Green River (Wyoming)

Sweetwater County

56-33740

Green River is a city in Sweetwater County in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Wyoming with 11,807 inhabitants (as of 1 July 2004). The city is named after the Green River, the largest tributary of the Colorado River. Green River is the county seat of Sweetwater County.

History

The place Green River received official city rights in 1868. He belonged to the Dakota Territory. The city was at the end of the 19th century starting point for the explorations John Wesley Powell along the Green River, the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. At the site of the town Green River originally a base for the Union Pacific Railroad was to be built, but when the construction reached the spot, the planners realized that had already formed a settlement at this place. The base of the railway company was therefore built about twenty kilometers to the west.

At the time of official registration as a town in 1868, Green River had about 2,000 permanent residents who lived partly in buildings that were built of mud brick. With the construction of the rail support point further west was accompanied by a rapid decline in population. Only about 100 residents remained here. However, when the Black Fork dried up due to drought, the railway company was forced to move their base to Green River. Under the laws of the newly formed State of Wyoming Green River was on May 5, 1891 city.

Economics and Natural Resources

The basin of the Green River holds the world's largest deposits of trona. The recovery of sodium carbonate from Tronaadern whose thickness is between 200 and 500 meters, is a major economic factor. In the five mines around 2000 workers are employed.

The mining industry is more cost effective for the production of sodium carbonate in the United States as the else in the world mainly available synthetic Solvay process. The trona in Sweetwater County was created by the prehistoric Lake Gosiute. Over time, this lake disappeared. Since natural outflows were missing, highly alkaline water began to evaporate and the Trona stored away.

The Green River mines are operated by the following five companies:

  • FMC Corporation
  • OCI Wyoming LP
  • General Chemical Corporation
  • Solvay Minerals Inc.
  • Church and Dwight Company Inc.

In the geological basin deposits of oil shale and natural gas have been found. Due to the high cost of extracting the oil from the shale rock hard this occurrence has not been touched. The recent rise in commodity prices and the desire of the United States for more energy independence from the Middle East resulted in the Green River Basin in an increase in the number of exploratory wells. Through the activities of companies like Halliburton and Exxon and other oil companies to grow Green River and the nearby town of Rock Springs has begun.

Geography

Green Rivers geographical coordinates are 41 ° 31 ' N, 109 ° 28' W41.514166666667 - 109 465. The town is located 1859 m above sea level.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Green River an area of 36.3 km ² has, of which 35.5 km ² of land and 0.8 km ² ( 2.28% ) is attributable to water.

Demography

At the time of the census of 2000, there were 11,808 people, the city. The population density was 861.5 people per km ². There were 4426 housing units at an average 124.6 per km ². The Green River population consisted of 92.13 % White, 0.27 % African American, 1.36% Native American, 0.32 % Asian, 0.06 % Pacific Islander, 4.23 % reported other to belong to races and 1.63 % from two or more races. 10.21 % of the population to be Hispanic or Latino of any race.

The residents were distributed among 4177 households out of which 42.5% were living in children under 18 years. 64.4 % married couples living together, 8.4 % had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.1 % were non-families. 19.3% of households were made ​​up of individuals and someone lived in 6.0 % of all households aged 65 years or older. The average household size was 2.80 and the average family size is 3.22 people.

The city population was spread out with 31.1 % under the, 8.8 % 18 -24- year-old, 28.9 % 25 -44- year-old, 24.8% 45-64 year olds and 6.5 % under the age of 65 years or more. The average age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 102.8 males. In the over -18s accounted for 100 women 100.7 males.

The median household income in Green River was 53 164 U.S. dollars, and the median family income reached the height of 59,100 U.S. dollars. The average income of men was 51 418 U.S. dollars, compared to 24 306 U.S. dollars for women. The per capita income in Green River was 20,398 U.S. dollars. 4.5 % of the population and 3.1% of families had affected an income below the poverty line, including 6.0 % of minors and 5.3 % of those age 65 or over.

Sons and daughters of the town

  • Adam Archuleta, player of the Chicago Bears
  • Curt Gowdy, sports commentator
  • Heather Moody, Olympian in water polo
278740
de