Letter: Wyoming women were first to vote

In last week’s paper, you were misinformed in one of your columns. It was the column which mentioned women’s suffrage in the USA. It was reported that women gained the right to vote in the USA in 1920. Actually, Wyoming gave the right to vote to women in 1890. Here is a small excerpt: “In July 1890, the Territory of Wyoming, which allowed women to vote, was admitted as a state. Wyoming became the first state with women suffrage. By 1900, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho joined Wyoming in allowing women to vote.” It was also not mentioned that our state was among the first in the USA to allow women to vote. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/nineteentham.htm
All other things aside, this was done in Wyoming (the equality state) to gain statehood and not because they wanted equal rights. Just as was done with the Colorado River, which should be called the Green River due to the fact that at the confluence of the Green and the Colorado, the Green has a higher annual flow volume of water, it should have been called the Green River at that point. However, it weighs more for statehood if you have a river named after your state or do something as grant women the right to vote. You will probably bury this trivial issue or even just delete it away into the ether. I just wanted to make this point because, I feel that most people will believe what they read and will not research out things for themselves, so it goes to the old adage, if you repeat a misnomer enough, people will believe it.
Joe Foster
Meeker