Grand Tetons National Park

This scenic area of mountain peaks, alpine lakes, and sagebrush flats is filled with moose, elk, trumpeter swans, and other wildlife.

Much of the Teton Range was protected as a National Park on February 26, 1929 and expanded in 1959 to include most of the valley called Jackson Hole.

Geology

Although the Tetons are ancient by any human scale, they are the youngest mountains in the Rockies, less that 10 million years old (versus 60 million for the nearby Wind River Mountains).

The Tetons are a fault-block range, formed when the earth's crust cracked along an angled fault. Forces within the earth have pushed the western side (the Tetons) up, while the eastern portion (Jackson Hole) dropped down. Geologists believe the fault could easily slip up to 10 feet at a time, producing a violent earthquake. Unlike typical mountains ranges, the highest parts are not at the center of the range, but along the eastern edge where uplifting continues. As the mountains rose along this fault, overlying deposits were stripped away by erosion. Because of this shifting and erosion, sandstone deposits stop Mount Moran match those 24,000 ft (4 miles) below Jackson Hole.

For the most part, this erosion took place by way of glaciers - created when more snow falls than melts off. After a period of several years and under the weight of additional snow, the accumulated snow crystals change to ice. Gravity pulls the ice slowly downhill, creating what is essentially a frozen river that grinds against whatever lies in the way, plucking loose rock and soil, and polishing hard bedrock. This debris moves slowly down the glacier as if on a conveyer belt, eventually reaching its terminus. When a glacier remains the same size for a long period of time, large piles of glacial debris accumulate at its end, creating what is called a terminal moraine.

One of these, Jackson Lake, was created when a huge glacier dumped tons of rocks at its snout. After the glacier melted back, this terminal moraine became a natural dam for the waters of the Snake River. Similar mounds of glacial debris dammed the creeks that formed Jenny, Leigh, Bradley, Taggart, and Phelps lakes within Grand Teton National Park.

Other reminders of the glacial past are the "pothole" (more accurately termed "kettles") that dot the plain south of Signal Mountain. These depressions were created when large blocks of ice were buried under glacial outwash. Only a dozen or so small glaciers remain in the Tetons - the largest is the 3,500 ft Teton Glacier, visible on the northeastern face of Grand Teton.

Prehistoric and Historic Indians

Archaeological evidence indicates that early visitors arrived approximately 8,500 years ago, in late spring, traveling in small bands across passes on the north and east sides of the valley, and left before the snow returned. They followed the wild game as those animals went to higher summer pastures. The tribal names of the earliest people remains unknown.

The Athapaskan, distant relatives of the Navajo and Apache Indians of Arizona, were the next people to use the valley. However, they occupied the valley less than 200 years, being driven north by other tribes, after about 1600.

It was not until the Spanish conquistadors' introduced the horse to North America in about 1700 that Indians became mobile. With the European westward expansion, Indian tribes began shifting their territories and new groups began spending summers in Jackson Hole. The Crows, Blackfeet, Nez Perces (French for pierced nose; even though their noses were not pierced), Gros Ventre (pronounced "GROW VAUNT": French for big belly; even though they did not have big bellies), Shoshonis (or Snakes) and the Bannocks were in this area until the 20th Century. All of these tribes had horses. With horses they no longer needed to follow wild game to the high mountain pastures. Consequently the Teton Valley was no longer an important summer range for those Indians.

Historical Background

In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson launched the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore, map and strengthen American claims to the Louisiana Purchase. John Colter, an adventurous member of the party, was given permission to leave the home-bound expedition as it passed through Montana. In the winter of 1807-08, Colter wandered south into present-day Wyoming prospecting for furs among the Indians; he probably visited both Jackson Hole and the Yellowstone country to the north.

From 1821 to 1840 Jackson Hole was visited almost annually by at least a few trappers. In the early 1840s, when beaver hats went out of style, most of the trappers either retired of moved on to other wilderness work; but during the previous 20 years, most of the great mountain men - Bill Sublette, Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Jedediah Smith - wandered through the area. It was Sublette who in 1829 named the valley Jackson Hole in honor of fellow trapper David Jackson (high isolated valleys were referred to as "holes" in the mountains). And it was lonely French trappers who began calling the prominent peaks Les Trois Tetons - The Three Teats.

The 1850s and 1860s were quiet. The first formal survey of the valley was conducted by Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden and his government party in 1872. They named many of the features (after themselves), and two of their party, Nathaniel Langford and James Stevenson, claimed - perhaps falsely - the first ascent of Grand Teton (then called Mount Hayden). Later parties were still mapping and exploring the valley when the first settlers arrived.

Some came to prospect and settled. Others came to settle and prospected as well. By 1890, the first families (Mormons) had arrived, and in 1892, Bill Menor built his ferry across the Snake River, near the present-day settlement of Moose, to handle the small but steady traffic in the valley. The Jackson town plan was laid out in 1897, but the town grew slowly; early settlers found winters in Jackson Hole just as trying as had the Indians.

In 1918 Congress attempted to extend Yellowstone Park's boundary to include the Tetons. This proposal failed because sheep ranchers believed the plan would prevent them from grazing their sheep on the western slope of the Tetons.

The real movement to save Jackson Hole coalesced in a 1923 meeting at the cabin of Maude Noble. Horace Albright, superintendent of Yellowstone National Park was there, along with local dude ranchers, businessmen, and cattlemen anxious to save the valley from commercial exploitation. To accomplish this goal, they proposed finding a wealthy philanthropist who might be willing to invest the two million dollars that would be needed to buy the land. Fortunately, one of the people there happened to be friends with Kenneth Chorley, an assistant to John D. Rockefeller, Jr..

In 1926, Rockefeller traveled west for a 12-day trip to Yellowstone. Horace Albright used the chance to take him on a side trip into Jackson Hole. Immediately impressed by the mountains, Rockefeller believed that they should be protected and the valley floor preserved.

He quietly returned to New York and asked Albright to draw a map and estimate the cost of private land in the valley. By 1927 Rockefeller formed the Snake River Land Company, a front to keep land owners from asking for exorbitant sums from the millionaire. The local banker, Robert Miller, served as land purchasing agent, and used his position to buy out ranches with delinquent mortgages to his Jackson State Bank. By 1930 the company owned most of the private land on the valley floor.

Congress, in 1929, decided to establish Grand Teton National Park from National Forest Lands. The park only protected the peaks and sis not include all of the lakes at their bases. By 1943, after years of unsuccessful attempts to donate his land to the national park, Rockefeller gave the government an ultimatum. Either the land was to be accepted as a gift to the public or it would be sold.

The threat immediately prompted President Franklin Roosevelt to use executive authority to create Jackson Hole National Monument out of Rockefeller's gift and National Forest lands. The entire area of Grand Teton National Park is now almost 500 square miles, of which about 98% is in Federal ownership. The park is roughly rectangular in shape, about 24 miles wide and about 38 miles long.

Driving Tour

Jackson Lake Lookout, just past the Lizard Creek Campground, is the first clear view of the Teton Range. The fault-block nature of the Tetons is evident when seen at this extreme angle. Total movement along the fault is estimated 30,000 ft. Over time, erosion and glacial action has filled the valley with sediment, leaving a still-impressive 7,000-vertical foot mountain escarpment.