The Historic Mine Trail and Byway Program was established by the Wyoming Legislature in 2005 and is managed by the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, a division of the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.  The program exists to identify historic mine locations and designate trails and byways that link historic mining areas within the state of Wyoming.

Trona Trail Historic Mine Byway, Sweetwater County

Driving across the scrubby, wind-swept, seemingly empty Green River Basin as it extends west of the town of Green River, few people are aware of the extensive roadways and bustling activity taking place 800-1600 feet below them in the trona mines. Fewer still know that this deposit of trona (also known as sodium sesquicarbonate) is the by far the largest and purest deposit in the world and that it supplies nearly all the United States’ (and some other countries’) soda ash needs. And fewer still understand the significance of this fact: the ore mines here are used to produce nearly every commodity in their lives as well as to control pollution in the air that they breathe.The Trona Trail Byway can begin or end at Granger Stage Station, or at a pullout on U.S. 530. Visitors can access the trail from east- or westbound I-80 or northbound U.S. 530.