming. A comparative essay may be assigned in discussion sections over the two books about pioneer homesteading.
Readings will be assigned from two other internet-only sites. One such site is Buffalo Bones: Stories from Wyoming’s Past, a compilation of newspaper-length feature stories published over the past several decades. The second is the Online Encyclopedia of Wyoming History. Articles assigned from these sites will be linked directly from the lecture modules to be appended to this site on a regular basis. In the course of the lectures, photographic images and maps will be emphasized.
WYOCAST: Outlines of lectures will NOT be posted. All students will be expected to attend and take notes, using WyoCast for general review or to check on items missed during the lecture. The student will be required to use WyoCast for the lecture on any day on which she/he has a university-sanctioned excuse. For access to Wyocast, go to WyoCast, go to the upper right of the page and Log in (using your university e-mail name and password) and then go to “Arts and Sciences” and click. Below you will find the link to “HISTORY” and below that, the link to “HIST 1251 Fall 2017.” Be sure that you have the correct class and date because WyoCast recordings for earlier courses will NOT duplicate the current one.
REQUIRED BOOKS:
John W. Davis, Wyoming Range War: The Infamous Invasion of Johnson County. (U of Oklahoma Press. 2010). The book is available in hard cover, paperback and Kindle. Any edition is OK.
Laura Gibson Smith, Almost Pioneers: One Couple’s Homesteading Adventures in the West. Ed. by John J. Fry. (Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, 2013). Paper. ISBN: 978-0-76278439-4
Elenore Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader (1914). Any edition is OK.
REQUIRED WEB-BASED READINGS
Phil Roberts, A New History of Wyoming
Phil Roberts, editor. Readings in Wyoming History. (web edition), available entirely on the web.
Other editions in print are still available, but this online fifth edition contains a number of essays not included in earlier editions.
Phil Roberts, Buffalo Bones: Stories from Wyoming’s Past (available only on the web)
Online Encyclopedia of Wyoming History is a website containing a number of significant articles about Wyoming history. Sponsored by the Wyoming State Historical Society, the site is edited by Casper historian Tom Rae.
OTHER REQUIRED READINGS:
Wyoming Constitution. (Available for purchase, but also on the web).
United States Constitution. (On the web from many reputable sites. Be sure that your copy also contains the Amendments).
Lectures and Assignments (Days and dates have been left in place as a means of assisting users to locate specific sections/essays).
Wed., Aug. 30: Lecture Introduction, Course Requirements and Syllabus
Fri., Sept. 1: Discussion Sections: Introduction and Syllabus
Mon., Sept. 4: LABOR DAY HOLIDAY. NO CLASS.
Wed., Sept. 6: Wyoming’s Native People
Online Encyclopedia: Trade Among Tribes: Commerce on the Plains Before Europeans Arrived
Fri., Sept. 8: Discussion Sections: First Contact of Native People and Explorers
New History of Wyoming, Chapter 1, Original Residents and Early Explorers
New History of Wyoming, Chapter 1, Primary Document: Exploration
New History of Wyoming, Chapter 1: Treaties: Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851; Treaty With the Eastern Shoshoni (1863); Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868
Mon., Sept. 11: The Fur Trade
Lecture Topic: Who Came to the Rendezvous?
New History of Wyoming, Chap. 2. The Fur Trade and the Rendezvous System.
Wed., Sept. 13: Trails to Oregon, California, Utah and Montana
Lecture Topic: Did You Have to be Rich to Move West?
New History, Chap. 3: Wyoming as a Trail to Somewhere Else
Fri., Sept. 15: Other Trails Across Wyoming
Chap. 3, Stansbury report
Chap. 3 Document 4 –Transcontinental Telegraph Authorized (1860)
Mon., Sept. 18: Coming of Rails: The Union Pacific Trains and Mines
New History, Chapter 4, Coming of Rails
Chapter 4 Documents 1-2 — Pacific Railway Act, July 1, 1862; Pacific Railway Act, July 2, 1864
Wed., Sept. 20: Wyoming’s First Towns
Chapter 4: Document 1: Samuel Bowles’ Description of the Town of Benton, Wyoming, 1868
Chapter 4: Document 2: Excerpts from History and Business Directory of Cheyenne, 1868
Chapter 4: Document 3: Cheyenne Gun Ordinance
Chap. 4: Document 4: Selections from John Crowley’s Diary, 1868
Fri., Sept. 22: Discussion Sections: Did Women Gain the Vote in Wyoming Just so the Territory Could Become a State?
New History of Wyoming, Chap. 5: Establishing the Territory and Granting Women Equal Rights
Buffalo Bones: Stories from Wyoming’s Past: The 1st Woman Juror
Readings in Wyoming History, Near Repeal of Women Suffrage
Mon., Sept. 25: The Public Lands: Owned by All (Wyoming Constitution, Articles 18 & 21)
New History, Chap. 6: Public Lands
Wed., Sept. 27: The Myth and Reality of “Rugged Individualism” in Cowboy Country
Readings in Wyoming History, Cowboys Form a Health Cooperative
Online Encyclopedia: Rea, “Covering Cattle Kate: Newspapers and the Watson-Averell Lynching”
Fri., Sept. 29: The Johnson County Invasion
Reading: Davis, Wyoming Range War: The Infamous Invasion of Johnson County (entire book)
Mon., Oct. 2: Water
Lecture Topic: Who Owns Wyoming Water?
New History, Chap. 13, Water and Irrigation
Online Encyclopedia: Order Out of Chaos: Elwood Mead and Wyoming Water Law
Online Encyclopedia: Dry Farming
Wed., Oct. 4: Irrigation and Town-Building II
Primary Document, John Wesley Powell’s “Arid Lands” report (read pp. 1-41)
Online Encyclopedia: Town Founder and Irrigation Tycoon
Fri., Oct. 6: Mid-Term Exam.
Mon., Oct. 9: The Constitutions, Part I
Lecture Topic: Wyoming’s Progressive/Radical Constitution
Reading: Wyoming Constitution.
The U. S. Constitution (read all amendments, too)
Reading: Online Encyclopedia: Wyoming Becomes a State: The Constitutional Convention and Statehood Debates of 1889 and 1890–and the Aftermath
Wed., Oct. 11: The Constitutions, Part II
Lecture Topic: Wyoming’s Conservative/Reactionary Constitution
Readings in Wyoming History, The Contest for the Capital
Fri., Oct. 13: Constitutions Exam.
Mon., Oct. 16: Economics, Society and Culture at the Beginning of the 20th Century
Lecture Topic: Did “Reform” Exist in Gilded Age Wyoming?
New History, Chap. 12: Into the 20th Century
Wed., Oct. 18: Transforming Transportation: Cars, Highways and Roads Across Wyoming
Readings in Wyoming History, Evolution of Roads
Manning, 100 Years on the Lincoln Highway, Wyoming PBS
New History, Lovejoy’s Toy: Wyoming’s First Car.
Buffalo Bones: Stories from Wyoming’s Past: Wyoming’s First License Plates
Fri., Oct. 20: Discussion Sections: Comparing Homesteading Experiences
Smith, Almost Pioneers (entire book).
Pruitt, Letters of a Woman Homesteader (entire book).
Mon., Oct. 23: World War I: 100th Anniversary of the “Great War”
Sedition Act in World War I in Wyoming
For anyone interested in how the Great Flu epidemic originated, that affected many Wyomingites in 1918, see a piece from the NIH here.
Wed., Oct. 25: Drought and Depression in the 1920s
Lecture Topic: Can State Action Protect Against Economic Failure?
New History, Chap. 14: The 1920s in Wyoming
Readings in Wyoming History: The Prohibition Agency’s First Case
Fri., Oct. 27: Discussion Sections: Nellie Tayloe Ross: The First Woman Governor in America
Online Encyclopedia, Nellie Tayloe Ross
Mon., Oct. 30: The New Deal: Economic Development & Social Change
Lecture Topic: “We Don’t Like Their Rules, but We’ll Take Their Money”
New History, Depression and New Deal
History of Wyoming’s Sales Tax
Online Encyclopedia: REA in Wyoming
Wed., Nov. 1: Conservation, Tourism and the Environment
New History of Wyoming, Chap. 11: Conservation and National Parks
New History of Wyoming; Progressivism Comes to Yellowstone: Theodore Roosevelt and Professional Land Management Agencies in the Yellowstone Ecosystem
Online Encyclopedia: History of the Blackwater Fire and the CCC
Online Encyclopedia: History of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
Online Encyclopedia: The Muries and Wilderness
Online Encyclopedia, Tom Bell
Online Encyclopedia: Yellowstone Fires, 1988
Fri., Nov. 3: Discussion Sections: Growth of Wyoming Tourism
Readings in Wyoming History, Give Them What They Want
Buffalo Bones: Stories from Wyoming’s Past: Somewhere West of Laramie
Readings in Wyoming History, Reflecting Community: Case Studies of Three Wyoming Museums and the Impact of Each on the Community
Mon., Nov. 6: History of Wyoming Energy: Coal
New History of Wyoming, Chap. 7: Minerals in Territorial Wyoming
Hanna Coal Mine Disasters, 1903 & 1908
Wed., Nov. 8: History of Wyoming Energy: Oil
New History, Chap. 9 History of Wyoming Oil
Online Encyclopedia: Teapot Dome
Online Encyclopedia: Mineral Leasing Act of 1920
Online Encyclopedia: Oil Pipelines Across Wyoming
Fri., Nov. 10: Discussion Sections: Japanese “Relocation”: Heart Mountain
Readings in Wyoming History, Bravery and Silence: Wyoming Attitudes Toward “Relocation” Camps, 1941-43
Mon., Nov. 13: World War II: The Homefront
Readings in Wyoming History, Cheyenne’s 100-Octane Fuel Plant
Wed., Nov. 15: Wyoming and the World: The Post-War Period
New History of Wyoming, Chap. 17, The 1950s
Readings in Wyoming History, The Textbook Controversy at the University of Wyoming
Readings in Wyoming History, Quest for Public Television
Online Encyclopedia: Wyoming’s Nuclear Might: Warren AFB in the Cold War
Readings in Wyoming History, ‘Mrs. Barriers’ and the Crusade to Make Wyoming Public Buildings Accessible
Buffalo Bones: Stories from Wyoming’s Past, Sleeping with the Nuclear Genie
Online Encyclopedia: Tracy McCraken, Newspaper Mogul
Fri., Nov. 17: Discussion Sections: How Do Internal/External “Immigrants” Change Wyoming Culture?
Readings in Wyoming History, Ethnicity in Wyoming
The New Yorker, Citizen Khan of Sheridan
Mon., Nov. 20: Diversity: Race and Ethnicity
Readings in Wyoming History, The Wyoming Experience: Chinese in Wyoming
Online Encyclopedia: Empire, Wyoming
Readings in Wyoming History, Lovell’s Mexican Colony
Wed., Nov. 22; Fri., Nov. 24: THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY. NO CLASS.
Mon., Nov. 27: Civil Rights in Wyoming in the 1960s
Lecture Topic: Does Wyoming Deserve to Keep the Nickname the “Equality State”?
GUEST SPEAKER TODAY: Phil White, Laramie author/attorney, who wrote the articles you have read today on the “Black 14” incident. He recently completed a book, Protest, Prejudice and the Black 14: Wyoming in Midcentury, to be published next month.
New History of Wyoming, Chap. 18: The 1960s
Readings in Wyoming History, The Emerging Civil Rights Movement
Online Encyclopedia: Mel Hamilton on the Black 14 Incident
Online Encyclopedia: Black 14
Online Encyclopedia: Teno Roncalio
Online Encyclopedia: James Reeb
Online Encyclopedia: Liz Byrd
Wed., Nov. 29: The Severance Tax, Energy Booms and Busts, 1969-2017
Lecture Topic: Does Everyone Profit from a Boom? Does Everyone Lose in a Bust?
New History, Chap. 19: Boom and Bust Again: The 1970s
Readings in Wyoming History, Project Wagon Wheel: A Nuclear Plowshare for Wyoming
Online Encyclopedia: “Coal Slurry: An Idea that Came and Went”
Readings in Wyoming History, Home on the Range No More
Fri., Dec. 1: Review Sessions in your regular discussion section classroom.
Mon., Dec. 4: Wyoming’s Quest for Diversification of the Economy.
Lecture Topic: Do Wyomingites Really Want to Diversify?
Buffalo Bones: Stories from Wyoming’s Past: Equality State? Cowboy State?
Online Encyclopedia: Harnessing Wyoming’s Wind.
Wed., Dec. 6: Legends and Self-Image
Stump the Professor Exercise (time permitting)
Lecture Topics: Wyoming: Equality State? Cowboy State? Energy State? Who is the cowboy on the license plate? Why might it matter?
Wyoming’s Self-Image in the 21st Century
New History, Chap. 10: Wyoming’s Self-Image
Online Encyclopedia, Kenny Sailors
Online Encyclopedia, Rulon Gardner
Online Encyclopedia: Matt Shepard legacy
Fri., Dec. 8: Review Day
Mon., Dec. 11: Review and/or use the time to study for the final coming at the end of the week.
FINAL EXAM: Fri., Dec. 15, 8-10 a.m. No electronic devices are allowed and students are reminded to keep cell phones turned off during the exam. Exam will be in our regular classroom