News - History Jackson Hole

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION SUPPORTS BOARDWALK PLAZA WITH COMPETITIVE GRANT.

In March 2023, the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole awarded the JHHSM with a competitive grant to help extend the traditional wooden boardwalk from the street into the entrance of the History Museum Campus, along with benches and native landscaping that will be located beneath mature growth trees. By adding this feature, we’ll create an appealing main entrance and an outdoor gathering spot for the community. The Boardwalk Plaza will be the first step in transporting visitors through time as they explore the past, present, and future of Jackson Hole.

JHHSM hosted board, staff, elected officials, and guests from the Eastern Shoshone and Shoshone-Bannock Tribes on September 14, 2022 to officially mark the beginning of construction on a new history museum campus.
The construction team includes Aufderheide Construction Management and Berning Project Management. The new history museum campus is currently scheduled to open in 2024.
Many thanks for the support of generous donors who have helped us already secure more than 85% of the total funding for this project. If you’re interested in contributing to the capital campaign, contact Morgan Jaouen.
Are you a neighbor? Request construction updates from JHHSM.

Work to ready the site for the new history museum campus began in August 2022. The first step was to relocate the existing structure, also called the red house, to Star Valley with help from Shacks on Racks.
While we can’t disclose the new red house occupants, we’re so happy that it will stay in Wyoming and continue to be a family home.

On April 13, 2022, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded the Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum’s project to build a new History Museum Campus with a grant of $750,000. The award was one of only 23 grants in the Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant category given across the country. The JHHSM was also the only Wyoming applicant to receive funds in this grant cycle.
As a challenge grant, the NEH award required the JHHSM to meet a 4:1 ratio or $3 million match of the award in non-federal funds. The grant also represents a significant milestone for the JHHSM towards the goal to begin building a new History Museum Campus for the community at the corner of East Broadway and Willow Street/Bruun Blvd.
The support for the project is now local, regional, and national. We are grateful for the tremendous philanthropic and grant support received already and thank the community for helping us meet this grant challenge.” currently located under red house entry.

JHHSM went through an exhaustive RFP process to bring on a design team in 2020. HGA, a national interdisciplinary design firm, heads up the design team in partnership with local architecture firm Prospect Studio and exhibit designer Gallagher & Associates. Read more about their backgrounds.
JHHSM and the design team began collecting community input through a series of surveys, workshops, and public presentations through 2021.
Our new campus will include engaging exhibit, educational, and community gathering spaces with two exhibition galleries; archive center; Marion W. Buchenroth Classroom for education; historic cabins; outdoor programming space; and the Museum Store.
This primary, year-round campus will exhibit Jackson Hole’s history from indigenous peoples, to the era of exploration, to permanent settlement, tourism, and recreation. Exhibit development is being co-curated with community partners, including the Eastern Shoshone and Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.

In 2019 during the Jackson Hole Land Trust’s “Save the Block” campaign, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum (JHHSM) identified the Block as the ideal permanent home for the JHHSM.
Voters in the November 2019 Specific Purpose Excise Tax (SPET) ballot enthusiastically agreed, approving a SPET tax to support the project with a majority of the vote.
Our location on the southeast corner of the Block and collaboration with the Jackson Hole Land Trust, Teton County Historic Preservation Board, Cafe Genevieve, Persephone, and Healthy Being Juicery, will anchor the character of our beloved downtown with authentic stories and objects that define our local identity — past, present, and future.