1961

• The issues at stake in the Legislature are reapportionment and federal aid to education.
• The Legislature repeals the 1959 Enabling Act, making Wyoming the only state in the United States that cannot accept federal aid to education. (Session Laws 1961, ch. 145)
• A new school for the deaf is created in Casper. (Session Laws 1961, ch 57)
• On February 16 an act is passed to prohibit distinction, discrimination, or restriction because of race, religion, color, or national origin. (Session Laws 1961, ch. 103)
• The Legislature appropriates $7,500 for a replica of the statue of Esther Morris in Washington to be placed at the State Capitol Building in Wyoming. (Session Laws 1961, ch. 180)
• An appropriation of $15,000 is made for the purchase of Ft. Fetterman. (Session Laws 1961, ch. 190)

1962

• Test drilling begins in the Cheyenne area to determine potential sites for Minuteman I missiles.Twenty-four Atlas missiles now surround Cheyenne, providing the most powerful deterrent to aggression ever developed by man. (as of 1974)
• A program of mass immunization of county residents against polio with the new Sabin oral vaccine is carried out June 10 by the Laramie County Medical Society.
• Thyra Thomson is elected first woman Secretary of State in Wyoming.
• Private land owners receive almost $20 million from oil and gas leases and royalties in Wyoming.
• Pacific Power and Light Company begins construction of a $25 million generating unit at the company's Dave Johnston Steam-Electric Plant near Glenrock. It will be placed in service in late 1964. A new Coal Research Laboratory, costing $300,000 will also be built adjoining the generating plant. Since Pacific Power and Light Company acquired the electric service properties in Wyoming six years before, it has invested $76 million in the largest expansion of power generating and transmission facilities in the state's history.
• A multi-million dollar iron ore mine and reduction plant built by U.S. Steel's Columbia-Geneva Division at Atlantic City begins operation near Lander.

1963

• Reapportionment of the Legislature increases the House membership from 56 to 61 and decreases the Senate membership from 27 to 25. (Session Laws 1963, ch. 22) All counties receive one senator each except Laramie and Natrona. They will have two.
• In the State Legislatures in 1959, 1961, and 1963, more than half of the Senators are members of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.
• The Legislature, in spite of strong opposition, adopts the "Right-to-Work" law. (Session Laws 1963, ch 39)
• Two million dollars of the Common School Permenent Land Fund of the state will be invested in an emergency school school construction program. (Session Laws 1963, ch. 6)
• The State Insurance Department is created. (Session Laws 1963, ch. 108)
• Under a federal aid program, sheep make a comeback and Wyoming ranks second to Texas in sheep production.
• The Child Abuse law is passed by the Legislature. (Session Laws 1963, ch. 36)
• The Inheritance Tax is revised. (Session Laws 1963, ch. 139)
• The United States has 16,000 "military advisors" in Vietnam under the Southeast Asia Mutual Defense Treaty (SEATO). It pledges to help resist Communist aggression.
• On December 15 a bronze. replica of the Esther Morris statue in Washington is unveiled in Cheyenne.

1964

• Teno Roncalio (D) captures the lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Other Democratic victories include the reelection of Senator McGee and the control of the State House of Representatives, unusual in a predominantly Republican state..
• Of the state's 62,400,000 acres, the federal government owns the mineral rights to 39,800,000 acres, private individuals to 17,010,000, the state to 3,700,000, and Indians to 1,890,000.
• Farmers in the Third Division of the Riverton Reclamation Project are allowed to sell their unproductive lands to the government.
• Mrs. Letha Dickinson, fifth grade teacher at Riverton, is named to the 1964 National Teacher of the Year Honor Roll.

1965

• The Legislature raises the sales tax from 2 to 2.5 percent, and it raises the minimum wage from seventy-five cents to one dollar.
• The law prohibiting interracial marriages (Miscegenation Law) is repealed. (Session Laws 1965, ch. 4)
• Resident bird licenses are separated from those for elk and deer, and the cottontail rabbit is declared a small game animal that requires a hunting license. (Session Laws 1965, ch. 184)
• In March, the first U.S. Marines land in South Vietnam.
• March 25, the 389th Strategic Missile Wing (Atlas Missile) is deactivated.
• On June 30 the 90th Strategic Missile Wing is activated at Warren Air Force Base with 200 Minuteman I missiles. It is the free world's largest Intercontinental Ballistic Missile unit.
• In contrast to the Atlas, which was a liquid fueled missile, the Minuteman I is a. three-stage, solid propellant missile with a range of more than 6,300 miles and a speed of more than 15,000 miles an hour. It weighs about 65,000 pounds and may be launched almost instantly from individual blast resistant underground launch sites.
• Wyoming marks its 75th anniversary of statehood with a reprint of the July 24, 1890, issue of the Cheyenne Daily Sun, a 129-page booklet, Wyoming the 75th Year, published by the 75th Anniversary Commission, and numerous other publications and activities throughout the state.
• Two restored buildings of the old historic Fort Fetterman are dedicated on August 23.
• The largest individual cattle sale by a single individual in Wyoming's history, amounting to a total of 4,500 head of cattle, takes place at Lander August 31.
• On October 8, the Federal Court decrees a reapportionment of State Senators. (see Infra. "Wyoming State Legislature, 39th Session")
• An early snowstorm across South-Central Wyoming on September 17 strands about 4,500 travelers at Rawlins and causes an estimated $1 million crop loss.
• Wyoming moose hunters establish a record-breaking season by killing 900 animals.
• Andrew Pixley, 22, is found guilty of the murder of two girls, age eight and twelve. An appeal to the State Supreme Court is rejected and Pixley dies in the gas chamber in Rawlins December 10.
• The Wyoming Air National Guard begins flights to the war­ torn Southeast Asian country to deliver Christmas presents to U.S. troops.

1966

• The Interior Department creates a new policy on land acquisition which protects the rights of private ownership of land within Grand Teton National Park.
• Payments to Wind River Indians are reduced by increase in enrollment and a decrease in oil leasing activity. There are 1,971 Shoshones and 2,647 Arapahoes on the reservation.
• Famed Sheridan Inn becomes the property of the Sheridan County Historical Society.
• Wyoming is fifth in the nation in crude oil production. Crude oil and natural gas are produced in all but two of Wyoming's counties.
• Wycon Chemical Company, a $3.5 million urea manufacturing plant, is located west of Cheyenne.
• A new stamp is issued on August 25 in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Interior Department's National Park Service.
• The Wyoming Air Guard moves more than 800 Vietnam wounded over worldwide flight routes and carries more than 2.8 million pounds of cargo, mostly war material.
• In its early days, the Plains Hotel at Cheyenne was known throughout the country for its use of a picture of Little Shield, a handsome Arapaho tribal leader, as its trademark. His likeness could be seen on letterheads, on napkins, on menus, in tile on the floor at the hotel entrance, in a picture hanging in the lobby, and last but not least, in a neon sign outlining his features. If he had been living in 1966, he would have enjoyed as much as anyone the fanfare in his behalf. Headlines in the Wyoming Eagle and the Wyoming State Tribune tell the story:
  
  PLAINS HOTEL SALE ANNOUNCED (Wyoming State Tribune, February 26, 1966) "One of its best known features," states the Tribune about the hotel, "is a portrait of an Arapaho Indian Chief named Little Shield which hangs in the lobby, and which has become its principal trademark. Little Shield was one of the hotel's prominent early-day guests, and legend has it that he always washed his face and hands in the horse trough across the street and brushed the dust off his clothing before entering the hotel."
  
  PLAINS HOTEL SOLD (Wyoming Eagle, March 1, 1966) According to the record, the original 100-room hotel was built in 1911 by a company composed of Senator Francis E. Warren, T. A. Cosgriff, Dr. H. M. Bennett, George B. Abbott, and Fred Warren. The famed stop on the U. P. east-west route was later remodeled into a 200-room hotel.
  
  LITTLE SHIELD IS REMODELED (Wyoming State Tribune, December 13, 1966) The article states that Little Shield, the symbol of the Plains for nearly half a century, has survived the remodeling of the hotel but is not unscathed. In his new portrait, placed in the Fire House Saloon, the chief is shown wearing a black fire helmet, the inscription on which reads: "I - Plains Chief, Little Shield." To complete the picture, a feather is sticking through his helmet. [The new portrait fits the decor of the Fire House Saloon, but it does little to enhance the image of the personable Arapaho who was renowned for his perfect features and oratorical ability.)
  
  LITTLE SHIELD'S NEW FIRE HAT STIRS UP THREAT OF INDIAN WAR (Wyoming State Tribune, December 14, 1966) Chief Iron Shell of the Sioux nation takes up the cudgel in defense of his Arapaho brother. He says he will take the matter before the tribal council at the Rosebud Reservation. Former patrons of the hotel send in a flood of protests. A Texan wires a demand that the new portrait be "retired." He says he will not set foot in the hotel unless the original picture is put back in place.
  
  THE INDIANS ARE COMING (Wyoming State Tribune, Dec. 15, 1966) Iron Shell and a group of Sioux say they will come to Cheyenne and settle the Little Shield controversy. The artist who designed the portrait justifies his action by saying that he had to fit Little Shield into the decor in order to save him from oblivion. [The neon sign is gone and all else but the portrait and likeness in tile, which would be difficult to remove.]
  
  PALEFACES BOW ON LITTLE SHIELD PICTURE ISSUE (Wyoming Eagle, December 16, 1966) Iron Shell and six other Sioux dance in the lobby of the Plains, and Iron Shell orders the owner(then Ed N. Murray, Jr.) to restore Little Shield to his rightful place of dignity and honor above the elevator cage. After he rattles the cage with his war club, the original picture mysteriously reappears and is hung in its customary place. The visitors from South Dakota good naturedly shake hands with the owner and accept his invitation to a buffalo steak dinner next time they come to town.

1967

• Plans are made for an outdoor inaugural ceremony for Governor-elect Stan Hathaway as Wyoming's first such ceremony in its 76-year history. (Wyoming State Tribune, December 20, 1966) The Denver Post (January 3), refuting this claim, points out that he is the second, not the first, Wyoming governor to be inaugurated out-of-doors, but it fails to name the first. Research in the files at the Archives and Historical Department shows that the distinction goes to J. B. Kendrick. (Wyoming State Leader, January 5, 1915) Plans for a ceremony on the steps of the capitol for J. M. Carey had to be cancelled because of severe winter weather. (Wyoming State Leader, January 3, 1911) Subsequent research by State Archives staff has shown that both William A. Richards (1895) and Bryant B. Brooks (1905) were inaugurated out of doors.
• Mrs. Stanley K Hathaway establishes a "Wyoming Library" in the Governor's Mansion with the help of the Wyoming Press Women. They start the project by presenting sixty-four books, novels, and collections of stories and poetry by Wyoming authors or on Wyoming subjects at a regional meeting of the Rocky Mountain Press Women in Laramie.
• Jade is officially adopted as the state gemstone on January 25. (Session Laws 1967, ch. 2)
• Pari-mutuel Act legalizes gambling on horse races. (Session Laws 1967, ch. 245) Subsequent amendments forbid gambling at 4-H fairs.
• State sales tax is raised to 3 percent. (Session Laws 1967, ch. 232)
• The ski area developed at Jackson becomes a favorite place for winter recreation.
• The largest ICBM, a 103-foot Titan II with a space age display inside, is placed in front of the Capitol Building at Cheyenne where thousands of people see the educational display.
• Old South Pass Historical Preserve is created by the Legislature. (Session Laws 1967, ch. 86)
• Allied Chemical Corporation is to have a new $20 million Soda Ash Plant, a trona mining and processing complex, located at Alchem, 20 miles west of Green River.
• The Whitney Gallery of Western Art in Cody acquires the statue "End of the Trail," by James E. Fraser. Sculptured in 1918, it was given to the museum by Clara Peck, who purchased it from the Delano family estate.
• The Cheyenne Centennial is commemorated with a medal which depicts the state capitol, a cowboy astride a bucking bronc, and a railroad locomotive. Fort D. A Russell is pictured on the reverse side.
• The celebration "From Arrows to Missiles," includes a variety of activities: the dedication of Warren Air Force Base Museum, a giant street parade, the re-creation of the tent city known as "Hell on Wheels," a wagon train from Ft. Laramie to Cheyenne, rodeos, gun shows, antique automobile shows, street square dancing, a concert presenting "A Century of Music," a six-week exhibit of early Western art and publication of a 100-year history of Cheyenne. In Holiday Park, the Union Pacific Railroad proudly displays "Big Boy," one of the largest steam powered land machines ever built. It weighs 1,208,075 pounds; it is 132 feet long; and it can carry 28 tons of fuel and 25,000 gallons of water. At Warren Air Force Base a Mace tactical missile is displayed along with a one-fifth scale model mock-up of the Titan III space booster which will be used in deep space probe.
• The speed limit is set at 75 MPH for travel on interstate highways and 60 MPH on all other highways. (Session Laws 1967, ch. 213)

1968

• Governor Hathaway approves a Pentagon plan which calls for the Wyoming National Guard to halt cargo runs and concentrate solely on evacuation of wounded from Vietnam. Brig. Gen. John Carson, Adjutant General of the Wyoming Guard, says the Air Guard will begin the project full-scale in July. The Wyoming unit is one of three selected for the mission. Other units chosen are from Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
• February 22 marks a milestone in American aviation history and the Wyoming State Tribune tells how the U.S. airmail service was saved. (The below is an excerpt from the Wyoming State Tribune, February 22, 1968; See also Annual Report of Postmaster General, June 30, 1921, Washington, GPO; A Short History of Mail Service by Carl H. Scheele, 1970, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.)
  
  Airmail service which began in the eastern part of the United States in 1918 had gradually extended across the continent. On September 10, 1920, the first transcontinental airmail route was in operation. By late winter 1921, the transcontinental flights operating on a flying Pony Express system, had cut the time one way across the country to a total of ninety flying hours. Cheyenne was a division point on the route.
  
  The attrition rate was high-thirty to forty pilots who started the mail run seemed doomed to die in the line of duty. With a change in administration, the airmail service was scheduled to be discontinued.
  A last great effort was planned February 21, 1921, to show the country and the incoming Harding administration that airmail was worth being retained.
  
  A Cheyenne State Leader headline (February 23) boasts: "San Francisco to Omaha in 15 hours and 35 minutes."
  
  The account points with pride to the fact that the Cheyenne division of the airmail service and divisions to the West had done their full part, not without price. Pilot Capt. William F. Lewis had been killed on takeoff the day before at Elko, Nevada. When Jimmy Murray of Cheyenne rolled his plane to a stop on the grassy runway, a crew hauled the 300 pounds of mail out of his ship in two minutes and loaded it on another DeHavilland, piloted by Frank Yager, who them flew it to North Platte. From there Jack Knight took it to Omaha.
  
  It was in Omaha where Knight, suffering a broken nose resulting from a crash a week earlier, was informed his relief man had not been permitted to leave Chicago because of pad weather. Knight said he would fly the mail on to Chicago himself. After midnight, flying his cumbersome DeHavilland through snow and rain, holding the stick with his knees while he studied a map with a flashlight, Knight performed the feat that made him one of the heroes of the American Civil Aviation.
• To commemorate the half-century that has elapsed since the first airmail service began interstate from New York in 1918, Bill Hackbarth, 69-year-old pilot, retraces the 3,000 mile airway route followed across the continent in 1920. He flies a 50-year-old open cockpit biplane. Hackbarth, a one-time mechanic on the old U.S. airmail service transcontinental route at Rock Springs, lands in Cheyenne April 30. Thousands of people turn out to see his plane.
• When Interstate Highway 80 bypasses the Lincoln monument at the summit between Laramie and Cheyenne, it is moved piece by piece to a location beside the new highway.
• Cheyenne's first telephone directory, printed about 1882, comes to light. It consists of one long sheet with instructions to signal the central office by turning the crank half around. When through talking, one is to give it another half turn.
• The Shoshone and Arapaho tribes open most of the Wind River Reservation to surface prospecting for uranium and all other minerals except oil and gas and sand and gravel.
• A $30.5 million phase of a steam-electric generating plant is completed near Kemmerer by Utah Power and Light Company.
• Herman St.Clair, 67-year-old Shoshone tribal leader, is the first American Indian in the state to be appointed to a local draft board. He is appointed by President L. B.Johnson and will represent the Indian registrants with Fremont County Selective Service System and other boards in Wyoming.
• On July 3, the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Wind River Reservation is celebrated with a reenactment of the signing of the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, and members of Wyoming's Congressional delegation are among those invited to the celebration at Fort Washakie.
• The Denver Post pays tribute to the Casper Troopers with a special supplement November 17, describing them as they appeared at Bears Stadium. The following is an excerpt from the account:
  
  "Dressed in replicas of the blue U.S. Cavalry uniforms of 100 years ago, and carrying well-polished bugles of all sizes, snare drums, rifles, and standards with flowing colors, the Wyoming group executed routine and technical maneuvers with unbelievable precision. While the Troopers marched snappily through spectacular formations, the sound of their music filled the stadium with a beat and a flavor never before heard. As the breath-taking performance ended they received a thunderous standing ovation.
  
  The founder and director, James E. "Jim" Jones, Jr., organized the Casper Troopers, a group of boys and girls ranging in age from 12 to 21 in 1957. Jones, a building contractor, had the theory that the corps would be an excellent character building activity for Casper young people. The dedicated Troopers work hard and practice rigid self discipline. This has produced a unique 130-member marching unit that has captured world honors and has become a source of pride to all of Wyoming.
  
  The corps is the only such group in history to have won a national title with horn and drum lines including girls as well as boys. At the time they won their first major national title, the average of the corps was slightly less than 15.
  
  Marching in open, daring formations that invite the criticism of the judges, the Troopers have ushered in a new era of quality to the corps and added spectacular dimensions.
  
  It was in 1965 that the Casper Troopers won the World Open Championship and captured numerous titles during an extended Eastern tour.
  
  In 1966 the Troopers received the Veterans of Foreign Wars Nation al titles and placed second in the World Open. They were officially proclaimed "Wyoming's Musical Ambassadors" by the Wyoming State Legislature in 1967. The title was justly earned as they have won the affections of fans all over the world.
  
  In 1968 they traveled more than 10,000 miles and brought home six titles, including the North American Invitational Meet in Toronto where they had an unprecedented four encores." (For further information see The Troopers - Profile, published by Trooper Promotions, Inc., Casper, Wyoming)

1969

• The Department of Economic Planning and Development (DEPAD) replaces the Wyoming Natural Resources Board. (Session Laws 1969, ch. 94)
• A peak of 541,500 U.S. Troops in Vietnam is reached early in the year.
• The Legislature approves an act providing for personalized prestige license plates. (Session Laws 1969, ch. 109)
• The Legislature memorializes Major John Wesley Powell for his influence in developing Wyoming and a commemorative centennial stamp is issued by the U.S. Postal Department. His first exploration of the Green and Colorado River systems was heralded as a scientific achievement without parallel in American history and will be reenacted during the Powell centennial celebration.
• One-third of the sheep population in Crook County is wiped out in a severe spring snowstorm April 24-26.
• The new $1.3 million building addition at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, is dedicated on May 31.
• A $24,289 contract for major development work at the historic Oregon Trail area near Guernsey is awarded by the Wyoming Recreation Commission. The contract includes development projects at the Oregon Trail ruts, at Register Cliff State Historic Site, and at the Guernsey State Park Museum.
• First Wyoming season is announced on Rocky Mountain goats.
• Mrs. Neltje Kings (Mrs. John), known as the "savior" of the Sheridan Inn, is the guest speaker at the annual awards banquet of the Wyoming State Historical Society on September 6. She purchased the Inn when efforts failed to raise enough funds to buy the famous old landmark. She did it, she said, because "I just couldn't stand to see such an important part of the heritage of the area torn down to make room for a parking lot!"

1970

• According to the census, Wyoming's population is 332,416.
• Assessed value of Wyoming's minerals is $505 million, of which 94.5 percent is in coal, gas, oil, and uranium. Wyoming ranks first in the nation in coal reserves, second in uranium deposits, fifth in oil production, and seventh in the production of natural gas.
• The Stagecoach Museum opens in Lusk on May 15.
• Leslie A. Miller, who served as governor of Wyoming for six years, dies September 29 at the age of eighty-four. He is the second former governor to die in eight days and the third this year, the others being J. J. Hickey and Jack R. Gage.