Wyoming and the Westward Movement: Natal Statistics at the University of Wyoming

Abstract

Natal statistics collected from 680 unselected students at the University of Wyoming show how recent, and even present, is the westward shift of population. It may be stated as approximately true that of every 100 students in residence at the state university, 85 give Wyoming residence, 48 were born in the state, 12 or 13 of their 200 parents were born in Wyoming, and but 2 out of every 1,000 grandparents. Wyoming the last frontier.-It may further be said as a broad generalization that the parents of native Wyoming students were themselves born most often in the Middle West from Illinois to Nebraska, and the grandparents ofthese same students in the Atlantic Coast states or in Europe. Wyoming is thus seen to be not yet far removed from a frontier condition of an adult population which is not native born.