The historical buildings and structures of Grand Teton National Park include a variety of buildings and built remains that pre-date the establishment of Grand Teton National Park, together with facilities built by the National Park Service to serve park visitors. Many of these places and structures have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The pre-Park Service structures include homestead cabins from the earliest settlement of Jackson Hole, working ranches that once covered the valley floor, and dude ranches or guest ranches that catered to the tourist trade that grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, before the park was expanded to encompass nearly all of Jackson Hole. Many of these were incorporated into the park to serve as Park Service personnel housing, or were razed to restore the landscape to a natural appearance. Others continued to function as inholdings under a life estate in which their former owners could continue to use and occupy the property until their death. Other buildings, built in the mountains after the initial establishment of the park in 1929, or in the valley after the park was expanded in 1950, were built by the Park Service to serve park visitors, frequently employing the National Park Service Rustic style of design.
Homesteads
The earliest remaining built object in Grand Teton National Park is a diversion ditch, now known as Mining Ditch, which carried water in the vicinity of Schwabacher's Landing for prospecting activities. Dug around 1871-72, the ditch lent its name to nearby Ditch Creek. The prospectors left no other trace in Jackson Hole.
The valley's first permanent settlers did not arrive until 1884, when John Holland and John Carnes claimed a homestead to the north of Jackson, of which no trace remains.Kaiser, Harvey (1997). "Landmarks in the Landscape", San Francisco: Chronicle Books , pp. 158-159 The Cunningham Cabin is the earliest remaining relic of settlement in the northern portion of Jackson Hole. It was built by J. Pierce Cunningham in 1885, at about the same time as the town of Jackson was established at the southern end of Jackson Hole. William D. Menor established Menor's Ferry across the Snake River in 1892, homesteading the lands on the western bank of the river, and operating the ferry until a bridge was built in 1927.
The Luther Taylor Cabins near Kelly were built beginning in 1916. The cabins were featured in the 1953 Western movie Shane.
The Manges Cabin was built by James Manges, the second homesteader after Bill Menor to settle on the west side of the Snake. Manges' operation grew to become a working ranch, later the Elbo Dude Ranch, which featured a racetrack and rodeo grounds. The perceived blight of the Elbo development, so close to the mountains, led Struthers Burt and other local citizens to consider strategies for land preservation in the valley in the 1920s. The Elbo was acquired by the Park Service in 1956, and after some time as employee lodging, was gradually demolished to allow the site to return to its natural state. The Manges Cabin is the only remnant.
Homestead buildings were crude, using hewn timber harvested locally and resting on minimal foundations, excavation being difficult in the valley's stony soil. Log construction was employed almost universally, given the absence of local sawmills. This rustic local construction practice was to make a return as the economic focus of the valley shifted from agricultural development to tourism.
Working ranches
With the advent of large-scale ranches worked by extended families with staffs of cowboys, wranglers and hired help, Jackson Hole saw the construction of planned complexes of buildings, as opposed to ad hoc assemblages of sheds and cabins. The new structures used milled lumber and typical western carpentry details in keeping with Wyoming construction practices. The working ranches moved away from rustic design, reflecting a maturing social order in the newly populated valley, which by 1909 had three sawmills to provide sawn lumber.
One of the earliest ranchers was Josiah David Ferrin, also known as "Uncle Si," who became a successful cattle rancher selling beef to crews building Jackson Lake Dam. The Elk Ranch at its height had 2000 cattle on near Moran. Ferrin sold the property to the Snake River Land Company in 1928.
In the first decade of the 20th century, Mormon settlers established a farming community in the Antelope Flats area of Jackson Hole. Becoming known as Mormon Row, the settlement extends as a line of farms, or "line village," along the former Jackson-Moran Road, with irrigated farmsteads running perpendicular to the road. The six homestead complexes once covered the area between the Gros Ventre River and Blacktail Butte. Individual farms included the Andy Chambers, John Moulton and T.A. Moulton homesteads. The Andy Chambers Ranch is the most complete of the surviving ranches.
The Hunter Hereford Ranch was a 1909 homestead on the eastern side of Jackson Hole that became a hobby ranch for William and Eileen Hunter in the 1940s. Its spectacular location led to its use as a movie set in the 1950s and also 1960's. In summer 1969 the movie "The Wild Country" was filmed in the Kelly area. The film rebuilt the Hunter Hereford barn and added some new ranch like structures. All of the filming was in the valley, some near the Hunter ranch and other scenes shots to the south close to Kelly. The property was sold to the Park Service in 1957, but operated as a ranch even after Eileen Hunter's death in 1989. While the residential areas have been demolished, much of the working ranch facility remains.
Joe Pfeifer, a former miner from Butte, Montana, established a homestead near Mormon Row in November 1910. The homestead's well-preserved remains were burned in a 1994 brush fire, but were documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1979 and 1992.
Geraldine Lucas arrived in Jackson Hole following her 1912 retirement from teaching in New York at the age of 47. She built a cabin in 1912, eventually amassing several hundred acres of lands and becoming a significant opponent of the Rockefeller-backed Snake River Land Company. However, following Lucas' death, the Lucas property was acquired in 1944 by the Snake River Land Company and was used as the residence for its general manager, whose life estate ran until 1975, after which it was turned over to the Park Service.
Dude ranches and guest ranches
Dude ranches
The first dude ranch in Jackson Hole was the JY Ranch, which was converted from a working ranch. It became the property of the Rockefeller family when the Rockefellers started acquiring land in Jackson Hole, remaining an inholding as the family gradually donated portions to the Park Service. The final portion of the JY became the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve in Grand Teton National Park in 2008. The Bar B C Dude Ranch was the first dude ranch in Jackson Hole to be conceived as a dude ranch from its inception. Established in 1912, it strongly influenced later dude ranch development and had a significant role in the development of tourism in Jackson Hole. The Bar BC owed much of its success to its co-owner, author Struthers Burt, who had started the JY and who published Diary of a Dude Wrangler in the Saturday Evening Post in 1924. The White Grass Dude Ranch was established in 1913, when George Tucker Bispham, a former Bar B C employee, and Harold Hammond consolidated their adjoining working ranches right at the foot of the Tetons. The White Grass inholding operated as a dude ranch until 1985, when its life estate expired, the longest-active dude ranch in the valley. After a period of abandonment and deterioration, the White Grass was rehabilitated as the Western Center for Historic Preservation in a joint venture between the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Park Service. The Double Diamond Dude Ranch was started in 1924 by Joseph Clark and Fran William, initially catering primarily to boys from Eastern families. While most of its buildings were destroyed by a wildfire in 1985, the ranch's 1945 dining hall survives. The area is now known as the Climbers Ranch, used as a base camp for mountain climbers.
The Flying V Ranch was established in 1921 as a dude ranch, but was sold in 1935 to Gustav Koven and Paul Petzoldt, who intended to operate the ranch as a climbing school. After changing the name to the Ramshorn Dude Ranch, the partnership fell apart. After acquisition by the Park Service in 1956 the Ramshorn was operated as a concession under the Elbo Ranch name, which had been displaced from its previous location at the foot of the mountains when the original Elbo-Manges ranch was purchased and used for Park Service personnel housing. The Ramshorn now houses the Teton Science School. Another 1920s establishment was Leek's Lodge on upper Jackson Lake, close to the AMK, which continued to operate as a concession associated with the Signal Mountain Lodge into the 1970s. Although the Park Service had removed most of the buildings, the main lodge stood until 1998, when it was destroyed by fire, leaving only the lodge's chimney standing. The original Jackson Lake Lodge was established nearby by Eugene Amoretti, and featured the first hot and cold running water in the valley. It was replaced by the present Jackson Lake Lodge in 1955.
The Triangle X Ranch was established in 1926 on the east side of Jackson Hole and is the last dude ranch operating in the park. The Turner family was from Utah, and after failing to grow potatoes, took to guiding hunting trips. The Triangle X operated both as outfitters and as dude ranchers. The Triangle X Barn, built in 1928 of salvaged materials, is listed on the National Register.
The STS Dude Ranch was established by Buster and Frances Ester on the west bank of the Snake River a little south of Menor's Ferry in 1921. The unprofitable operation was purchased by conservationists Olaus Murie, his wife Margaret (Mardie) Murie and scientist Adolph Murie and his wife Louise. Adolph and Louise lived in the original ranch complex, while Olaus and Mardie lived in a house they built nearby on the property. The Murie Ranch hosted some of the first meetings of The Wilderness Society in the 1950s. The Murie Ranch was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006, and is operated as the Murie Center conference facility by the National Park Service.
Vacation houses