Wyoming Highway Patrol Organized
During the 1920s and early 1930s, Wyoming had a state ‘Department of Law Enforcement’ in place, mainly to enforce Prohibition. Over time, agents became increasingly busy enforcing motor vehicle laws, so when Prohibition ended, the need was apparent for some sort of regulation and enforcement authority on the highway with its steadily increasing traffic, including commercial vehicle regulation.
In response, the Wyoming Legislature authorized creation of the Wyoming Highway Patrol, effective June 1, 1933. Capt. George Smith, the first Patrol director, was also a visionary, pushing for a state speed limit and a driver licensing law years before they became a reality. Primarily for logistical reasons, the Highway Patrol was affiliated the Highway Department, and that association has continued to the modern day.
Read more about this topic: Wyoming Department Of Transportation
Famous quotes containing the words wyoming, highway and/or organized:
“The admission of the States of Wyoming and Idaho to the Union are events full of interest and congratulation, not only to the people of those States now happily endowed with a full participation in our privileges and responsibilities, but to all our people. Another belt of States stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“Off Highway 106
At Cherrylog Road I entered
The ‘34 Ford without wheels,
Smothered in kudzu,
With a seat pulled out to run
Corn whiskey down from the hills,”
—James Dickey (b. 1923)
“President Lowell of Harvard appealed to students ‘to prepare themselves for such services as the Governor may call upon them to render.’ Dean Greenough organized an ‘emergency committee,’ and Coach Fisher was reported by the press as having declared, ‘To hell with football if men are needed.’”
—For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)