Green River Business Boom Centers on Natural Resources
The county seat and the second-largest city in Sweetwater County is also one of its most scenic communities.
The city of Green River is home to many parks, pathways and greenbelt trails, along with public art sculptures throughout the downtown area. The city also serves as the west entrance of the Butte Wild Horse Loop Tour, and it’s the gateway to the Flaming Gorge Recreation Area just south of Green River.
Despite Interstate 80 and other modern amenities, the city remains a peaceful place – and animals such as antelope, buffalo and wild deer still roam the open fields.
The city that was incorporated in 1868 is named for the swift-flowing Green River that winds through town. This river has carved out a series of spectacular multicolored buttes that add to the spectacular scenery found in southwestern Wyoming’s wide-open spaces.
Today, the city has a population of 12,000 residents, and mining is the main industry. The Green River Basin contains the world’s largest known deposit of trona ore, which is a relatively rare sodium-rich mineral. It is processed into soda ash that can be used to manufacture chemicals, detergents, food, glass, paper and textiles.
Soda ash mining from trona veins in the Green River Basin employs 2,000 people at five mines.
The Basin also has large reserves of oil shale and natural gas, but the high cost of extracting the oil from the hard shale has left the reserves virtually untouched over the years.
But companies such as Halliburton and Exxon have recently shown interest in extracting the reserves, and that has created a mini-boom for Green River and neighboring Rock Springs.
