The McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West has an extensive collection of rare books.
That includes the second book printed in what’s now the state of Wyoming, titled, “A Vocabulary of the Snake, or, Sho-Sho-Nay Dialect,” by Joseph A. Gebow.
Research Assistant Nathan Bender says printed in 1868, it’s a vocabulary book of Shoshone language that was written primarily for traders in the region. The book is 24 pages and includes translations of word and number.
“ The first imprint in Wyoming territory was actually a Sioux language publication, so that's fairly common among the Western states, is that the very earliest publications in the territories were related to American Indian languages,” Bender said.
The library also has a survey publication called, “Wyoming Territorial Imprints,” which lists the earliest books printed between 1866 and 1890 before Wyoming became a state.
