Expedition Island

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1968.

From the record

“Expedition Island is an island in the Green River at downtown Green River, Wyoming. The island, now mostly taken up by a public park, is the place where Major John Wesley Powell and Vitaly Develvis started an expedition down the Green River and Colorado River in 1871.”
Wikipedia article Expedition Island, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 28 National Register listings published here for Sweetwater County · listed in 1968 · category: Site · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. S of Union Pacific RR bridge, near E bank of the Green River, Green River, 82935
When was it listed? November 1968
Category. site
Census division. Green River North
National Register reference number. 68000056 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

72 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 72 fires within 5 miles of Expedition Island between 1995 and 2020, burning about 497 acres in total. 7 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	30
Fireworks	11
Natural	7
Misuse of fire by a minor	6
Recreation and ceremony	5
Railroad operations and maintenance	5
Equipment and vehicle use	3
Debris and open burning	2
Smoking	1
Arson/incendiarism	1
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
7 September 2020	Railroad operations and maintenance	50 acres	Sweetwater County	MM76
28 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Rock Springs Field Office	RAILROAD
19 September 2018	Power generation/transmission/distribution	1.0 acres	Sweetwater County	MCKINNON FIRE
14 September 2001	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Rock Springs Field Office	DUALLY
11 September 2010	Equipment and vehicle use	4.6 acres	Rock Springs Field Office	SNOW FENCE
11 September 2009	Fireworks	2.5 acres	Rock Springs Field Office	CEMETERY
4 August 2020	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Sweetwater County	MM1 HARBORLITE
3 August 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Sweetwater County	MM67

Every fire recorded in Sweetwater County

Mines and quarries near this property

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Expedition Island: 6 past producers, 1 prospect, 1 unknown, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Sodium, Sodium Carbonate, Silica. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Diamond Alkali Co., Butler Well No. 1	Sodium	Prospect	Trona
State Highway Dept	Silica	Producer
Western Alkali Company wells	Sodium Carbonate	Past Producer	Trona
Acme Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Green River Pit & Plant Layos	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
State Highway Department Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
State Highway Dept	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
State Highway Dept	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown

Every working recorded in Sweetwater County

Storms near this property

15 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Green River, the town this property stands in, in 15 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 9 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 1 funnel cloud, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2007	Flash Flood	Green River	$250,000	no account filed
May 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Green River	$3,000	Several power poles were reported down west-northwest of Green River toward State Highway 372. The wind gusts were associated with weak convection and not a thunderstorm.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Green River	-	The wind sensor along Interstate 80 in Green River reported wind gusts to 59 mph.
June 2016	Hail	Green River	-	There were numerous reports of one inch diameter hail across Green River and Rock Springs. Trees were stripped of leaves and the hail accumulated on the ground to a depth of a couple of inches.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Green River	-	no account filed
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Green River	-	no account filed
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Green River	-	no account filed
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Green River	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Green River	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Green River	-	no account filed
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Green River	-	no account filed
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Green River	-	no account filed
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Green River	-	no account filed
September 1999	Funnel Cloud	Green River	-	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Green River	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Sweetwater County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

5 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Sweetwater Brewery	0.3 miles	1982
Green River Downtown Historic District	0.4 miles	2009
130 E Flaming Gorge Way	0.4 miles	2009
Morris House	0.5 miles	2023
US Post Office-Green River	1.1 miles	1997

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 68000056 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Sweetwater County	All 28 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.