Green River Wyoming History & Facts

Green River is a city in and the county seat of Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 12,515 at the 2010 census.

The townsite of Green River, Dakota Territory was platted by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867. Although the Territory of Wyoming was created on July 25, 1868, the Town of Green River was incorporated on August 21,1868 under the laws of the previous Territory of Dakota since the laws of the Wyoming Territory had yet to be written. The Town of Green River was re-incorporated on June 10, 1891 under the laws of the State of Wyoming to remove any ambiguity.

The Union Pacific Railroad reached Green River on October 1, 1868 and was supposed to be the site of a division point for the railroad. Railroad officials were surprised to find that a town of 2000 residents and permanent adobe buildings had been established there, likely requiring costly negotiations for railroad land. They moved the division point 12 miles (19 km) west, creating the town of Bryan, on the Blacks Fork of the Green River. Just when Green River was on the verge of becoming a ghost town, Blacks Fork dried up during a drought and the railroad was forced to move the division point back to Green River to ensure adequate water for its steam locomotives. Bryan became the ghost town.

On May 24, 1869, John Wesley Powell launched the Powell Geographic Expedition from Green River.

On November 16, 1931, the Town of Green River passed the Green River Ordinance that prohibited door-to-door selling. Other towns across the country would adopt the ordinance.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 14.02 square miles (36.31 km2), of which 13.73 square miles (35.56 km2) is land and 0.29 square miles (0.75 km2) is water.

Famous Peoples From Green River Wyoming

Asbury Bateman Conaway

(October 13, 1837 – December 8, 1897) was a justice of the Territorial Wyoming Supreme Court from June 21, 1890, to October 11, 1890, and of the Wyoming Supreme Court from October 11, 1890, until his death, on December 8, 1897.

Born near Le Roy, Illinois, Conaway received his law degree from Iowa Wesleyan University, and entered the private practice of law in Chariton, Iowa, in 1861. He moved to Wyoming in 1868, first arriving in South Pass, and relocating to Green River the following year. Conaway was a county attorney and a prosecuting attorney for Sweetwater County, Wyoming, and "was active in politics".

On June 21, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison appointed Conaway to the Wyoming Territorial Supreme Court. Wyoming was admitted to the Union in July of that year, and Conaway was then elected to the newly established Wyoming Supreme Court in September, taking office when the Court was officially sworn in as such in October.

He died near the end of his second term on December 8, 1897.

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