Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Wyoming, PA

Wyoming is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on the west bank of the Susquehanna River about 5 miles north of Wilkes-Barre — and it is not a city, despite sharing its name with the western state.

Wyoming's name comes from the Munsee word 'xwé:wamənk,' meaning 'at the big river flat,' and the U.S. state of Wyoming is named after this borough or the surrounding Wyoming Valley.

Wyoming was first settled by Connecticut colonists in the mid-1700s under the Susquehanna Company of Connecticut, and the community was originally part of Kingston Township.

On July 3, 1778, the borough's valley was the scene of the Battle of Wyoming, often called the Wyoming Massacre, in which nearly 300 Patriot soldiers were killed by Loyalist and Native American forces.

The Wyoming Monument, an obelisk built in the early 1830s, stands in the borough over the mass grave of the battle's casualties; it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and hosts an annual commemorative observance.

Two other Wyoming landmarks, the Luzerne Presbyterial Institute and the Swetland Homestead, are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wyoming was officially incorporated as a borough in 1885, by which time coal-era growth was transforming the valley.

Wyoming had just over 3,000 residents at the 2020 census — 3,097 people living in 1,435 households — well below its 1940 peak of 4,728.

A section of the Wilkes-Barre Wyoming Valley Airport sits in southern Wyoming, and during the 2011 Susquehanna River flood its planes were famously moved to higher ground beside the Wyoming Monument to escape the water.

Wyoming Avenue, part of U.S. Route 11, runs through the heart of the borough, and the Eighth Street Bridge carries traffic across the Susquehanna River to Jenkins Township.