Sweetwater County Historical Museum

Entrance of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River. Also featured is a sculpture of John Wesley Powell created by David Alan Clark. 

Established in 1967, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum (SWCHM) is in a renovated 1931 post office building and contains a collection of several thousand artifacts, historical photograph and archival collections, and local history research materials. The mission of the SWCHM is to connect people to the story of Sweetwater County by preserving and presenting its natural and cultural history. Its vision is to achieve strategic growth to become a premier center for education and culture in Sweetwater County and Wyoming.

Sweetwater County occupies the ancestral lands of the Shoshone, Ute, and Bannock People. Thanks to geological sites such as the Green River and Rock Spring Formations, the county has several minable resources like coal, trona, phosphate rock, and uranium. The first Rocky Mountain Rendezvous took place in 1825 near McKinnon, and the gathering in 1834 reportedly was the largest rendezvous ever. Several major emigrant trails passed through including the Oregon, California, Mormon, Overland, and Cherokee Trails, as well as the Pony Express Trail, 1861 transcontinental telegraph line and Ben Holladay's Central Overland Express stage line.