The Green River Intergalactic Spaceport: Wyoming’s Strangest Roadside Attraction

The Green River Intergalactic Spaceport: Wyoming’s Strangest Roadside Attraction

By:  a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures

Dear Henry,

You won’t believe it, but there is an intergalactic spaceport in Green River, and I have stood on it.

I first heard about the Green River Intergalactic Spaceport years ago, filed it away under “things that sound made up but probably aren’t,” and finally went looking for it while driving home to Colorado after a wedding in Utah. Curiosity won. I turned off the main road and followed the signs like a pilgrim chasing a punchline.

In 1994, while Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 was dramatically colliding with Jupiter, the Green River City Council voted (very officially) to designate their municipal airport as a port of entry for any displaced Jupiterites seeking refuge on Earth. The gesture was timed, theatrical, and very much of the era: small-town humor meeting big-sky imagination.

The “spaceport,” for the record, is a 5,000-foot dirt runway with a windsock just off Highway 530. No terminal. No control tower. No alien customs agents waiting to stamp your papers.

While the vote was widely understood as tongue-in-cheek (and, let’s be honest, a brilliant piece of roadside marketing), it wasn’t universally loved. Some residents objected on practical grounds: housing shortages, immigration concerns, and the very real problems of a working town that didn’t need one more joke attached to its name.

And yet.

There is something deeply endearing about a place that chose humor over cynicism, imagination over fear, and curiosity over staying quiet. Green River didn’t just put up a sign; it made a statement about welcoming the unknown, even if the unknown never actually shows up.

It’s worth stopping to see, not because you’ll find aliens, but because you’ll find proof that small towns still know how to tell a good story.

One warning, though: the speed limit drops fast as Highway 530 enters town. I escaped with a warning. You might not.

xoxo a.d. elliott

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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life

She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.

You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.

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