By Photo: Tony Webster, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In the early 1920s, the Producers and Refiners Corporation built an oil refinery east of Rawlins and a planned town beside it, called Parco after the company’s initials. The town was designed in a Spanish Mission style, with stucco buildings, a central plaza and a hotel, unusual on the high plains of Wyoming.
The company went bankrupt, and Sinclair Oil acquired the refinery in the 1930s. The town was later renamed Sinclair.
The refinery
The refinery processes crude oil from Wyoming and nearby regions into gasoline, diesel and other products. It is a major employer in Carbon County and one of the largest taxpayers. The Holding family of Little America ran Sinclair Oil for decades, and in 2022 its refining and pipeline business merged with HollyFrontier, creating HF Sinclair.
The refinery has faced regulatory actions over air emissions and safety, including state and federal penalties, and the company has made upgrades in response.
The town
Sinclair has only a few hundred residents. Many refinery workers live in Rawlins, about six miles away. Some of the original Parco buildings remain, including the former Parco Inn, and the town’s historic district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The future of the refinery depends on fuel demand and on regulations affecting small refineries. For now, the plant remains central to the economy of Carbon County, which also depends on ranching, the railroad and wind development.
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