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Wyoming State Symbols

Welcome to the Cowboy State! Wyoming and Texas are both closely associated with cowboys. Both states call rodeo their official state sport. However, Wyoming is nicknamed the Cowboy State, and it backs it up with a familiar trademarked image of a cowboy mounted on a bucking horse. (Continued below)

Wyoming State Flag
Nicknames & Slogans
Nicknames The Cowboy State, Equality State
Symbols of State
Motto Equal Rights 1955
Song Wyoming 1955
EcoSymbols
Flower Indian paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia) 1917
Tree plains cottonwood (Populus sargentii) 1947
Grass western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii) 2007
Shrub Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata wyomingensi) 2016
Bird western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) 1927
Mammal bison (Bison bison) 1985
Reptile horned toad (Phrynosoma douglasii) 1993
Amphibian blotched salamander (Ambystoma mavortium spp.) 2019
Fish cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii) 1987
Butterfly Sheridan’s green hairstreak butterfly (Callophrys sheridani) 2009
Gemstone jade (nephrite) 1967
Fossil † Knightia (Knightia) 1987
Dinosaur † Triceratops (Triceratops) 1994
Soil Forkwood (unofficial) Unofficial
Cultural Symbols
Registered Trademark bucking horse and rider
Sport rodeo 2003
Coin Sacajawea golden dollar 2004
Code Code of the West 2010
Song Wyoming Where I Belong 2019
Language English Redundant Symbol 1996

Texas raises the bar with an official hat, footwear, and tie (cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and bolo tie). However, Western wear is probably a more familiar sight in Wyoming than Texas. For good measure, Wyoming also has an official code (“Code of the West”). One of my favorites is “Ride for the brand.”

Still, even Wyoming has to have something besides cowboys. Wyoming is also nicknamed the Equality State, and it has an official coin depicting Sacajawea, perhaps the state’s most famous Native American. The state’s first residents are also recalled by the state flower, the Indian paintbrush.

Wyoming adopted the three most popular symbols in the Great Plains region—the plains cottonwood, western meadowlark, and bison. Let’s not forget the state grass and shrub, western wheatgrass and Wyoming big sagebrush.

The Rocky Mountains are represented by the state fish, the cutthroat trout. If you find yourself following a Sheridan’s green hairstreak (the state butterfly), you might stumble over one of the state’s two official fossils, the popular dinosaur Triceratops or the far more common prehistoric fish, Knightia.

All these symbols and more can be found somewhere between Yellowstone National Park and Devils Tower, which are popular Wyoming symbols themselves.

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If you think state flags and flowers are nothing more than trivia, guess again. A thorough exploration of the more than 1,500 items adopted as state symbols embraces geography, history, and psychology.

You have found the best state symbols website, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. The introduction above is adapted from Geobop’s State Symbols and My State Symbols Book, by far the biggest and most detailed state symbols references ever. You can learn still more about the symbols of the 50 states in the books Flag Quest and Grading the States. (Learn more about them here.)

After you spend some time exploring your favorite state’s symbols, you can come back here and tell us what you think about them.

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