Grand Teton A Place Called Jackson Hole A Historic Resource Study of Grand Teton National Park

Mr. and Mrs. J. P Nelson were down from Elk last Saturday, Mrs. Nelson stating that it was her first trip to Jackson in about four years.

—Jackson's Hole Courier, January 13, 1918

Strange how a dominating physical feature moulds the character of a country. The Pass—it is always spoken of as The Pass—is never very far away from the thoughts of the inhabitants of the valley.

—Struthers Burt, The Diary of a Dude Wrangler

Heavy snow often closed Teton Pass, and community residents had to endure long periods of isolation. Workers struggled to get the gasoline truck through the cleared path on Teton Pass, which was often hand dug each spring. Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum

Geographic isolation, more than any other factor, binds the history of Jackson Hole. Getting supplies and mail over the divides preoccupied valley residents as much as any other activity. Severe winters compounded their problems. Indeed, poor transportation links retarded development in this valley well into the twentieth century.

After the United States acquired a continental empire from coast to coast, finding a way to link this land drew national attention. Only the great issues of slavery and sectionalism overshadowed this problem; in fact, the controversy over a transcontinental railroad route became enmeshed in the politics of slavery. Gold rushes in California in 1849 and Colorado in 1858 made Americans conscious of the transportation problem. These migrations did not typify frontier expansion; rather than emanating from civilized centers east to west, the miners' frontier skipped from the Mississippi Valley and eastern United States to the Pacific Coast, then headed east to the Rockies.

The Oregon Trail was the primary overland route to California and Oregon. This trail bypassed Jackson Hole, utilizing South Pass about 100 miles to the southeast. The Oregon Trail was so arduous that many people preferred travel by ship, either to Panama and the short overland trip across the isthmus or around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. In the 1850s, the army conducted several surveys to evaluate and recommend a route for a transcontinental railroad. None of four proposed alignments passed through Jackson Hole.

Meanwhile, western pressure increased to develop reliable mail service between California and the East. Responding to political agitation, Congress authorized the postmaster general to let a contract for semi-weekly or weekly mail service to California. The Butterfield Overland Mail Company received the contract and established mail and passenger service between Tipton, Missouri, and San Francisco. The Butterfield route was a tortuous track that skirted southwest and then west through Arkansas, the Indian Territories, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, a distance of 2,812 miles. The Butterfield Company contracted with the Abbott-Downing Company of Concord, New Hampshire, to produce a suitable vehicle. The New England company manufactured the Concord stagecoach, which revolutionized travel in the West. These coaches sported special adaptations to western conditions—heavy broad, iron-rimmed tires that would not sink in sand, wide axles to prevent tip-overs, and leather thorough braces to absorb shocks. [1]

In 1860, entrepreneurs established the Pony Express in another effort to link the continent. They set up a route between St. Joseph, Missouri, and San Francisco. Relays of dashing horsemen each rode 70 miles to cover the entire route in just over ten days. The Pony Express never showed a profit and was doomed by new technology, the electric telegraph. In 1861, the federal government subsidized the construction of the first transcontinental telegraph, which construction crews completed in just under four months. [2]

The Civil War delayed construction of the transcontinental railroad until 1866, when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific began laying track across the continental expanse in earnest. The two companies raced over the rugged landscape. The Union Pacific laid track across southern Wyoming in 1867 and 1868. The two companies met at Promontory Point in Utah in May 1869. The completion of a transcontinental railroad was perhaps one of the most significant feats in American history for it bound the nation together both in symbolic and practical terms. The Union Pacific line, 150 miles south of Jackson Hole, provided access to supplies and mail, and facilitated settlement in the region of northwest Wyoming and southeast Idaho. [3]

Early routes into Jackson Hole were nothing more than the old trapper and Indian trails. The first settlers, John Holland and John Carnes, entered Jackson Hole from the Green River Valley via the Gros Ventre River. The so-called Bacon Ridge Trail was the most used route into the valley at first. The U.S. Geological Survey Mount Leidy Quadrangle, 1902, and the Gros Ventre Quadrangle, 1910, show the wagon road following the west bank of the upper Green River to Bacon Ridge. At the south end of the ridge, the road splits, one traversing the Kinky Creek Divide, the other the Bacon Creek Divide. The roads rejoined near the confluence of the Gros Ventre River and Fish Creek and followed the Gros Ventre into Jackson Hole. [4] In 1883, President Chester A. Arthur led a large entourage into Jackson Hole from Fort Washakie. Crossing Lincoln or Sheridan Pass, they cut a trail down the Gros Ventre into the valley then followed the Snake River north into Yellowstone. W. O. Owen's map of Township 42 North, Range 115 West shows a broken four-mile trail along the north side of the Gros Ventre River near the Kelly townsite, dubbed the Sheridan Trail. [5]

The Hoback River route followed the old trapper trail to Hoback Junction, a tortuous trail clinging to canyon walls in places. In 1878, William Henry Jackson traveled this trail, describing it as scenic but difficult because of long steep slides. "One of the mules took a roll of about 200 feet into the stream below, but fortunately with no serious harm to itself." [6]

The Snake River Canyon route was not used much because it remained a rugged horse trail over steep-pitched canyon sides. Further, Jackson Hole settlers had little reason to use it since better routes to supply sources existed. About 1906, Fred White, a local justice of the peace, used this route to take funds obtained from elk licenses to Evanston, Wyoming. After he failed to return, search parties scoured the canyon. They found his body and determined that he had been murdered. Since the money was gone, robbery was the probable motive. [7]

The trail over Teton Pass became the primary route into Jackson Hole, for it provided the closest access to supplies and mail, first to the train station at Market Lake, then later to Rexburg, Idaho. By the late 1880s, a crude wagon track had been cleared over the high mountain pass. According to one reference, R. E. Miller, John Cherry, and Jack Hicks brought the first wagons over Teton Pass in 1888. The three teamsters hauled the baggage with pack animals and drove the wagons empty over the divide. The Wilson-Cheney party brought six covered wagons into the valley in the fall of 1889. It took them two weeks to complete the trip, taking two wagons at a time, each pulled by three teams of horses. Getting to the summit was one thing, but easing the wagons down either side of the summit proved even more difficult. Travelers employed several techniques, either separately or in combination, such as placing the larger rear wheels on the front of the wagon, which helped stabilize it. Some rough locked the rear wheels, fastening a log across them with a chain, in essence creating a brake. Travelers also dragged a log behind wagons to serve as another brake, which was called "putting on a dowser." Drivers even used this last method to control the descent of early automobiles down the divide. Thus, wagon traffic became commonplace over the pass in the 1890s. [8]

In 1901, Otho Williams surveyed the first formal road over Teton Pass, using a surveying instrument made of a walnut table leaf. The road grade followed the old trapper trail. Peter Karns, the local road commissioner released $500 for improvements. The source of this money is unknown, but it may have been raised from property taxes in Uinta County. [9]

As the valley's link with the outside world, the condition of the "Pass" preoccupied citizens most of the year, especially during winter. "How's the Pass?" was the question asked most often. Struthers Burt even titled a chapter in his The Diary of a Dude Wrangler, "The Pass." He wrote that it was "strange how a dominating physical feature moulds the character of a country. The Pass—it is always spoken of as The Pass—is never very far away from the thoughts of the inhabitants of the valley" [10]

Every resident who crossed the Pass had at least one hair-raising episode to recall—and if they did not, probably made one up. Burt recalled seeing a man thrown around 20 feet from the seat of a sleigh when a runner hit a buried stump. He plunged head first into the snow "and for a moment nothing was visible but absurdly kicking heels." Burt's son, Nathaniel, recalled a truck turning a corner in too wide an arc, putting a rear wheel over the edge of the narrow road. Other incidents were more serious, such as the massive snowslide that swept down Crater Lake in 1932, killing a teenage boy. [11]

The Marysville (Idaho) Road and the Ashton Moran freight road were the other significant roads to towns in Idaho. Residents occasionally used other routes over the Teton Range, but none were especially practical. Parthenia Stinnett recollected that people traveled over Fox Creek Pass at the head of Death Canyon during the late summer, but difficult terrain prevented it from becoming a viable route. In the early years, pioneers crossed Conant or Jackass Passes via the Berry Creek Trail. Carrie Nesbitt Dunn moved to Jackson Hole with her mother, Lucy Nesbitt Shive and her stepfather, Jack Shive, via this route. The Ashton-Moran freight road and the Marysville Road followed river and creek drainages between the north end of the Teton Range and Pitchstone Plateau in Yellowstone. Willis L. Winegar, who later lived in Jackson Hole, claimed to have driven the first wagon over this trail in 1883 enroute to Yellowstone, probably over the Marysville Road route. In 1910, the Reclamation Service constructed the Ashton-Moran freight road to provide a supply line to the dam project on Jackson Lake. This freight road became a significant supply line for people in the north end of Jackson Hole. [12]

The federal government constructed a military road from Fort Washakie to Fort Yellowstone via Togwotee Pass around 1900. Senator Francis E. Warren introduced a bill to construct this road in 1896 as a result of the Indian scare in 1895. A 1902 map of Township 45 North, Range 113 West, 6th Principal Meridian shows a track labeled the Military Road along the north side of the Buffalo Fork. This road joined the trail that skirted the east shore of Jackson Lake. [13]

None of these routes surpassed the Teton Pass Road as the main link with the outside world. Teton Pass, followed by the Ashton-Moran Road, provided the best access to railroad towns in Idaho. In 1882, the Union Pacific began constructing the Oregon Short Line, a trunk road connecting eastern Idaho with the main Union Pacific line at Granger, Wyoming. The Oregon Short Line reached Rexburg, Idaho, in 1899 and St. Anthony by 1902. In 1912, workers laid tracks to Driggs and Victor, the terminus of the branch line. [14]

Memories of the trek into Jackson Hole are common in the few extant personal accounts of early life in the hole. Maggie McBride's journal of the migration of the Budge, Allen, May, and McBride families is one the few and best accounts of a journey to Jackson Hole prior to 1900. Leaving home in Rockland, Idaho, it took them two weeks to make the trip to Jackson Hole. Rather than travel by covered wagon as the McBride caravan did, many settlers traveled by rail. In 1902, J. P Nelson and his family moved to Jackson Hole. They rode the Oregon Short Line to its terminus at St. Anthony Idaho, then purchased a team of horses and a wagon for the remaining trip through Teton Valley to Jackson Hole via Teton Pass. In 1912, Dick Winger filed on a homestead in the valley that he had never seen. He traveled to Driggs, Idaho, in a boxcar stuffed with farm machinery, furniture, and six cattle. He then arranged to have it all shipped over Teton Pass. [15]

Linda McKinstry wrote an undated memoir about her 1915 trip to Jackson Hole. H. C. McKinstry, her husband, paid for an immigrant car, which was a boxcar available to homesteaders at special rates. In it, they loaded furniture, books, household articles, two mares, water, and hay. They had also purchased "considerable farm machinery," which included a Studebaker wagon, a sulky plow, a mower, and a hayrake. In addition, McKinstry obtained the necessary tools for constructing a log cabin—a cross cut saw, an axe, log chains, a peavey and a drawknife. Mrs. McKinstry insisted that a Majestic kitchen range be added to the load. McKinstry rode ahead in the boxcar, unloading at Victor. He hauled the most needed goods over Teton Pass and stored the remainder of the freight in Victor.

Linda McKinstry followed on another train from Fargo, North Dakota, to Butte, Montana, where she and her brother-in-law switched to a train bound for Idaho Falls, the entire trip taking three days and two nights on "dirty dusty trains." The next day they took a train to St. Anthony, a two-hour ride, then switched trains for a four-hour trip to Victor, where she rejoined her husband. They spent the night at the little frame hotel at Victor, which she described as lacking conveniences available in Idaho Falls.

The next day Mrs. McKinstry persuaded her husband to rent saddle horses for the final leg of the journey over Teton Pass. It turned out to be a terrible mistake. Unused to long horseback trips, they plodded through melting snow on the upper elevations. "Not only was this hard on the horse, but also on the rider, and a novice would receive a terrific jolt." She arrived in Jackson "lame, sore, and very tired" and "simply fell off of the horse when I was helped down." The McKinstry narrative illustrates the importance of the Idaho railroad system to settlement and development in Jackson Hole. Immigrant boxcars allowed settlers to bring in a much greater quantity of supplies and materials than their predecessors, who had only pack animals or covered wagons. Even so, the McKinstry's trek over Teton Pass indicates the difficulty of getting mail, supplies, and people into this alpine valley. When Struthers Burt first came to Jackson Hole in 1907, the railroad terminus was in St. Anthony, "a 105 miles away a two days' journey if you were lucky and the weather was good, a three to five days' journey if you were unlucky and the weather was bad." [16]

In Jackson Hole, the first roads were primitive wagon trails. The township maps of William O. Owen, surveyed in 1892 and 1893, and the U.S. Geological Survey Grand Teton Quadrangle of 1899 document the early road system. Owen's 1892 map of Township 41 North, Range 116 West, shows an extensive network of wagon tracks in today's town of Jackson and the Elk Refuge area. Roads existed in Spring Gulch and along East Gros Ventre Butte up Botcher Hill. On Township 42 North, Range 116 West, which covered lands north of the confluence of the Gros Ventre and Snake Rivers, Owen mapped a road on the west side of the Snake that conforms in places to the present Moose-Wilson Road. No road is shown crossing the Gros Ventre River. Since Owen did not survey the Jenny Lake—Timbered Island area, no record exists of roads in this area during the early 1890s. In surveying the quadrangle encompassing the Antelope Flats area, Owen plotted the "Old Road," a trail that began southeast of Blacktail Butte and went up Antelope Flats, where it ran north to the Buffalo Fork then bore east up the Buffalo Valley. Owen's survey map of Township 44 North, Range 115 West shows portions of road along the west shore of the Snake River into the Potholes. His map of the next township, Township 45 North, Range 114 West, records a road across the Buffalo Fork near its mouth that follows the general grade of the current highway. Although not labeled as such, this may have been the Sheridan Trail. Owens township surveys indicate the existence of primitive wagon roads in the park by 1893. [17] The Grand Teton Quadrangle, surveyed by T. M. Bannon in 1899, reveals the road system in the park. Settlers could travel from one end of the valley to the other via roads on both sides of the Snake. Fords and other major river crossings are shown on the map. [18]

Despite more or less reliable access to railroad towns in Idaho and the construction of wagon roads in the valley itself, travel remained a time-consuming and difficult activity. Settlers did not just hitch up the team to the wagon and drive the family to the town of Jackson on a whim. As a result, trips to Jackson were limited for many homesteaders, occurring only once or twice a year. Consequently Jackson Hole developed as a cluster of several small communities centered around post offices and small villages. Marion Allen recalled that up to 1918, the valley consisted of "three or four parts" centered on Moran and Elk in the upper valley Grovont and Kelly in the middle, and Jackson and Wilson in the lower end. In October 1918, the Courier reported the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Nelson in Jackson from their Spread Creek ranch. This was Mrs. Nelson's first visit to Jackson in nearly four years, a trip of approximately 30 miles. [19]

The geographic isolation of the Teton country increased the cost and scarcity of supplies, especially during the winter months. Prior to 1900, settlers freighted all of their supplies into the valley but as businesses developed in Jackson, Wilson, and Kelly, they relied increasingly on local sources. For years, the standard charge for hauling freight was a penny per pound. Freighting added to the cost of living as these charges were added to retail costs. Don Hough recalled, in his tongue-in-cheek The Cocktail Hour in Jackson Hole, that a ten-cent box of corn flakes cost a quarter in Joe Jones's grocery. The grocer's "business slogan" was "it's all got to be brought over the Hill." While Hough needs to be taken with a grain of salt, other evidence reinforces the high cost of transport. For example, in 1937, the superintendent of Grand Teton National Park purchased a quantity of supplies at Kemmerer, Wyoming, and Pocatello, Idaho, saving the government 30 percent in costs, much of it due to freight charges. [20]

Isolation caused scarcity, particularly in the wake of a severe winter. Struthers Burt described the frustration he and his partner, Horace Carncross, experienced in securing needed supplies to construct their new dude ranch. A severe winter and abominable conditions on Teton Pass left store shelves empty. Building materials such as nails and roofing paper failed to arrive on time or at all, and the only foods available were canned fruits, coffee, beans, and carrots. Burt complained that not even flour, sugar, or canned milk were available. "Eventually it became difficult to look a canned peach or a bean or a carrot in the face. And the fact that canned peaches are ordinarily the most expensive of luxuries did not increase the doctor's or my appetite for them. We suffered both internally and externally." [21]

Two other factors hindered travel in the valley severe winters and rivers. Jackson Hole winters are known for their length and the amount of snow that blankets the ground. The Snake River and its tributaries were transportation barriers. In the spring and early summer, watercourses swollen with snowmelt became treacherous. Winter imposed serious constraints on travel, as well as other aspects of life in the valley Snow can cover the ground for as long as six months per year. At Moose, Wyoming, an average of 196 inches of snow fell annually between 1959 and 1970. This amounts to 30 to 40 inches of snow on the ground during the worst part of winter. Snow depths increase with elevation, which choke the passes into Jackson Hole. Frigid temperatures typify winters, particularly in the months of December, January, and February. The highest daily temperatures seldom exceed the freezing mark and lows frequently dip below zero. In December 1924, the town of Jackson recorded a low of -60° Fahrenheit, while the Elk Refuge recorded a low of -54° Fahrenheit. In 1933, the thermometer plunged to -63° Fahrenheit at Moran. Snowfall comes in uneven amounts, often during severe winter storms. For example, Moose, Wyoming, recorded 21 inches of snowfall in one day in January 1962, while Moran recorded 15 inches in the same storm. [22]

Historically severe winter storms cut off transportation routes to Jackson Hole. The closure of Teton Pass delayed the publication of the first edition of the Jackson's Hole Courier for three weeks in 1909. Several years later, in 1916, the Courier reported that heavy snows had buried eastern Idaho, blocking train traffic for more than a week. A year later, heavy snow and avalanches left the people of Jackson Hole snowbound for 28 days. To make matters even worse, snow blocked the rails to Victor for 52 days, isolating not only the valley but the upper end of the Teton Valley in Idaho. In 1927, a series of blizzards pummeled northwestern Wyoming; on January 20, the Courier reported that just about every slide on Teton Pass had run, and that there were snowdrifts up to 15 feet deep. Even in the 1930s, links with the outside world remained unreliable during the winter months as the Pass could be closed for several days at a time. [23]

Game warden Al Austin, ca. 1910. During the long Jackson Hole winters, skis were a necessity. Early skis were homemade; the single long pole was used for balance and to propel the skier. Grand Teton National Park

Winter was also the time of avalanches, a deadly threat feared by travelers. Slide runs on the Teton Pass Road posed significant hazards. Between 1911 and 1913, avalanches killed two mail carriers, Owen Curtis and Frankie Parsons, both on the west side of the pass. In 1932, a slide swept down the mountain side in the Crater Lake area burying Harry Swanson, 14 years old, in 30 to 40 feet of snow. His body was not recovered until the following spring. Stephen Leek described his experience in surviving a snow slide on the pass. Hearing a booming noise signaling a slide, Leek wrapped his arms around a tree and hung on for perhaps 30 seconds of sheer terror. As the slide passed by he described the mist as suffocating, the noise deafening. Hechtman Lake is named for Fred Hechtman, who was killed in an avalanche in the Berry Creek area in 1914. [24]

To get around during the winter, settlers used Nordic skis (also called snowshoes). By today's standards, pioneer skis were cumbersome, heavy wooden boards sometimes as much as 12 feet long. Skiers used one large pole made of a sapling rather than the two lightweight poles used today. The first skis were home-crafted with native materials. A homesteader on Flat Creek named Big John Emery reputedly made the best skis out of "red fir," also known as Douglas fir. He cut down a tree two to three feet thick, quartered it, then let the wood cure. After the wood dried, he worked skis out of the quartered sections; the tips were soaked in water and lye, then bent around a tree and fastened in place to fashion a curve at the tips. The housings could be heavy shoes or boots attached to the skis, or primitive wooden bindings. Canvas or seamless sacks served as leggings or gaiters. Settlers improvised waxes—applying beeswax, elk tallow, and pine pitch to ski bottoms. There were probably even more wax substitutes that have not been recorded. To climb steep hills, Stephen Leek recalled wrapping rope around the skis to provide good traction. The first manufactured skis were introduced in the 1920s. Mike O'Neil, a Forest Service employee, may have been the first to use manufactured skis in 1925-1926. Valley pioneers also used snowshoes, constructing frames of sapling poles and using rawhide strips for webbing.

The Ed Chambers family, who lived west of Blacktail Butte, used several forms of winter transportation: skies, snowshoes, and dog sleds. Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum

Immigrants to the valley not used to such deep snow, usually had to learn how to ski. Charlie Hedrick swore that big heavy skis were the only way to travel in winter. Others were not so sure. Butch Robinson homesteaded far up the Gros Ventre River, a wonderful but even more isolated country than Jackson Hole. Robinson's brother, Eddie, joined him at the homestead. With the onset of winter, Butch decided his brother would have to learn to ski. So they plodded up an open hill, blinding white in the winter sun. Only a single tree broke the snow laden slope. Butch explained the rudiments of controlling a descent and, with the instructions fresh in his ear, Eddie took off down the slope. He gained speed rapidly and lost control. Trying to avoid the lone tree, Eddie headed straight for it. Butch yelled, "Ride your pole! Ride your pole!" This technique involved straddling the pole and squatting on it to control speed. Despite his brother's instructions, Eddie Robinson crashed headlong into the tree, knocking himself out. Butch rushed to aid him. When Eddie came to his senses, Butch asked, "Why didn't you ride your pole?" His stunned brother replied, "In the first place, I was going faster than the sound of your voice, and in the second place I was riding my pole but the rear end was on top of one of the skis." [25]

Horse-drawn sleighs were the chief mode of travel in winter and were used well into the 1930s and 1940s. Only when state and county governments began keeping roads open year-round did their use decline. Old photographs show that settlers used a variety of sleighs for travel. The Jackson stage in 1909 was a small cutter, which appears to be nothing more than a platform with runners attached to it. Sometimes people covered the sleds with canvas tops to provide some shelter from severe weather conditions. Others went so far as to install wood stoves in covered sleighs. Al Austin built one for the National Park Service in 1930-1931, which the superintendent referred to as a "Jackson Hole Special." Not only were sleighs used to carry mail and supplies, but they also served an important social function as they enabled groups of people to gather for dances and celebrations, a welcome break from isolated winters. The Jackson's Hole Couriers are full of references to people traveling by sleigh to parties and dances. For example, in December 1927, two sleigh loads of neighbors surprised the Woodmans at the Flying V for an impromptu party that lasted all night. [26]

Rivers in Jackson Hole hindered travel, therefore bridges, ferries, and reliable fords became important points in the valley's transportation network. And, like travel in winter, the valley's rivers and streams posed significant dangers. For example, John Sargent's partner, Ray Hamilton, drowned while fording the Snake River prior to 1900. A search party lit a bonfire on the summit of a hill south of Jackson Lake when they found his body—hence the name, Signal Mountain. In 1917, Lorin Loomis disappeared in the Moran area. Search parties dragged the river presuming he had drowned, but failed to locate his body. People speculated about Loomis's fate until memory of him faded. In 1923, the elder John Smejkal disappeared while hunting. A year later, his body was found in the Snake River at the Harrison Ranch below Menor's Ferry. Tragedy struck on the Hoback River in 1928, when the Davis family tried to cross the river at the old Granite Creek ford while on a fishing holiday. The wagon tipped over, throwing the family into the river. Huldah Budge Davis and her two-year-old son, James, drowned in the accident. [27]

Rebuilding the Kelly bridge after the original washed out in the 1927 flood. Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum

T. M. Bannon's survey of 1899 provides the best record of river crossings above the town of Jackson prior to 1900. The map shows fords across the Snake and Gros Ventre Rivers at their confluence. Three fords existed on the lower portion of the Gros Ventre, over the next six miles from its mouth. The next crossing was near the present town site of Kelly, which was either a bridge or a ford. A photograph in the Harold Fabian Collection shows workers rebuilding a log truss bridge over the Gros Ventre River around 1902. On the Snake River, one ford existed between its junction with the Gros Ventre River and Menor's Ferry. Between Menor's Ferry and Conrad's Ferry east of the Oxbow, no fords are indicated on the map. Two crossings are shown near the mouths of both the Buffalo Fork and Pacific Creek. [28] Three crossings on the Snake were especially important transportation links: the Wilson crossing, Menors Ferry and the Moran area.

The first settlers forded the braided channels of the Snake east of Teton Pass, just as trappers and explorers had done before them. The emergence of a community around the Jackson Post Office and Deloney's Store, along with concentrated homesteading in South Park and the Flat Creek area, magnified the importance of this crossing. High water not only made fording dangerous, but altered channels and scoured huge holes in the river bottom, sometimes at fording points. Residents operated a ferryboat for some years at the location, but shifting gravel bars and snags hampered the operation. They may have installed a winter bridge during the cold season, assembling and taking it down each year. The Jackson-Wilson ferry ran until 1915 when it was replaced by a steel truss bridge. Workers completed the bridge in 1915 at a cost of $26,000, leaving $10,000 for riprap to protect the approaches to the bridge.

The riprap failed in 1917. Swollen with snow melt, the Snake River washed away the approaches to the bridge. A report in the Courier laid the blame on the Reclamation Service, charging that they released too much water from the dam. Reclamation Service officials refused to accept responsibility, asserting that no excess water had been released from the dam in July 1917. They countered that the wash out had occurred because Lincoln County had not properly repaired the cribbing that protected the approaches. Citizens and officials representing county, state, and federal government wrangled over responsibility and ultimately who should pay for new approaches to the bridge. In September 1918, an engineer representing the Bureau of Public Roads opposed allocating federal funds for the repairs. While the haggling went on, the citizens of Jackson Hole had a more immediate problem—no bridge. The 650-foot, five-span bridge, once the longest in Wyoming, protruded across the Snake, a useless monument for five years.

Meanwhile, to cross the river, valley residents strung a primitive cable car across the Snake River at the bridge. In April 1918, County Commissioner James Budge hired William Crawford, a pioneer rancher, to build a ferry until the bridge could be repaired. The ferry was less than three months old when floodwaters washed away a deadman and tripod, causing the ferry to break loose and drift down stream. Even after the ferry was repaired, the washed-out approaches caused delays and inconvenience for freighters, mail carriers, and travelers. Rather than attempt a crossing at the Wilson Bridge, travelers often diverted north nearly 20 miles to Menor's Ferry in order to cross the Snake. Finally in 1921 and 1922, contractors rebuilt the approaches and modified the existing bridge. Lincoln County provided $20,000, supplemented by state and federal funds, while citizens raised an additional $14,000 to ensure completion of the work. A worker drove the last spike on February 2, 1922; to celebrate, local citizens organized an informal program, setting off 25 sticks of dynamite. [29]

Approximately 15 miles above the Jackson-Wilson Bridge, the Snake River contracts into a single channel for about one mile. Not an ideal ford, it is a superb site for a bridge or a ferry. On July 17, 1894, William D. Menor took up a homestead with that in mind. Moreover, the banks were low, allowing relatively easy access to the river. Because the channel was narrow, the water was deeper than in the braided channels above and below this point. Menor had spent ten days with Jack Shive and John Cherry at their homesteads on the Buffalo Fork, who advised him to pick a location along the Snake River. By 1903, Menor had built improvements valued at $2,500. The most important improvement was his ferry. [30]

Menor's Ferry became the most important river crossing in Jackson Hole, with the exception of the Jackson-Wilson Bridge. Maggie McBride left the earliest record of crossing the ferry. On July 9, 1896, the party reached Menor's Ferry:

Took a long time to get our outfit across. The loose horses swam the river. We tried to jew Mr. Menor down on the ferry bill, but nothing doing, even tried to pay him in flour and cured pork, but after we got across and paid him in cash, then he wanted some bacon, but we didn't let it go, kept it four [sic] our winter supply.

Mrs. McBride's description is generally in keeping with other accounts of Bill Menor. But most important, her narrative stresses the point that Menor built the ferry to make a living; public service was secondary.

Menor operated the ferry during periods of high water. With the aid of neighbors, he assembled a bridge during periods of low water, such as winter. Occasionally he used a small platform suspended from the cable to get passengers across the river. During periods of high water, valley residents seemed to prefer Menor's Ferry over less reliable fords. For example, in May 1914, the Courier reported that teamsters were hauling supplies into Jackson via Menor's Ferry because of high water. After the 1917 flood wiped out the approaches to the Wilson bridge, the ferry assumed greater importance as freighters and mail carriers often traveled the extra 30 miles from Teton Pass to the ferry then back to Jackson. [31]

However, Menor's Ferry was not always reliable. Shifting gravel bars and uprooted trees, called "snags," posed serious hazards. When the river was "in spate," that is, overflowing its banks, Menor refused to risk himself or the ferry. On at least one occasion, a snag struck the ferry with such force that the ropes securing it to the steel cable parted, and the river swept it downstream. The ferry went a short distance, when it struck a gravel bar. While neighbors gathered and considered the best way to rescue Bill Menor, "he stood on the ferry violently cursing the rescue crew and acting, in general, as though they alone were to blame." Struthers Burt recalled that the ferry "went out" in the spring of 1912, "cutting us off completely for a while from the town." It could not have happened at a worse time for Burt and Carncross, who were frantically constructing cabins at the Bar BC to house their first dudes. [32]

Menor's Ferry was an ingenious contraption, consisting of a platform set on two pontoons. The ferry was attached by a rope to a steel cable suspended across the river by cableworks and deadmen, which were logs buried in the ground. The rope was secured to a pulley system on the cable and pulleys and a pilot wheel on the ferry. The current powered the ferry across the river. By turning the pilot wheel, the operator manipulated the angle of the pontoons and steered the ferry to either bank. Menor rebuilt the ferry at least once around 1910.

As Maggie McBride's memory indicates, Bill Menor did not intend the ferry to be a charitable operation. Many early river crossings were built by private individuals, and whether bridges or ferries, they charged a toll. There is some discrepancy regarding Menor's rates. According to Frances Judge, he charged 50 cents for a team and 25 cents for a horse and rider. Yet, an illustration in her article shows a sign bearing the following prices:

Foot Backers	25 cents
Horse Backers	50 cents
2 HORSE TEAM AND WAGON	$1.00
4 HORSE TEAM AND WAGON	$2.00

Stan Boyle, the son of a teamster named Sam Boyle, accompanied his father on several freighting runs into Jackson Hole around 1915. He recollected the rugged trip over Teton Pass to Wilson, which then followed the wagon track to Menor's Ferry. Taking into account that he was a young boy at the time, Boyle remembered prices being 50 to 75 cents for a wagon or team, and 25 cents for an individual on horseback. Thus, only approximate prices can be established. [33]

In 1918, Bill Menor decided to sell out, tired of "high water and low water" and "fog, rain, wind, snow, and sunshine on the Snake." In late July he concluded negotiations with Maud Noble, Frederick Sandell, and Mrs. May Lee and sold out. Menor retired to California where he died in 1933. [34] Noble and Sandell bought out Mrs. Lee and operated the ferry until 1927. Menor's Ferry remained a major crossing after the advent of the automobile. Noble and Sandell doubled the fare, taking advantage of the increasing tourist traffic of the 1920s. The sharp price increase angered residents. In one instance, a man became so angry upon discovering the price increase that he leapt into the river and swam across the channel, while "the pilot stood on the ferry cursing the swimmer and yelling that he hoped he would drown." [35]

Cars took America by storm in the 1920s as manufacturers produced affordable vehicles. Americans took to the roads, but found that many of these roads were little more than wagon tracks. Automobile owners pressured governments to improve the nations road network. Thus, in 1924, the Bureau of Public Roads announced plans to build a 13-mile road between Jackson and Menor's Ferry. In 1926, a construction crew began work on the steel bridge at the ferry. The work did not progress smoothly however. Si Ferrin provided lumber for the bridge, cutting it at his Elk Ranch mill. He transported one of the first loads down the river on a raft. Above the Bar BC, the raft jammed against a snag and sank, stranding Frank Petersen and a crew of three. After rescuers saved the crew, the tree was dynamited to free the raft, which drifted to a gravel bar just above the ferry. Despite such difficulties, the bridge was completed and operational by 1927, ending the monopoly of Noble and Sandell on the river. [36]

In the northern end of Jackson Hole, important crossings were located on the Snake River between the outlet of Jackson Lake and Pacific Creek. Mystery surrounds Conrad's Ferry because so little information is available. According to Nolie Mumey, Harris-Dunn & Company constructed the ferry in 1895 to transport equipment and supplies to their placer mine on Whetstone Creek. They freighted supplies over Teton Pass and up the west side of the river. They hired the Conrads to operate the ferry. James M. Conrad homesteaded 157.76 acres east of Oxbow Bend in June 1896. Conrad was a disabled Civil War veteran and widower. Aided by his son, Conrad constructed a 16-by-18-foot log cabin and a barn. It is likely that the elder Conrad operated the ferry, rather than Ernest Conrad who was 11 years old in 1896. No photographs of the ferry are known to exist, but Moran resident Herb Whiteman described the ferry as nothing more than a square barge with no side rails. A winch and the current powered it across the river. According to Mumey a herd of cattle stampeded on the ferry in 1897, causing it to "upset" with considerable damage. Conrad rebuilt the ferry and continued to operate it. The T. M. Bannon survey of 1899 shows Conrad's Ferry, suggesting that it operated until the turn of the century. Because of poor health, Conrad left the homestead in 1900 and relinquished his claim to the homestead to Homer Guerry in 1902. By this time, Conrad was residing in a soldiers' home in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and was "compelled to remain quiet because of his disabled physical condition." [37]

In 1903, Ben Sheffield bought up property at Moran to serve as headquarters for his hunting and fishing camp. Around this time, he built a toll bridge just below the outlet of Jackson Lake that served travelers until 1910, when the Reclamation Service's log crib dam gave out, destroying the bridge. The new concrete dam served as a bridge. [38]

Establishing reliable mail service was one of the first and primary concerns of Jackson Hole pioneers. Mrs. Mae Tuttle, who was the former Mrs. Fred White and first postmaster in Jackson Hole, recalled vividly the erratic mail service and isolation prior to 1900. To Cora Nelson Barber, she wrote:

Don't you remember how we saw or spoke to a neighbor only once or twice a year and we never got word or mail from the outside from snowfall to spring thaw unless some hardy individual took it into his head to ski across the mountain and bring everybody's mail, and as soon as we heard about it how we all made ski tracks to that man's cabin, pronto. [39]

Around 1891, residents of Jackson Hole and some living in the southern part of Teton Valley petitioned the Postal Service for a mail route from St. Anthony and for a post office in Jackson Hole. Before granting the request, the Postal Department stipulated that local residents carry the mail for a year to prove the feasibility of regular mail service over such a difficult route. Settlers accepted the challenge and took turns carrying mail for the year. On March 25, 1892, a post office was established at Marysville near Botcher Hill, and a mail carrier was paid to make the run between Rexburg and Jackson Hole. S. N. Leek described the rugged mail run in an unpublished memoir. Traveling on homemade Nordic skis, Leek packed provisions, elk tallow for ski wax, and outgoing mail. He recalled that carriers stripped from the waist down to ford the ice-cold Snake, wading across the river laden with pack, skis, pole and a bundle of clothes. Once on the west bank, the mail carriers hand-rubbed themselves dry, dressed, then set out for the trail over Teton Pass. One carrier was not so lucky as Leek. In February 1896, the Wyoming Tribune reported that a mail carrier had lost his boat, toboggan, and snowshoes while trying to cross the Snake River. He managed to save the two most important things—his life and the mail.

Snowslides were always a problem. If a mail carrier happened to be buried in a slide, his chances of survival were slim. The trip to Rexburg took the better part of six days; Leek recollected the trip required one snow camp and four nights at isolated cabins. Mae Tuttle skied over Teton Pass at a later date. The trek to the summit was arduous, making the lunch break at the mail carrier's small snow cabin or "igloo" all the more welcome. Although her description is vague, the shelter seems to have been a snow cave. "The snow was so deep over it that there was just a little hole in the snow down which we had to slide yards and yards till we got to the entrance and then when we made a fire in the corner chimney to boil our coffee, the melted snow began to drip down on us." Leek hauled around 100 letters per trip from Rexburg to homesteaders in Teton Basin and Jackson Hole. [40]

Regular mail service brought immediate changes, as pioneers were no longer quite so isolated. Further, in a land of scarcity, people could take advantage of mail order retailers to order both necessities and luxuries, rather than wait for the annual trip to Rexburg to purchase them. Mae Tuttle remembered "then we really did feel important. We could order things from the mail order houses and get them without waiting for six months." She once ordered a pair of slippers from Montgomery Ward; the company sent a pair of wooden shoes that weighed nearly ten pounds. Mrs. Tuttle shipped them back the next day. As the mail carrier plodded over the pass on skis carrying "that awful parcel," she could well imagine that "what he said about wooden shoes and my bright mind probably melted some snow." [41]

Daily mail service to Jackson began around 1900. According to one newspaper article, James Riggan, 14 years old, began transporting mail in saddle bags over Teton Pass in 1897. Another source stated that daily mail service began in 1902. The census of 1900 listed a Thomas Patten as a mail carrier. By 1900, there were five post offices in Jackson Hole: Jackson, Elk, Grovont, Wilson, and the short lived South Park, which opened in 1899 and shut down in 1902. [42] In 1909, nine post offices existed in the valley with mail service six days per week at two of them: Jackson and Wilson. [43]

The United States Postal Service issued mail run contracts, which attracted many local residents because of the reliable income. For example, Si Ferrin secured the Jackson-to-Moran mail run in 1914 at $3,000 per year for service three times per week. Many Jackson Hole pioneers carried mail at one time or another; among them Jack Eynon, Fred Topping, Andy Chambers, and Mart Henrie. William Manning made news in 1930 when he secured a contract to carry mail. He was 94 years old at the time. [44] Although the contracts provided a reliable source of income, the work could be dangerous. Avalanches were a serious hazard, as the deaths of mail carriers Gwen Curtis and Frankie Parsons proved. River crossings could be hazardous, too. Mail carrier George Kissenger drowned while fording the Gros Ventre around 1910. [45]

Mail service was amazingly reliable considering severe weather and distances from rail service. Pioneers did not complain much about mail service, having to cope with difficult travel conditions themselves. There were exceptions, however. At the end of 1918, the Jackson's Hole Courier reported that valley residents were "thoroughly disgusted" with mail service between Jackson and the rail terminus at Victor. The contractor, D. B. Brinton of Victor, let parcel post pile up in Victor and failed sometimes to meet schedules. "Getting on in years," Brinton acknowledged his inability to perform the job and eventually sublet the mail contract to Wallace Ricks. [46]

Around 1918, gasoline-powered trucks replaced horse-drawn vehicles, at least during the warmer months. With the onset of winter, trucks were replaced by sleighs. In 1919, Jack Eynon used a truck to deliver mail in the valley. Trucks cut time and, therefore, costs. In 1921, Fred Topping went to Salt Lake City to pick up a one-ton White truck to be used to carry mail between Jackson and Moran during the summer. Topping planned to leave Jackson at 7:00 A.M. and return by 6:30 PM., allowing him to make daily deliveries on his own, and avoiding the cost of another driver and team. But even gasoline engines could be unreliable. In June 1919, the Courier reported that Jack Eynon's mail truck had broken down near Kelly, delaying mail service. [47]

As governmental agencies improved roads to accommodate increased automobile traffic, mail routes shifted in the 1930s. For example, in 1931, residents in the northern end of Jackson Hole found it more convenient to route mail through Lander, Wyoming, during the summer. A year later, the Courier reported that the Rock Springs postal inspector was reviewing the idea of having Jackson Hole mail routed to and from Rock Springs rather than the Oregon Short Line route to Victor, Idaho. According to the report, the Rock Springs route would save one day on the delivery of eastern mail over the Victor route. In addition, Rock Springs would provide access to air mail. In 1934, the Postal Service switched the mail route to Rock Springs. [48]

Transporting freight and passengers was another concern. Stage service was established by 1909. The first edition of the Jackson's Hole Courier reported "in connection with the mail service there is a stage between St. Anthony and Jackson, by Wilson, making the trip of 88 miles in 18 hours of actual travel, the passenger stopping over one night on the road." A postcard printed in Germany shows the Jackson stage on March 1, 1909. Drawn by a pair of draft horses, the "stage" is a small cutter consisting of a platform set on two runners. The service predated 1909 in all probability, but these are the first good references to it. [49]

The extension of the Oregon Short Line tracks to Victor reduced time of travel considerably. But stage trips from Jackson to Victor still took one day until automobiles and improved roads reduced travel time. Several teamsters achieved a measure of fame for their skill and exploits. Most well known were Clay "Old Rawhide" Seaton, Amasa James, and Henry Scott. They carried mail, freight, and passengers over Teton Pass at all times of the year, over roads turned to a muddy paste by spring rains and runoff, or on a snow-choked pass in winter. The drivers also kept the winter road packed and usable. The teamsters cleared snow and packed the track with a wye, also called a go-devil. This was a simple W-shaped device made of planks used to grade both dirt and snow-covered roads. James and Scott converted to trucks, probably in the 1920s, but continued to use sleds in winter months through the 1930s. [50]

Picking up culverts at the railhead in Victor, Idaho, for construction projects in Jackson Hole. The extension of the railroad to Victor improved links with the outside world. Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum

The Ashton-Moran freight road, also known as the Reclamation Road, was established in 1910 to transport supplies from the Oregon Short Line terminus at Ashton to Moran, the construction site of the Jackson Lake Dam. On July 5, 1910, the log crib dam gave way in its center portion, releasing a torrent of water down the Snake River. The Reclamation Service prepared to construct a new dam, selecting engineer Frank T. Crowe as project supervisor. Crowe recognized immediately that the remote location of Jackson Lake posed a notable obstacle that could delay or even prevent, the completion of a new dam. He established a supply center at Ashton and constructed a freight road to Jackson Lake. From the Snake River crossing north of Jackson Lake to Grassy Lakes, the freight road followed the alignment of the old Marysville wagon road, which dated from circa 1888. At Grassy Lakes, the new freight road diverted west, while the Marysville Road cut northwest into Yellowstone. The Reclamation Road turned southwest near Loon Lake, before running a course to Squirrel Meadows and Indian Lake. From this point, the road ran west to Ashton. At the Snake River, the road joined the military road connecting Yellowstone with Fort Washakie. [51]

To supervise the important freighting operation, Crowe hired Joseph "Hold" Egbert. The Service contracted the work to local settlers both in Jackson Hole and the Teton Basin, who welcomed the chance to earn ready cash. Each teamster completed about ten trips per season, the 150-mile round trip taking a minimum of six days. To be as self-sufficient as possible, freighters carried horseshoeing equipment, emergency food, clothing, tools, and extra hay and grain in the winter. The Reclamation Service built or set up roadhouses along the route at Squirrel Meadows, Cascade Creek, Dime Creek, and the Edward's Ranch on Lizard Creek. [52]

Sleighs were used from November through April, and wagons during the remaining months. The Studebaker was the standard freight wagon, being 24-feet-long (probably from tongue to rear) by 3-feet-8 inches wide. Most often, an outfit consisted of two wagons coupled together, pulled by teams of six to eight horses. As a rule of thumb, each horse could generally account for 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of freight; thus a double-wagon outfit could transport up to 12,000 pounds. Four thousand barrels or 850 tons of cement mix for the concrete dam constituted most of the loads in 1910 and 1922. By 1914, teamsters had hauled an estimated 300,000 tons of supplies and equipment over the Ashton-Moran Road. After the completion of the dam in 1916, people continued to use the freight road to bring supplies into the northern end of the valley. According to one account, freight wagons last traveled over the road in October 1927, when teamsters George Osborne Jr., and Charles Myers brought supplies into Jackson Hole. The Ashton-Moran freight road may have been the last such route used by wagons in the United States. [53]

Not only freighters, but tourists and other travelers created demand for food and lodging. At first, pioneer families extended their hospitality to these people, either free or for a small charge. As demand grew, a few started roadhouses or small hotels. By 1900, there were four hostelries in Jackson Hole: Mrs. John Anderson's boarding house, located at the wye near the future community of Jackson, the hotel at the base of Teton Pass built by Abraham Ward, and at Moran, Edward "Cap" Smith's hotel and Charles J. and Maria Allen's Elkhorn Hotel. Sources suggest that fire destroyed Smith's hotel after 1900. Hoping to profit from tourist traffic to Yellowstone, a few offered lodging and food to travelers bound for the south gate of Yellowstone. John Sargent catered to travelers at his homestead on Jackson Lake. Several miles north of Sargent's place, Cora Heigho and Herb Whiteman built several cabins about 1896 with the same intentions. Neither were particularly successful. The Heighos and Whiteman gave up around 1900. Several roadhouses were built on the Teton Pass Road: the Lee Roadhouse west of Wilson, a lodge on the summit of the pass operated by Mrs. Harry Scott, and Bircher's on the west side of the range. Owen Wister's daughter, Fanny Kemble Wister, recalled a tedious three-day journey to Jackson Hole over Teton Pass in 1912. She remembered the roadhouses as miserable affairs—guests sat on uncomfortable benches at tables, dining off tin plates and cups in dirty surroundings. [54]

The telephone, which revolutionized communication, made its debut in Jackson Hole in 1905, when Fred Lovejoy established the Jackson Telephone Exchange. He connected the first lines between the Jackson Hotel and Mose Giltner's ranch, three miles west of Jackson. The federal government contributed significantly to expanding telephone service through out the valley. In 1907, the Forest Service built telephone lines all the way from the Hoback to the Buffalo Fork and Yellowstone. By January 1909, the first issue of the Jackson's Hole Courier reported that the valley had its own system operated by the Jackson Valley Telephone Company. "Its lines, supplemented by those of the Forest Service, extend from one end of the valley to the other, and connect with the Bell System at Victor, Idaho," bringing "the scattered localities of the valley. . . near to one another and to the outside world." [55]

After 1909, telephone communications improved and extended steadily. The Reclamation Service strung a telephone cable from Moran to Ashton along the Reclamation Road. In South Park, J. G. Imeson operated a separate telephone system. In 1918, Fred Lovejoy took over the South Park System, absorbing it into the Jackson Valley Telephone Company. This small company owned by local residents, was sold to Mountain States Telephone in 1932. [56]

Early car travel in Jackson Hole after 1900 augured great changes. A party of tourists drove the first automobile into the valley in 1908. Traveling over Togwotee Pass from Fort Washakie, a very rough road, they drove along Jackson Lake to the Snake River Station at Yellowstone National Park. Too late, they learned that the army prohibited automobile travel through the park. Superintendent S. B. M. Young would not let them tow the car through the park with a horse team, but let them haul it to the west entrance on a freight wagon. [57]

In either 1910 or 1911, William Dunn drove a Cadillac via the Ashton Road to Jackson Hole. A trained mechanic, Al Austin accompanied Dunn to "mend tires." According to a captioned photograph in the Jackson's Hole Courier, Dan Hudson, a state game warden, drove the first car, a "White Steamer," into the valley under its own power in 1910. The route is unknown. After 1910, Mrs. John Moulton, a 14-year-old girl at the time, accompanied her uncle over Teton Pass in his EMF. They required a tow from a tandem of horses to make it over the divide. Mrs. Moulton believed her uncle's EMF was the first auto over Teton Pass. An unreliable vehicle, she recalled a common joke that EMF stood for "Every Morning Fix-it." In 1914, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Burton of Pocacatello, Idaho, managed to drive a Hupmobile over the pass without assistance. According to a contemporary account, the Burtons' car was the second to come over Teton Pass, but the first to make it on its own power. In August 1916, attorney Payson W. Spaulding drove over the Hoback Road from Pinedale in the company of another party. Although the journey was rugged, Spaulding found the drive scenic. [58]

Automobiles gained acceptance rapidly among valley residents. Perhaps it was an omen of the new era when a colt turned from its mother and followed Dunn's Cadillac as it chugged through the sleepy town of Jackson. The truth of this story is doubtful, but it suggests that valley residents recognized the changes the gasoline engines would bring. In November 1916, pioneer rancher Mose Giltner purchased a 1917 Buick Four and brought it proudly over the pass. By the end of World War I, trucks were used to haul freight and mail. The 1920s saw a dramatic change as people switched from horse-drawn vehicles to automobiles, although they continued to use sleighs in the winter. Even Jimmy Manges, a homesteader on Taggart Creek, gave in and bought a new car in 1926. The Courier reported that he was "enjoying the sensation of driving his new Dodge Sedan himself lately." [59]

Switching from horses to gasoline engines created demand for cars, and several residents established sales outlets. In 1915, Charles Wort and Dick Winger started the first dealership, bringing in three Ford Model Ts. In the same year, Spicer and Lloyd branched out from their saloon business, announcing their intentions to establish a car dealership for Mitchells, Dodges, and Buicks. Even the village of Kelly boasted an automobile dealership in 1919, where Spicer and Curtis sold Fords. [60]

Gas stations—the most familiar of roadside institutions—became conspicuous in the valley by the mid-1920s. In the early years, car owners stored gasoline in barrels at their residences or businesses. Entrepreneurs, such as A. J. Carter of Driggs, Idaho, operated mobile filling stations, delivering gasoline to individuals. In 1921, Carter brought his tanker over Teton Pass twice a week to fill barrels on order. A year later, Chester Simpson installed a pump in front of his hardware store in Jackson and began selling gas. In May 1924, Mike Yokel opened a gas station in Wilson. [61]

The automobile introduced another phenomena, one that has become too familiar, the car accident. In 1917, a Salt Lake City salesman named Carl Gessel lost control of his Oldsmobile Eight while trying to avoid a mud hole and drove off the Teton Pass Road. The car rolled four times, tumbling 60 feet before lodging against a tree. Astonishingly Gessel was not hurt and even more miraculously he drove the Oldsmobile back to Salt Lake after replacing a wheel. In August of that year, an accident occurred at Menor's Ferry when George Wilson lost control of his car and it plunged into the Snake River. Wilson managed to rescue his wife, but his 13-year-old daughter clung to a wheel of the car as the current swept it downstream. The car washed against a gravel bar, probably saving the teenager's life. Bill Menor rescued the girl with his boat. As motor cars became more common, conflicts with horse-drawn vehicles occurred. For example, in the fall of 1918, an auto spooked Emile Wolff's team, causing the wagon to spill and throwing Wolff's family and Mrs. Hoagland and her son from it. Again, there were no injuries, but the wagon was damaged. [62]

Poor roads contributed to at least one of the preceding accidents, which reinforced the need for dramatic improvement of the nation's roads. By 1925, three highways served Jackson Hole: the Teton Pass Road, the Hoback Road, the Togwotee Pass Road. Major highways were constructed over each of these routes because they provided access to the railroad communities of Victor, Idaho, and Rock Springs and Lander, Wyoming. Both the Ashton-Moran freight road, and the Gros Ventre Road fell into disuse in the 1920s. The state and federal government abandoned the Gros Ventre Road into the upper Green River Basin in favor of the Hoback Road, possibly because the former was more difficult to maintain and keep open. The Gros Ventre River drainage was notorious for the number of landslides that occur in the area. [63]

A lack of funding limited road improvements, but ways were found to raise money. For example, in 1921, the voters of Teton County supported a state road bond by a whopping majority of 336 yeas to 26 nays. Boosters favored almost universally highway construction projects and regarded opposition equivalent to heresy. County, state, and federal agencies assumed responsibility for road maintenance and improvements. In 1925 alone, the Jackson's Hole Courier announced that the Bureau of Public Roads, the Forest Service, and the Wyoming State Highway Department planned to work in Jackson Hole during the coming season. In particular, the Forest Service contributed to road improvements in the valley. [64]

Local surveyor Otho Williams laid out the Teton Pass Road in 1900. It still remained no more than a wagon road with a seemingly endless repetition of switchbacks. In 1918, the Bureau of Public Roads completed a new road over the pass. For the most part, it followed the alignment of the old wagon road. Several years later, in 1925, the Forest Service allocated $12,000 to surface the Teton Pass Road. In 1932, the Bureau of Public Roads initiated a major upgrade of the road. They widened the road from eight to 18 feet, surfaced it, and reduced some grades three to four percent over the same alignment. The road was oiled in 1940. The next major roadwork occurred in the early 1970s, when the Teton Pass route was overhauled to include major realignments of the route to improve safety and reduce the impact of snowslides. [65]

The old Indian and trapper trail over the Hoback was adequate for horses and pack animals, but could not handle wagon traffic. Precise information on just when a wagon trail was built in the Hoback Canyon is unavailable, but the U.S.G.S. Gros Ventre Quadrangle, surveyed in 1907, shows a wagon road crossing the Rim and passing through the upper Hoback drainage at Bondurant to the narrows of the canyon. A photograph dated around 1912 records a road crew on the Hoback taking a break. Thus, by 1907, the Hoback Road accommodated wagon traffic. In 1916, Payson W. Spaulding, accompanied by another party, drove two automobiles from Jackson to Pinedale via the Hoback Road. In 1918, the Forest Service proposed to construct a major road through the Hoback. Construction crews began work after 1918 and completed the project by the summer of 1922. The new road tied Jackson to Rock Springs and the famous Lincoln Highway passing through the communities of Kemmerer and Big Piney. Local dignitaries held official opening ceremonies on July 10, 1922. The production crew filming The Cowboy and the Lady recorded the ceremony for possible use in the movie. The road proved to be a maintenance nightmare; severe weather and rockslides cut off and damaged the road all too frequently. In 1918, the Courier reported that a drenching cloudburst washed out six to seven miles of road. Two years after the completion of the new highway the Bureau of Public Roads had to rework six miles of it. The new highway continued to deteriorate. In 1932, the Courier described the road as a "disgrace" from the V Bar V Ranch to Little Granite Creek. Nonetheless, it emerged as a major artery into Jackson Hole in the 1930s, as automobiles replaced trains as the primary mode of transportation. [66]

Around 1900, the federal government had financed the construction of a military road over Togwotee Pass to link Fort Yellowstone and Fort Washakie. From Togwotee Pass, the road entered the Buffalo Fork valley and possibly joined the Sheridan Trail alignment at Jackson Lake. In 1917, the Courier announced that the road from Lander, Wyoming, to the south entrance of Yellowstone was open to automobiles. The Secretary of the Interior's decision to allow motor vehicles in Yellowstone in 1915 probably generated more traffic through Jackson Hole. About 1919, construction began to provide a major highway. The road opened in 1921 and was graveled in 1922. In that year, the Denver Post reported the completion of the highway between Lander and Yellowstone. A private company initiated bus service from Lander in that year, running until snowfall forced the closure of the road. [67]

From an engineering viewpoint, constructing a highway through the Snake River Canyon was the most significant accomplishment. The idea of a road through the canyon had been proposed prior to 1920, but never had been taken seriously. In 1923, the Forest Service sought a federal appropriation to construct a 19-mile road through the canyon. The bureau justified the road for two reasons; they hoped to eliminate the Teton Pass route and claimed the new road would shorten the traveling distance from Jackson Hole to Salt Lake City. Local communities, such as Jackson and those in Star Valley, supported the proposal. However, the plan remained a pipe dream until the Great Depression, when the federal government pumped millions of dollars into such projects as a part of an economic recovery effort. In the summer of 1931, an 18-man crew began surveying a road through the canyon, moving the highway one step closer to reality. Nothing happened until 1933, when the State of Wyoming applied for and received $600,000 to build the road. Construction began in 1934. The Civilian Conservation Corps provided workers for labor-intensive activities such as rockwork. By 1939, less than 4,000 feet of preliminary work remained, and only one-and-a-half miles were left to grade and widen. The Snake River Canyon road opened to traffic in 1939, completing "one of the largest" such projects in the West. [68] Other roads received no funding. One was a proposed access road from Ashton to the Yellowstone south entrance. The House Appropriations Committee eliminated $100,000 for this project in 1932. It is unclear whether this road was to follow the old Reclamation Road or another alignment. [69]

Civilian Conservation Corps crews built or improved many of the roads in and around the park during the 1930s. Grand Teton National Park

The 1920s witnessed tremendous improvements in the valley's road network. Depending on the responsibility, funding for maintenance and administration came from county, state, and federal governments. In 1924, the Bureau of Public Roads completed a project on the Wilson-Jackson Road. To overcome budgetary limits, other methods were employed. For example, the state sponsored "Good Roads Day" which encouraged citizens to come out for one day and patch damaged roads. [70]

The existing roads after World War I were made for horse-drawn vehicles. In some instances, alignments were suited to automobiles. Local officials had to decide whether to commit funds to existing alignments or survey and construct new roads. In 1919 local residents disputed, hotly at times, the route of the Jackson-Kelly Road. Some considered the existing road through Dry Hollow too dangerous for automobile traffic. They eventually settled on routing the main road along the east base of East Gros Ventre Butte. Traditional river crossings were fords or, at best, crude bridges. In this period, permanent bridges were built at most fords. During the summer of 1917, crews constructed a bridge across the deep draw near the mouth of Ditch Creek as part of a new road from Menor's Ferry to the Grovont Post Office, located east of Blacktail Butte. Farther up Ditch Creek, materials had been delivered for another new bridge. To the north, Spread Creek's multiple channels dispersed over a cobbled alluvial fan, posing significant problems for travelers. In 1924, the Courier reported that people in the north were determined to have a permanent bridge across the creek, their patience worn out with existing conditions. [71]

In most cases, roads continued to follow the old wagon tracks. The road from Wilson to Menors Ferry followed for the most part the old alignment when it was improved in 1927. The most significant development in the 1920s was the construction of a state highway from Jackson to Menor's Ferry. The road continued north along the base of the Teton Range past Jenny Lake to Moran, where it linked up with the Yellowstone-Lander highway. In addition to the steel truss bridge erected at Menor's Ferry the Bureau of Public Roads built a steel truss bridge across the Gros Ventre River near today's highway. The basic highway and county road system was established by the late 1920s, and remained intact until the 1950s. [72]

A proposal surfaced after World War II to construct a new highway from the south boundary of the Jackson Hole National Monument to the Buffalo Fork River. In 1948, National Park Service Director Newton P. Drury, responding to a letter from Charles Moore, the president of the Dude Ranchers' Association, clarified the Park Service position. The service was not delaying the proposed project, but rather had some concerns about the alignment of the road and impacts on wildlife habitat. Drury stated that the service favored a highway diverting from the existing road at Blacktail Butte and running north across Antelope Flats to Deadman's Bar, then across Spread Creek and the Buffalo Fork to join the Yellowstone-Dubois-Lander highway. The Public Roads Administration constructed the current highway between 1955 through 1957, just as Drury described in his 1948 letter. [73]

Today the main highway is kept open year-round, except when severe storms force closure. Prior to World War II, the state and county governments made no attempt to keep roads plowed because of high costs, primitive snowplows, and the lack of public pressure to maintain plowed roads. With the first heavy snows, Jackson Hole residents stored their Model T's, Hupmobiles, and White trucks, placing them on blocks and draining the engines and cooling systems. Oversnow vehicles, sleds, sleighs, and cutters, drawn by the reliable horse, became the principal form of transportation in the winter. Foot travelers strapped on Nordic skis or snowshoes.

In the 1930s, as the technology became available to remove snow, the public came to expect plowed roads. The variability of winter weather made road conditions difficult to predict. Anticipating the costs of snow removal was difficult as mild winters left tidy surpluses, while severe winters depleted budgets. In December 1929, the park superintendent reported that despite three snowstorms in November, the valley's roads and Teton Pass remained open to automobiles, unusual for that time of year. The winter of 1930-1931 was one of the mildest on record. Only a year later, one of the worst blizzards in several years pummeled the region. Conditions were so bad that heavy snows stranded a snowplow and closed the Hoback Road. No less than 11 feet of snow choked Teton Pass. Harry Scott and Amasa James worked to cut a snow road over the pass. Likewise, in 1936, the monthly Superintendent's Report described terrible weather conditions. Valley residents worked together, committing time and horse teams to keep the roads packed and open. The Hoback Road had been closed most of the month of February while 50 head of horses were used to clear 65 miles of road to Moran. The storm delayed regular mail deliveries for two weeks. [74]

To combat the isolation enforced by winter, state and local governments began investing in improved snow removal equipment. By 1932, rotary plows were being used to clear snow from highways. On June 16 of that year, the Courier reported that rotary plows had opened Togwotee Pass and were pushing on to the south entrance of Yellowstone, which remained blocked by snow. In the winter of 1930-1931, the Hoback Road remained open for the first time in its history attributable for the most part to a mild winter. The next year the Wyoming State Highway Department announced its intention to keep the highway open as much as possible. [75]

They did not succeed. In March 1933, the Courier reported that the Hoback Road would be cleared of snow and open in April after a winter closure. Pressure built to keep the Hoback highway open as this route assumed more importance as a supply link, and the Postal Service began routing Teton County's mail from Rock Springs. The Jackson Lions Club contacted the governor in March 1934, urging him to order the opening of the road from the wye near Daniel, Wyoming, as supplies were getting a little short and some residents were "caught out," while other wanted to "get out." Public pressure had no influence on the weather, however. In January 1936, snow-laden mountainsides shed their loads, causing the heaviest slides in years. The Hoback was completely blocked; 50 volunteers, Forest Service employees, and Game and Fish employees used shovels to try to open the road. [76]

State highway crews kept the Teton Pass Road cleared for the first time in 1937, giving up in January 1938. The following September, the highway department revealed plans to keep the pass open to automobile traffic. To accomplish this, the department allocated a five-ton truck with a push plow. In early December, they received a new 15-ton rotary plow, a huge machine being 25 feet long and 11 feet wide. A 175-horsepower engine propelled the rotor blades. In spite of the new equipment, the highway department gave up on the Teton Pass Road after New Years Day 1940, in the face of severe blizzards. Two hundred angry citizens commandeered two plows from the state highway garages and opened the road. In addition, they protested the local supervisor's decision to the governor. Responding to the pressure from Teton County residents, Governor Nels Smith ordered the department to keep the Teton Pass Road open, ending further civil disobedience. The road was generally kept open until World War II, when gasoline and rubber shortages forced the highway department to reduce plowing, which resulted in closures. Some remember the pass as being generally kept open through the war. By that time, the Snake River Canyon highway provided alternate access to Idaho. Since the war, the pass has been kept open, except for sporadic closures caused by blizzards or snowslides. [77]

In the valley the roads north of Jackson were not plowed through the 1930s. Plows kept the road to Moran open until January to accommodate the influx of hunters. The highway and county road to Moran were unplowed from January to March or April each year, depending on the snow cover. On January 12, 1939, irate residents of Moran petitioned to have the road plowed through the winter and sought help from the Jackson Hole Commercial Club. By the 1940s, major roads in the valley were kept open, and access in and out of the valley was possible via the Togwotee Pass highway the Hoback Road, and the Snake River Canyon road. [78]

Auto and train travel, although most common, were not the only modes of transportation. When H. H. Barker and I. G. Winton landed their biplane at the Jackson rodeo grounds during the Frontier Days celebration on August 19, 1920, they raised quite a stir among the crowd. Excited bystanders gathered about the airplane. Leaving Blackfoot, Idaho, at 4:30 PM., Barker piloted the craft over the Teton Range and landed in Jackson at 5:45 PM., making the 120-mile trip in one hour and 15 minutes. Barker and Winton offered rides to fairgoers and had 59 riders. It was probably the first airplane some of the passengers had ever seen. The appearance of Barker's biplane above the horizon suggested new possibilities for transportation in and out of the valley. [79]

In February 1926, the Courier reported that an Idaho aviator named Tommy Thompson intended to begin air service from Idaho Falls to Jackson Hole, charging $40 for round-trip fare. The flight would cut travel time considerably when one considered that it took three days to reach the valley by train. There is no evidence that Thompson established the service. In 1930, the superintendent of Grand Teton National Park reported that an airplane had been seen traveling north on two occasions in March. An investigation revealed that a pilot from Idaho Falls had spent some time in Jackson Hole, making plans to establish mail and passenger service from Idaho Falls to Moran. He had invested heavily in the projected service, buying a new Wright plane for the route. But, again, no information exists to show the service became a reality. [80]

Local interest in developing an airport and commercial service evolved in the 1930s. Dr. Charles W. Huff, the valley's physician, led the effort. At the end of 1933, the Wyoming Tribune Leader reported that air service might be established from Rock Springs to Jackson with stops in communities in the Green River valley. Promoters of the air service saw a rosy future for winter sports in the valley and believed air service would facilitate development. Dr. Huff sought Civil Works Administration funding to construct an airfield. In 1934, three potential airport sites emerged: the old Frank McBride place north of the Gros Ventre bridge; a tract east of Flat Creek and four miles north of Jackson; and former JP Ranch lands located east of the highway and south of the Gros Ventre River. In early January Huff toured the valley with aviator A. A. Bennett, seeking suitable sites. In March, Dr. Huff telephoned Harold Fabian, vice president of the Snake River Land Company, to request a five-year lease to the JP site from the company. Rockefeller agent Kenneth Chorley expressed serious reservations about the compatibility of an airport with the Snake River Land Company's plan. Huff dropped the request, when a company called Air Transport Lines built a 200 by 1,000-foot airstrip across from the rodeo grounds in Jackson. This field served the community as a "small, unimproved" airport through the 1930s. [81]

In 1940, the Jackson town government, individuals, and citizen groups began lobbying for a new airport and commercial service. In early March, the mayor of Jackson, Harry Clissold, led a delegation to Salt Lake City to meet with Harold Fabian, who also served on the board of directors of Western Air Express. Clissold and other supporters proposed locating the airport southwest of Blacktail Butte and east of the Snake River, where the airport is situated today. Located on federal lands and on Snake River Land Company property, the town of Jackson needed to secure leases from both the company and the Interior Department. In addition, Western Air Express had to seek review and approval of a route from Salt Lake City to Jackson from the Civil Aeronautics Authority. The paperwork took time. Moreover, there were other concerns that delayed the construction of the airport; some questioned the need for a commercial airport, and once a consensus formed supporting it, a suitable location became the subject of debate.

Fabian supported the plan probably for two reasons. First, he believed that the market could support commercial air service and, in turn, the service was needed. Second, yet just as important, Fabian perceived the airport as a way to gain acquiescence, if not support, among Jackson Hole residents for the proposed park extension. John D. Rockefeller Jr., Laurence Rockefeller, Vanderbilt Webb, and Kenneth Chorley agreed "that the Snake River Land Company should not take the position of opposing in any way the establishment of a proper airport." However, they expressed concern about the scenic intrusion of an airport located between the highway and the Teton Range. There was not a consensus of opinion. Horace Albright questioned the need for an airport, writing to Chorley that "they are definitely an intrusion into wilderness areas." Chorley responded that even though the need for an airport and personal choice to fly was a matter of opinion, "I am inclined to think that Jackson Hole would be better off without an airport." In a letter to Vanderbilt Webb in May 1941, Fabian wrote "I understood the Park Service does not favor airline service into Jackson Hole; that both the traffic and operating officials of Western Air Lines prefer not to land there [and] that the Snake River Land Company does not favor airline service there nor the construction of an airport between the highway and the mountains." [82]

Nevertheless, the Interior Department and company agreed to give the town a lease. The site remained the only issue. Webb, in his March 27 letter to Fabian, suggested locating the airport in the Kelly-Mormon Row area. All interested parties supported a site on Antelope Flats, but the chief operations officer of Western rejected this location, because of unpredictable winds diverted by Blacktail Butte. They did find a location north of Timbered Island, about one mile east of Jenny Lake. The National Park Service objected to this site. Acting Director Arthur Demaray stated that it "would be inimical to the best interests of the park and local community." To add to the confusion, Moran residents supported an airport south of Signal Mountain, and even scraped out a small airstrip in the sagebrush flats. Then, Mayor Clissold, irate over the Timbered Island proposal, announced his intention to apply for a lease at the original location southwest of Blacktail Butte. [83]

Sometime between 1941 and 1943, local residents cleared an airstrip at the present location, commandeering county equipment according to local tradition. The town of Jackson secured a lease from the Interior Department on June 16, 1942, and from the Jackson Hole Preserve, formerly the Snake River Land Company, in November 1943. Western Air Express initiated commercial service in 1946. Today the airport operates under a 50-year lease within Grand Teton National Park. [84]

Local tradition has it that a small airstrip existed at the current airport in the 1930s. Documents in the Harold Fabian Papers and Kenneth Chorley Papers in the Rockefeller Archive Center do not mention an airfield in this area in 1940. Had there been one, it seems reasonable that it would have been mentioned in correspondence. Further, the Jackson's Hole Couriers during the 1930s refer to the airfield being near the fairgrounds in Jackson. However, no mention of a landing field southwest of Blacktail Butte was found. Finally a photograph taken from Blacktail Butte of the airport area, dated August 13, 1937, shows that an airstrip did not exist prior to that date at that location. Today thousands of travelers use the Jackson Hole Airport.

The first permanent occupants of Jackson Hole settled in a remote mountain valley. Mail was irregular and getting supplies into the valley proved difficult and time consuming. Trips to Jackson were made once or twice a year, while excursions outside Jackson Hole were unheard of for most settlers. Railroads facilitated settlement, providing access to supplies and a way for homesteaders to get their only export, cattle, to market. Roads improved gradually until 1918, when the automobile revolutionized life in the United States, not to mention Jackson Hole. Government organizations improved the road system dramatically in the 1920s. Motor vehicles replaced the horse. Rotary plows and blade plows began keeping most roads open by the 1940s. In 1920, the first airplane landed in the valley; 22 years later an airport was established.

Today a modern highway system is in place with four major routes kept open year-round. Virtually all goods such as food, clothing, and gasoline are hauled by truck over the highways into Jackson Hole. Most of the 2,500,000 visitors who travel to Jackson Hole each year arrive in air-conditioned vehicles, keeping time to music played on tape decks through stereo speakers. Our society cannot conceive the difficulties travel posed for people scarcely a century ago.

1. Billington, Westward Expansion, pp. 547-562.

2. Ibid., p.551.

3. Ibid., pp. 555-558; and Larson, History of Wyoming, p. 3.

4. Nellie Van Derveer, "Teton County Agriculture and Industry" WPA Subject File 1327, Wyoming State Ar chives, Museums and Historical Department.

5. Owen, T42 N, R115W, 6th PM.; and Harold P. and Josephine Fabian Collection, Grand Teton National Park.

6. Jackson, Pioneer Photographer, p. 26.

7. Interview with Almer Nelson by Jo Anne Byrd, #30, "Last of Old West Series."

8. Mumey, The Teton Mountains, p. 205; and Hayden, From Trapper to Tourist, p. 38.

9. Nellie Van Derveer, "Teton County-Historical Lore," WPA Subject File 1321, Wyoming State Archives, Museums, and Historical Department; and Jackson's Hole Courier, March 9, 1939.

10. Struthers Burt, Diary, pp. 32-35.

11. Ibid., Nathaniel Burt, Jackson Hole Journal, (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983), pp. 10-11; and Jackson's Hole Courier, February 18, 1932.

12. Interview with Parthenia Stinnett by Jo Anne Byrd, #38, "Last of the Old West;" Jackson's Hole Courier, September 10, 1942; Markham, "The Ashton-Moran Freight Road;" U. S. Geological Survey, Shoshone Quadrangle, 1907 reprint 1911; and Frances Judge, "Carrie and the Tetons," Montana (Summer 1968):46.

13. Elizabeth Wied Hayden Collection, Subject File #5, "Roads," Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum, Blount and Artist, T46N, R113W, 6th P.M., July 21-August 20, 1902; Jackson Hole Plat Book; Harold and Josephine Fabian Collection, Grand Teton National Park; and U.S. Geological Survey, Mount Leidy Quadrangle, 1902.

14. Driggs, History of Teton Valley, p. 184; Jackson's Hole Courier, January 28, 1909, and January 29, 1948; David Crowder, Rexburg, Idaho (Caldwell, ID: Carton Printers, 1983), pp. 82-85; and Almer Nelson Interview, #30.

15. Almer Nelson Interview, #30; and Jackson Hole Guide, July 28, 1966.

16. Linda McKinstry, untitled memoir, Subject File, Wyoming-Jackson Hole (W994-JH), University of Wyoming Archives, American Heritage Center; and Struthers Burt, Diary, p. 33.

17. Owen, T41N, R116W, 6th PM.; T42N; R115W, 6th P.M.; T42N, R116W, 6th P.M.; T44N, R115W, 6th P.M.; and T45N, R114W, 6th P.M.

18. U.S. Geological Survey, Grand Teton Quadrangle, 1899.

19. Allen, Early Jackson Hole, p. 1; and Jackson's Hole Courier, October 31, 1918.

20. Donald Hough, The Cocktail Hour in Jackson Hole (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1951), pp. 157-158; and Superintendent's Monthly Report, March 1937, Grand Teton National Park.

21. Struthers Burt, Diary, p. 131.

22. Jackson's Hole Courier, December 25, 1924; and Richard A. Dirks and Brooks E. Martner, The Climate of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1982).

23. Jackson's Hole Courier, January 28, 1909, February 13, 1916, February 23, 1933, January 20, 1927, and February 9, 1933.

24. Jackson Hole Guide, November 18, 1965; Jackson's Hole Courier, February 18, 1932, and April 16, 1914; and Hayden Collection, Subject File #5, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum.

25. Jackson's Hole Courier, February 19, 1948; and Jackson Hole Guide, December 16, 1965.

26. Bicentennial Photograph Collection, Teton County Library and Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum; Superintendent's Monthly Report, January 1931; and Jackson's Hole Courier, December 15, 1927.

27. Jackson's Hole Courier, November 6, 1924, June 28, 1928, and July 26, 1928; and Allen, Early Jackson Hole, pp. 218-222.

28. U.S. Geological Survey, Grand Teton Quadrangle, 1901.

29. Brown, Souvenir History, p. 17; Jackson's Hole Courier, August 20, 1914, March 11, 1915, July 19, 1917, April 11, 1918, May 30, 1918, September 12, 1918, June 13, 1918, May 20, 1920, January 5, 1922, and February 23, 1922; and "Ferry near Wilson, 1914," Bicentennial Collection, #311.

30. Homestead Patent, Homestead Cert. 503, Lander, W. D. Menor, 1904; and Judge, "Mountain River Men," pp. 52-58.

31. McBride, "My Diary;" Menor's Ferry Collection, Fabian Collection, Grand Teton National Park; and Jackson's Hole Courier, May 10, 1917, May 14, 1914, January 13, 1921, and July 27, 1950.

32. Judge, "Mountain River Men," pp. 52-58.

33. Ibid.; and interview with Stan Boyle by Charles Convis, June 26, 1979, typed transcript, Grand Teton National Park.

34. Jackson's Hole Courier, July 25, 1918; Office of the Teton County Clerk and Recorder, Deed Record Book 3, p. 200, W.D. Menor to Maud Noble, Frederick Sandell and May Lee, Warranty Deed, August 1, 1918.

35. Judge, "Mountain River Men," p. 57.

36. Jackson's Hole Courier, January 14, 1926, and June 10, 1926.

37. Mumey, Teton Mountains, pp. 359-61; Homestead Patent, Homestead Cert. 373, Lander, James Conrad to Homer Guerry, 1902; and Census of the United States, 1900, Jackson Precinct.

38. Mumey, Teton Mountains, p. 358.

39. Mae Tuttle to Cora N. Barber, September 6, 1951, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum, reprinted in Jackson Hole Guide, December 5, 1974.

40. Ibid., K. C. Allan Collection, 7636, "Post Offices of Jackson Hole," University of Wyoming Archives; Hayden Collection, Subject File 5, Leek Memoir, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum; Mae Tuttle letter, September 5, 1951, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum; Wyoming Tribune, February 8, 1896; Jackson's Hole Courier, February 4, 1932; and Jackson Hole Guide, November 18, 1965.

41. Mae Tuttle letter, September 5, 1951, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum.

42. Census of the United States, 1900, Jackson Precinct; Jackson Hole Guide, November 18, 1965; Hayden Collection, File 21, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum; and Allan Collection, "Post Offices of Jackson Hole," University of Wyoming Archives.

43. Jackson's Hole Courier, January 28, 1909.

44. Jackson's Hole Courier, July 30, 1914, June 27, 1918, and August 18, 1932.

45. Hayden Collection, Subject File 5, Leek Memoir, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum; and Jackson Hole Guide, November 18, 1965.

46. Jackson's Hole Courier, November 7, 1918.

47. Jackson's Hole Courier, June 5, 1919, and May 12, 1921.

48. Jackson's Hole Courier, July 12, 1931, and February 4, 1932; and Jackson Hole Guide, November 19, 1965.

49. "Jackson Stage-March 1, 1909" photograph, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum; and Jackson's Hole Courier, January 28, 1909.

50. Jackson's Hole Courier, August 31, 1950, and May 21, 1953.

51. Markham, "The Ashton-Moran Freight Road," U.S. Geological Survey, Shoshone Quadrangle, 1884-1885, 1911 edition.

52. Markham, "The Ashton-Moran Freight Road."

53. Ibid., John Markham, "The Temporary Jackson Lake Dam," unpublished manuscript, Grand Teton National Park Library.

54. Diem, Research Station; Census of the United States, 1900, Jackson Precinct; Allen, Early Jackson Hole, p. 304; Jackson Hole Guide, September 9, 1978; Jackson's Hole Courier, August 31, 1950; and Nellie Van Derveer, "Teton County-Towns," WPA Subject file 1322, Wyoming State Archives.

55. Brown, Souvenir History, p. 12; and Jackson's Hole Courier, February 17, 1949, and January 28, 1909.

56. Markham, Ashton-Moran Freight Road;" and Jackson's Hole Courier, June 27, 1918, and July 7, 1932.

57. Haines, The Yellowstone Story, 2:265-266.

58. Brown, Souvenir History, p. 11; Hayden, Trapper to Tourist, p. 52; Jackson's Hole Courier, May 16, 1940, and July 23, 1914; Hayden Collection, Subject File #5, Automobiles, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum. "EMF" stands for Everitt, Metzger and Flanders, a partnership that built electric and gasoline powered cars until 1911.

59. Hayden, Trapper to Tourist, pp. 52-53; Jackson's Hole Courier, November 23, 1916, June 5, 1919, and June 16, 1926; and Jackson Hole Guide, April 25, 1974.

60. Hayden, Trapper to Tourist, p. 53; and Jackson's Hole Courier, September 30, 1915, and December 18, 1919.

61. Virginia Huidekoper, The Early Days in Jackson Hole, (Boulder, CO: Colorado Associated University Press, 1978), p. 78; and Jackson's Hole Courier, May 29, 1924, and August 25, 1921.

62. Jackson's Hole Courier, July 19, 1917, August 2, 1917, and October 3, 1918.

63. Jackson's Hole Courier, June 11, 1925; and Nellie Van Derveer, "Teton County General," WPA Subject File 1336, Wyoming State Archives.

64. Jackson's Hole Courier, May 12, 1921, and February 5, 1925.

65. Jackson's Hole Courier, June 6, 1918, July 25, 1918, February 5, 1925, July 20, 1933, and February 17, 1941.

66. Jackson's Hole Guide, November 5, 1970; U.S. Geological Survey, Gros Ventre Quadrangle, 1910 edition, reprinted 1949; Jackson's Hole Courier, August 17, 1916, June 6, 1918, June 23, 1921, July 20, 1922, July 25, 1918, May 5, 1932, and February 5, 1925; and Hayden Collection, Subject File 5, Hoback Road, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum.

67. Jackson's Hole Courier, August 2, 1917; John Markham Papers, 934, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum; Hayden Collection, Subject File 5, Roads, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum; The Denver Post, July 16, 1922; and Haines, The Yellowstone Story, 2:267.

68. Jackson's Hole Courier, May 17, 1923, August 13, 1931, September 7, 1933, and March 30, 1939; and Superintendent's Monthly Report, February 1936, Grand Teton National Park.

69. Jackson's Hole Courier, February 4, 1932.

70. Jackson's Hole Courier, June 17, 1920, and April 17, 1924.

71. Jackson's Hole Courier, July 3, 1919, July 12, 1917, and March 13, 1924.

72. Jackson's Hole Courier, July 7, 1927, September 8, 1927, June 19, 1924, and August 4, 1927.

73. Newton B. Drury to C.M. Moore, February 13, 1948, File 630, Roads, Jackson Hole N.M., Grand Teton National Park.

74. Superintendent's Monthly Reports, November 1929, February 1931, January 1932, and February 1936, Grand Teton National Park; and Jackson's Hole Courier.

75. Jackson's Hole Courier, December 16, 1931, and June 16, 1932; and Superintendent's Monthly Report, February 1931, Grand Teton National Park.

76. Jackson's Hole Courier, March 23, 1933, March 6, 1934, and January 16, 1936.

77. Jackson's Hole Courier, January 13, 1938, September 8, 1938, and January 11, 1940; and Jackson Hole Guide, April 25, 1974.

78. Jackson's Hole Courier, January 4, 1934, March 27, 1934, April 23, 1936, March 30, 1939, and January 12, 1939.

79. Jackson's Hole Courier, August 20, 1920; Brown, Souvenir History, p. 17; and Huidekoper, Early Days, p. 49.

80. Jackson's Hole Courier, February 11, 1926; and Superintendent's Monthly Report, March 1930, Grand Teton National Park.

81. Jackson's Hole Courier, December 28, 1933, January 4, 1934, January 11, 1934, February 8, 1934, March 22, 1934, and January 28, 1937; and Kenneth Chorley Papers, 1V3A3, Box 13, File 109, Harold Fabian to Kenneth Chorley, March 24, 1934, telegram, Kenneth Chorley to Harold Fabian, March 26, 1934; and Harold Fabian to Kenneth Chorley, March 26, 1934, Rockefeller Archive Center.

82. Jackson's Hole Courier, March 7, 1940; and Harold Fabian Collection, 1V3A7, Box 8, File 66, Jackson Airport, 1940-1941, Correspondence; and Chorley Papers, Box 2, File 16, Jackson Hole Airport, Harold Fabian to Vanderbilt Webb, May 14, 1941, Rockefeller Archive Center.

83. Fabian Papers, Box 8, File 66, Jackson Hole Airport, Vanderbilt Webb to Harold Fabian, March 27, 1940; Harold Fabian to Kenneth Chorley, August 2, 1940; Arthur DeMaray to Harold Fabian, September 25, 1940; Harold Fabian to Kenneth Chorley, September 21, 1940, Rockefeller Archive Center; and Jackson's Hole Courier, November 28, 1940.

84. Chorley Papers, Box 2, File 16, Jackson Hole Airport, Arthur DeMaray to Kenneth Chorley, July 13, 1942; and Vanderbilt Webb to Harold Fabian, October 5, 1943, Rockefeller Archive Center.