August 18

1894 On August 18, 1894, the Desert Land Act or Carey Act (sponsored by Wyoming Senator Joseph M. Carey) became law. Under it, each desert-land state--including Wyoming--received from the federal government 1,000,000 acres of land to be irrigated, cultivated, and occupied by settlers provided. According to T. A. Larson in his History of Wyoming, the first Carey Act project in Wyoming was started by the Big Horn Basin Development Company in 1895. The project, completed in 1902, diverted water from the Greybull River to the Germania Bench. The community of Germania was established at the location. Germania Bench and Germania were renamed Emblem Bench and Emblem in 1918 due to prejudice from World War I.