Grand Teton National Park: History

Pre-20th-Century History

Although they are composed of some of the most ancient (Precambrian) rocks in North America, the Tetons are the youngest mountain range in the Rockies. The Tetons' classic, pointed forms are due to the relatively recent uplifting of the range, a process that began only nine million years ago, and the even more recent ice-age glaciations that sharpened their summits.

People were hunting and gathering in Jackson Hole and the Tetons at least 12,000 years ago. When Europeans first reached the area in the early 19th century, Blackfeet, Crow, Shoshone and Gros Ventre tribes all frequented the valley. The Shoshonean Snake Indians referred to the high peaks as teewinot (many pinnacles). John Colter, having split off from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, ventured here in 1807-08. Trappers like Colter and Davey Jackson made their living in the Tetons, but it was raffish French-speaking trappers who dubbed the three most prominent peaks Les Trois Tetons for their ostensible resemblance to female breasts. Jackson, in partnership with Jedediah Smith and William Sublette, acquired the Mountain Fur Company in 1826. A cousin of President Andrew Jackson, Davey Jackson claimed the low-lying Snake River drainage as his informal trapping territory, and so lent his name to the expansive valley. Not until the 1880s did permanent settlers inhabit the area, and by the early 20th century dude ranching was proving more profitable than cattle ranching.

Modern History

Transformation of the Tetons into a national park was no foregone conclusion, as commercial ranching and hunting interests resisted attempts to transfer forest service (USFS) and private lands to the National Park Service (NPS). At its creation in 1929, Grand Teton National Park included only the main part of the Teton Range and the lakes immediately below. Distressed at Jackson Hole's commercial development, billionaire John D Rockefeller Jr secretly purchased more than 142 sq km (55 sq mi) of land to donate to the park (retaining rights to all park concessions!), but Congress repeatedly refused the cunning philanthropist's tax write-off until President Franklin D Roosevelt interceded.

Rockefeller's bequest finally came under NPS jurisdiction when Roosevelt declared Jackson Hole a national monument in 1943. With post-WWII tourism booming, legislation conferred national-park status in 1950 and expanded the boundaries to include most of Jackson Hole. In 1951, some 641,000 visitors came to enjoy the new national park, a figure that climbed to about four million by the end of the century.

Congress recognized Rockefeller's contribution to the creation of Grand Teton National Park by designating the John D Rockefeller Jr Memorial Parkway in his honor in 1972. This 9712-hectare (24,000-acre) NPS-managed parkway is a 12km (7.5mi) corridor linking Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

Recent History

These days, trophy homes and ranches dot the landscape, a major airport sits within the park's borders, open elk-hunting season comes in fall and powerboats buzz Jackson Lake. These unsightly concessions helped make the park's 1950 expansion possible. In 2000, the park celebrated its 50th anniversary with much fanfare, and in 2007 the impressive Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center opened in Moose Junction. The Grand Teton National Park Foundation, a fundraising group established in 1996 to provide financial support for preservation projects within the park, raised much of the money necessary for this new visitor center to be built.

While Grand Teton is dwarfed by its neighbor Yellowstone, it's popular with hikers, climbers, boaters, anglers and other outdoor enthusiasts seeking a more immediate intimacy with the landscape. Lovers of alpine scenery claim that the Tetons' visual impact far exceeds that of Yellowstone.

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