head

Past Events

Deer Trail Assisted Living Visit

People with a vairety of mobility aids mingle around the museum gallery on a tour. Text reads 'We had some very special visitors today. Program Coordinator Aidan Brady provided a special tour for a group from Deer Trail Assisted Living Center in Rock Springs.'

Adobe Brick Making Class

A miniature adobe brick structure. Text reads: 'once dried bricks are added to the ongoing structure.'a number of adobe bricks dry in the sun. text reads: 'the finished product, dried adobe bricks ready to go.YWCA students pose with their bricks along with their teacher and Museum Executive Director Dave Mead.' 

Due to limited space we require an RSVP so please call us to register in advance. Please contact us at 307-872-6435 to register or with any questions. Our classes are free and last about 2 hours. All of the classes begin at 10 am and all supplies are provided.

Adobe Brick Making has been moved to July 27th, 2022.  Join us to make mini adobe bricks and learn more about this historic building material.

Have A Historic Summer 2022

 historic summer poster 2022 updated covered in colorful text boxes. See text contents below.

FREE SUMMER CLASSES

Due to limited space we require an RSVP so please call us to register in advance. Please contact us at 307-872-6435 to register or with any questions. Our classes are free and last about 2 hours. All of the classes begin at 10 am and all supplies are provided.

  • June 29, 2022

    Map and Compass for Kids

    Dick Blust hosts his popular basic map and compass class for children. This popular class involves the outdoors.

  • July 27, 2022

    Adobe Brick Making

    Join us to make mini adobe bricks and learn more about this historic building material.

  • August 3, 2022

    Basket Weaving

    Come make your own basket and learn about this historic craft.

  • August 10, 2022

           John Wesley Powell

            Join Lucy Diggins-Wold as you learn all about crossing rivers, packing ferries, and explorers like John Wesley Powell.

FREE FAMILY FUN FRIDAYS

Family Fun Fridays take place on Fridays from 10 AM until 4 PM. Families are encouraged to come and go anytime during that time frame. The events have indoor and outdoor (weather permitting) activities. No RSVP required.

  • July 15, 2022

    Fabulous Fossils!

    Touch a real dinosaur bone, sift in a dig pit, and learn more about the creatures that used to live in Sweetwater County.

  • August 12, 2022

    Gold Panning

    Try your hand at panning for pyrite without even having to stand in a river. Participants can even keep one piece each!

Family Fun Friday-Fabulous Fossils

fabulous fossils1fabulous fossils2fabulous fossils3fabulous fossils4resize

Photo 1 - Participants will gain hands-on experience in how paleontologists work at fossil dig sites.   (Anyone4Science photo. Used with thanks.)

 

Photo 2 - Hadrosaurs were among the many species of dinosaurs that once lived in Sweetwater County. The track at right is that of a Hadrosaur, recovered from a coal mine north of Rock Springs in 1927. It is currently on exhibit at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum.

 

Photo 3 - Prehistoric Lake Gosiute once covered some 20,000 square miles.

 

Photo 4 - Wyoming’s official state fossil fish, the extinct Knightia were related to sardines and herring. A schooling fish, they swam in the waters of the Green River Formation in uncountable numbers 50 million years ago.

 

 

 

“Family Fun Friday - Fabulous Fossils” at County Museum

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - July 7, 2022)     The Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River will stage a special outdoor event next week.

Public Engagement Coordinator Aidan Brady will present “Family Fun Friday - Fabulous Fossils” between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM on Friday, July 15, on the sidewalk in front of the museum, located at 3 E Flaming Gorge Way. Participants will get to handle and explore variety of fossils, including Knightias and a real dinosaur bone, and learn how paleontologists dig and sift for fossils in a dig pit.

The prehistoric era and fossils are integral not only to Sweetwater County history, but its very existence. The immense trona deposits west of Green River stem from Lake Gosiute, a huge prehistoric lake that covered much of southwest Wyoming 50 to 55 million years ago. As the lake evaporated over the course of many years, it became saturated in sodium bicarbonate and began depositing trona in beds running up to 3,500 feet below the surface. 

The vast deposits of coal that brought Rock Springs, Superior, and coal camps like Reliance, Winton, and Stansbury into existence and sustained them for generations are equally prehistoric, coal being the product of gradual heating and compression of organic material over the course of many millions of years.

The public is welcome, and there is no charge for the event.