Stakes of Deseret: Wyoming
After the Mormons retook Salt Lake City and crushed Yaeger resistance to their conquests, Deseret reconquered their empire over the span of fifteen years. Along the way they had to defend against the Pallisters, the nomad tribe that destroyed the bulk of the Yaeger armies for the mormons. Once they were done with the core of their old empire, they set their eyes on the Pallister lands. Late in the fall a great army marched over the Wasatch and into Wyoming, retracing the path that the Yaegers had taken all those years ago.
In the Battle of Fort Bridger, the Mormon army ambushed the Pallisters as they prepared to disperse for the winter. Caught unaware, the Mormons were able to decimate the nomad army and kill their chief and many of his eldest kin. In the spring they set out again and conquered the rest of Wyoming , converting the willing, slaughtering the resistance and taking the women and children as wives and slaves. In order to govern this vast plain they used a Mormon convert, married all of his daughters to Mormons and took his sons as hostages.
Fort Bridger, where 5000 Mormon Fanatics ambushed 7000 Pallisters and sacrificed them to God as thanks for the return of Salt Lake City to Mormondom
That was over a century ago. The nomads have been converted or driven off. Colonists and settled nomads have begun to farm the valleys around the Green, Wind and Bighorn Rivers. There are still nomads living on the plains, you can't farm on them, but they are firmly Mormonized and kept in check, vassals of Salt Lake City. And Casper grows.
Casper
If you looked down on Casper (or Casver as the Easterners like to call it) from nearby Casper Mountain, you'd see a sea of teepees and wagons surrounding a small stone fort. Casper grows two to three fold in the winter as cowboys from the surrounding area bunker down for the winter and butcher their animals to sell to Desereti and Eastern Merchants. They trade for wood, metal and other civilized goods in exchange for their best animals, dead or alive.
A typical mormon fort late into the spring. Most nomads have left the area. All that is left are those abandoned by their tribes.
Because of its distance from Salt Lake City, Casper is could have been completely lawless. However nowadays it is firmly under Mormon control. The Mormon Eastern Legion has a strong presence here. Their headquarters are located about a days ride outside the city, on the shoulder of Casper Mountain. This doesn't mean that Mormon laws are necessarily followed. The Legion is seldom around the city. Usually it is out defending from or raiding non-mormon herdsmen. This means that inside the fort, administrators and Mormon Templars try their best to keep order in the tent slums surrounding the walls. They send patrols out to try and curb the spread of the many brothels, speakeasy's and drug dens across the tent sea. It's no use. Shut an establishment down and they'll just pack up the tent and be back within the year. They don't call it the Vegas on the Platte for nothing.
Over the last 100 years or so Casper has grown. Initially, on the eve of the death of the Yaeger Clan it was almost nothing more than a fort/trading post with the fort having fallen into disrepair during that time. However since it has come under the control of the State of Deseret, the stability and protection provided by the Mormon legions has allowed the city to grow. Merchants feel more comfortable here on the banks of the Platte rather than having to deviate from the river to the Black hills to trade with the cowboys.
Closer to the fort, wooden buildings go up, signifying that more and more people are settling in for the long haul. Alongside the migration from various tribes and colonists, the city's population growth is also fueled by a more humane version of the herdsman tradition of scapegoating. At the end of every winter, many tribes choose to abandon their unwanted here, sometimes leaving them a horse and or some supplies, often times with nothing but the clothes on their back. Invariably this means that unwed pregnant daughters and excess sons invariably find their way here. Mormon and Midwestern Traders also send their second sons here to set up merchant trading houses to facilitate trades. You might even be able to find the occasional Southerner, Cascadian and Californian here.
Looking inside Fort Casper
Foreign Relations
Colorado
Unlike the stake of Utah, Wyoming does not have the canyonlands of Eastern Utah separating it from the mountains and valleys of Colorado and the Islamic states contained within. Because of their small size and the geographical barriers of the Colorado mountains these nations are an afterthought on the minds of most generals in both Deseret, New Mexico and on the Plains. However if and when war (glorified skirmishes) happen between these superpowers, the empires will pay tribute to the states to harass and harangue the other side.
The Herdsmen
The primary people bordering the Stake of Wyoming, the presence of the Eastern Mormon Legion keeps the Cowboys at bay and the nomads, subject to the authority of the president. However with the mormization of the wyoming nomads (Yomingite) , the risk they pose to Salt Lake City has been reduced. Reduced, not removed. They are loyal subjects only as far as the Legion is willing to keep them in line. With the conversion comes religious tensions with the New Israelite cowboys. Raids across the border happen nearly every month. It doesn't help that there are little to no natural borders in this part of North America. Even with the raids, it rarely escalates beyond stealing livestock and women, sometimes people die. However both sides are well aware of the fact that war would happen if Casper or the Black Hills were to be molested by either side.
Even with this tension, extensive trading occurs between the Mormons and the Herdsmen. The Herdsmen need salt in their diet and nomads from as far as Alberta will travel to Casper to sell their cattle for precious salt. Better to buy it direct from the Mormons than pay for the Eastron markup. They also need wood and the Mormons have more than enough for the Herdsmen to make their wagons and tent frames out of. In exchange for these goods and more, the Mormons buy cattle and horses from the nomads in huge amounts.
Driving Cattle to Casper. Notice the short javelins many men are holding. This is in addition to their bow and arrows for which the Herdsmen are so widely known.