Public library in Green River, Wyoming, built in 1979 on the site of Green River's first cemetery, with a 30-year staff 'ghost log' of reported phenomena
300 N. 1st East, Green River, WY 82935
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public library
Access
Wheelchair OK
Modern public-library building with accessible entrances and interior.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1980 · Built on Green River's original 1862–1892 cemetery · Documented staff 'ghost log' since 1980 · Listed in Sweetwater County Historical Museum records
Green River, Wyoming, was established in 1868 as a Union Pacific Railroad division point at the crossing of the Green River. The town's first cemetery occupied the parcel where the Sweetwater County Library now stands; burials began as early as 1862, prior to formal incorporation, with the cemetery in active use through at least 1892. Many of the early burials were of railroad workers and victims of smallpox and other communicable diseases.
In the early twentieth century, the City of Green River purchased 80 acres elsewhere in town and established the present Riverview Cemetery. The intention was to disinter and re-bury all remains from the original site. According to records compiled by the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, several factors prevented a complete relocation: shifting of unmarked graves over decades, the death of those who knew specific grave locations, and the local belief that some smallpox burials should not be disturbed.
Construction crews working on the site have found human remains in 1926, 1944, 1978, 1983, 1985–86, and 1996. During the 1978–1979 construction of the current library building, workers reportedly recovered additional remains including a skull described in published accounts as having red hair preserved. The library opened in 1980.
Library staff have maintained a documented 'ghost log' since the building opened, recording first-person reports of unusual occurrences. The log has been featured in Cowboy State Daily and SweetwaterNow coverage.
Sources
The Sweetwater County Library staff log, maintained since the building opened in 1980, includes hundreds of entries across decades. Recurring patterns documented in published interviews include books and small objects found on the floor after the library has closed for the night, voices heard in the conference room and upstairs reading areas when those spaces are empty, lights coming on by themselves and then turning off again, and the smell of cigarette smoke in non-smoking interior spaces.
One of the most-repeated incidents involves a custodian working a late shift who reported hearing an upstairs light come on while he was vacuuming downstairs. He left the vacuum running, went upstairs to turn off the light, and returned to find the vacuum missing — then heard a vacuum running upstairs. When he reached the upper floor, no one was there.
A second well-documented account comes from a Daily Rocket-Miner reporter who spent the night in the library on assignment. He recorded several unexplained clicks on a tape recorder left running in the conference room, and on the reverse side of the tape captured what sounded like a young girl's voice calling 'Hello!' — a recording later played for SweetwaterNow.
Local tradition holds that the activity intensifies in autumn and around library renovations. The 1996 discovery of additional remains during a building expansion was followed by what staff describe as one of the most active periods on record.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Free visit to the Sweetwater County Library. Ask at the reference desk about the library's documented 'ghost log,' which staff have maintained for decades; reading materials on the building's cemetery history and the Green River paranormal accounts are typically available in the local-history section.
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