History of Laramie

passed a bill granting equal political rights to the women of the territory. In March 1870, five Laramie residents became the first women in the world to serve on a jury. Also, since Laramie was the first town in Wyoming to hold a municipal election, on September 6, 1870, a Laramie resident was the first woman to cast a legal vote in a United States general election.

Early businesses included rolling mills, a tie treatment plant, a brick yard, a slaughterhouse, a brewery, a glass manufacturing plant, and a plaster mill, as well as the railroad yards. In 1886, a plant to produce electricity was built. Several regional railroads were based in Laramie, including the Laramie, North Park and Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company founded in 1880 and the Laramie, North Park and Western Railroad established in 1901.

A bill signed by Governor Francis E. Warren established the University of Wyoming (UW) in 1886, making it the only public university in Wyoming. Laramie was chosen as the site, and UW opened there in 1887. Under the terms of the Morrill Act, also known as the Land Grant College Act, UW added an agricultural college and experiment station in 1891.

The city was mentioned in worldwide news coverage in 1998 after the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming. His murder caused an international outcry and became the symbolic focus for a nationwide campaign against gay hate crimes, with federal hate crimes legislation signed into law in 2009. As of January 2011, Wyoming does not have a hate crimes law. Shepard's murder was the subject of the award-winning play and movie The Laramie Project.

In 2004, Laramie became the first city in Wyoming to prohibit smoking in enclosed workplaces, including bars, restaurants and private clubs. Opponents of the clean indoor air ordinance, funded in part by the