Editing Lester C. Hunt (section)

===State representative and Secretary of State===
Hunt was elected in 1933 to the [[Wyoming House of Representatives]] from [[Fremont County, Wyoming|Fremont County]].<ref name=storrow>{{cite news |last=Storrow |first=Benjamin |date=April 14, 2013 |title=A Death Untold: The Suicide of Wyoming Sen. Lester Hunt |url=http://trib.com/lifestyles/home-and-garden/a-death-untold-the-suicide-of-wyoming-sen-lester-hunt/article_68e7c2e9-cec0-557b-bf53-1b5db00ea88e.html |newspaper=Casper Star-Tribune |location=Casper, WY}}</ref> He sponsored [[Eugenics in the United States|eugenics legislation]] that would have permitted the sterilization of inmates at Wyoming institutions if "afflicted with insanity, idiocy, imbecility, feeblemindedness, or epilepsy". The legislation, though similar to that enacted in several neighboring states in the 1920s, failed, and he later stated that he regretted sponsoring it.<ref>{{cite book|last=McDaniel |first=Rodger |title=Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt |publisher=WordsWorth |location= Cody, Wyoming |year=2013 |isbn= 978-0983027591|pages=40ff}}</ref> He was elected as [[Wyoming Secretary of State]] in [[1934 Wyoming state elections|1934]] and [[1938 Wyoming state elections|1938]], serving from 1935 to 1943.<ref>T.A. Larson, ''History of Wyoming'' (University of Nebraska Press, 1965), 464–5, 467–8</ref> In 1935, he commissioned muralist [[Allen Tupper True]] to design the [[Bucking Horse and Rider]] that has appeared on Wyoming [[license plate]]s since 1936.<ref>Wyoming Secretary of State: [http://soswy.state.wy.us/AdminServices/BHRHistory.aspx "Bucking Horse & Rider, Historical Information"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090309022724/http://soswy.state.wy.us/AdminServices/BHRHistory.aspx |date=March 9, 2009 }}, accessed February 24, 2011 ''New York Times'': [https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/26/arts/l-western-images-wyoming-s-plate-167037.html "Western Images: Wyoming's Plate," May 26, 2002], accessed February 24, 2011</ref> While serving as Secretary of State, Hunt personally claimed the copyright of the ''Wyoming Guidebook'', a [[Work Projects Administration]] publication, after the Governor and legislature failed to act to preserve the bucking horse and rider design as the state's intellectual property.<ref>''Wyoming: A Guide to its History, Highways, and People'' (NY: Oxford University Press, 1941), copyright page, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kayF9jqCaccC&pg=PR4& available online], accessed February 25, 2011</ref> The book proved popular, and there were questions as to whether Hunt benefited personally from its sales. He was able to demonstrate that he had endorsed all quarterly royalty checks and turned them over to the state treasurer, and he transferred the copyright to the State of Wyoming in 1942.<ref>{{cite book|last=McDaniel |first=Rodger |title=Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt |year=2013|pages=54ff}}</ref>