Greater Green River Intergalactic Space Port (In Transition)

Green River, Wyoming

Those who plan on seeing spacecraft at Wyoming's only Intergalactic Space Port will be disappointed. All that's here is an empty airstrip and a windsock -- although there's (sometimes) also an official green "Welcome to the Greater Green River Intergalactic Space Port" sign.

Aerial view of the Space Port.

Until 1994 the Space Port was just a little-used airstrip named Green River 48U. Then the Green River City Council came up with the idea of renaming it a "Space Port" because of the now-forgotten comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which at the time was about to crash into Jupiter. Space aliens fleeing the doomed gas giant would somehow learn about the Space Port -- possibly by seeing its official sign -- and land in Green River. Or at least, that was the idea.

Amazingly, the FAA approved the name change, and the airstrip has been a Space Port ever since.

The airstrip is usually empty, although it sometimes hosts (terrestrial) fly-in events and is occasionally visited by small planes, which briefly land so that their pilots can record in their flight logs that they've visited an intergalactic space port.

According to the director of Green River's Public Works Dept., the Space Port sign has been stolen so many times that the city now usually keeps it in storage, only putting it up when the Space Port hosts events. Recognizing the sign's popularity, the city hopes to erect a more permanent, full-time version. Alien theft-prevention technology from Jupiter will probably not be necessary.