On July 10 133 years ago, President Benjamin Harrison signed the bill to make Wyoming a state. But there was quite a bit of drama leading up to it.

According to the Wyoming Historical Society, Congress wanted a territory to have a population of at least 60,000 people before applying for statehood. The Territory was still 500 people short when Delegate to Congress Joseph M. Carey brought a proposal to call a Wyoming constitutional convention. Congress did not act on the proposal. But Territorial Governor Francis E. Warren set a date anyway.

When the elected members gathered in Cheyenne in September of 1889, they were given just 25 working days to come up with a constitution. On March 26, 1890, Carey introduced a bill to the U.S. House of Representatives calling for statehood for Wyoming. He had to convince his fellow delegates that the Territory’s population wasn’t a problem and that giving the right to vote to women was the right thing to do. Wyoming statehood narrowly passed the House.

Three months after that, Wyoming Statehood passed the Senate by a more comfortable margin. President Harrison signed the Statehood Bill on July 10, 1890. Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the Union.