No, as far as I know there isn’t a town of Wyoming in Texas. Believe me, I’d hoped there might be such a place but the Geographic Names Information System provided by the U.S. Geological Survey doesn’t list one. Conversely there aren’t many items of significance named Texas in Wyoming either, other than a mine, a creek a lake and a small mountain pass. It’s like two mutually-exclusive cowboy cultures.
I heard it again the other evening while flipping through television channels somewhat randomly, this time on a previously-aired episode of How the States Got Their Shapes. It recounted a claim that Texas was so large that it once stretched all the way into Wyoming. Texas is crazy large and it’s residents love to remind everyone of that fact, but I wondered if there was truth behind the statement.
Claimed Territory
The claim includes an element of truth although it’s more complicated than the careless way it’s often tossed-around. The above image from Wikimedia Commons actually displays it very nicely. Keep an eye on it while I peel away a few layers. Be forewarned that I will grossly oversimplify historical details for the sake of expediency.
The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819 between the United States and Spain created a border along the Arkansas River to its headwaters, then due-north from there to the 42nd parallel north of latitude. Mexico, meanwhile, was fighting for its independence from Spain during that period and finally succeeded in 1821. Thus, Mexico inherited the Spanish land claim along the southwestern side of the Arkansas River border with the United States.
Next came the Texas Revolution. Clashes began in 1835, lasted several months and resulted in a new sovereign nation carved from Mexico territory in 1836. Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna signed the Treaties of Velasco after his defeat at the Battle of San Jacinto. This gave birth to the Republic of Texas. The Mexican army was supposed to relocate south of the Rio Grande River as a result. However — and this is a key point — the Mexican government never ratified the treaties.
Thus the Republic of Texas claimed, and Mexico disputed, that Texan territory encompassed everything between the line established by the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819 on the east and the Rio Grand River on the west, with lines drawn due north from the respective headwaters up to the 42nd parallel. That’s what is shown in the graphic above and that’s where it extend into modern Wyoming.
After the Republic of Texas
It was both tenuous and fleeting. The Republic of Texas ceased to exist in 1845 when it became part of the United States. Next, Mexico relinquished all claims to Texas in 1848 as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War so that cleared things up a bit. Then, Texas ceded a big chunk of its territory to the U.S. Federal government as part of the Compromise of 1850 in return for debt relief. Therefore, the portion of modern Wyoming was in Texas only from 1836-1850 and it was in dispute with Mexico for most of that time anyway. Texas wasn’t in any position to exercise direct control over its Wyoming nub except on paper.
Carbon County, Wyoming
Nonetheless, that doesn’t stop me from trying to figure out where in Wyoming the Texan territory once extended. I drew lines as best I could from the headwaters of the Arkansas and Rio Grand Rivers due north up to the 42nd north parallel, and shaded that portion on the Wyoming side of the border. I also attempted to draw the Carbon County, Wyoming boundary. There’s quite a bit of overlap.
Some of “old” Texas might also extend slightly into neighboring Albany County to the east or Sweetwater County to the west. I consider that within the margin of error; maybe it does or maybe it doesn’t. I can’t promise that my locations matched exactly with Nineteenth Century headwaters calculations so let’s consider this an approximation.
Anyone driving the length of Interstate 80 through Wyoming has cut directly through Old Texas. Likewise people living in any number of towns in Carbon County including the 8,500 people in Rawlins can claim an ephemeral long-ago kinship with Texas. It’s an interesting historical footnote.
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