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Current as of January 01, 2024 | Updated by FindLaw Staff
§ 1. Wyoming admitted as a state; constitution ratified.
Whereas, the people of the territory of Wyoming did, on the 30th day of September, 1889, by a convention of delegates called and assembled for that purpose, form for themselves a constitution, which constitution was ratified and adopted by the people of said territory at the election held therefor on the first Tuesday in November, 1889, which constitution is republican in form and is in conformity with the constitution of the United States; and
Whereas, said convention and the people of the said territory have asked the admission of said territory into the union of states on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatever; therefore,
Be it enacted, etc., that the State of Wyoming is hereby declared to be a state of the United States of America, and is hereby declared admitted into the union on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatever; and that the constitution which the people of Wyoming have formed for themselves be, and the same is hereby, accepted, ratified, and confirmed.
§ 2. Boundaries; limitations as to Yellowstone National Park; federal jurisdiction in Yellowstone National Park.
The said state shall consist of all the territory included within the following boundaries, to-wit: Commencing at the intersection of the twenty-seventh meridian of longitude west from Washington with the forty-fifth degree of north latitude and running thence west to the thirty-fourth meridian of west longitude; thence south to the forty-first degree of north latitude; thence east to the twenty-seventh meridian of west longitude, and thence north to the place of beginning. Provided, that nothing in this act contained shall repeal or affect any act of congress relating to the Yellowstone National Park, or the reservation of the park as now defined, or as may be hereafter defined or extended, or the power of the United States over it; and nothing contained in this act shall interfere with the right and ownership of the United States in said park and reservation as it now is or may hereafter be defined or extended by law; but exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, shall be exercised by the United States, which shall have exclusive control and jurisdiction over the same; but nothing in this proviso contained shall be construed to prevent the service within said park of civil and criminal process lawfully issued by the authority of said state; and the said state shall not be entitled to select indemnity school lands for the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections that may be in said park reservation as the same is now defined or may be hereafter defined.
§ 3. Congressional representation.
Until the next general census, or until otherwise provided by law, said state shall be entitled to one representative in the house of representatives of the United States, and the election of the representative to the fifty-first congress and the representative to the fifty-second congress shall take place at the time and be conducted and certified in the same manner as is provided in the constitution of the state for the election of state, district, and other officers.
§ 4. School lands granted.
Sections numbered 16 and 36 in every township of said proposed state, and, where such sections, or any parts thereof, have been sold or otherwise disposed of by or under the authority of any act of congress, other lands equivalent thereto, in legal subdivisions of not less than one-quarter-section, and as contiguous as may be to the section in lieu of which the same is taken, are hereby granted to said state for the support of common schools, such indemnity lands to be selected within said state in such manner as the legislature may provide, with the approval of the secretary of the interior; provided, that section 6 of the act of congress of August 9, 1888, entitled “An act to authorize the leasing of the school and university lands in the Territory of Wyoming, and for other purposes,” shall apply to the school and university indemnity lands of the said State of Wyoming so far as applicable.
§ 5. Sale or lease of school lands; immunity from entry under land laws.
All lands herein granted for educational purposes shall be disposed of only at public sale, the proceeds to constitute a permanent school fund, the interest of which only shall be expended in the support of said schools. But said lands may, under such regulations as the legislature shall prescribe, be leased for mineral, grazing, agricultural, or other purposes, provided that the term of agricultural and grazing leases shall not exceed 10 years; and such land shall not be subject to preemption, homestead entry, or any other entry under the land laws of the United States, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, but shall be reserved for school purposes only.
§ 6. Lands for public buildings.
Fifty sections of the unappropriated public lands within said state, to be selected and located in legal subdivisions as provided in section 4 of this act, shall be, and are hereby granted to said state for the purpose of erecting public buildings at the capital of said state.
§ 7. Common school fund.
Five per cent of the proceeds of the sales of public lands lying within said state which shall be sold by the United States subsequent to the admission of said state into the union, after deducting all the expenses incident to the same, shall be paid to the said state, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest of which only shall be expended for the support of the common schools within said state.
§ 8. University lands; university fund; state control of schools; certain institutions not to be supported by sales of school lands; fish hatchery land transferred to state.
The lands granted to the Territory of Wyoming by the act of February 18, 1881, entitled “An act to grant lands to Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Idaho and Wyoming, for university purposes,” are hereby vested in the State of Wyoming, to the extent of the full quantity of 72 sections to said state, and any portion of said lands that may not have been selected by said Territory of Wyoming may be selected by the said state; but said act of February 18, 1881, shall be so amended as to provide that none of said lands shall be sold for less than $10 per acre, and the proceeds shall constitute a permanent fund to be safely invested and held by said state, and the income thereof be used exclusively for university purposes. The schools, colleges, and universities provided for in this act shall forever remain under exclusive control of said state, and no part of the proceeds arising from the sale or disposal of any lands herein granted for educational purposes shall be used for the support of any sectarian or denominational school, college, or university. The section of land granted by the act of May 28, 1888, to the Territory of Wyoming for a fish hatchery and other public purposes shall, upon the admission of said State of Wyoming into the union, become the property of said state.
§ 9. Laramie City penitentiary granted to state.
The penitentiary at Laramie City, Wyo., and all lands connected therewith and set apart and reserved therefor, and the personal property of the United States, now being in the Territory of Wyoming, and which has been in use in the said territory in the administration of the territorial government, including books and records, and the property used at the constitutional convention, which convened at Cheyenne in the month of September, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, are hereby granted and donated, and unexpended appropriations of money therefor, are hereby granted and donated to the State of Wyoming.
§ 10. Lands for agricultural college.
Ninety thousand acres of land, to be selected and located as provided in section 4 of this act, are hereby granted to said state for the use and support of an agricultural college in said state, as provided in the acts of congress making donations of lands for such purpose.
§ 11. Federal land grants for certain purposes.
In lieu of the grant of land for the purpose of internal improvement made to new states by the eighth section of act of September 4, 1841, which section is hereby repealed as to the State of Wyoming, and in lieu of any claim or demand by the said state under the act of September 28, 1850, and section 2479 of the Revised Statutes, making a grant of swamp and overflowed lands to certain states, which grant it is hereby declared is not extended to the State of Wyoming, and in lieu of any grant of saline lands to said state, the following grants of land are hereby made, to-wit:
To the State of Wyoming: For the establishment and maintenance and support in the said state the insane asylum in Uinta County 30,000 acres; for the penal, reform or educational institution in course of construction in Carbon County, 30,000 acres; for the penitentiary in Albany County, 30,000 acres; for the fish hatchery in Albany County, 5,000 acres; for the deaf, dumb and blind asylum in Laramie County, 30,000 acres; for the poor farm in Fremont County, 10,000 acres; for a hospital for miners who shall become disabled or incapacitated to labor, while working in the mines of the state 30,000 acres; for public buildings at the capital of the state, in addition to those hereinbefore granted for that purpose, 75,000 acres; for state, charitable, educational, penal and reformatory institutions, 260,000 acres; making a total of 500,000 acres; Provided, that none of the lands granted by this act shall be sold for less than ten dollars per acre.
§ 12. Further land grants prohibited except for specific purposes.
The state of Wyoming shall not be entitled to any further or other grants of land for any purpose than as expressly provided in this act; and the lands granted by this section shall be held, appropriated, and disposed of exclusively for the purposes herein mentioned, in such manner as the legislature of the state may provide.
§ 13. Mineral lands exempt; lands in lieu thereof.
All mineral lands shall be exempted from the grants made by this act. But if sections 16 and 36, or any sub-division or portion of any smallest sub-division thereof in any township, shall be found by the department, of the interior to be mineral lands, said state is hereby authorized and empowered to select, in legal subdivisions, an equal quantity of other unappropriated lands in said state in lieu thereof, for the use and the benefit of the common schools of said state.
§ 14. Lands to be selected under direction of secretary of interior; deductions.
All lands granted in quantity or as indemnity by this act shall be selected, under the direction of the secretary of the interior, from the surveyed, unreserved, and unappropriated public lands of the United States within the limits of the state entitled thereto. And there shall be deducted from the number of acres of land donated by this act for specific objects to said state the number acres heretofore donated by congress to said territory for similar objects.
§ 15. Convention expenses.
The sum of $30,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to said territory for defraying the expense of the said convention and for the payment of the members thereof, under the same rules and regulations and at the same rates as are now provided by law for the payment of the territorial legislatures, and for the elections held therefor and thereunder. Any money hereby appropriated not necessary for such purpose shall be covered into the treasury of the United States.
§ 16. Circuit and district courts; judges; attorney; marshal; clerks; terms; juries; jurisdiction; powers of officers; fees.
The said state, when admitted as aforesaid, shall constitute a judicial district, the name thereof to be the same as the name of the state, and the circuit and district courts therefor shall be held at the capital of the state for the time being, and the said district shall, for judicial purposes, until otherwise provided, be attached to the eighth judicial circuit. There shall be appointed for said district one district judge, one United States attorney, and one United States marshal. The judge of the said district shall receive a yearly salary of $3,500, payable in four equal installments, on the first days of January, April, July and October of each year, and shall reside in the district.
There shall be appointed clerks of said courts in the said district, who shall keep their offices at the capital of said state. The regular terms of said courts shall be held in said district at the place aforesaid on the first Monday in April and the first Monday in November of each year, and only one grand jury and one petit jury shall be summoned in both said circuit and district courts. The circuit and district courts for said district, and the judges thereof, respectively, shall possess the same powers and jurisdiction, and perform the same duties required to be performed by the other circuit and district courts and judges of the United States, and shall be governed by the same laws and regulations. The marshal, district attorney, and clerks of the circuit and district courts of said district, and all other officers and person performing duties in the administration of justice, therein, shall severally possess the powers and perform the duties lawfully possessed and required to be performed by similar officers in other districts of the United States; and shall, for the services they may perform, receive the fees and compensation allowed by law to other similar officers and persons performing similar duties in the State of Oregon.
§ 17. Cases pending in supreme court; territorial supreme court succeeded; judgments prior to admission.
All cases of appeal or writ of error heretofore prosecuted and now pending in the supreme court of the United States upon any record from the supreme court of said territory, or that may hereafter lawfully be prosecuted upon any record from said courts, may be heard and determined by said supreme court of the United States. And the mandate of execution or of further proceedings shall be directed by the supreme court of the United States to the circuit or district court hereby established within the said state from or to the supreme court of such state, as the nature of the case may require. And the circuit, district and state courts herein named shall, respectively, be the successor of the supreme court of the territory, as to all such cases arising within the limits embraced within the jurisdiction of such courts, respectively, with full power to proceed with the same, and award mesne or final process therein; and that from all judgments and decrees of the supreme court of the territory mentioned in this act, in any case arising within the limits of the proposed state prior to admission, the parties to such judgment shall have the same right to prosecute appeals and writs of error to the supreme court of the United States as they shall have had by law prior to the admission of said state into the union.
§ 18. Transfer of pending actions to circuit and district courts and to state courts; transfer of files and records; writs not to abate; request for trial in federal courts.
In respect to all cases, proceedings and matters now pending in the supreme or district courts of the said territory at the time of the admission into the union of the State of Wyoming and arising within the limits of such state, whereof the circuit or district courts by this act established might have had jurisdiction under the laws of the United States had such courts existed at the time of commencement of such cases, the said circuit and district courts, respectively, shall be the successors of said supreme and district courts of said territory; and in respect to all other cases, proceedings, and matters pending in the supreme or district courts of the said territory at the time of the admission of such territory into the union, arising within the limits of said state, the courts established by such state shall, respectively, be the successors of said supreme and district territorial courts; and all the files, records, indictments, and proceedings relating to any such cases shall be transferred to such circuit, district and state courts, respectively, and the same shall be proceeded with therein in due course of law; but no writ, action, indictment, cause, or proceeding now pending, or that prior to the admission of the state shall be pending, in any territorial court in said territory shall abate by the admission of such state into the union, but the same shall be transferred and proceeded with in the proper United States circuit, district, or state court, as the case may be: Provided, however, that in all civil actions, causes and proceedings, in which the United States is not a party, transfer shall not be made to the circuit and district courts of the United States except upon written request of one of the parties to such action or proceeding filed in the proper court; and in the absence of such request such cases shall be proceeded with in the proper state courts.
§ 19. Election of United States senators and members of the house of representatives.
The legislature of the said state may elect two senators of the United States, as is provided by the constitution of said state, and the senators and representatives of said state shall be entitled to be admitted to seats in congress and to all the rights and privileges of senators and representatives of other states in the congress of the United States.
§ 20. Territorial officers to hold over until after state election.
Until the state officers are elected and qualified under the provisions of the constitution of said state, the officers of the Territory of Wyoming shall discharge the duties of their respective offices under the constitution of the state, in the manner and form as therein provided.
§ 21. Existing territorial laws to remain in force; laws in conflict with this act is repealed.
From and after the admission of said state into the union, in pursuance of this act, the laws of the United States, not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said state as elsewhere within the United States; and all laws in force made by said territory, at the time of its admission into the union, until amended or repealed, shall be in force in said state except as modified or changed by this act or by the constitution of the state, an all acts or parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this act, whether passed by a legislature of said territory or by congress, are hereby repealed.
Cite this article: FindLaw.com - Wyoming Act of Admission - last updated January 01, 2024 | https://codes.findlaw.com/wy/act-of-admission/wy-st-act-of-admission/
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