Cheyenne, Wyoming - ready for a second visit!

 On occasional visits to one of my brothers in the Denver area in recent years, we have been fortunate to take day trips out of the city, with the early trend on those sub-journeys being the almost magnetic attraction of the nearby Rocky Mountains, but on my most recent visit in late May, we decided to go to Cheyenne, partly with an interest in cities and its role as a state capitol.

Despite those two "credits" in its favor, my not knowing what to expect was conflated with at least a tiny dose of the underestimation that East and West Coasters can have for "fly-over" country. While Cheyenne is not large as compared with Denver., etc., and this may initially be illustrated with this wide-open space just nine miles south of the city and east of I-25.... 

 

as well as decidely non-dense scenes within the city limits, like this one perhaps two miles southwest of the Capitol building....

looking west on Lincolnway near Cutler

...Cheyenne definitely has the pleasures of old urban aesthetics and actually somewhat of an eastern feel which apparently stems partly from its boom-town days, after it was chosen over then-tiny Denver to gain a prominent spot on the transcontinental railroad as that line's creation was underway in the late 1860's.

That decision is at least one reason that Cheyenne's former Union Pacific Station, dating largely from 1887, is so beautiful....

and that it may have once housed the most important constituent in a city and state built, to a great extent, by the railroad, with it being said that the capitol, seen here....

 

was designed to face and pay homage to the railroad, housed at the south end of Capitol Avenue....

with the station "looking north" to acknowledge the State, as with the fashionable 1890's lady in the sculpture here in front of the station....

During our short time in Cheyenne, my brother Dan and I paid our respects at the Capitol, including, in part, its atrium....

and a room with paintings of a few of its chief executives, including Governor Nellie Tayloe Ross....

 

who was voted in over an opposing (male) candidate to fill out the remainder of her husband's term after he died in 1924 - not such an anomaly of feminism in a state where women got the right to vote in 1869 - before those of any other territory or state in the post-Civil War decades.(1)

Shortly after seeing the portrait of Governor Ross, Dan and I were about to meet another pioneer of Wyoming politics, as we looked at the House of Representatives' chamber on the east side of the Capitol.....

and began to note its paintings honoring figures from Wyoming's past, such as trappers....

with that elegance overlooking an empty chamber, and, at one of its desks, an open book on ethics; when he saw it Dan said "it looks like someone's working here off-season" and within perhaps a minute, the representative from that desk asked if we wanted to come into the chamber, and we readily accepted.

She was Lynn Hutchings...

and she identified herself as the "first Black conservative Republican" in the state's legislature. Representative Hutchings was a great host for our quick discovery of her working home, talking a little bit about her work, as here just outside the House chamber with Dan....

close to a few of the many photos on Capitol walls of Wyoming representatives and state senators over the years, including James Byrd, another Black representative from the Cheyenne area, of whom she said good-naturedly that "he and I are (as she then made a clashing sound)", and a respectful nod to his mother - H. Elizabeth Byrd, a representative in the 1980's pictured nearby, who was ailing in late May.

Besides her proudly wearing a politically right-wing mantle, and conscious of her race as she noted Whites having said "how dare you vote like you do (with their expecting a left-leaning approach since she is Black)", we did not talk politics as I recall, and certainly not in regards to the liberal and/or moderate ideologies that are a large part of the worldview in our family, but I sensed we might have had a constructive exchange of views and the type of conversation sorely needed in our sometimes way-too divided country.

On a lighter note, Dan and I achieved our life-long dream to dominate Wyoming and its huge tally of electoral votes, with me as the speaker and Dan ably if nepotistically assisting me as ambassador to Colorado....

(or at least basking in the glory of the speaker's platform for the few seconds it took Rep. Hutchings to take our picture!), but - all kidding aside....

Meeting Representative Hutchings was certainly one great part of a quick first visit for me to Wyoming's southeastern corner, and I hope that I will reacquaint myself with the state and its capital in the future.

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(1) "Historic  Walking Tour / Downtown Cheyenne", by Richard Ammon [Cheyenne: Downtown Development Authority, 2011], pp. 27-28; .... 
"Dec 10, 1869:Wyoming grants women the vote" (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/wyoming-grants-women-the-vote), which interestingly, says that "[t]hough some men recognized the important role women played in frontier settlement, others voted for women's suffrage only to bolster the strength of conservative voting blocks. In Wyoming, some men were also motivated by sheer loneliness--in 1869, the territory had over 6,000 adult males and only 1,000 females, and area men hoped women would be more likely to settle in the rugged and isolated country if they were granted the right to vote."....
"TODAY IN 1869: WYOMING EXTENDS VOTING RIGHTS TO WOMEN" (http://westlawinsider.com/legal-research/today-in-1869-wyoming-extends-voting-rights-to-women/), which says in part that "when [in 1890 the] U.S. Congress threatened to withhold [Wyoming] statehood over the issue, Wyoming officials responded that [they would rather have the area] remain a territory for 100 years than join the union without women’s suffrage. Congress relented."