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 Park
The 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.

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Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce 990 West Broadway Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 733-3316

Grand Teton National Park