Past Events

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County Museum hosting a special Native American basket weaving class

Photo #1 - Aidan Brady of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum teaching last year’s Native American basket weaving class. Students attending the class weave their own reed baskets and take the finished products home. A handcuffed Butch Cassidy in prison garb looks on.

Photo #2 - Bella Knox and Layla Gray, both of Rock Springs, with the reed baskets they wove themselves at last year’s event. This year’s class is scheduled at the museum for 10:00 AM on Wednesday, June 21.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - June 14, 2023)     The Sweetwater County Historical Museum is hosting a special Native American  basket weaving class on Wednesday, June 21, starting at 10 AM. The class will last about two hours.

Reed basket weaving is among the oldest known Native American crafts. Archeologists have identified some baskets from the southwest as being thousands of years old.

There is no charge for the event and all materials are provided. Please call (307) 872-6435 to register ahead of time, as this class has limited capacity. The museum is located at 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way in Green River.

Students attend museum course in civics, government, the Constitution, and writing with quill pens

Photo #1 - Hands-on exercises with quill and metal-nibbed pens was part of a special

course for students hosted by the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River

Photo #2 - A freshly-prepared quill pen, ready for use

Photo #3 - Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence with a quill pen. A prodigious writer, Jefferson bred special white geese at his home in Monticello for their quills.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - March 3, 2023)     Eighteen home school students learned about civics, government, and the Wyoming and U.S. Constitutions at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum this week. Public Engagement Coordinator Aidan Brady taught the special class, which included hands-on writing exercises with real feathered quill pens, metal-nibbed pens, and blueberry-based ink. The students learned that the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were written with quill pens.

The use of quill pens goes back to the 7^th century or even earlier. The best quality quills were made from the first five flight feathers from the left wing of molting birds, including geese, turkeys, and hawks, with goose quills favored over those of other species due to their large size and durability.  (Quills from the left wing were desirable because they curved outwards, away from the writer. Left-handed writers preferred quills from the right wing.)

Quill pens work because the shaft of a flight feather is long and hollow. Once a quill has been properly prepared and its tip fashioned into a nib with small, sharp knife or other cutting tool, it is ready for use. The quill is dipped into an ink bottle, and the hollow shaft of the feather functions as an ink reservoir. As the user writes, the ink flows to the tip by capillary action. The quill has to be re-dipped repeatedly as the user continues to write. Learning to use a quill pen takes patience and practice, as it requires a much lighter touch than using a ball-point pen. (Small knives used to prepare quills were called “pen knives,” and the name stuck even after quill pens began to be replaced by metal-nibbed pens in the 1820s.)

Preparing a quill pen for use is not a simple process. The procedure is well-explained (and illustrated) on the website of the Jane Austen Centre in the United Kingdom at

https://janeausten.co.uk/blogs/home-and-hearth/cutting-a-quill-pen?currency=usd .

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..

County Museum hosts a holiday appreciation dinner

Photo #1 - Executive Director Dave Mead, at right, speaking at the County Museum’s holiday appreciation dinner.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - December 14, 2022)     The Sweetwater County Historical Museum recently hosted a holiday “thank you” dinner at the Hitching Post in Green River for its volunteers, board members, and former board members

“Our volunteers and board members provide invaluable services and support we simply could not function without,” said Executive Director Dave Mead. “One volunteer, for instance, has scanned over 8,000 historical photographs in our collection. Others help with creating exhibits and special presentations. Every spring  we stage our History Fair, which is attended by 700 to 800 3^rd Grade students from throughout the county. That requires a dozen volunteers doing presentations every day for nearly a week, and another friend of the museum, Bill Taliaferro, loans his sheep camp. We’re very grateful for everything these fine people do for us, and for the time and hard work our board members provide.”