When was grand teton national park created

In Jackson Hole at the base of the mountains, several glacial lakes feed the river as it winds south through the valley, lakes that are also contained within the park.

Archeological evidence shows that Native Americans first appeared in Jackson Hole approximately 10, years ago. The ruggedness of the country and its inhospitable winters meant that most Indian bands visited the area in summertime only, although the Mountain Shoshone , also known as Sheepeaters , did live there year-round. The first European residents of the area were fur trappers and outlaws who began arriving in the early 19 th century. Because of the rough terrain and severe weather, homesteading did not begin until the s.

Jackson Hole, named for fur trapper David Jackson, was soon recognized as a remarkable place. English mountaineer William Baillie-Grohman wrote in an memoir that "there are few spots in the Western mountain lands about which there hangs so much frontier romance," and attributed this to "the quite exceptional natural beauty of the spot.

By that time, the idea of conservation of beautiful places was already beginning to gain some support. Ferdinand Hayden, chief of one of four U.

Hayden told his photographer, William Henry Jackson , that he hoped to generate "widespread public interest" in the natural attractions of public lands. In addition to Jackson, who took the first known pictures of the Tetons, the party included climber Nathaniel Langford, who claimed to have reached the summit of the Grand Teton—the highest peak of the Teton Range—on this trip. In , President Grover Cleveland took the first step toward conservation of the Tetons with the establishment of Teton Forest Reserve on , acres south of present-day Yellowstone National Park.

Climber, surveyor and Wyoming State Auditor William Owen earned credit for the first ascent of the Grand Teton in and spent much of his later life working to defend his claim. In , President Theodore Roosevelt expanded the reserve into the 1,,acre Teton National Forest, covering all of the Teton Range and including half of the land that would later become Grand Teton National Park.

In , President Woodrow Wilson made a move toward more protection of the area by giving the National Park Service veto power over any development plans the Forest Service might have in , acres of the northern Tetons. The bill passed the House easily, but was defeated in in the Senate by the parliamentary maneuverings of Sen. John Nugent of Idaho. Idaho sheep ranchers who used the affected land as summer pasture worried that their grazing rights would be curtailed, as had happened in other national parks, and persuaded Nugent to object.

With the defeat of this first proposal, fresh, local opposition began to crystallize in Jackson Hole, led by residents who disliked the idea of a national park. It was becoming clear how effective a small, determined resistance could be. This local opposition was at least partly fueled by the different conservation philosophies of the U.

The Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, manages its land to yield goods and revenue in as many ways as possible, including timber, livestock pasture, and recreational development. Conservation is also a priority, but national forests provide many more commercial opportunities than national parks.

The National Park Service, part of the Department of the Interior, limits development, strictly regulates visitor activities and places its first priority on long-term preservation of the natural state of the area.

Residents who disliked the prospect of increased federal government control in any form were hostile to the Park Service, expressing their views at public meetings and in the Jackson Hole Courier. This attitude, however, changed over the next decade as development proceeded and tourism increased in Jackson Hole. Between and , private irrigation companies proposed a series of dams on lakes within the national forest while lodges and summer cabins sprouted on private and public land throughout the valley.

The Park Service, with the veto power Wilson had given it over Forest Service plans, prevented the irrigation project and canceled a plan to construct up to 6, summer tourist cabins in the more accessible parts of the national forest. These actions appear to have lessened the distrust of some residents, particularly dude ranchers whose livelihoods depended on tourists attracted by the scenic value of the area.

In , several dude ranchers invited the superintendent of Yellowstone Park, Horace Albright, to meet with them and discuss future conservation of the Tetons and Jackson Hole. As explained later by longtime Jackson Hole naturalist Olaus Murie , one of the biggest conservation problems in the area at that time was the increasing development of private land.

As a solution, the dude ranchers suggested that a rich philanthropist be found to buy a large amount of land in northern Jackson Hole and donate it to the government. Albright, encouraged by this local support, began searching for such a backer. In , John D. But to prevent inflation of land prices, Albright wanted the source of the money and purpose of the acquisition to remain secret. With the help of Rockefeller's lawyers, the Snake River Land Company was formed as a front, and Jackson banker Robert Miller was hired to negotiate the sales.

Miller, who opposed a national park from the beginning, was not told the purpose of these purchases, but he promised Olaus Murie, as Murie wrote decades later, that whatever it was it "would be a great thing for the valley. Roosevelt declared additional land in the valley to be Jackson Hole National Monument. Finally, in , Congress combined the original park, the national monument, and the Rockefeller lands to establish present-day Grand Teton National Park.

In , Congress established the John D. Taking shorter vacations compared to dudes, these visitors would only spend a night or two at one location before moving on. In response to this new demand, auto camps and motels became common. Small cabins clustered around a central parking area allowed visitors easy access to the park's attractions. John D. He set out to develop an assortment of lodging —from small, rustic cabins at Colter Bay, to a stately lodge on a bluff overlooking Jackson Lake, to an elegant lodge near Jenny Lake.

With increased visitation, the park also saw the need to expand visitor services. As the National Park Service approached its 50th anniversary in , visitor centers were built at Colter Bay and Moose to provide information and offer ranger activities as part of the "Mission 66" program. Adventure has always drawn people to this area. No one knows who first climbed the Grand Teton, but American Indians explored the range and climbed many peaks before Europeans arrived. Although members of the Hayden Expedition claimed to have reached the summit, William Owen, Franklin Spalding, John Shive and Frank Peterson made the first documented summit in Many followed in their footsteps.

Paul Petzoldt and Glen Exum established the first guide service in , which still operates today as Exum Mountain Guides. Today, over 90 different routes and variations lead to the summit of the Grand Teton, and almost all of the Teton peaks lure climbers with the skills necessary for a summit. Olaus Murie first visited the valley in when he conducted a study on the local elk herd.

Early conservation leaders met at the Murie Ranch in support of wilderness preservation. The human history and the cultural significance of Grand Teton National Park date back thousands of years. From the first paleo-Indians to access the region, to the fur trappers, the continued settling of Jackson Hole, the establishment of Grand Teton National Park…the history of the region is as varied and striking as the landscape.

Take a trip back into history with this timeline that highlights major events in the area. Step back and discover how the Grand Teton National Park came to be. The first known paleo-Indians enter the Jackson Hole area. These nomadic peoples came after the glaciers of the Pleistocene age retreated.

Tipi rings, fire pits, and stone tools have been found from this era, and archeologists believe that the tribes spent time in the region harvesting berries and hunting in the spring and summer months. They would follow their prey out of the valley once winter came in search of a milder climate. Jackson Hole and the Teton area are inhabited by native peoples. They were for the most part nomadic, usually starting in the valley in the spring and them moving higher in altitude as plants developed through the summer.

When the first European settlers arrived in North America, the introduction of the horse changed the culture of many of the tribes in the Great Basin and Plaines regions. But those tribes in the Grand Teton area, for the most part, stuck to their traditional way of life, living on berries, roots, and game that they hunted, including small mammals, elk, deer, and mountain sheep.

They also fished for trout and whitefish in the alpine lakes. Located in Moose, Wyoming, the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center hosts a collection of Native American artifacts to explore, and you can learn more about their place in history.

Fur trappers enter the region. For the next 30 years, trapping becomes a booming trade, and it draws people from France, Germany, Mexico, Scotland, and Ireland, among other countries. The tourists began to raise the first concerns about preserving the natural beauty of the region.

Surely, they asked, the spectacular Grand Tetons deserved similar protection. In , Horace M. Albright, the director of the National Park Service, was the first to seriously suggest that the region be incorporated into Yellowstone. Finally, after more than a decade of political maneuvering, Grand Teton National Park was created in As a concession to the ranchers and tourist operators, the park only encompassed the mountains and a narrow strip at their base.

Jackson Hole itself was excluded from the park and designated merely as a scenic preserve. Albright, though, had persuaded the wealthy John D. Rockefeller to begin buying up land in the Jackson Hole area for possible future incorporation into the park. By the late s, however, local opposition to the inclusion of the Rockefeller lands in the park had diminished, in part because of the growing economic importance of tourism. In , Rockefeller donated his land holdings in Jackson Hole to the federal government that then incorporated them into the national park.

Today, Grand Teton National Park encompasses , acres. Working ranches still exist in Jackson Hole, but the local economy is increasingly dependent on services provided to tourists and the wealthy owners of vacation homes. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!