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Wyoming Counties

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Wyoming Counties

There are 23 Counties in the state of Wyoming. There were originally five Counties in the Wyoming Territory: Laramie and Carter, established in 1867; Carbon and Albany established in 1868; and Uinta, an annexed portion of Utah and Idaho, extending from Montana (including Yellowstone Park) to the Wyoming-Utah boundary. On July 10, 1890, Wyoming was admitted to the Union with thirteen counties.

Big Horn County, Wyoming

Big Horn County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Basin
Year Organized: 1896
Square Miles: 3,159

Court House:
420 West C Street, PO Box 31
County Courthouse
Basin, WY 82410-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for the Big Horn or Rocky Mountain sheep, which were numerous in that part of the country in the early days.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Big Horn County was organized in 1896. Bighorn County, Wyoming, is located in the northern part of Wyoming's bighorn basin. Bighorn County was created from parcels taken from Johnson, Fremont, and Sheridan counties, and was organized in 1897.

An examination of a buffalo petroglyph near Greybull, WY. indicated that 1000-1500 years ago showed that the Shosone and Crow Indian tribes lived in the Big Horn Basin before the arrival of white men. In 1823 the first group of white fur trappers led by Jedediah Smith passed through the Big Horn Basin and later spent their first winter with a band of Crow IndiansLegend has said that the Greybull name came from an ancient albino buffalo believed to be sacred by early area Native Americans.

Industries

The principle industries in Bighorn County are bentonite mining, farming, sugar beat & bean processing, and tourism.

Big Horn County offers many attractions, including the Bighorn National Forest & Antelope Butte Ski Area, Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Refuge, Medicine Lodge Archaeological Site, Greybull Museum & dinosaur tracksite, Bighorn Reservoir Recreation Area, Shell Falls, Paintrock, and Medicine Wheel.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 3,159 square miles (8,182 km²), of which, 3,137 square miles (8,125 km²) of it is land and 22 square miles (57 km²) of it (0.70%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Park County, Wyoming - west
Washakie County, Wyoming - south
Johnson County, Wyoming - east
Sheridan County, Wyoming - east
Big Horn County, Montana - north
Carbon County, Montana - north

Cities and Towns:

- Basin (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Burlington	town	Incorporated Area
- Byron	town	Incorporated Area
- Cowley	town	Incorporated Area
- Deaver	town	Incorporated Area
- Greybull	town	Incorporated Area
- Lovell	town	Incorporated Area
- Manderson	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Bighorn County

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."