Non-Fiction Audiobook
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (General) North American (US General American - GenAM)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
Chapter one entering Wyoming for years, The sign of the border read. Welcome to Big Wyoming. Wyoming is ninth largest of all the states, about twice the size of Pennsylvania, but it has the smallest population. Only about 470,000 people live here, roughly five people per square mile. Wyoming has more pronghorn antelope than people. One reason not many people live in this state is that the federal government owns nearly half the land. Wyoming was the first state or territory to have a national park. Yellowstone, the first to have a national forest, Sony and the first to designate a national monument, Devils Tower. It contains seven national forests, 800 square miles of water and 11 major mountain ranges. Another reason so few people live in Wyoming is that it is high, dry, windy and cold. Wyoming's mean elevation 6700 feet is second only to Colorado's. The state's average annual rainfall is 14 inches, but southwestern Wyoming gets less than seven inches of rain per year. Temperatures of minus 30 degrees are common in Wyoming in winter, minus 63 degrees has been recorded. Of all the states Onley, Alaska is colder snow has fallen somewhere in Wyoming every month of the year. As historian Dudley Gardner noted, winter is not a season in Wyoming. It is a possibility on any given day. Some people claim that Wyoming is so windy babies are born at a tilt. Let's say snow never reaches the ground. It's all horizontal. It just blows around until it wears out. The swear that on the rare occasions that the wind stops blowing, everybody falls down. The strongest wind velocity ever recorded in the state was 115 MPH. Wyoming has intensely blue skies, smog free, air free roaming wildlife and, some say, the best drinking water anywhere. It is a place of spectacular beauty, but an appreciation for some of that beauty has to be acquired. Long time residents tell newcomers that one thing Wyoming has is plenty of sky. They say you can look farther and see less in Wyoming than anywhere else. Newcomers, terrified at first by the desolate desert prairies, later learned that open space becomes addictive, a component of quality living. Sensing the vastness of the landscape becomes a form of prayer, Owen Wister wrote the best selling cowboy novel the Virginian in Wyoming. Wyoming sometimes calls itself the Cowboy State. The University of Wyoming athletic teams carried the cowboy name. Automobile license plates display bucking broncos throughout the state. 70 rodeos take place each year, but less than 10% of Wyoming's income comes from farming and ranching. 3/5 of all Wyoming homesteads failed, and most of those which survived were incorporated into larger ranches. Less than 5% of the land in the state has ever been plowed, and more than half is covered with sage brush. Consider that it takes an average of 40 acres of land in Wyoming to support one cow, and you can understand the vast acreages Wyoming cattleman need to survive.