Grand Teton National Park is the youngest of Jackson Hole's neighbors
and the road getting there was a long and often bumpy one. Whereas
Yellowstone took only two years from inception to establishment, the
development of Grand Teton National Park, in its present form, took
more than 20 years and three government acts.
The Early Days In 1912 Struthers Burt, an author from the back East, co-founded the Bar
BC Ranch, one of Jackson Hole's earliest dude ranches. Burt suggested
early on that a "museum on the hoof" should be created in the
spectacular, mountain-ringed valley, so that ranching interests would
join forces with the hospitality industry in the hopes of slowing down
commercialization. At the time, developers were rapidly making inroads.
A seminal gathering took place at the cabin of Maude Noble, proprietor
of the Snake River ferry at Moose in July 1923. There, Yellowstone
National Park superintendent Horace Albright met with several citizens
who shared Burt's values, which did not include the wish for national
park status and the restrictions it would bring. Instead, they sought
to preserve a slice of the Old West, a place with minimal commercial
development - where the traditions of hunting, grazing, and dude
ranching could continue. The group devised a plan; they would identify
and persuade a rich benefactor to purchase private lands in Jackson
Hole. That special person would then pass the lands on to the federal
government for inclusion in whatever form their park wound up taking.
Establishing a National ParkThe Grand Teton National Park was first established in 1929 when
President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating a 96,000-acre preserve
that included much of the Teton Range and the six primary lakes at the
eastern foot of the mountains. Dissatisfied with the minimal scope of
the new park, Albright and company pressed on, working with the
legendary John D. Rockefeller Jr. While visiting the Tetons in
1924 and 1926, Rockefeller was stunned by the grandeur of the scenery
and taken aback by what he saw cluttering the magnificent natural
setting - ramshackle cabins, deserted and rusting automobiles, gas
stations, billboards and telephone lines.
The wealthy Rockefeller bought into the group's proposal and soon his
representatives began purchasing valley properties anonymously under
the name Snake River Land Company. Ultimately, they bought more than
35,000 acres for approximately $1.4 million. Rockefeller deeded most of
these lands to the federal government in 1949 - after 20 years of
waiting for the government to act - to enhance the existing Jackson
Hole National Monument, a lowlands preserve established in 1943 by
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. A few years later in 1950,
President Harry S. Truman signed a bill that merged the 1929 park and
the 1943 monument, forming the 310,000-acre Grand Teton National Park
as it is known today.
The controversies surrounding how the park was established caused deep
rifts among Jackson Hole residents from the 1920s to the 1940s.
However, valley locals today appear to be grateful for the protection
provided their backyard by national park status.
Photos Courtesy: Jackson Lake, climbers on South Teton, Taggart and Bradley Lakes, The Cathedral Group - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming - National Park Service
