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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Further on the following, adding to what Don Lance
has posted:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>"I read
somewhere once that Wyoming migrated to the state name from a<BR>valley in
Pennsylvania. I also remember an elegantly bound book of<BR>poetry my
grandparents had, which contained a long poem entitled<BR>_Gertrude of Wyoming_
(the poet I don't completely remember; I think it<BR>was a certain Campbell: a
FAST search says it's Thomas Campbell,<BR>apparently a Scot, which moves the
toponym further east). No, I am not<BR>making this up. The title was deliciously
funny, but the poem was a<BR>total bore, and I remember nothing whatsoever of
it."<BR>--<BR></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>***************</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>As Don said,
the above is basically right. In Kelsie Harder's "Illustrated Dictionary
of Place Names: United States and Canada (1976), he says:</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>"From Delaware
Indian _maughwauwame_ "large meadows," applied to a valley in NE Pa. The
narrative poem "Gertrude of Wyoming" (1809) by the British poet Thomas Campbell
(1777-1844), concerning an Indian attack on the Wyoming Valley, became extremely
popular and led to the use of the name in various localities. . . . When the
Wyoming Territory was organized in 1868 from a portion of the old Nebraska
Territory, the name _Wyoming_, suggested by Rep. James M.Ashley of Ohio, was
chosen over _Cheyenne_.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The valley is
the "original" Wyoming. All other uses derive from that, with help from
the poem.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Frank
Abate</FONT></DIV>
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