J.C. Penney: Missouri Man, Wyoming Institution

James Cash Penney and the state of Wyoming were both relatively young when he opened his first store in 1902, on a dirty side street in downtown Kemmerer. Penney was only twenty-six at the time, but to his credit, he was twice as old as the state of Wyoming, and more than twenty years older than Kemmerer itself. And despite Penney's youthful age, he had already approached retailing and life in Wyoming with a maturity far beyond his linear years.