History & News

Museum Board and Staff Retreat

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Th4 Sweetwater County Historical Museum is hosting a Museum Board & Staff Retreat on Monday, June 24, 2022 from 10 AM to 2 PM at the Museum and the public is invited. See agenda below.

Sweetwater County Historical Museum

New Sweetwater County history documentary available online

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Photo #1 - Superior Mayor Dominic Wolf, Sweetwater County Historical Museum Executive Director Dave Mead, and historian and author Frank Prevedel

Photo #2 - Downtown South Superior (now Superior) about 1917

Photo #3 - Superior and South Superior, a richly illustrated history by Frank Prevedel

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - June 11, 2022)     A video about a special chapter in Sweetwater County history - indeed, its living history - is now available online, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum announced on Saturday.

Produced by museum staff and volunteers, A History of Superior, Wyoming - An Interview with Frank Prevedel, can be found on the museum’s YouTube channel at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFWiyaMszRI&t=7s .

Prevedel is the author of Superior and South Superior, one of the “Images of America” series. He was born and raised in Superior and South Superior, graduated the University of Wyoming, and went on to a distinguished career as an educator.

The Horsethief Canyon communities of Superior and South Superior, about 23 road miles northeast of Rock Springs, came into existence in the early 1900s as coal towns. Superior was incorporated as a town in February of 1911, followed by South Superior a month later. As the demand for coal diminished in the mid-20th century, so did Superior. In 1963, the town government voted to officially dissolve its incorporation, and the little town ceased to exist. South Superior, on the other hand, survived, and in 1984, South Superior was officially renamed Superior, and its 300 or so residents are proud of its status as Sweetwater County’s “Living Ghost Town.”

A History of Superior, Wyoming is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s “Museum on Main Street,” project, co-hosted by the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, Wyoming Humanities / ThinkWY, and the Green River Chamber of Commerce. The museum also extended its special thanks to Superior Mayor Dominic Wolf.

Prevedel’s Superior and South Superior is available at the museum’s book store in Green River and online at Amazon.

Superior Snapshot: Superior Opera House

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Coxey’s Army in Green River

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Photo #1 - Roll call for detained Coxeyites in Green River, Wyoming, May 16, 1894, awaiting transport under army escort to Idaho

Photo #2 - Under guard by federal troops, Coxeyites boarding the train in Green River for the return to Idaho to stand trial

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - June 4, 2022)     A little-known chapter of Sweetwater County history is the subject of a new article at WyoHistory.org, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum said in a special release on Saturday.

“The Wyoming March of Coxey’s Army,” by Brigida (Brie) Blasi of the University of Wyoming’s  American Heritage Center and the museum’s former Executive Director, is the story of the movement / protest that came to be known as “Coxey’s Army,” named for its leader, an Ohio businessman and labor activist named Jacob Coxey.

By the spring 1894, the four-year nationwide economic depression that became known as the Panic of 1893 was well underway. Unemployment was extremely high, and many protesting workers from around the country, loosely organized by Coxey and others, began traveling east by rail in what would become the first political march on Washington, D.C.

Most “Coxeyites” were peaceful and often welcomed by sympathizers as they traveled, but others were not. One contingent, numbering about 250, stole a train in Montpelier, Idaho, and wound up in Green River in May of 1894, where they were detained under guard in a tent camp by U.S. Marshal Joe Rankin and local law enforcement volunteers until troops could arrive to escort them back to Idaho, where all were found guilty and given minor sentences.

Coxey himself made it to Washington, but his demands that the federal government assist workers by employing them in public works projects were refused and he was arrested, charged with trespassing on public property. When he was taken into custody, his “army’ dispersed.

WyoHistory.org, an outstanding resource Wyoming history, is the online platform for the Wyoming State Historical Society. Blasi’s article can be found at

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/wyoming-march-coxeys-army .

The Sweetwater County Historical Museum is located at 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.