The Church of Jesus Christ of the latter Day Saints organized the Big Horn Colonization Company in 1900 to construct the Sidon Canal. That same year the towns of Byron, Cowley, and Lovell were laid out as part of the colonization effort.
Byron was named after Byron Session, who managed the construction of the canal.
Soon after Byron was settled, a local farmer saw gas escaping from a post hole. He ignited it to see if the gas would burn, and it did — for several years. The first gas and oil well was drilled in 1906.
