Grand Teton National Park: The park that almost wasn’t

In addition to seeing amazing wildlife and stunning views, one of the things our guests always comment on about our scenic float trips is how much they learn from our guides about the history, geology and botany of the Park. So we thought we’d spend some time in our next few blog posts sharing a little about those things. Today it’s history.

We are incredibly lucky to have Grand Teton National Park. The formation of the park was one of the longest, most bitterly fought of all American conservation battles. It took 50 years and three separate governmental acts (holy cow!) whereas Yellowstone (the nation’s and the world’s first national park) took only two years from idea to reality.

The early years of Grand Teton National Park

As early as 1897, several proposals suggested expanding Yellowstone’s boundaries southward to encompass portions of northern Jackson Hole and protect migrating elk herds as well as including the Teton Range and northern Jackson Hole. Neither the Department of the Interior nor Congress acted on these early proposals. A small version of today’s park was eventually established in 1929, protecting the major peaks of the Teton Range and six glacial lakes at the base of the mountains. But much of the valley of Jackson Hole remained in private ownership so conservationists decided to seek private funds to purchase land in the Jackson Hole valley.