History & News

2024 Pony Express Re-Ride reaches Granger

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Photo #1 - Liane Lamb, Green River, and her tall bay, Leonard, arriving in Granger on Saturday

Photo #2 - The Pony Express mochila being transferred from Liane Lamb’s mount, Leonard, who had just arrived in Granger, to Ridely, the pinto mare ridden by Jaden White. The mochila was an ingenious, time-saving arrangement. Mail and rider’s time card were carried in four pocket - two to a side - called cantinas. Openings cut in the leather fit over the saddle horn and cantle. When a rider changed horses, the mochila was lifted off, placed on the saddle of a fresh horse, and the ride continued immediately. Each mochila carried up to 20 pounds of mail.

Photo #3 - Jaden White of Pinedale receiving some last-minute tips from National Pony Express Re-Ride official Howard Schultz. Just a few minutes later, White and his paint mare Ridely were on their way, headed west for the Uinta County line.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - June 23, 2024)     This year’s Pony Express Re-Ride passed through Sweetwater County ahead of schedule Saturday, stopping to change riders and horses in Granger at 4:15 PM, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum said in a special release today.

For 18 months, from April, 1860, to October, 1861, the Pony Express operated from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. Lone riders, working both ways in relays, carried mail the nearly 2,000 dangerous miles in an average of 10 days across Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada to California. 157 relay stations were established across the country, including one in Granger. During its brief life, the Pony Express carried about 35,000 pieces of mail.

Headquartered in Pollock Pines, California, the National Pony Express Association (NPEA),

a non-profit, all volunteer organization, was founded in 1977. Each year, over 700 volunteer riders and their horses recreate the Pony Express’s ride over the entire cross-country distance. The Pony Express route enters Sweetwater County about two miles south of the old Dry Sandy stage station site and runs from there to Little Sandy, Big Sandy, Big Timber, the Lombard Ferry Site across the Green River, and on from there to Granger.  

The first rider left St. Joseph on June 17, and the last is scheduled to arrive in Sacramento on June 27.

For more information about the National Pony Express Association, the Pony Express, and the 2024 Re-Ride, go to the NPEA website at https://nationalponyexpress.org/ .

County Museum receives special visitor

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Composite Photo #1 - Missy Frederick of Seattle, Washington, a descendant of Adrian and A.K. Reynolds, visited the Sweetwater County Historical Museum recently to check out its dual-themed exhibit commemorating the Reynolds family legacy of running the Green River and the 60^th anniversary of the Flaming Gorge Dam’s startup.

County Museum receives special visitor

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - June 5, 2024)    The Sweetwater County Historical Museum was host to a special visitor last week.

Missy Frederick of Seattle is the great -granddaughter of Adrian Reynolds, once the publisher of the Green River Star, and the grand-niece of A.K. Reynolds and Ellen Reynolds, who owned and operated a river-running service on the Green River in the years before the Flaming Gorge Dam was completed. Missy traveled from Washington to see the museum’s special exhibit in the Community Room at the County Courthouse, a dual commemoration of the Reynolds family’s legacy and the construction of the Flaming Gorge Dam from 1958 to 1964.

The exhibit’s centerpiece is one of the Reynolds’s two handmade, 17-foot wooden cataract boats, on long-term loan from the Uintah County Heritage Museum in Vernal. The exhibit opened officially on September 27, 2023, the 60^th anniversary of the dam’s inauguration on September 27, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy personally pressed a button during a special ceremony at the airport in Salt Lake City and brought the dam online.

Also featured is a continuous showing of the film Face Your Danger – The Story of A.K. Reynolds & the Cataract Boat and film footage of the dam’s startup ceremony in 1963. In addition, the museum prepared dozens of framed photographs for display on the walls of public areas throughout the courthouse, depicting the dam during its six years of construction.

The exhibit officially closes in mid-July, 2024, and the Reynolds cataract boat is scheduled for future display at the Powell Museum in Page, Arizona. In the meanwhile, it remains open during normal Courthouse business hours, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday.

Unique photograph discovered at County Museum

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Photo #1 - Nine Chinese miners in Rock Springs on the eve of their return to China, June, 1925. They are identified in museum records as Leo Chung, Ah Sung, Sing Lee, Joe Bow, Yon Kwong, Ah Fan, Ah Chung, and Ah How. Taken in front of the “Joss House” in Rock Springs’s “Chinatown.”

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - May 31, 2024)     A rare photograph of Chinese miners about to return to China in 1925 was discovered recently in the archives of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum. It was uncovered by volunteer Diane Butler, who has been digitizing the museum’s extensive photograph and negative collection.

The Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed in 1869, reached Rock Springs and Green River in 1868. It carried with it a tremendous demand for coal, which was readily available in the vast coal fields in and around Rock Springs. Mining commenced in earnest almost immediately, attracting miners from all over the world, including China.

By 1880, some 370 Chinese were working in Rock Springs - mostly in the Union Pacific Coal mines - and living in “Chinatown,” now the site of St. Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church on Bridger Avenue, the old Washington School, and the Slovenski Dome.

The Chinese population in Rock Springs continued to grow, and racial tensions arose. On September 2, 1885, a mob of about 150 white coal miners attacked “Chinatown” and set it afire. Over two dozen Chinese workers were killed and the rest fled the area. All 79 of the Chinese shacks and shanties were looted and burned by the mob.

To restore order and protect the hundreds of Chinese miners soon to be returned to Rock Springs under heavy army escort, Territorial Governor (later United States Senator) Francis E. Warren arranged for soldiers of the 7th U.S. Infantry Regiment to establish a base sited between “Chinatown” and downtown Rock Springs, which was designated Camp Pilot Butte. A new “Chinatown” was hastily built, the miners returned to work, and, by November 30, 532 Chinese and 85 white miners were producing about 1,600 tons of coal per day. Camp Pilot Butte continued to be garrisoned until March of 1899, when the post was closed.

By the turn of the 20^th century, the Chinese population in Rock Springs had begun a steady decline. By 1920, only 73 men and two women remained. In the middle and late 1920s, the Union Pacific Coal Company decided to pay fares to China for those workers past or nearing retirement age. At least 14 men received passage to Canton between 1925 and 1927. By 1929, Rock Springs’s “Chinatown” was no more.

County Museum hosting Wyoming rock art exhibit

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Photo No. 1 - Images of rock art from around Wyoming, including examples from the White Mountain Petroglyphs, will be on display at the special exhibit “Rock Art in Wyoming” at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum beginning Saturday, April 6.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - April 4, 2024)     Beginning Saturday, April 6, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River will host “Rock Art in Wyoming,” a special traveling exhibit featuring hand-drawn and carved images created in Wyoming's distant past.

For thousands of years, Plains and Great Basin Native American people and their ancestors left messages and designs on rocks. Many different styles and types of such rock art may be found throughout the state, including sites in Fremont, Hot Springs, Big Horn, Lincoln, and Sweetwater Counties. Sweetwater County is home to the White Mountain Petroglyphs, about 20 miles north of Rock Springs, which are featured prominently in the exhibit, along with images of rock art from the Castle Gardens, Legend Rock, Medicine Lodge, and Names Hill sites.

The museum is located at 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way in Green River. Hours are 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Tuesday through Saturday. General admission to both the museum and “Rock Art in Wyoming” is free.