The area of which Sweetwater county is a  part came into the possession of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase, the  settlement of  the Oregon question, and the Treaty of Guadalupe  Hidalgo.  As a  part of U. S.  Territory  it has at various periods, in part or as a  whole, been under the jurisdiction  of the Territory of Oregon, the  Territory of Utah, the Territory of Nebraska, the Territory  of  Idaho and the Territory of Dakota. On January 9, 1867, the Dakota Legislative Assembly  created  and organized Wyoming's first  county, Laramie, which occupied all of present Wyoming except what  later was added from Utah  and Idaho onDecember 27, 1867. Dakota laws created Carter County  from the western half of Laramie. These counties extended  from the southern to the  northern  boundaries of Wyoming. South Pass City was the county seat. At the time of the passage of the Organic Act, July 25, 1868, creating Wyoming Territory, Wyoming contained TWO counties,  Laramie and Carter. Carbon  and Albany Counties  were  established later,  on  December  16,1868, dividing Laramie and Carter Counties.  South Pass was still the county seat when woman suffrage was born. When Wyoming Territory was organized  in  1869,  Governor Campbell's proclamation sent Carter  County voters  to the polls  on September 2, 1869, to elect three  members to the Council Body of the  Legislature and three to the  House of Representatives.  They were  to  convene in Cheyenne, October 12,  1869.  Esther Morris of South  Pass had won the promise from  William H.  Bright  (who was  elected council  president)  to  "Introduce and  work  for the passage of an  act conferring upon  the  women of our new territory the right of suffrage." This was done and despite lively controversy  Governor  Campbell signed the  bill into law at midnight on December 10,   1869 (Wyoming Day). The first Wyoming Legislative  Assembly changed  the  name of Carter to Sweetwater as namesake of the Sweetwater River. In 1873 the Third Assembly changed the  county  seat from  South Pass to Green River. The boundaries  of  the county were changed several times as new counties were created and  adjustment was made on the eastern boundary, but these were permanently established when  Wyoming  achieved  statehood. Two of the better known routes in the county, the Oregon and the Overland Trails, have seen the passage of thousands  of white-topped wagons, stage coaches and freighting outfits. Robert Stuart and his returning Astorians followed an Indian  path  in 1812 which  took them  through  South Pass, down the Sweetwater and Platte Rivers.  This  portion of  their trail  was a part of what  later became  known as the Oregon Trail. The real Oregon Trail entered the present confines of this county near South Pass, crossed both  the Big and the Little Sandy Creeks (markers  have been erected) and followed the general course of Big Sandy until it approached the Green  River. Throughout  the  years of  its use the Trail broke into a number of branches. From the Green River, one  branch  swung southwest to the vicinity of the present town of Opal,  and then northwest  to the Snake River. After  the establishment  of Fort Bridger, one branch ran southward leaving  the county near thepresent town of Granger.  This later was the road followed by the  California gold rushers  of '49 and the Mormons. Prior to  February 2, 1848, this trail, from a point three-fourths  of the way down  Big Sandy, was below the forty-second parallel and therefore in Mexican  territory.  The  Ashley-Smith  expedition  was in the area in 1824 when Ashley named Sandy  Creek.  In  1825 he began leading his  fur traders down the Big Sandy to the Green  River. There by July  1, his  trappers and 29 others from the Hudson's  Bay  Company (total  120) had gathered. Goods, furs, and tall tales were swapped.  In succeeding years this annual meeting became known as the "Green  River Rendezvous". Ashley was the first white man to  navigate the  Green  River  which was supposed to flow into the Gulf of Mexico.  Forty years later a  United  States geological  survey party  found "Ashley 1825" painted  high on the rock wall of the Red Canyon of the Green River.  In 1847 the Mormons started on this trail. Brigham Young,  leading the second detachment, met Jim Bridger.  Bridger  was  traveling  east  to  Fort Laramie and advised them to camp on the spot  while he gave detailed information to them about the desert of the Salt Lake Valley. A monument stands  at Farson, Wyoming, (Highway  187)  in  memory of this meeting.  Several years after the Mormons  had settled  in  the  valley, trouble  arose between them and  the United  States Government. For a few years much fighting existed along the  Oregon  Trail  that lies within  this county. In October,  1857  an incident of  the  "Mormon  War" occurred near Big Sandy thirty miles north of the town of Green River. Lot Smith, captain of the Utah militia, burned  seventy-five wagons destined to supply Johnston's army at Fort Bridger.  Because of  this the troops had to winter at Camp Scott on one-fourth  rations and were not able to go into Utah that winter. The remains of the wagons can still be seen near Simpson's Hollow along the  Blue  Rim-Farson county road. In  1862 Ben Holladay took over the stage line of Russell, Majors  and Waddell. Due  to increasing hostilities  of the Sioux along the upper Platte, the route through South Pass was abandoned and the Cherokee Trail (later the Overland)  along  the  South Platte,  to Fort Halleck,  Bridger's Pass and on to Fort Bridger wasused. This trail, running  east to west, was  used  by Bridger and other trappers from  an early date.  Travel along the trail in this county was continued  until the coming  of the Union Pacific Railroad  in  1868.  There were many important stage  relay points in this county but the  remains  of the  stage station at Point-of-Rocks is  the only  one still  in "fair"  condition.  This station can be seen from the highway.  THE  FRONTIER INDEX,  a  press on  wheels,  followed  the construction  head of  the  Union  Pacific Railroad westward across the country and by August 11, 1868,  it had reached Green River City.  It was published there through October 13, 1868. While in Green River, a book, "A  Vocabulary of the Snake or Sho-Sho-Nay Dialect"  by Joseph  A. Gebow  was printed. Although it  was  a second edition of  a booklet of  1859 printed  in Salt Lake City,  it was  the first  book  or pamphlet printed in Wyoming.  Bryan, today a ghost town, was reached  by the Union Pacific in September of 1868.  About twelve  miles west of the town of Green River, Bryan once boasted of a temporary  population  of  5,000  people. It  was  a business center of the county where railroad machine shops and a roundhouse were maintained for several years. When drought struck, and the Black's Fork  River water level fell, the town suffered a decline. When the railroad later straightened  its tracks,  Bryan  became a ghost town.  In  1875  coal  miners in Carbon and Sweetwater Counties went on  strike and the Union Pacific brought in  Chinese workers. There was no open hostility  until, without previous warning, a riot finally broke  out  on September 2, 1885. Twenty-eight Chinese were killed, fifteen wounded,  and hundreds driven  out from  Rock Springs. The original source of the  trouble was strike breaking,  but the  immediate cause was the assignment of  stalls or  rooms.  White  workers  argued  that the Chinese were given  preference. The Chinese Government and the  United States Government investigated and China asked  damages which the Federal Government paid. United  States troops were  kept  in  Rock Springs for several years to maintain order  after the riot.  The  southern  part  of Sweetwater  County was noted for  the hide-out  of the  Butch Cassidy gang and many other notorious outlaws. Extensive grazing was developed in the area by the early  settlers  including many miners  who were barred from working because of the Chinese workers or other misdeeds  involving the coal companies.  Submitted and Transcribed by JoAnn Scott Boyd  Source A Survey of Wyoming County Courthouses

The Rock Springs massacre (also known as the Rock Springs riot) occurred on September 2,1885 in the present-day city of Rock Springs, Wyoming, in Sweetwater County. The riot, between Chinese immigrant miners and white, mostly immigrant, miners, was the result of racial tensions and an ongoing labor dispute over the Union Pacific Coal Department's policy of paying Chinese miners lower wages than white miners. When the rioting ended, at least 28 Chinese miners were dead and 15 were wounded. Rioters burned 75 Chinese homes resulting in approximately $150,000 in property damage. Tension between whites and Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century American West was particularly high, especially in the decade preceding the violence. The massacre in Rock Springs was the violent outburst of years of anti-"coolie" sentiment in the United States. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act suspended Chinese immigration for ten years, but not before thousands of immigrants came to the American West. Most Chinese immigrants to Wyoming Territory took jobs with the railroad at first, but many ended up employed in coal mines owned by the Union Pacific Railroad. As Chinese immigration increased, so did anti-Chinese sentiment from whites. The Knights of Labor, one of the foremost voices against Chinese immigrant labor, formed a chapter in Rock Springs in 1883 and most rioters were members of that organization. However, no direct connection has ever established that the riot was caused by the national Knights of Labor organization. In the immediate aftermath of the riot, federal troops were deployed in Rock Springs. They escorted the surviving Chinese miners, most of whom had fled to Evanston, Wyoming, back to Rock Springs a week after the riot. Reaction came swiftly from the era's publications. In Rock Springs, the local newspaper endorsed the outcome of the riot, while in other Wyoming newspapers, support for the riot was limited to sympathy for the causes of the white miners The massacre in Rock Springs touched off a wave of anti-Chinese violence, especially in the Puget Sound area of Washington Territory.

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