The Natrona Alkali Company was incorporated in Wyoming on July 10, 1899 to hold title to 1,600 acres of sodium carbonate deposits in Natrona County. The deposits were located near Independence Rock, a landmark on the old Oregon Trail. The land was acquired in 1876 by Lammot du Pont (1831-1884), a chemist working for the family business, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company which originally produced gunpowder. Du Pont developed B blasting powder, using Chilean sodium nitrate instead of the previously used potassium nitrate (saltpeter) from India. Du Pont and his descendants, who took control of the land after his death, had hoped that the sodium carbonate might become a substitute for imported sodium nitrate in the manufacture of explosives, but the deposits turned out to have no commercial application.

The property remained dormant for 98 years. Because of a bookkeeping oversight, the original charter expired on July 10, 1949, and a second company had to be incorporated on March 14, 1950. Finally, the State of Wyoming purchased the site in order to build a visitors' center for Independence Rock as part of its 1976 bicentennial celebration, and the company's charter was allowed to expire in 1980.