NATIONAL PARK SERVICE The Research Station's Place in History

When President Arthur and General Phil Sheridan made their trip to the Yellowstone Park in 1883, Nelson Yarnall, head packer, attributed these remarks to the two distinguished men when they saw the Tetons for the first time: "One glimpse and Sheridan reined in his horse, lifted his hat, and turning in his saddle said: 'Mr. President, have you ever seen anything like that?' The President stopped, removed his hat, and said: 'Never in my life have I seen anything so sublime.'" (Owen 1938). This same reverence for the Tetons may have been one of the reasons why the early wanderers decided to settle down in Jackson Hole.

Able to face the harsh winters, a few brave souls squatted or took up homesteads along the Snake River from the Buffalo Fork confluence to the Jackson Lake outlet. At the Buffalo Fork Entrance to the Park, some of the buildings which were the headquarters of the Wildlife Park are found. This location was the early homestead of William T. Carter (the original cabin has disappeared). Carter never returned to the homestead after World War I and sold out to John W. Hogan in 1924 who ran a fox farm at the location. Hogan built the residence that currently houses seasonal park employees (Fig. 3). Hogan was an entertainer and promoter and Slim Lawrence (1977) recalled the many dances that were held in his residence. According to the Teton County records, Hogan sold his property to the Snake River Land Company in 1930.

Fig. 3. John W. Hogan residence (Crandall photo, N.P.S.).

Bill Rodenbush, a squatter and trapper, took up residence on the east bank of Pacific Creek near the Snake River about 1925 and stayed there for about 25 years. He trapped mink in the spring and fall. Originally he came from the Laramie plains where he was a "wolfer" collecting bounties from the cattlemen (Lawrence 1977).

West of Pacific Creek and south of the present highway, Orval W. Snell established his homestead around 1917. Snell raised a few horses, cattle, fox and mink; however, his attempts to raise marten ended in failure. He trapped up Pacific Creek and around Gravel Lake. As a worker on the Jackson Lake Dam, he owned a 1912 Maxwell which he persistently drove down the middle of the road to and from the dam site. Slim Lawrence drove a bus for the Lander Transportation Company at the time and recalled that it was a local feat to dodge Snell's car and remain on the road. Eventually, Orval Snell moved to Sheridan with his father and son (Lawrence 1977) and in 1931 sold his land to the Snake River Land Company.

The Wild Goose Inn, owned by Mrs. Roy Lozier, was located west of the Pacific Creek Road and south of the present highway and the Lozier homestead (Peterson 1978). This inn was particularly noted for its cakes and pies (Lawrence 1977).

Joseph J. Markham homesteaded the land on the east side of the Oxbow in 1913 where he operated a cattle ranch until 1932. Markham accepted a position as Head Time Keeper for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation when he came to Moran in 1910. According to his son John (1972), he was appointed as Superintendent of the Jackson Lake Dam in early January of 1917. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (1977) records show that Joseph Markham was Superintendent from 1914 to 1932. Markham's wife, Johanna, came to Moran by horseback and covered wagon from Cody, Wyoming, in July 1910. She was the first registered nurse to practice in Jackson Hole, working at the Reclamation Hospital along with Dr. Joseph H. Shaw, Dr. Wise and Dr. Clifton E. Young during their terms as physicians for the Bureau (Markham 1972). Markham started the first snow survey in 1919 and snowshoed to his stations once a month with Orval Snell. Unfortunately, Markham died prematurely in 1932 from appendicitis (Lawrence 1977).

Situated on the west bank of the well-known Oxbow of the Snake River was the homestead of another prominent settler, Charles J. Allen. "The Bay" or "Allen's Bay", as the Oxbow was called in the early days, was the center of many community activities; for the Aliens settled in the area in 1897 and built the Elk Horn Hotel (Allen 1976). According to Josephine Nelson Roice, whose grandparents were the Allens, the two-story hotel (Fig. 4) was not only a roadhouse for guests but a small store and post office (Roice 1977). Otto Nelson, Josephine's brother, recalls a barn and blacksmith shop on the premises (Nelson 1977). Maria Allen, wife of Charles, was well-known as a midwife and brought Noble Gregory, the Research Station's caretaker, into the world (Gregory 1977). Around 1910, the Allens moved to Kelly for a few years, then to California in 1923, and then back to a small piece of property next to the present Moran Cemetery. At this latter site, they rented a few cabins and later leased the land to their granddaughter and husband, the Mudrons. Eventually, they moved to Wilson, Wyoming (Nelson 1977).

Fig. 4. Elk Horn Hotel, Charles J. Allen residence (W.C. Lawrence photo collection).

Slim Lawrence could not recall seeing the Elk Horn Hotel when he came to Jackson Hole in 1912. Apparently, the hotel was destroyed in the early 1910's, just prior to or during the period when a man named Loomis leased the property. Loomis mysteriously disappeared and Ben Taylor maintained a dairy on the site, furnishing milk and cream to the Sheffields in Moran (Nelson 1977). Don Miller, brother of Wyoming Governor Lester A. Miller, briefly occupied the Allen property also. According to Teton County records, Ben Sheffield bought Charles Allen's property in 1925 and sold it to the Snake River Land Company in 1929.

Bill Crawford homesteaded near the site of the present town of Jackson in the 1880's and maintained a cabin for trapping on the Snake River bank south of the Allen Place. He was noted for having discovered the kettle which had been used to prepare the victims' skulls for evidence in the trial of John Tonnar who was accused of killing his three German partners along Deadman's Bar of the Snake River in 1886 (Lawrence 1977). The kettle is now in the Jackson Hole Museum.

One of the earliest settlers was the mysterious Captain Smith who as a squatter, built a hotel on the site of the Research Station. Webb (1896) refers to Captain Smith in the September 20, 1896, diary entry: "From Sargent's it was about eight miles over a pretty rough trail to our camping ground on the Snake River outlet of Jackson's Lake. We camped in a broad meadow about a mile from the Lake and a few miles from the spot where Hamilton is said to have been drowned and near the country seat of Captain Smith. ('Captain' because he owns and operates a row boat on the Lake, and 'Smith' because, like most of the other citizens in this happy valley, he doubtless modestly wishes to conceal his identity.)" Lawrence (1977) recalls that Webb's Diary was the only reference he has seen pertaining to Captain Smith.

"Capt. Smith's Ranch" (Fig. 5) is recorded on a U.S.G.S. topographic map surveyed in 1899 (Fig. 6). Noble Gregory (1977) remembers his father's talking about Captain Smith. According to his father, Noble Gregory, Sr., when he arrived in Jackson Hole in 1896, Captain Smith's Place was located at the Research Station site in front of what was to become the location of the main laboratory building. Gregory's father also mentioned that Captain Smith received his name because he could sail schooners of beer along the bar. Noble's father recounted going to the hotel for recreation on weekends and also recalled that Captain Smith's wife did most of the work. She had one of the first gardens in the area and was diligent in smoking elk meat. Apparently, the hotel burned down but no specific date of that event was established. Lawrence (1977) recalls that Herbert Whiteman, an 1896 settler, had discussed Captain Smith's place and even recounted how he had courted a school teacher who lived there.

Fig. 5. Captain Smith's Hotel with trees at the Research Station site in the foreground (W.C. Lawrence photo collection).

Fig. 6. U.S.G.S. Topographic Map, surveyed in 1899.

Two other mysterious characters, Poison Creek Bill and Dog Face Kid, were living as squatters at the Research Station site in the early 1900's (Gregory 1977 and Lawrence 1977). These men allegedly occupied a dugout located in the east bank of Poison Creek, the first small drainage west of the Research Station (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7. Dugout, east bank of Poison Creek (Sheffield glass plate collection, N.P.S.).

A complex sequence of warranty deeds and quit claim deeds between the Dougherty, Kimball, Kruger and Sheffield families creates a confusing pattern of land occupancy and ownership at the Research Station site in the early 1900's. The A.R. Kimball family apparently built and occupied a frame house on the Research Station site at this time. Mrs. Raymond Peterson remembers seeing the Kimball place in her early childhood, but her husband did not recall seeing it in 1924 when he arrived in Jackson Hole (Peterson 1978). Josephine Nelson Roice recalls having lived in the Kimball house for one summer while her husband worked on the dam (Roice 1977). The first car into Jackson Hole was driven over the Ashton-Moran road in 1910 and it was seen passing the Arch Kimball Place that summer (Markham 1972). Gregory (1977) and Lawrence (1977) remembered participating in "turkey shoots" at the Research Station site in 1925 and 1926 when there were no buildings.

The original U.S. land patent for the area including the Research Station site was granted in 1911 to Clara Smith who is thought to have been Clara Dougherty Smith. Ultimately, Ben Sheffield acquired the property which he then sold in 1929 to the Snake River Land Company.

Continuing west along the Snake River from the Research Station site is an open meadow which was the property of George Herbert Whiteman who obtained a patent in 1919 and in 1922, sold part of his land east of his home to M.R. and Eva Jane Grimmesey. The Grimmeseys sold their lands to the Snake River Land Company in 1932. These two holdings were important in the history of the Station because the structures were used as living facilities by the early researchers. Bob Grimmesey (M.R.) worked for W. Lewis Johnson for a short time at the AMK Ranch (the new Research Center). Eva worked in the Moran Post Office in the winter and after her husband's death in 1929, she remarried and left Wyoming (Lawrence 1977).

Herbert Whiteman, a bachelor, was known as a kind and generous man in the north Jackson community. He came from Detroit, Michigan, with Mr. and Mrs. Heigo and established the Lakeview Ranch (Fig. 6) on Jackson Lake around 1896. They tried trapping and guiding but were unsuccessful. The partnership broke up and Whiteman moved to his homestead area along the Snake River. He sold his property to the Snake River Land Company in 1930 but resided there until his death in 1947 (Lawrence 1977).

The town of Moran, located below the Jackson Lake Dam on the north bank of the Snake River, had its beginning as the homestead of Frank V. Lovell (Fig. 8) who obtained a U.S. land patent in 1904. He sold his land to Ben Sheffield in 1917, according to the Teton County records, although Sheffield apparently started his dude ranch on the site as early as 1903 (Mumey 1947). The town of Moran soon had a store, post office, livery stable and cabins, as well as the famous Teton Lodge. Sheffield maintained his operations there until he sold out to the Snake River Land Company in 1929. Moran continued to exist as a popular tourist area until the 1950's when some of the facilities were moved and the remainder were de stroyed.

Fig. 8. Frank V. Lovell cabin on the right (W.C. Lawrence photo collection).

A history of the early settlers has to include three community gathering places in the vicinity of the Research Station. Doc Steele's Saloon (Fig. 9) was located at the present road junction to Signal Mountain and to Jackson Lake Lodge, just north of the Research Station site. Herbert Whiteman was one of the first bartenders at the saloon which initially catered to the workers who were constructing the Jackson Lake Dam between 1910 and 1915 (Lawrence 1977 and Gregory 1977). If a person wanted to gamble, he could go to Charlie Fesler's store (Fig. 10) in Moran and play Panguingue (using 12 decks of cards) or poker. Fesler started his financial success in the Jackson Hole country by trapping muskrats for 17 cents apiece. He had been the Moran postmaster from 1929 to 1950 when his general store burned down and he was forced to move (Lawrence 1977). The old school house just north of Moran was also a community gathering place for dancing, square dancing and potluck dinners until it burned down around 1951 (Simon 1977).

Fig. 9. Doc Steele's Saloon (W.C. Lawrence photo collection).

Fig. 10. Charlie Fesler's store, Moran, Wyoming (W.C. Lawrence photo collection).