The Reality of Wyoming: The Great Existentialist Debate

Phillip C. McGraw, Ph.D. et al.

7 May 2019

Since it was supposedly granted statehood in July 1890, the question has often arisen: What is
Wyoming? And furthermore, Is Wyoming even real? In order to put to rest this long-standing
debate, one must address the issue not only in its technicalities, but also with regard to the
profound philosophy behind it.

On the tenth of July 1890, Wyoming officially became the forty-fourth U.S. state, following
Idaho, which was granted statehood on the third of July of the same year. Idaho’s ratification had
resulted in public unrest and civilian uprisings due to there being forty-three states - a number
not divisible by two or five - forcing the Senate to reconvene mere hours later. By an almost
unanimous vote, a vaguely mapped plot of land in Wyoming’s current area was declared a state
so as to avoid necessitating military intervention. However, the area was wholly uninhabited by
humans, which raised the issue of who would be its congressmen. It was decided that they must
be native residents of the state, so as to instill in them an unbreakable sense of patriotism for a
place so lacking, and three expectant wives of agents working for the Military Intelligence
Division were sent quietly to Wyoming to deliver their children there1. Thus, Wyoming passed
the necessary criteria for a legitimate state.

With Utah’s ratification on the fourth of July 1896, Congress no longer saw it necessary for
Wyoming to be kept a state, but because it had no legal residents aside from its representative
(Frank Wheeler Mondell) and senators (Clarence D. Clark, Class I, and Francis E. Warren, Class
II), its secession was seen as an unnecessary hassle. Wyoming was kept in the listing of U.S.
states, and was left on the map, but its territory, which was essentially empty with its
congressmen already staying in Washington D.C. for the majority of the time, was abandoned.
Because of the volatile Yellowstone Caldera, it remained as such until the Principality of Wy2
saw it fit to annex the territory. The annexation of Wyoming further legitimized Wy’s
nationhood, and occurred seamlessly despite Wy’s lack of a military due to Wyoming being
uninhabited. Prince Paul Ashton Delprat of Wy, seeing the similarity between the name of his
country and his new territory, decided that it was unnecessary to rename Wyoming, and so it
remains unchanged.

Wyoming’s legitimacy, especially with Wy’s possession of it, is meant to be questioned: Prince
Paul himself has stated, “‘Why’ is the most important word in the English language. It is only by
questioning and testing that the status quo may be examined” - hence the homophony of this

1 It should be noted that there was a loophole in the law, wherein no minimum age was given for persons active in
the Congress.

2 A micronation located in Oceania, near Sydney, Australia.

word and the name of the nation over which he reigns. Therefore, the legitimacy of Wyoming
cannot currently be proven nor disproven: it is still unclear whether or not the land in which it is
supposedly located exists, due to the lack of traffic in those parts - what is now referred to as
“Wyoming” might actually just be Colorado, Utah, or one of the other states that is said to share
a border with it.

Despite the still-unresolved debate regarding Wyoming, it does not actually matter whether or
not its existence is verifiable: even if humans were to prove that Wyoming exists, or does not,
there remains the issue of proving whether or not humans exist. Wyoming’s reality, or lack
thereof, is only one of a googolplex of pieces in the puzzle of existentialism and what little
significance humans have in the grand scheme of the universe - something that will remain
unknown until the end of time.

References

1. “Philosophy of Wy.” The Principality of Wy, The Principality of Wy, 2010.

2. “List of United States Senators from Wyoming.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 3 Jan.
2019.
3. “List of United States Representatives from Wyoming.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,
8 Jan. 2019.
4. “History of American Intelligence.” Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 23 Mar. 2013.