1881

• March 22, Cheyenne has first telephone exchange in Wyoming.
• Big Nose George Parrott, leader of a Hole-in-the-Wall band of outlaws, is hanged by vigilantes in Rawlins.
• May 10, Johnson County, originally known as Pease County, is organized.
• The Ames Monument is built on Sherman Hill to honor Oliver and Oakes Ames for their efforts in making the Union Pacific Railroad a reality.

1882

• William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) starts his famous Wild West Show.

1883

• The Reverend John Roberts establishes permanent Episcopal mission and manages government school on the Wind River Reservation.
• Cheyenne has electric lights.
• First oil well is drilled near Lander.

1884

• May 6, Fremont County, created from Sweetwater, is organized.
• Father John Jutz selects location for Catholic Mission (St. Stephen's) on the delta formed by the Little and Big Wind rivers.
• Laramie County is reputed to be the richest county in the United States.
• First fishing season dates are set (June 1 through November 1).

1885

• January 22, Crook County is organized.
• September 2, Anti-Chinese riot takes place in Rock Springs, also known as the Chinese Massacre.
• U.S. Congress votes to pay Chinese $147,748.74 for their losses on the recommendation of President Grover Cleveland.

1886

• Northwestern Railroad reaches eastern border of Wyoming Territory.
• The Free County Library Law (S.L. 1886, ch. 10. s.5), the first in the United States, is enacted by the Wyoming Territorial Legislative Assembly. First county library in Wyoming is established at Cheyenne.
• Governor Warren approves act providing for a capitol building.
• Commission is appointed to build the capitol (not to exceed $150,000), the university ($50,000), and an insane asylum ($30,000).
• Legislature provides funds for an institution for the blind, deaf, and dumb at Cheyenne. The asylum was built in 1888 from the $8,000 appropriated by the legislative assembly, but the building was never used for the blind, deaf, and dumb.
• Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad is completed to Douglas and named Wyoming-Central.
• First bag limit is put on big game animals.
• Winter 1886-87-Early spring blizzard brings disaster to cattle barons and contributes to bankruptcy of many stockmen.

1887

• May 18, Cornerstone of Capitol Building is laid at Cheyenne.
• September 6, University of Wyoming opens at Laramie.
• Buffalo Bill takes his Wild West Show to England for Queen Victoria's jubilee
• Yellow Eagle, an Arapaho, is tried and convicted of stealing three horses claimed by a white man. Questioning his guilt, more than fifty prominent citizens of Fremont County sign a petition for his release; and Colonel Thomas M. Jones, Indian agent, intercedes in his behalf. On September 13, Yellow Eagle, the first Indian in Wyoming to be tried in the white man's court, is granted a pardon by Governor Moonlight.
• The General Allotment Act (Dawes Act) is passed and the process of allotting lands to individual Indians at the Wind River Reservation begins.
• "The Glory Hole," one of the largest open pit iron mines in the world, begins operations at Sunrise, Wyoming Territory, and continues to operate until this date (1974).

1888

• January 10, Tenth Territorial Legislative Assembly convenes in the unfinished Capitol Building.
• March 29, Capitol Building is completed, and dedicated.
• Wyoming National Guard is established.
• Legislature appropriates funds (not to exceed $100,000) for penitentiary at Rawlins, but it is not occupied until December 14, 1901.
• Converse and Sheridan counties are created and organized. Natrona County is also created but not organized until 1890.
• The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad (Wyoming-Central) connects Casper with the East.
• Nonresident hunters are banned from Wyoming.

1889

• February 4, Governor Thomas Moonlight grants a full pardon, in response to the sheriff and others who made application for the release of a young man named Harry Longabaugh, also known as the "Sundance Kid," who was convicted of Grand Larceny and had been confined in the Crook County jail since August, 1887. He is commended for his "good behavior and earnest desire to reform."
• Phillip M. Shannon, who later organizes the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Co., drills first well in Salt Creek Field, originally called the Shannon Field.
• Casper, incorporated in July, has city ordinance making it unlawful for a woman "to use any vile, profane, or indecent language, or to act in a boisterous or lewd manner, or to smoke any cigar, cigarette, or pipe on Casper's streets."
• Last wild buffalo is killed in Wyoming.
• Nick Wilson, "the white Indian boy," who as a child Lived among the Shoshone Indians, is the first settler at Wilson, Wyoming Terrritory
• July 20, James Averell and Cattle Kate (Ella Watson) are hanged as rustlers.She is said to be the only woman ever lynched in Wyoming.
• Tubb Town (named for De Loss Tubbs) is said to have had an ordinance which stated that no strangers shall pass without paying a toll sufficient to "set up the bunch." The town is deserted when Newcastle, Wyoming Territory, is founded two miles away.
• September 30, the Constitutional Convention, after prolonged debate, unanimously adopts Constitution for the proposed State of Wyoming.
• In the November 5 general election, the Constitution is approved by a vote of 6,272 to 1,923.
• Matt Warner and Tom McCarthy, of the notorious McCarthy gang, hole up for the winter in Afton, Wyo. Ter. According to local legend, they paper their bar with bank notes.

1890

• Census, including 1,850 Indians at Wind River Reservation, shows population of Wyoming as 62,555.
• January 14-March 14, The eleventh and last Legislative Assembly convenes . ^[1]
• March 12, Weston County is created from Crook County, and Big Horn County from Sheridan, Johnson, and Fremont counties.
• The 51st Congress, first session, passes act (H.R.982 as amended) to admit the State of Wyoming into the Union. ^[2]
• July 10, President Benjamin Harrison signs Statehood Bill, and the following day, John W. Meldrum, acting governor, issues Proclamation declaring statehood.
• July 15, Governor Francis E.Warren,last territorial and first state governor, calls special election for September 11 to name state officers. Clarence D. Clark wins by popular vote the lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
• October 13, Governor Warren calls for special meeting of the State Legislature, which lasts from November 12 to January 10. It elects Wyoming's first two Senators, Joseph M.Carey and Francis E. Warren. The latter, inaugurated October 14, gives up the governor­ship in November to become U.S. Senator. Amos W.Barber, Secretary of State, takes office as Wyoming's second governor.
• Sitting Bull, a Northern Arapaho disciple of Wovoka, the Ghost Dance Messiah, leaves Wind River in the fall to become the great prophet on the Southern Plains. ^[3]

1.Territorial Session Laws 1890, p.24

2. House Resolution 982, as amended

3. The name Sitting Bull should not be confused with that of the Sioux Chief Sitting Bull, who was also a Ghost Dance