For more than a century, the State of Wyoming has been critical in the history and success of the economy and technology of the States – and possibly, the entire planet.

That critical nature may not be just a historical condition. Recent discoveries may continue this importance for decades or centuries more. In a story on MSN, of all places, the latest news about the discovery of massive amounts of rare earths is one of the major examples of the critical nature of, and need for, Wyoming by Americans and the world.

This is nothing new for Wyoming. It has always been a land of amazing and surprising discoveries and events, opportunities – and dangers.

It started with the western movement: the Overland, Oregon, California and Mormon Trails all through Wyoming. Then came mining of silver and gold – not in Wyoming itself but in Montana and Colorado and the Black Hills’ Dakota side: Wyoming was “just” the transportation corridor for these treasures. But later gold, silver, and copper were found and produced.

Things really picked up with the transcontinental railroad, and the discovery and exploitation of coal reserves, soon followed by iron and limestone (chemical-grade) and other metals. At the same time, the valuable grasslands and timber reserves. And then next was oil. Followed by natural gas. First building and fueling railroads, providing the raw materials to produce steel and many products. Then the establishment of refineries to fuel other vehicles. But especially the little-known industrial chemicals like trona, soda ash, gypsum, bentonite, alkalis, and much more. Oh, and a couple of weird ones: uranium and thorium.

Wyoming doesn’t have a lot of people (about a half-million) and doesn’t have (in most of the State) a lot of water – snow or rain. What is sometimes called a “river” in Wyoming would barely be a creek in most States. Although many of us believe all parts of the State to be beautiful, most people think only small areas (Yellowstone, Grand Teton, the Black Hills, and a few other places) to be. But Wyoming has been very important as a State for a long time.

The biggest problem Wyoming has had is political. We can start with the aggression of the Lakota – their Saone branch discovered the Black Hills (which is both in SD and WY today) in 1755 and immediately started a 20-year war to drive the Cheyenne out of the Black Hills and into the Powder River Basin in WY and Montana. Then came the perfidity of the US FedGov, dealing with ALL the tribal nations in the area, playing on enmities and forcing first travel routes (the trails listed above and the Bozeman and Bridger trails to Montana’s gold fields, then the UP railroad) through tribal hunting grounds. And worse.

Both as a territory and then a State, Wyoming has faced the challenges of unions who enriched their organizers as much or more than they looked out for their rank and file. And the so-called Robber Barons who used the FedGov and territorial, then State government influence and corruption not just to claim hundreds of thousands of acres of land, but work to prevent processing and manufacturing which would compete with the steel mills and iron ore mines in the Great Lakes area, and then Colorado. As a result, Wyoming has billions of tons of valuable industrial metals and raw materials in essence locked up. Then by conspiracy of the eastern industrial interests and today by environists. Billions of tons of iron ore, metallurgical-grade coal, chemical-grade limestone and other materials all awaiting the need – and the defeat of the Gaea-worshippers!

Which is where today we find the rare earths and other needed products: Wyoming now has proven reserves of tens of billions of tons of those minerals. Minerals now (or formerly) imported from China, or located only in places where environists and revanchist Tribes seem to rule: California, Nevada, Oregon to name a few. The entire political process is opposed to Wyoming’s coal, oil, gas, and uranium. The only reason they are of two minds about the rare earths? Those are needed for the environist’s essentials: wind and solar power systems, electric vehicles, and electronics.

In many ways, Wyoming is still a mostly free State – at least in comparison to most of the other Forty-Nine: smaller governments, no income tax, limited sales taxes, and a small enough population that most people can be on a first-name basis with their legislators and even many bureaucrats. The key is relative to – because like other places, Wyoming suffers from too much government and too little liberty. And continues to let people like Liz Cheney and Mark Gordon get power. And Wyoming is generally well-armed and able to survive on their own, personal and family level. That is one reason, now two decades ago, the Boston T Party, Mama Liberty, and many others founded the Wyoming Free State movement.

And it is a wonderful scenic land, not just rich in resources and with great people. But unless the people of Wyoming push to keep and regain liberty, it will be sucked down.