150th anniversary observed

Celebrating the county’s sesquicentennial anniversary, residents gathered in front of the Sweetwater County Courthouse Tuesday evening for the unveiling of a monument dedicated to the county’s 150th year.

Brie Blasi, executive director of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, said the county’s 150th anniversary is a very special event, which attracted people from South Pass City, the county’s first county seat, as well as residents from throughout Sweetwater County.

“I’m happy so many people showed up,” Blasi said. “It shows our roots run deep.”

For Dave Mead, who designed the monument, he said he’s happy to see it in place after months of work.

Sweetwater County Commissioner Reid West said the event caused him to stop and think about the progress the county has made during the last 150 years. From the county’s first settlers, homesteaders and ranchers trying to make a living off the harsh land, to the introduction of the railroad and mining industries and the influx of people it brought to the area, as well as the other major boom times involving the development of the trona industry and the 1970s, which brought the Jim Bridger Power Plant and several mine expansions.

“We’re better off than we have been in Sweetwater County,” West said.

West believes one of the most unique aspects of Sweetwater County is its unfenced and public lands. The mixture of lands owned by Anadarko, the Rock Springs Grazing Association, and the public through the Bureau of Land Management gives people a chance to recreate and appreciate those lands. West said access to the unfenced lands separates the county from other counties in Wyoming, as well as other locations in the U.S.

Liz Cheney, Wyoming’s lone representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, also made a few comments regarding the county’s anniversary. She said it took strength and grit to settle the west and said the values of those first settlers had when they came to Southwest Wyoming continue to be upheld 150 years later.

A number of anniversaries are coming up in Sweetwater County, including Green River’s sesquicentennial next year, as well as the 150th anniversary of Maj. John Wesley Powell’s expedition, which launched from Green River in 1869.