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When I take people to Yellowstone National Park, I show teaser photos hinting at Teton as worthy of a separate tour. On the way, we only pass through Teton Park but I love to take 8 hours or more to do it right. Yellowstone is more famous but is not better than Teton. In fact, the two parks complement each other geologically, historically and ecologically. One is not complete without the other.​5 Places for Spectacular Sunsets in Grand TetonYellowstone was created easily after only a few weeks of congressional deliberation. Jesse Lee O’Connor李杰西's answer to How did Yellowstone became a National Park? It was an idea ahead of its time with no funding and no staff but for a volunteer superintendent who only visited twice during his five year posting. It took decades to figure out what to do with Yellowstone. The new preserve was created easily in 1872 because almost nobody lived there and it was far away from “the real world.” But in the early 20th century hundreds of people lived up and down Jackson’s Hole and they put up a huge resistance to federal meddling. This was the scene of the biggest, ugliest and most contentious struggle for public land in the US outside of Alaska.In the 1916 Maud Noble Cabin at Menor’s Ferry, Moose, Wyoming, visitors may read this story except the room containing it is cordoned off and the building locked until late May. If you ask a front desk ranger, you may receive a handout. Otherwise, even if you take a guided tour, most people never learn this story.In many ways the 31 year long battle for this valley was more inspirational to preservation movements around the world than was even the precedent-setting origin of Yellowstone story. It is largely unknown.Where to Stay near Grand Teton NP: Best Areas & Hotels, 2018 | PlanetWareIt is said that Jackson Hole is the most recently settled valley in the continental United States. 136 years ago, nobody lived here except First Nations (denied by early settlers but confirmed by archeologists north of Hoback Jct. that the Newe People had a year-round presence.) The soil is terrible for agriculture, winters are too long for most crops and we were isolated from train railheads. A shift began away from cattle ranching and toward dude or people ranching with the 1908 JY Ranch, 27 additional guest ranches (most are gone now) and guided hunting and fishing.Horace Marden Albright, deputy director of the National Park Service and new superintendent of Yellowstone loved the Teton Range and the valley below it. Jesse Lee O’Connor李杰西's answer to How has Jackson Hole contributed to the tourism of Grand Teton National Park?He felt encouraged by the economic shift to speak to Jackson Holians in 1919 of his desire to extend Yellowstone’s boundaries to include the Tetons in an early 20th century version of an environmental impact survey — it would affect these people’s lives so they had a say in its future. He was surprised by early settlers’ distrust of big government and federal land-grabbing; they essentially heckled him off the stage. Crestfallen, he returned to Yellowstone whilst his cronies in DC set out to establish a free standing Teton Park comprised of only the mountains and piedmont lakes, established in 1929. But his vision was more broad; he esteemed the view of the mountains from the valley to be as valuable as the peaks themselves.Stock Photo - Old Limber pine frames Cathedral group Grand Teton National Park Wyoming Grand Teton center is 13 770 feet highOver the next four years, however, potential development disturbed seven of Albright’s antagonists to reconsider.These early colluders were not natural champions of nature. They didn’t want a national park, they wanted a “museum on the hoof,” to drive on pot-holed roads to log structures wearing rustic costume. They wanted to freeze time. For, how can you sell a rural holiday to city dwellers if your neighbours put up big commercial developments blocking the mountain view? It could have happened, so easily.Enjoying political influence which allowed the rape of Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley, begun in 1914, and the 1920 Federal Water Power Commission which targeted national parks for reclamation projects, Idaho farmers plotted to dam each of the major canyons in the Teton Range. Experimental headgates were placed on two lakes and another was proposed to raise Jenny Lake 10 metres. Locals could see the hundreds of thousands of dead trees in the 1916 Jackson Lake reservoir that would not get cleaned out until the ‘30s. To forestall the valley becoming a water bank of reservoirs for Idaho, crisscrossed by power lines and who knows what other development, desperate measures were called for, even compromising with the federal enemy. Albright had successfully combatted the Water Commission’s scheme to dam Yellowstone’s Bechler region and Yellowstone Lake; perhaps he could be more a friend than an enemy to this pristine but beleaguered valley.http://www.georgewright.org/01yp_yochim.pdfI expect Albright was motivated by more than love of the Tetons; his agricultural home community in Owens Valley, California literally dried up when thirsty Los Angelinos diverted all its water away.On 26 July, 1923, a grassroots movement of 7 local merchants and ranchers hosted Albright at a secret meeting in Noble’s cabin to plot against their neighbours by composing “The Jackson Hole Plan” whereby a wealthy philanthropist would be sought to purchase private land to prevent commercial development. Two attendees went to Philadelphia as many wealthy dudes came from thereabouts but were unable to find a deep-pocketed nature lover. However, the next year, Albright had an influential visitor, John D. Rockefeller Jr., traveling under an assumed name, brought half of his children to Yellowstone. Albright was restricted from pushing his agenda but nevertheless thought he’d found his man. They corresponded. Two years later, Rockefeller brought his wife and remaining children and were treated to lunch overlooking the view of the Tetons on a bench just north of where Jackson Lake Lodge would be built decades later. Then, they were shown runaway development about Jenny and Leigh Lakes. They were deeply moved. The next year, Rockefeller set up the Snake River Land Company, ostensibly a cattle realty firm but which mysteriously never sold land and only bought.It was done in secret and promulgated by agents who did not know who held the purse strings, who would have revoulted if they had known. This was done to keep down the price. It is also the source of great multi-generational bitterness and rancour. Here’s why: suppose you’re a struggling homesteader. If unable to make a profit off your claim within five years, most quit and went away empty handed. Subsistence crops cannot be grown here in only three frost-free months. Now, suppose these “snakes” offer you market value for land that wasn’t actually yours, to give up your claim. What a deal! Especially during the Great Depression; a lot better than nothing. But then, some years later, you learned your land was being added to Teton Park. If you world have known that, you could have grown hay to sell to cattle ranchers, proved up on your claim and made quadruple the money! It was downright bamboozlement. A similar thing happened southwest of Orlando in the 1960s, swamps and groves were being bought up and nobody was even breathing the name Walt Disney, though Orlando's mayor knew. Surely, someone so wealthy could have been a little more generous? Then again, you don’t get to sustain a financial empire by just giving things away. Oh, wait, that was the whole point, to try to soften the image of his family’s name after his father’s tycoonish reputation. Here it is; he could give you and I a better gift if shrewdly acquired. It wasn’t just Jackson Hole; Land was purchased and donated to provide for Acadia, Shenandoah, Great Smokey Mountain National Parks, Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area and the United Nations complex. He funded museums in Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Parks.But, people felt gypped of the potential value of the land, even as did Floridians after the dust had all settled.What followed was utter war. State and federal bill after bill, strategies, protests, a pair of formal US Senate investigations, the state governor authorising locals to take into custody any federal employees attempting to enforce illegally taken land, the strife lasted for decades. Rockefeller offered 130 square kilometres to we the people. Congress, representing their constituents who were against federal land grabbing, said “no, thank you.” Rockefeller was left paying taxes on 142 sq km (it’s all part of Teton Park now) after 14 years, if the US people didn’t want that offering he was going to sell it on the open market! Wash his hands of it. Enter Franklin Delano Roosevelt; using little appreciated executive power first exercised by his cousin Theodore Roosevelt in preserving the first national monument in northeastern Wyoming, the insensitively named “Devils Tower,” FDR created the Jackson Hole National Monument, essentially the hole valley, with the stroke of a pen! He was compared to Hitler and to Hirohito. Critics screamed “Fowl! How can you invoke ‘antiquities’ when there was no history there! Never once was a fur trade rendezvous held there but only in surrounding areas!” Scholars went to work and pointed out the valley lies between the headwaters of the Snake, Green and Yellowstone Rivers, the watery highways linking mountain men to the cities, making this the “Crossroads of the American Fur Trade.” (Most of us are astonished no one even hinted at Native history but that was the fashion of those in power, to deny First America.) That worked on paper but where hoof meets trail, it was another matter. Local stockmen accompanied by Hollywood actor and local cottage owner Wallace Beery drove 500 cattle across the monument, armed, some of them hoping for a range war. The feds strategically looked the other way, everyone made it home safely and headlines were made in the big city.Jackson Hole naturalist Olaus Murie said the park was a “burning topic. … Card parties, dinner parties had their embarrassments if certain ones prominent on ‘the other side’ were present. … There was no such thing as getting together and talking it over.”https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/04/rockefeller-and-the-secret-land-deals-that-created-grand-tetons-national-park/%3foutputType=amp (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/04/rockefeller-and-the-secret-land-deals-that-created-grand-tetons-national-park/%3foutputType=amp)But then, things calmed down. After WWII, visitors began coming! Local bean counters began to see that tourism could be more dependably lucrative than agriculture! And, compromises were offered by the government:Cattle grazing rights were grandfathered inLimited elk hunting allowed in parkThe dam on Jackson Lake was allowed to stayPersonal inholdings were allowed to remain privateTaxes were paid to Teton County to offset imbalance of private vs federal landPermits, upon periodic review, for preexisting business agreements in the park, read, the Jackson Hole Airport were and are allowed by the feds. On purpose, in the park.Some regions are worth fighting over. And some are worth bending for, compromising for the vision of the bigger picture. Albright’s vision. Yours and mine? In 1950 the monument was segued into Grand Teton National Park, now composed of 1,255 sq km instead of the former 388 sq km.This is not a defense of Rockefeller; I’m just an historian reporting what happened, what can be documented. He was a key player but only one of a team and it wasn’t his idea; he needed to be solicited. In the end, nobody had to leave their land though some were misled by bankers. This is evidenced by an hundred inholdings totaling 3.84 square kilometres which will never be condemned via eminent domain and which can be sold to non family members freely though the zoning cannot change from rural/residential.(Who should manage Grand Teton’s private inholdings?)To claims he bought the valley, his total 142 square km donation (including land Laurance gave) equals 11.3% of Teton Park; it is a slice of the pie but far from the entire valley. Instead, the purchased inholdings prevented a checkerboard of private vs public land with development all the way between Jackson and Flagg Ranch.The Establishment of Grand Teton National ParkPlease realise that huge chunks of land had already been withdrawn from homesteading by Presidents Cleveland in 1897 and T. Roosevelt in 1908 and President Wilson gave veto power to the NPS in 1918 over development by the National Forest. It were the claims made prior to withdrawal that make up Rockefeller’s donated land plus the extant private inholdings. The face of the valley could have been Inestimably different if not for visionary citizens.Yellowstone Park, Arnold Hague and the Birth of National Forests Prime real estate. Already withdrawn from homesteading before the imbroglio. (You know I just read a site which claims the northern Tetons are preserved with GTNP. I did some math. 7/10 of the range is in the park. I don’t know why some would diminish it.)In 1927 - 29 President Coolidge locked up what was left in the hole. A Place Called Jackson Hole (Chapter 8)One may still complain: “What a shame that some rich industrialist should throw his money and influence around here before I was born so that I can never own a piece of this and have that view out my back window. It’s unAmerican to remove it from the free market. It’s abuse of power and overly restrictive that I can’t camp there or take a dog over there — too much federal Nay-saying.”On the other hand: What if Rockefeller never saw the Tetons? Don't you imagine some other capitalists (before we were born) would have developed the entire valley so that there’d be vacation homes all across that beach; you or I would still never be able to own any hectares here! And, I expect they’d charge you a lot more than $35 for a week pass to see that view. In fact, I bet that view would be utterly different than what we’re seeing now, if left to market forces. Restricted camping and pet use? Another way to describe federal land is to say it is yours and mine, held in trust by federal stewards and restricted so that our grandchildren can see and enjoy the same view which our grandparents might have.I wouldn’t call it socialism. I say some areas are too inspirational to all of us to have only gone to the highest bidder at our exclusion.Poster Print Wall Art Print entitled Teton Range reflected in Jackson Lake, Catholic Bay, None | Products | Poster prints, Wall art prints, Wall art Location where I tell this segment of storyA tale of two old timers: My once landlord and fellow member of the Historic Preservation Board, Thomas Lamb was born in Jackson in 1920. His dad’s name is carved inside the altar in the Chapel of the Transfiguration at Moose. He helped build each of the original town square elk antler arches. He went to his grave ten years ago saying the feds were too greedy, they should have left more of the valley for you and me.Future Wyoming Governor Clifford Hansen was born in Spring Creek west of Jackson in 1912. He resisted the new “illegal” national monument in 1943, driving cattle across it in protest. He complained how can local governments be supported if the majority of the county is federal? Perhaps to buffer this, the park paid taxes to the county for some years. In his later years, however, he changed his mind. At an historical society barbecue, or elsewhere, he would admit he’s glad the stock growers didn’t get their way in ‘43; the face of the entire valley would have been ruined. He told his story to the world, that he was man enough to say he was wrong,to Ken Burn’s camera, aired on public television the last week of September, 2009. A month later, he was laid to rest at Aspen Hill Cemetery, a stone’s throw from Lamb’s grave, who’d died 8 months earlier.29 Best Oregon Trail images | Oregon trail, Oregon, Old west NOT Oregon Trail! Cliff Hansen with mother Sylvia in Spring Creek Teton County during cattle driveTwo born and raised locals with two diametrically opposed viewpoints, both equally valid.You decide; is this a good end or an evil end? It is what happened, for better or for worse. And it is not the Rockefeller story. It is the story of the expansion of Teton Park, the Crucible for Conservation.Be inspired.This information is a regular feature in my guided Grand Teton tour. ™Jesse Lee O’Connor李杰西's answer to Is it wise to take a guide during the visit of Grand Teton?