The economic history of Wyoming during The Great Depression

Abstract

This paper analyzes Wyoming’s response to the Great Depression and the federal aid programs that arose from it. Since Wyoming was already facing a depression for a decade before the rest of the nation followed after the stock market crash in 1929, the Wyoming legislature was already struggling to find new ways to cut costs and raise revenues. From 1929 to 1940, this time-period saw four different governors, the establishment of Grand Teton National Park, the enactment of a sales tax, the decline of Wyoming’s oil industry, and an attempted secession movement. With a more complete picture of Wyoming’s political and economic climate, in conjunction with an econometric analysis of tax revenue impacts nation-wide, this thesis creates a fuller understanding of Wyoming’s specific response to the Great Depression.