This index to the Interior Department Territorial Papers: Wyoming, 1870-1890, collection provides the dates each reel covers. Government Information MAY NOT hold all of these reels. The record in the library catalog describes the extent of our holdings. For help, or to make an appointment to view a reel, email rad@colorado.edu
The act establishing the Territory of Wyoming was approved July 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 178). Wyoming was admitted into the Union as a State by an act approved July 10, 1890 (26 Stat. 222).
From the earliest days of the Republic until 1873 the Department of State was responsible for the supervision of Territorial governments and Territorial affairs in general. An act approved March 1, 1873 (17 Stat. 484), transferred this responsibility to the Department of the Interior, where it has since remained.
During the period covered by this microcopy, the Secretary of the Interior did not delegate the responsibility for supervising Territorial affairs to a bureau but kept it within his own office. There Territorial business was ordinarily referred to the Patents and Miscellaneous Division, which conducted most of the correspondence with the Territories. Correspondence pertaining to appointments of Territorial officials was handled by the Appointments Division of the Office of the Secretary.
On the six rolls of this microcopy, M-204, are reproduced records of the Patents and Miscellaneous Division relating to Wyoming Territory. These include:
(1) Transcripts of executive proceedings of the Governors of the Territory, January 1, 1878- August 7, 1890. These were transmitted semiannually by the Secretary of the Territory to either the President of the United States or the Secretary of the Interior. Those transmitted to the President were customarily referred to the Secretary of the Interior. The proceedings are a record of official acts of the Governor and include copies of proclamations, extradition orders, certificates of reapportionment, writs for special elections and lists of appointments of Notaries Public, Commissioners of Deeds, Live Stock Commissioners, Commissioners of the Insane Asylum, and other officials. No copies of the executive proceedings prior to January 1878 or for the period July-October 1878 are among these records.
(2) Copies of official correspondence of the Governors with Federal and Territorial officials and with private individuals, June 21, 1878-October 13, 1890, except for the periods July 1878-January 1879 and July 1881-February 1882. These copies were also transmitted semiannually by the Secretary of the Territory to either the President of the United States or the Secretary of the Interior.
(3) Letters received, June 4, 1870-September 25, 1890. These consist of communications relating to Territorial matters prior to 1873, December 20, 1870-May 14, 1873; communications relating to the penitentiary at Laramie, June 4, 1870-January 1, 1878, and April 22, 1886-May 2, 1890; and communications relating to miscellaneous subjects, January 17, 1876-September 25, 1890.
Before 1881 the incoming correspondence of the Patents and Miscellaneous Division was grouped under a number of subject headings. By 1881, however, the system of assigning numbers to correspondence received by date of receipt had been fully developed, and from that date to 1907 most of the communications received were filed in a single chronological series. At an undetermined date the records reproduced in this microcopy were withdrawn from these two series and arranged in a separate subject series. Copies of the outgoing correspondence of the Patents and Miscellaneous Division relating to Wyoming Territory are to be found scattered through a series of volumes of letters sent. The outgoing correspondence is not included in this microfilm publication.
The spreadsheet attached below contains a reel-by-reel description of the complete collection.