10 Strange Laws Unique to Wyoming

This is another law that helps to prevent unsportsmanlike behavior. If you're going hunting, you need to make the effort to park your vehicle, get out, and leave the road before you start to hunt. It's also illegal to use a fully automatic firearm to hunt wildlife in Wyoming.

Stashing a flask in your parka or quenching your thirst between runs with a few cold ones? Alcohol and snow sports don't mix well. Skiing and snowboarding are a lot like driving - when your judgment is impaired by alcohol, it's easy to run into something - like another skier, pylon, or tree. You simply can't stop or turn as quickly as you'd need to, or hoped. In Wyoming, skiers and snowboarders can get DUIs because skiing or snowboarding under the influence of alcohol is a misdemeanor. A conviction can extend up to 20 days in jail.

Because Wyoming is known as a ranching state, many people don't realize that mining is also a huge industry. The Cowboy State is the nation's largest producer of coal and over 12 mines process vast amounts of the stuff. Dark, dingy, and dangerous, mines and jail have some things in common. If you're found drunk while inside a mine, you could face jail for up to one year! This law also applies to sawmills, smelters, machine shops, and metallurgical works.

Hmmm, why junk dealers and not car dealers? Some Wyoming laws are a mystery. That's why it's important for you to know the details! OK, well this law specifies that junk dealers cannot sell or buy junk such as metals, rubber, rags, or paper to or from a person who is intoxicated.

It's surprising that in the Equality State, where women were granted the right to vote in 1869, women would be discriminated against at a bar. Maybe this law was originally designed to protect women. After all, at least from what we see in Westerns, brawling bar fights are so dangerous. Although it's a law that's still on the books, no worries ladies, it's very likely that it's never enforced.

Maybe we've just come to expect that baseball players will spit on the diamond, but in Wyoming, spitting on the walls, floors, or steps of a public building is illegal. This includes schools, halls, assembly rooms, and conveyances.

It's considered basic good manners to be considerate of those around you - right? If you've ever been in a situation where you're trying to peek around someone's hat to see a film or performance, you know how annoying it can be. And in Wyoming, where cowboy hats are common garb, a law had to be passed to protect those who potentially got stuck behind big hats. Whether you're at a rodeo or a symphony, make sure everyone behind you can see past your hatted head. Otherwise, you could be fined.

Branding was devised so that if cattle were stolen, their owners could identify found animals. Today, some animals are tattooed for the same reason. For example, valuable horses can be tattooed to protect them from horse rustlers. However, in Wyoming, it's illegal to tattoo a horse if your intent is to make the animal unrecognizable to its owner.