More Wyoming Tidbits

Green River, Wyoming, about 50 miles southeast of Opal, is the home of Hilltop Baptist Church and Monroe Avenue Baptist Church, both of which were sites for VBS during the mission. Green River was also the departure point of John Wesley Powell's exploration of the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1869, taking him through the Grand Canyon.

Just north of Opal are three large natural gas distribution and transmission facilities. Natural gas from oilfields to the north is brought here for cleanup and then leaves through the pipelines to serve the western US states. This is the major distribution point for the western US. Something happens here and there will be a lot of homes and business without heat and natural gas. It has Homeland Securities highest security rating.

One could argue that J. C. Penny stores were a forerunner of today's Wal-Mart. What's interesting is that the first J. C. Penny store opened and still operates as the "mother store" in Kemmerer, Wyoming, just 15 miles west of Opal, in the late 1902's. J. C. Penny moved to Kemmerer to begin this business and opened the store to "do unto others you would have them do unto you." He called the store the Golden Rule. In a few years there were a string of stores and he changed the name to J. C. Penny.

One of the natural gas facilities in Opal

The home store of J. C. Penny