Wyoming Is Named After a Valley in Pennsylvania

When you think of Wyoming, you picture vast western landscapes, Yellowstone, and wide-open prairies. But the name actually comes from Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania—over 2,000 miles away from the state itself.

The word "Wyoming" originates from the Delaware people's word mecheweamiing, meaning "at the big plains" or "on the great plain." The Munsee variant was xwé:wamənk, literally "at the big river flat." Native Americans used it to describe the Wyoming Valley along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, which was indeed characterized by extensive meadows and flatlands.

How a Pennsylvania Valley Named a Western State

So how did this East Coast valley name end up attached to a Rocky Mountain state? The credit goes to U.S. Representative James M. Ashley of Ohio, who proposed the name "Wyoming Territory" in 1865. Ashley had been born in Pennsylvania and was familiar with the Wyoming Valley.

But there's another cultural connection: Thomas Campbell's 1809 poem "Gertrude of Wyoming," which romanticized the Battle of Wyoming during the Revolutionary War. The poem was wildly popular in the 19th century and helped spread the name "Wyoming" throughout American consciousness as a symbol of frontier drama and natural beauty.

Second Thoughts About the Name

Ironically, after Ashley actually visited the western territory he'd named, he had serious regrets. He stated that there "was not enough fertility in the soil to subsist a population sufficient for a single congressional district. Not one acre in a thousand can be irrigated." Talk about buyer's remorse on a geographic scale.

Despite Ashley's pessimism about the land's potential, the name stuck. When Wyoming achieved statehood in 1890, it kept the name that had traveled across the continent from Pennsylvania.

The Valley That Started It All

Today's Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania is part of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area—a far cry from the wide-open spaces of the western state. The valley was the site of the 1778 Battle of Wyoming, a brutal Revolutionary War conflict between colonists and British-allied forces that became known as the "Surry County Massacre."

Meanwhile, the western Wyoming fully embodies the meaning of its Native American name. With fewer than 600,000 people spread across nearly 98,000 square miles, it's the least populous state in the nation and truly lives up to the "big plains" description—even if those plains came with some unexpected mountains.

So next time you see a Wyoming license plate with its bucking horse, remember: that iconic western state shares its name with a valley in coal country Pennsylvania, connected by a Native American word that traveled two millennia and 2,000 miles to find its most famous home.