County Designations on License Plates

Wyoming's county designation numbers were assigned by a committee and are partially based upon the assessed valuation of each county around 1930, when the numbers were first assigned. These numbers are frequently used as short hand when referring to particular counties, most notably on the license plate. The numbers were first added to the license plate in 1930.

1. Natrona
2. Laramie
3. Sheridan
4. Sweetwater
5. Albany
6. Carbon
7. Goshen
8. Platte
9. Big Horn
10. Fremont
11. Park
12. Lincoln
13. Converse
14. Niobrara
15. Hot Springs
16. Johnson
17. Campbell
18. Crook
19. Uinta
20. Washakie
21. Weston
22. Teton
23. Sublette

County Organization

Carved from sections of Dakota, Utah and Idaho Territories, Wyoming Territory came into existence by an act of Congress on July 25, 1868. The territorial government was formally inaugurated May 19, 1869. The first Territorial Governor, John A. Campbell, was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant and took his oath of office on April 15, 1869.

At the time of its organization, Wyoming had already been divided into four counties: Laramie (established January 9, 1867), Carter—later Sweetwater (established December 27, 1867, Carbon and Albany (both established December 16, 1868). These counties extended from the Northern to the southern borders of the territory. Upon the organization of Wyoming Territory, a portion of modern-day Utah and Idaho, extending from Montana to the Wyoming-Utah boundary—including what became Yellowstone National Park—was annexed and named Uinta County. As the territory, and later state, became settled, other counties were carved out of these original five. Since 1921, when the last one was created, there have been twenty-three counties in the State of Wyoming.

Timeline of Wyoming's Counties

Additional Resources

• Wyoming Places Wiki, Wyoming State Library. (accessed July 2015)