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Cheyenne
Capital of Wyoming, a high-plains railroad town
Cheyenne sits high on the open plains of southeastern Wyoming, near the Colorado line, born in 1867 as the Union Pacific Railroad pushed across the continent. The railroad town grew so fast it was nicknamed the "Magic City of the Plains," and it became the territorial capital in 1869 and state capital at statehood in 1890. It remains Wyoming's largest city — though that says as much about the least-populous state as about Cheyenne.
The city sits above 6,000 feet on the High Plains, where the grasslands run flat toward the abrupt rise of the Rocky Mountains to the west. Cattle ranching, the railroad, and government shaped it, and its Frontier Days rodeo is among the largest in the world. Wind, big skies, and open range define a small capital on the high plains.