Jackson Hole

“ They were indeed a breed of men apart. It is in no way remarkable that their story is one of the most fascinating in our history. Bridger, Smith, Fitzpatrick, Carson, Meek, Sublette, Jackson; these are among the famous names engraved upon the face of the land, markers to the indomitable men who left behind these reminders of the days when the beaver was king of the furbearers.
“Jackson’s Hole,” the great, mountain-encircled valley lying at the east base of the Teton Range, was, as that excellent historian Mattes puts it so aptly, the “Crossroads of the Western Fur Trade.” ”

“ Everyone in Jackson Hole knew Bill and Holiday Menor. They were as much a part of the country as the Snake River or the Teton Mountains. The type of men they were brought them here.
Then, as now, Jackson Hole had a marked collection of people. They were unshackled and they had color. Strength was intensified. Weakness was vivid. Bill and Holiday were plain spoken, strong-dyed individualists. They belonged here.
The Menor brothers came originally from Ohio. They were tall men. Bill, 11 years older than his brother, was thin and long-boned. ”

“ When still a very young man, only 16, he emigrated to America, where he served for some years in the United States Army in the Far West, part of the time as a volunteer doctor. His first visit to the Jackson Hole region was in 1872 when he came to Teton Basin (Pierre’s Hole) for a brief period. In 1878 while serving under Lieutenant Hall, he came into Jackson Hole, his detachment being sent to carry food to Lieutenant Doane’s outfit, which had lost its supplies in the Snake River while engaged in a geological survey of the Jackson Hole area [6] . ”

“ Davis reappeared shortly after this in Jackson Hole, the resort of more than one man with a past, and in the most isolated corner of that isolated region he began life anew. At the south end of the Hole, a few miles down the Grand Canyon, he took out a claim on the south side of the Snake River near a little tributary known as Bailey Creek. There he built a log cabin, the humblest structure imaginable—one room, no windows, a single door hung on rawhide hinges. This primitive shack was Jack Davis’ home for nearly a quarter of a century. ”

“ Smith was eventually located in Pierre’s Hole by one of the Sublette-Jackson party, Joe Meek, and the partners were finally reunited there, Jackson and Sublette moving over via Teton Pass.
Throughout the period 1811-40, nearly every mountain man prominently connected with the fur trade visited Jackson Hole. It was an area greatly favored by Jackson, which undoubtedly accounts for Sublette’s most appropriate name. Following Colter’s discovery of the valley, it was traversed in 1811 by three employees of the St. Louis-Missouri Fur Company, John Hoback, Edward Robinson, and Jacob Reznor. ”

“ Man’s search for wealth has taken him to many out of the way places. Wealth can assume many forms, depending on the person striving for it.
What is now Jackson Hole was a way of life to the Indians who summered here and wintered in the lower and warmer regions to the east of Togwotee Pass. A summer in this secluded valley meant plentiful fish and other wildlife for food, skins for clothing and teepees as well as a cool, well-watered environment. ”

“ In the 1880’s and 1890’s it was widely supposed that the Snake River gravels of Jackson Hole, in Wyoming, contained workable deposits of placer gold, and there were many who came to the region, lured by such reports and a prospector’s eternal optimism.
Color, indeed, could be struck almost anywhere along the river, but the gold of which it gave promise proved discouragingly scarce and elusive. None found what in fairness to the word could be called a fortune. ”

“ Doane’s record, unpublished, of his heroic attempt to lead his party through the wilderness of the Yellowstone, southward through Jackson Hole, and down the “Mad River” to the Columbia is no less graphic in its vividness, no less thrilling in its expression of the hazards and the wild beauty of the land. ”

“ Jackson’s Hole was destined by geography to become a traffic center of the Western fur trade. Between South Pass at the head of the Little Sandy and the northern passes above the Three Forks of the Missouri it offered the most feasible route across the Rocky Mountain barrier. In addition, it was the focal point of a region that was highly prized and vigorously contested because of its populous beaver streams. Here trappers’ trails converged like the spokes of a great wheel and, after Lewis and Clark, most of the important trapper-explorers crossed Jackson’s Hole on their journeys. ”

“ To John Colter, mountain man, trapper, and lone wanderer in the exploration of the Rocky Mountain wilderness, belongs the distinction of being the first white man to enter Jackson Hole and the “Country of the Yellowstone.” ”

“ Jackson Hole is of the same age and is still sinking. The Teton landscape is the product of many earth processes, the most recent of which is cutting by water and ice. Within the last 15,000 years, ice sculpturing of peaks and canyons and impounding of glacial lakes have added finishing touches to the scenic beauty.
Why did the Tetons rise and Jackson Hole sink? For thousands of years men have wondered about the origin of mountains and their speculations have filled many books. ”

“ Figure 2 shows a panorama of the Teton Range and Jackson Hole from a vantage point over the Pinyon Peak Highlands. The rough steep slopes and jagged ridges along the east front of the range contrast with smoother slopes and more rounded ridges on the western side. Nestled at the foot of the mountains and extending out onto the floor of Jackson Hole are tree-rimmed sparkling lakes of many sizes and shapes. Still others lie in steep-sided rocky amphitheaters near the mountain crests. ”

“ There are few residents of the Jackson Hole country who have not heard of the Deadman’s Bar affair, a triple killing which took place in the summer of 1886 along the Snake River and which gave this section of the river the name of Deadman’s Bar. It is the most grim narrative and the most celebrated in the pioneer history of the valley, and its details are sufficiently bloody to satisfy the most sanguinary tourist, thirsty for western thrills. ”

“ One of the valley homesteaders saw the posse leader there with a group of 15 men on saddle horses, and a few days later they came riding over the pass from Teton Basin into Jackson Hole.
In the valley of ... the leader completed organization of the posse. Including him, there were 4 men from Montana, 2 from Idaho, and 10 or 12 recruited in Jackson Hole. Asked to join the outfit, Cunningham refused, and stayed at Flat Creek. The posse elected a spokesman, and then started up the valley to the Spread Creek cabin—a group of 16 men, all mounted and heavily armed. ”

“ The Yellowstone National Park, J. E. Haynes, Saint Paul, 1927.
Doane, G. C.: Expedition of 1876-1877, 44 pp. typed from original manuscript, Library, Grand Teton National Park.
38
THE STORY OF DEADMAN’S BAR [5]
By Fritiof Fryxell
Jackson Hole, widely reputed to have been the favored retreat and rendezvous of cattle thieves, outlaws, and “bad men” in the early days, has long enjoyed the glamour which goes with a dark and sinful past, and this reputation has by no means been lost sight of by those who have been active in advertising the assets of this fascinating region. ”

“ One of the most colorful flight routes into Jackson Hole is from the east, along the north flank of the Gros Ventre Mountains. For 40 miles this mountain range is bounded by broad parallel stripes of bright-red, pink, purple, gray, and brown rocks. Some crop out as cliffs or ridges, and others are badlands (bare unvegetated hills and valleys with steep slopes and abundant dry stream channels) . In places the soft beds have broken loose and flowed down slopes like giant varicolored masses of taffy. ”

“ Jackson Hole contains more landslides and rock mudflows than almost any other part of the Rocky Mountain region. They constantly plague road builders (fig. 17) and add to the cost of other types of construction.
All of these examples of the relentless battle between constructive and destructive processes modifying the Teton landscape are but minor skirmishes. The bending and breaking of rocks at the surface are small reflections of enormous stresses and strains deep within the earth where the major conflict is being waged. ”

“ No other region in the United States contains a thicker or more complete nonmarine Tertiary record; many areas have little or none. The accumulation in Jackson Hole reflects active uplifts of nearby mountains that supplied abundant rock debris, concurrent 89 sinking of nearby basins in which the sediments could be preserved, and proximity to the great Yellowstone-Absaroka volcanic area, one of the most active continental volcanic fields in the United States. The volume and composition of the Tertiary strata are, therefore, clear evidence of crustal and subcrustal instability. ”

“ This is why the highest peaks and steepest faces are near the east margin of the range. The hinge line of the eastern block, which forms Jackson Hole, was in the highlands to the east. The western edge of the block is downdropped along the fault at the base of the Teton Range. ”

“ This hardly seems likely, since Colter, bold as he was, evidenced no characteristics of the foolhardy, and to his eyes the Cascade Canyon route could scarcely have appeared to offer a feasible crossing.
One cannot but puzzle a bit, however, as to his reason for crossing the Range at all. From the broad valley of the Hole the route northward up the Snake River into the Yellowstone was to any eye an easy one. The terrain sloped gently, there were no mountain walls to scale or circle, nothing to indicate any obstacle of consequence. ”

“ He belongs to a band of Shoshones called "Sheepeaters," who have been forced to live for a number of years in the mountains away from the tribe.
The Yellowstone area was frequently entered by the Crow and was evidently not a Shoshone hunting territory, except for the Sheepeaters. Jackson Hole is more commonly mentioned by informants as a place of summer hunting activity, but the above information from Jones would suggest that parties entered it from the Green River country rather than from Wind River. ”

“ A study of the youngest sedimentary rocks on the floor of Jackson Hole shows that the Teton Range began to rise rapidly and take its present shape less than 9 million years ago. The towering peaks themselves are direct evidence that the rate of uplift far exceeded the rate at which the rising block was worn away by erosion. ”

“ This entire process only took about 20 million years, and along the east margin of Jackson Hole it was largely completed during Oligocene time (fig. 48) . However, east and northeast of Jackson Lake a Miocene downwarp subsequently formed and in it accumulated at least 7,000 feet of locally derived sediments of volcanic origin. ”

“ East face of Signal Mountain showing Bivouac Formation (upper Pliocene or Pleistocene) . Tilted ledge is rhyolitic welded tuff 2.5 million years old, and slopes above and below it are conglomerate. National Park Service photo by W. E. Dilley.
After Teewinot Lake was filled with sediment, the floor of Jackson Hole became a flat boulder-covered surface. Nearby vents erupted heavy fiery clouds of gaseous molten rock that rolled across this plain and then congealed into hard layers with the general appearance of lava flows. ”

“ On July 20 Warren A. Ferris and Robert Newell departed at the head of an outfit destined for the Flathead trade. The little party consisted of six “engages” with pack horses, and five armed Indians, amounting in all to thirteen armed men. Their route was the usual one via Hoback Canyon and Teton Pass. The ecstatic description of Jackson’s Hole from the summit of the pass, given by Ferris on this occasion, is one which can be appreciated by the modern tourist:
... ”

“ Game being rather scarce in this section we concluded to move camp and try our luck in the Jackson’s Hole country. For a short 111 time I made headquarters near a ranch on Jackson’s Lake. This body of water is situated quite close to the Grand Tetons, which tower thousands of feet above its surface. The crest of these great formations, like a mighty arm stretching a curtain over the western sky, receives the rays of the morning sun long before they reach the narrow valley below. ”

“ This expedition to the Jackson’s Hole country was also significant as the first in an amazing series which has established Jedediah Smith as perhaps the foremost explorer of Western America.
We have noted the visit of McKenzie’s brigade of British-Canadians to the Upper Snake and a region of boiling fountains, in 1818-1819, as reported by Ross. Now, in 1824, Ross himself conducted the second British invasion of Yellowstone Park, while crossing from Okanagon to the headwaters of the Missouri. ”

“ Risks must be taken, and there is such an element in human affairs as fortune, good or bad. I decided at once to make all possible speed to Fort Hall, there refit and returning bring lumber to rebuild the boat on the ground where it had been lost, and continue to Eagle Rock 36 Bridge on the Snake River, previously going back far enough beyond Jackson’s Lake to take a renewal of the system of triangulation and notes, lost in the river when the boat capsized. ”

“ He had often heard Hugh speak of Jackson's Hole and Jackson's Lake, spots for many years hardly known to white men, and about which most marvelous stories were told. Here, men used to say—the miners that the streams were paved with nuggets of gold, the trappers that the rivers and forests abounded in fur, the hunters that game was so abundant and so tame that there was always plenty to eat, and the camp never starved ”