CHEYENNE, Wyo. _ When I started out on my trail ride on a scorching day with temps well into the 90s, I didn't know I would be riding from Wyoming to Colorado. What I did know _ according to the trail leader _ was that along the way we could possibly see wildlife that might make the horses skittish enough to spook.
The last word of advice before we set out: "If you see a rattlesnake, well (hesitating) ... try to avoid it."
Um ... right.
Luckily, we saw no rattlesnakes _ only some cute prairie dogs and a lone pronghorn antelope.
We did cross the state line as it neatly bisected the Terry Bison Ranch, the starting point for the ride, and the second largest bison ranch in Wyoming, after the one owned by Ted Turner.
Wyoming is not only one of the nation's most beautiful states, but also one of the most fascinating. The 10th largest in area, it ranks number 50 in population at just over half-a-million people. By contrast, Rhode Island, the smallest state in the Union, has nearly double the population of Wyoming.
This lack of population may be due to wilderness on an epic scale _ Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, Devil's Tower National Monument, and Medicine Bow and Shoshone National Forests _ and only three cities of any significant size: Cheyenne, Casper and Laramie.
That's why it's a bit surprising to learn that from its earliest days, Wyoming was unusually progressive, especially in equality for women.
When it was still a territory in 1869, it became the first in the nation to give women the right to vote. It was the first to elect a woman governor _ Nellie Tayloe Ross in 1925. In 1870, it became the first to appoint a female justice of the peace _ suffragette Esther Hobart Morris, whose first act was to arrest her husband for drunk and disorderly conduct.
