CELEBRATE THE GRAND LEGACY! Teton Range & field of lupine. ©1999 Dave Smaldone Celebrate the Grand Legacy! Throughout 2000, we will commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Grand Teton National Park. On September 14, 1950 President IMELINE OF VENTS Harry Truman signed a bill enlarging the park to its T E present size, “...for the purpose of including in one national park, for public benefit and enjoyment, the 1897 - Proposal made by Colonel S.B.M. lands within the present Grand Teton National Park and Young, acting Superintendent, to expand a portion of the lands within Jackson Hole National Yellowstone's south boundary into Jackson Monument.” This simple act ended a lengthy tug of Hole to protect migrating elk. war to secure enlargement of the original park. The 1898 - First suggestion for creation of a struggle for present-day Grand Teton National Park “Teton National Park”. required decades of compromise and defined new 1906 - Antiquities Act passed by Congress horizons in park preservation. giving authority to protect public lands through The original 1929 park legislation preserved a presidential proclamation. pristine landscape by protecting only the Teton Range and glacial lakes at the foot of the mountains. The 1906 - Devils Tower National Monument in 1943 Jackson Hole National Monument secured valley Wyoming became the nation’s first national lands through private philanthropy. The 1950 park monument through President Teddy Roosevelt’s legislation consolidated these two separate units with proclamation. other public and private lands. It balanced many 1906 - First log crib dam built on Jackson Lake issues that shaped both the fledgling Grand Teton by Bureau of Reclamation. National Park and the controversial Jackson Hole Construction of Jackson Lake Dam, 1915 1911-16 - A cement structure and earthen National Monument. Today’s park represents and Moran townsite. dike replaced the log dam raising lake level conservation through compromise and preserves a 39 vertical feet. more complete ecosystem. Known and loved around the world for spectacular 1912 - National Elk Refuge established to mountain scenery, bountiful wildlife and diverse preserve winter range for Jackson Hole elk. recreational opportunities, the park offers a rich 1914-1918 - World War I raged, involving most heritage. This Golden Anniversary provides a chance to of the world’s nations. pay tribute to the dedication, perseverance and aspirations of visionary men and women who believed 1915 - Yellowstone National Park officially that the greatest good for the Teton landscape was as opened to automobiles. a “public park or pleasure ground for the benefit and 1916 - National Park enjoyment of the American people.” Service established by This special anniversary newspaper contains a look Congress. Stephen at the past through timeline, thought-provoking articles Mather became director by local authors, and historic photographs. Please with Horace Albright as review the calendar of events and join in celebrating his assistant. the 50th Anniversary of Grand Teton National Park. The National Elk Refuge provides winter 1917 - NPS Directors, range for approximately 7,500 elk. Mather and Albright proclaimed that one of Jack Neckels, Superintendent seven “urgent needs facing Grand Teton National Park the Park Service” was addition of the Teton Range, Jackson Lake and both Yellowstone and Snake Rivers’ headwaters to Yellowstone National Park. 1917 - President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany. 1918 - Wyoming Congressman Frank Mondell introduced the first bill in Congress to expand Yellowstone’s southern boundary into Teton country. 1918 - Germany formally surrendered and World War I armistice took effect. Early Yellowstone National Park roads 1919 - A revised park expansion were an adventure to travel. bill passed the House but Photographic Moulton Barn failed in the Senate. 1 on Mormon Row at Antelope Flats. www.grandteton50th.com EARNING THE MOUNTAINS: Inspiration, awe, and a lot of hard work By Paul Schullery Beaver pond reflection of Tetons at Schwabacher Landing. Pioneers began settling in Jackson’s Hole, 1884. The first proposal to preserve this country as a national park was 1897. The writer Donald Hough once asked (Owen Wister once wrote of the Jackson a Jackson Hole old-timer, “Don’t you ever Lake dam that, “There is more beauty in get tired of looking at those same Jackson’s Hole than even such a beastly mountains?” The old man seemed puzzled thing could kill”). by the question, and answered, “Those But they are important mountains are never the same.” In disagreements, ones that out of courtesy contrast to the lofty sentiments of this to the occasion I will call a dialogue. exchange, it was also Hough who said, Every disagreement over land use, or “The pioneers of the West, and probably wildlife management, or road alignments, the pioneers of everyplace else, rose or almost anything else here, is a step in above their fellowmen only in the epic the definition of our future, and the future quality of their greed.” of this extraordinary park. Every one of In the threadbare parlance of these little skirmishes is another tribute to promotional travel literature, Jackson Hole the value we place on the land. And it is and Grand Teton National Park would be a broadening dialogue. Not long ago a described as “a land of contrasts.” By this conversation over some lesser park issue would be meant that lush summer would have been a matter of meadows contrast with the glorious cold neighborhood interest only. Now it is a winters -- the rafting, fishing, climbing, matter of interest to something we call riding, and sightseeing of summer as Greater Yellowstone -- we wave vaguely at opposed to the skiing, snowshoeing, the map, to indicate that this Greater snowmobiling, and quite different Winter presents unique challenges to Jackson Hole residents. Yellowstone has boundaries somewhere sightseeing of winter. But there are other Harrison Crandall at his studio near Jenny Lake. over here, and over there, and down here. interesting contrasts here -- the human We don’t know where the edges of interest ones suggested by Hough’s remarks. We are, because there are none. People might ponder them during the fiftieth farther and farther away care, and have a anniversary of Grand Teton National Park, stake, and make their voices heard. the valley’s centerpiece. The row of So it seems to me that the true fantasy peaks that inspires our affection legacy of Grand Teton National Park is a and attachment to this place also makes a vibrant mixture of nature and culture. This great backdrop for what people do here. park is an instrument of social evolution, When I think of the human saga of the an imponderable brew of symphony and Tetons, I tend to start with the heroic: the goose music, bike trail and wolf track, ski millennia of native people who made resort and beaver lodge. Even on such a themselves at home here and must surely fine occasion as a fiftieth anniversary I have given the mountains the same could not celebrate the park solely for its reverential gazes we do; the parade of beauty and its power to inspire us. After white adventurers, from the trappers and the inspiration and the awe, we have the other early wanderers to the pioneers that hard work, the bitter struggle to sort out followed. Because of my interest in natural our differences, and the unrelenting history, I think most kindly of the people responsibility our stewardship of such a who have studied and learned here -- fabulous place brings us. It is through from Raynolds and Hayden, to the Muries these things that we earn these mountains and the Craigheads, to the many who and this valley. It is through these things, continue the search for knowledge today. as much as through the inspiration and But anyone with even a slight Hunters with their collection of trophies. awe, that we shape our dreams. acquaintance with this valley and this park Ben Sheffield photo, early 1900’s. knows that there are other performances Paul Schullery has authored in this theater. Jackson Hole is a happily fractious place, legendary for its citizens’ several books including: The Bears of Yellowstone, Mountain Time, and Searching enthusiasm for a debate that at times seems almost a recreation of its own. The for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness. In 1999 he received management of Grand Teton National Park is the region’s foremost spectator sport. the Wallace Stegner Award from the University of Colorado Center of the American We seem almost to love these little squabbles. We are certainly addicted to them, West, which recognizes a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the and they are inseparable from our passion for the natural wonder of the place American West. A day’s catch before creel limits and 2 regulations, late 1800’s. Native Americans were the first summer visitors to Jackson Hole. GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK: A Conservation Milestone By Ted Kerasote Grand Teton National Park may be named for wildlife. In the shape of its soaring mountains, but it would be a far less an enlarged Grand Teton grand place if its plains and river bottoms hadn’t National Park, they also also been protected by the vision of a few men provided a legacy for the during the last century. The seminal moment came physical and spiritual in September 1926. health of visitors from the The superintendent of entire planet. Yellowstone National Park, Horace Albright, took John D. Ted Kerasote is the Rockefeller, Jr., his wife and author of hundreds of three children, south through magazine articles and John D. Rockefeller, Yellowstone to see the Tetons. several books, most Jr., 1931. Provided Impressed by the granite recently, Bloodties and the financial support peaks and the string of Heart of Home.