Outside the historic Depot Museum in downtown Cheyenne stands a life-size bronze statue commemorates the early women settlers of Wyoming.
Titled A New Beginning, the sculpture depicts a Victorian woman in the 1890s; she looks confident and determined, holding a bag in her right hand and an umbrella in her left.
The Colorado sculptress Veryl Goodnight sculpted it; Goodnight is famous for creating art that represents the American West, for which she was inducted in 2016 into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Forth Worth, Texas.
The statue was dedicated on June 22, 2011, honoring Wyoming women and celebrating the history of Wyoming being the first state which granted women the right to vote in the USA (December 10, 1869), 50 years before the 19th amendment was ratified into the US Constitution. Other firsts in Wyoming related to women include Louisa Swain, the first woman in the US to vote in 1870, Esther Hobart Morris, the first female justice of the peace in the US, and Nellie Tayloe Ross, the first female governor in the US and later served as the first US Mint female director.
The Depot Museum resides at the former Wyoming passenger station, known as the Cheyenne Union Pacific Depot, designed by the famous architect Henry Van Brunt and was built in 1886. The museum was opened in 1993 and showcases exhibits about the early life in Cheyenne, the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, and models of trains and railroads.
Also in downtown Cheyenne are the Cowgirls of the West Museum, a large mural commemorating the women’s suffrage movement, and many bars and restaurants. The famous Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum is two miles from the plaza.
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