Past Events

County Museum and Boys & Girls Club partner for special events

Composite Photo #1 - Members of the Boys & Girls Club of Sweetwater County attended two special presentations last week hosted by the Sweetwater County Historical Museum. The topics were adobe brick making and digging for fossils.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - June 22, 2024)     The Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River partnered recently with the Boys & Girls Club of Sweetwater County for two special hands-on activities with historical themes.

Both events were staged at the Boys & Girls Club on Massachusetts Avenue in Rock Springs by Aidan Brady, the museum’s Public Engagement Coordinator. Day 1, attended by 85 B & C Club members, focused on the ancient craft of making adobe bricks. The oldest known structures on earth date back to before 8,000 BC were made of adobe, and some adobe structures around 900 years old are still in use today. Adobe bricks, (mud bricks), are made of earth and straw. The wet mixture is pressed into open molds, then left to dry. (True adobe bricks are not kiln-dried, but dried by the sun.) 

Participants made their own adobe bricks, built an small adobe structure, and were allowed to take their bricks home if they so chose.

The Day 2 exercise, in which 95 club members participated, was an paleontological dig. The kids learned about paleontologists and their work and got to perform their own actual digs, recovering genuine fossils, including prehistoric knightia fish, gastropods (snails), petrified wood, and shark’s teeth.

Educators, parents, and parent-teacher groups who are interested in learning more about museum programs for students Grades K - 12 are encouraged to contact Brady at (307) 872-6435 or via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Third Grade History Fair underway this week

Composite Photo #1 - Hundreds of third graders are participating in this year’s Third Grade History Fair, an annual event presented by the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River. Students receive a museum tour and take part in demonstrations and activities grounded in Sweetwater County and Wyoming history.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - May 13, 2024)     The Sweetwater County Historical Museum’s Third Grade History Fair for 2024 commenced on Monday this week.

Dave Mead, the museum’s Executive Director, explained that third graders from all over Sweetwater County are participating in the annual event, which runs this year from May 13 through May 16.

The students receive a guided tour of the museum and review special exhibits and demonstrations about ranching, trona and coal mining, mountain men, Native Americans, and railroad construction at the museum in Green River and nearby Centennial Park, and participate in hands-on activities grounded in frontier history such as gold panning, making their own butter, simulated calf branding, and simulated railroad spike-driving.

Mead said the museum hopes to surpass the number of students who took part in History Fair in 2023, which exceeded 700. 

County Museum provides special presentation for GRHS history students

Photo #1 - Nearly 50 Green River High School students attended the Sweetwater County Historical Museum’s “The Cold War in Sweetwater County and Wyoming” this week. Topics covered by Public Engagement Coordinator Aidan Brady included “duck and cover” air raid drills common in schools during the era.

 (Sweetwater County, Wyo. - February 14, 2024)     Green River High School students in Ruth Foerster’s 11^th grade U.S. History class received a special presentation this week from staff and volunteers of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum. 

“The Cold War in Sweetwater County and Wyoming” was presented by Public Engagement Coordinator Aidan Brady and museum volunteers Carrie Tuttle and Madeline Trujillo-Hamel.

Presentation topics included an overview of the Cold War’s direct and indirect effects on local people, including air raid drills practiced at schools, Wyoming - particularly Laramie County - as a possible target of enemy action, political cartoons and editorials during that time, and popular culture of the day.

Excellent turnout for County Museum's Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) event

Photo #1 - “Danza, Corazon, y Cultura,” from left to right in the photo at left, Jacob Diaz, Anna Martin-Hernandez, Elia Marquez, Rosaura Barrera, Miranda Salas, and Luis Diaz. Their performance on Saturday in Green River, sponsored by the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, was attended by over 200 people.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - October 25, 2023)    More than two hundred people attended the Sweetwater County Historical Museum's special Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) event at the Clock Tower Park in Green River on Saturday.

As featured in the animated 2017 Walt Disney film Coco, Día de los Muertos is a holiday for honoring the dead. It originated in Mexico but is now celebrated in many Latin American countries. Celebrants create displays called ofrendas (offerings), using items such as food, flowers, photos, and sugar skulls in remembrance of family members who have passed away. Typically, Día de los Muertos begins on October 31 and lasts through November 2.

The event's highlight was a series of performance by "Danza, Corazon, y Cultura," a seven-member cultural troupe performing traditional Mexican dances in full costume, including dances from a range of Mexican states, such as Veracruz, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Jalisco.

Mexican-themed children’s craft activities were offered, including making calavera masks, coloring pages, and decorating sugar skulls. Refreshments, including pan de muerto (a special Mexican bread), champurrado (Mexican hot chocolate), and Mexican soda were served.

Executive Director Dave Mead extended the museum’s special thanks to Yolanda Covarrubias and her family for the champurrado and the pan de muerto, Victor Hiler of the Hiler Insurance Agency, who donated the Mexican soda, Bella and Cecilia Romero-Adkins, who helped museum staff create the sugar skulls, and the Romero-Adkins family and Emilio Sanchez of Green River, who generously volunteered their time to help run the event. Mead also expressed particular  appreciation and admiration for the talent and hard work of the Danza, Corazon, y Cultura performers, Joaquin and Rosaura Barrera of Rock Springs, and Elia Marquez, Jacob Diaz, Luis Diaz, Anna Martin-Hernandez, and Miranda Salas of Green River.

Check out this year's museum ofrenda - and the many other exhibits - at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way in Green River. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and there is no charge for admission.