Grand Teton A Place Called Jackson Hole A Historic Resource Study of Grand Teton National Park

Two general histories of the American West provided background information for this study, Ray Allen Billington's Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier and Frederick Merk's History of the Western Movement. Both are excellent sources. After I completed the first draft manuscript, two books were published that provided new ways to see the history of the American West. Patricia N. Limerick's The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West offers the best fresh look at the American West. In her book, Limerick stresses the continuity of themes and issues in the West. Michael P. Malone's and Richard W. Etulain's The American West: A Twentieth Century History, published in 1989, is must reading for people interested in the history and current issues of this region.

For a general text on Wyoming history, T. A. Larson's History of Wyoming is the best source. Numerous histories and memoirs have been written about Jackson Hole. David J. Saylor's Jackson Hole, Wyoming: In the Shadow of the Tetons remains the best general history of this area. Robert B. Betts' Along the Ramparts of the Tetons, not only is a good source, but is entertaining reading. Though criticized for its lack of footnotes, From Trapper to Tourist in Jackson Hole by Elizabeth Wied Hayden remains an excellent history. Noley Mumey's The Teton Mountains is a dated but still useful history. It should be used with caution, however. Forgotten by many is a booklet titled A Souvenir History of Jackson Hole, written by teacher Roland Brown Jr. and his seventh and eighth grade students in 1924. There are some errors, but this book proved useful in several instances. It also reveals insights about how people of this period viewed their past. For a good pictorial history of Jackson Hole, see Virginia Huidekoper's The Early Days in Jackson Hole.

Concerning more specialized subjects, Merrill Mattes wrote the definitive history of the fur trade in this area, titled "Jackson Hole, Crossroads of the Western Fur Trade," which appeared in two segments in the Pacific Northwest Quarterly. I used Mattes work extensively to write the chapter on the fur trappers. Robert Righter's Crucible for Conservation: The Creation of Grand Teton National Park, published in 1983, is the best history documenting the struggle to establish a park in this valley. I relied heavily on this book in summarizing the park story in the conservation chapter.

Archival sources provided much of the primary material for this work. Homestead records, housed in the National Archives facility at Suitland, Maryland, proved essential in reconstructing settlement in the park area. The Harold P. Fabian papers at the Rockefeller Archive Center revealed a wealth of information concerning the activities of the Snake River Land Company and politics related to park expansion. I also found Horace M. Albright's papers, housed at the Yellowstone Archives, especially useful to understanding the tumultuous decade of the 1920s in this valley. The American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming contains the papers of numerous people associated with Jackson Hole. The Wyoming State Archives hold numerous manuscripts pertinent to this area. In particular, the state curates reports prepared under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration. A woman named Nellie Van DerVeer wrote numerous essays under this program. Her work provided useful information, but contained some errors and was inexplicably vague in some cases. In Denver, park records stored at the Federal Records Center and materials at the Denver Public Library, particularly the Murie Papers, were useful.

Several facilities in Jackson Hole provided important materials. Documents in park files were important sources, though they are not indexed or filed in an organized way. The county records were very important in documenting homesteading and property ownership in the park. The Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum maintains a large collection of papers and photographs. Especially important is a subject index to local newspapers and the center's collections, which made my research much easier. Old copies and microfilm copies of the Jackson's Hole Courier, the Jackson Hole Guide, and the Jackson Hole News are available in the Teton County Library. The Courier provided considerable information for this study.