jurisdiction in quo warranto and mandamus proceedings against state officers and in habeas corpus cases, general appellate jurisdiction, and a superintending control over the inferior courts. It holds two terms annually, at the capital, one beginning the first Monday in April and one beginning the first Monday in October. The state is divided into four judicial districts, and in each of these a district judge is elected for a term of eight years. The district courts have original jurisdiction in all actions and matters not expressly vested in some other court and appellate jurisdiction in cases arising in the lower courts. Justices of the peace, one of whom is elected biennially in each precinct, have jurisdiction in civil actions in which the amount in controversy does not exceed $200 and the title to or boundary of real estate is not involved, and in criminal actions less than a felony and in which the punishment prescribed by law does not exceed a fine of $100 and imprisonment for six months. Each incorporated city or town has a municipal court for the trial of offences arising under its ordinances.
Local Government.—A board of three commissioners is elected in each county, one for four years and one for two years at each biennial election. It has the care of the county property, manages the county business, builds and repairs the county buildings, apportions and orders the levying of taxes, and establishes the election precincts. The other county officers are a treasurer, a clerk, an attorney, a surveyor, a sheriff, a coroner and a superintendent of schools, each elected for a term of two years. A justice of the peace and a constable are elected for and by each precinct. Cities and towns are incorporated under general laws.
Miscellaneous Laws.—A married woman may hold, acquire, manage and convey property and carry on business independently of her husband. When a husband or a wife dies intestate one-half of the property of the deceased goes to the survivor; if there are no children or descendants of any child three-fourths of it goes to the survivor; if there are no children or descendants of any child and the estate does not exceed $10,000 the whole of it goes to the survivor. The causes for a divorce are adultery, incompetency, conviction of a felony and sentence to imprisonment therefor after marriage, conviction of a felony or infamous crime before marriage provided it was unknown to the other party, habitual drunkenness, extreme cruelty, intolerable indignities, neglect of the husband to provide the common necessaries of life, vagrancy of the husband and pregnancy of the wife before marriage by another man than her husband and without his knowledge. The plaintiff must reside in the state for one year immediately preceding his or her application for a divorce unless the parties were married in the state and the applicant has resided there since the marriage. Neither party is permitted to marry a third party until one year after the divorce has been granted. The desertion of a wife or of children under fifteen years of age is a felony punishable with imprisonment for not more than three years nor less than one year. The homestead of a householder who is the head of a family or of any resident of the state who has attained the age of sixty years is exempt, to the value of $1500, or 160 acres of land, from execution and attachment arising from any debt, contract or civil obligation other than taxes, purchase money or improvements, so long as it is occupied by the owner or his or her family, and the exemption inures for the benefit of a widow, widower or minor children. If the owner is married the homestead can be alienated only with the consent of both husband and wife. The family Bible, school books, a lot in a burying-ground and $500 worth of personal property are likewise exempt to any person who is entitled to a homestead exemption. A day's labour in mines and in works for the reduction of ores is limited to eight hours except in cases of emergency where life or property is in imminent danger. The sale of intoxicating liquors is licensed only in incorporated cities and towns.
Charities and Corrections.—The state charitable and penal institutions consist of the Wyoming General Hospital at Rock Springs, with one branch at Sheridan and another branch at Casper; the Big Horn Hot Springs at Thermopolis, the Wyoming State Hospital for the Insane at Evanston, the Wyoming Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic at Lander, the Wyoming Soldiers' and Sailors' Home near Buffalo, and the State Penitentiary at Rawlins. The general supervision and control of all these institutions is vested in the Board of Charities and Reform, consisting of the governor, the secretary of state, the treasurer, the auditor, and the superintendent of public instruction; the same officers also constitute the Board of Pardons. Convicts other than those for life are sentenced to the penitentiary for a maximum and a minimum term, and when one has served his minimum term the governor, under rules prescribed by the Hoard of Pardons, may release him on parole, but he may be returned to prison at any time upon the request of the Board of Pardons.
Education.—The administration of the common school system is vested in the state superintendent of public instruction, county superintendents and district boards. Whenever 100 freeholders request it, the county commissioners must submit to the voters of a proposed high school district the question of establishing a high school district, and each precinct giving a majority vote for it constitutes a part of such a district for establishing and maintaining a high school. All children between seven and fourteen years of age must attend a public, private or parochial school during the entire time that the public school of their district is in session unless excused by the district board. The common schools are maintained with the proceeds of school taxes and an annual income from school funds which are derived principally from lands. At the head of the educational system is the University of Wyoming (1886), at Laramie (q.v.); it is governed by a board of trustees consisting of its president, the superintendent of public instruction, and nine other members appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate for a term of six years. It is maintained with the proceeds from funds derived principally from lands and with a university tax amounting in 1909 to one-half mill on a dollar.
Finance.—The principal sources of revenue are a general property tax, a tax on the gross receipts of express companies, a tax on the gross products of mines, an inheritance tax, a poll tax and the sale of liquor licences. Railways, telegraph lines and mines are assessed by the state board of equalization, which consists of the secretary of state, the treasurer and the auditor. Other property is assessed by the county assessors. The county commissioners constitute the county board of equalization. A commissioner of taxation who is appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate for a term of four years exercises a general supervision over all tax officers and the boards of equalization. By a law enacted in 1909 county commissioners are forbidden to levy a tax which will yield more than 10% in excess of that raised the preceding year. The constitution limits the state tax for other than the support of educational and charitable institutions and the payment of the state debt and the interest thereon to four mills on the dollar; the county tax for other than the payment of the county debt and the interest thereon to twelve mills on the dollar; the tax of an incorporated city or town for other than the payment of its debt and the interest thereon to eight mills on the dollar. The constitution also forbids the creation of a state debt in excess of 1% of the assessed value of the taxable property in the state; of a county debt in excess of 2% of the assessed value of the taxable property in the county; or of a municipal debt for any other purpose than obtaining a water supply in excess of 2%, unless for building sewerage, when a debt of 4% may be authorized. Wyoming entered the Union with a bonded indebtedness of $320,000. This has been reduced as rapidly as the bonds permit, and on the 30th of June 1910 the debt was only $140,000.
History.—Spanish historians have claimed that adventurers from the Spanish settlements in the S. penetrated almost to the Missouri river during the first half of the 17th century and even formed settlements within the present limits of Wyoming, but these stories are more than doubtful. The first white men certainly known to have traversed the region were Sieur de la Verendrye and his sons, who working down from Canada spent a part of the year 1743-1744 examining the possibilities of the fur trade. Apparently no further French explorations were made from that direction, and the transfer of Canada from France to Great Britain (1763) was followed by lessened interest in exploration. The expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1804-1806 did not touch the region, but a discharged member of the party, John Colter, in 1807 discovered the Yellowstone Park region and then crossed the Rocky Mountains to the head of Green river. Trappers began to cover the N. portion about the same time, and in 1811 the overland party of the Pacific Fur Company crossed the country on their way to Astoria. In 1824 William H. Ashley with a considerable party explored and trapped in the Sweetwater and Green river valleys, and in 1826 wagons were driven from St Louis to Wind river for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Captain B. L. E. Bonneville was the first to cross the Rockies with wagons (1832),[1] and two years later Fort Laramie, near the mouth of the Laramie river, was established to control the fur trade of the Arapahoes, Cheyennes and Sioux.
The United States exploring expedition, commanded by John Charles Frémont, explored the Wind River Mountains and the South Pass in 1842, under the guidance of Kit Carson. From this time the favourite route to the Pacific led through Wyoming,[2] but of all the thousands who passed few or none settled permanently within the present limits of the state, partly because of the aridity of the land and partly because of the pronounced hostility of the Indians. For the latter reason the National Congress on the 19th of May 1846 authorized the construction at intervals along the trail of military stations for the protection of the emigrant trains, and Fort Kearny was built (1848) and Fort Laramie was purchased (1849). The great
