Historical Atlas of Jackson Hole

Jenny Lake Lodge

On September 19, 1930 Tony Grace sold his Danny Ranch to the Snake River Land Company. Grand Teton National Park had recently been created in 1929, and the Land Company had been in talks with the National Park Service over the future of the Danny Ranch. Early National Park Service policy held little value in […]

Danny Ranch

On June 3, 1922 Tony Grace filed on a homestead on the east shores of String Lake, just north of Jenny Lake. His intentions were to create a small, secluded guest ranch after having worked at two of the largest and most successful guest operations in the valley. During his employment at Ben Sheffield’s Teton […]

Highlands

Harry and Elizabeth Sensenbach moved their young family from Pennsylvania to Jackson Hole in 1914. They settled and applied for land on the eastern boundary of Jimmy Manges’ homestead. They attempted to raise barley and oats, but the poor soil on the western side of the Snake River proved difficult to cultivate. Once they received […]

Moose Head Ranch

In 1927, Eva Sanford became one of the last individuals to file for a homestead on Spread Creek. Later that same year Calvin Coolidge signed Executive Order #4685 removing over 1,280 acres of public land from homestead claims. In 1930 the Sanford’s homestead was contested by the General Land Office, believing it to have been […]

Teton Science Schools Kelly Campus

Very little information remains on the early homesteading history of the Teton Science Schools’ Kelly Campus. It is known that Ransom Adams filed on a 160-acre homestead that is thought to have been first settled by Grant Shinkle. While Adams’ claim remains in the patent issued by the General Land Office, Shinkle’s claim is undocumented. […]

The Manges Cabin

Jimmy Manges originally homesteaded the land that became the Elbo Ranch, just south of Jenny Lake. He applied for a patent in 1911, and it took him seven long years of hard work to clear just 42 of his 160 acres. The homestead cabin he built in 1911 became one of the first homesteads on […]

The Snake River Land Company Office

In 1918, William Carter received the patent for his homestead on a bend of the Snake River just east of the old town of Moran. By 1926 the property was sold to John Hogan who renovated the homestead to act as a summer residence and fox fur farm. He also built a few extra cabins […]

R Lazy S Ranch

In 1910, Elsie M. James (nĂ©e Olsen) received Homestead Patent #145265 for 151.33 acres along what is now known as the Moose-Wilson Road. The homestead was located just north of the White Grass Ranch Road. At the time the patent was given, the White Grass wouldn’t be created for another three years. This would have […]

Jackson Lake Lodge

In 1955 the Jackson Lake Lodge opened and became the first example of modern, International style architecture in a National Park. The design was intended to express a sense of modernism and the creation of a new era after the close of World War II. The large, flat, concrete and glass structure was made to […]

Double Diamond Ranch

Joseph S. Clark, Jr., a future senator of Pennsylvania and mayor of Philadelphia, and Frank R. Williams, a wilderness guide, first met in 1923 on a pack trip. Clark was part of the group that Williams was leading. Like many before him, he quickly fell in love with the Jackson Hole landscape. A fast friendship […]