Trona byway opens

The Trona Trail Historic Mine Byway is officially open for business after a short dedication ceremony took place May 30.

The trail is the fourth mine byway designated in Wyoming and was created through a program initially started by the Wyoming Legislature in 2005. The city and trona are deeply connected. The world’s largest deposit of trona is located west of Green River and the first soda ash well was drilled within the city itself.

“I think it’s very appropriate because we’re known as the ‘Trona Capital of the World,’” Green River City Councilman Ted Barney said.

Mayor Pete Rust said the trail will help promote the city as tourists pass through the area. Three trona trail signs are located within city limits, located at Centennial Park, the U.P. Depot building and the Green River Visitors Center. The trail begins at either Wyoming Highway 530 or Wyoming 374 and takes drivers on a tour through Green River and other points along the trail.

A phone app can be downloaded for free from either the Apple App Store or through Google Play which uses a phone’s GPS locator to determine if a traveler is near point on the trona trail, or any other recognized tourism point, and begin interpreting the trail point. Al Harris of The Radio Network narrates the trona trail signs on the app.

Milward Simpson, director of the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources, said most people take for granted how often trona impacts a person’s every day life.

“This trail really needed to happen,” Simpson said.

Gail Robinson, a member of the Sweetwater County Historical Society, said she and her husband Bill completed a lot of the initial research for the trail.

She said a representative of the state’s historic preservation office approached the society about a possible mine trail revolving around trona.

While Bill died in 2010, Gail said her husband would have been proud to see the byway’s official dedication.

“I believe Bill is looking down from Heaven today and would like to visit with everyone,” she said. “It takes many people and several organizations working together to accomplish this trona byway.”