National Park Treasures

Mashup of Individual Inheritance + Collective Legacy

Sep 07, 2024

My ancestors had it all wrong. In search of prime farmland, they pioneered their way from the eastern seaboard to Kentucky, and sojourned in Indiana and Illinois. Finally they hit the jackpot after buying fertile Iowa farmland in a temperate region with reliable rainfall. They wouldn't have dreamed of homesteading in a semi-arid Western region noted for its rugged cliffs and boulders, thin topsoil, and underlying pockets of geothermal activity.

However, a few decades later, others arrived there in search of something else. And they're still leaving a lasting impact.

Better Late than Never

Recently our family joined the approximately 3 to 4 million annual visitors to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks.

The Grand Tetons were awesome! A guided boat tour on Jenny Lake, nestled at the foot of the mountains, afforded us a bird's eye view. At the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve near Jackson, we learned how his father, John D., Jr. bought land after a visit there in 1920. The final family-held 1,106 acres of the JV Ranch with its spectacular view of the glacial Phelps Lake and the iconic Grand Tetons, was gifted to Grand Teton National Park in 2007.

Yellowstone was sensational. An unexpected bonus was The Beehive, an adjacent geyser which erupts irregularly. It shoots 150 to 200 feet in the air, and was an awesome opening act for Old Faithful. The wildlife in Hayden Valley did not disappoint.

Traveling on the Big Horn Scenic Byway, we reached our destination of Cody, home of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Born in LeClaire, Iowa, William Cody moved with his family to Kansas, and after his dad died, began making his own way as a teenager. After serving in the Civil War, he achieved recognition as a buffalo hunter and scout, and eventually organized a touring extravaganza, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

My grandma was 15 years old when she and her family saw his show near the World Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. As she wrote: "One afternoon we went to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Quite a crowd was there. Saw Annie Oakley, the famous shooter . . . She could shoot a ball in the air every time before it reached the ground. . . The show was pretty good. Buffalo Bill himself was there."

In 1896, Cody used his new wealth to found the town of Cody. He foresaw the development possibilities of irrigation, awesome scenery, hunting, and proximity to Yellowstone. He helped lead efforts to dam the Shoshone River and bring the railroad through there.

Next we set our sights on Sheridan, population 18,737, to visit a nephew who moved there from Iowa about two decades ago. My husband noticed a large building called the M & M's Center, featuring an ice skating rink. If the phrase "Melt in your mouth, not in your hand" comes to mind, you're correct. Forrest Mars Jr., the 25th richest person in the world, and grandson of the founder of Mars, Inc. bought the Diamond Cross Ranch near there in 1999. He made other charitable donations, including the Brinton Museum of the Big Horn (currently closed for renovation), and the Mars Ag Center at Sheridan College, as well as the WYO Theatre.

None of these attractions were there when my mom, grandma, aunt and her two children drove their green Studebaker from Sioux City in 1940. But there was a major draw. In her travel journal, Mom wrote, "Reached Sheridan late in the afternoon and found the big annual rodeo in full swing. It rained in the evening, but we drove out to the rodeo for the evening performance where Maggie [ my grandma] got kissed by the clown."

We missed the Sheridan Rodeo, but we arrived just ahead of the annual Don King Days held at the nearby Big Horn Equestrian Center over Labor Day. As you might expect, it showcases steer roping and bronc riding events – along with polo. Polo? Sheridan is the home of the Flying H Polo Club. (Polo has a history here.) The club was an alfalfa field under pivot irrigation until 2004, when Summerfield "Skeeter" Johnston, Jr. built three tournament fields that now attract high level competitors from around the world. Johnston, who died in 2007 from a horse injury in Florida, was heir to the Coca Cola Bottling Co,. and his family has lived part-time at their Big Horn Ranch, The Flying H, since 1985.

Oh, and I'd be remiss not to mention Little Goose Ranch near Big Horn, owned by the family of my former Meredith employer. Successful Farming has held UTV test trials on the ranch's rugged terrain since 2007. Tom (Edwin T. Meredith, IV) moved here in the 1980s, and has street cred in Registered Black Angus genetics.

These are only a handful of the families that migrated West, put down stakes in a Wyoming ranch, and are leaving a lasting impact on Wyoming's economy, culture, and history.

Tourism Workforce Struggles

None figured more prominently than the Rockefeller family. Working with the National Park Service director and three U. S. presidents, beginning in the 1920s, John D., Jr. began buying ranches under the name of Snake River Land Company, with the intention of donating it to the Grand Teton National Park, paying $1.5 million for 33,000 acres. His role was revealed in 1930, and the uproar was exactly what you'd expect after learning an East Coast millionaire had acquired these acres secretly. Finally, after decades of controversy, this donation was finalized in 1949.

The plan worked – today Jackson is a major tourist hub, and home to the Federal Reserve Board's annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. Yet it's unaffordable for the local workforce, from hotel and restaurant workers to teachers. Many commute from hours away, and the average listing price for a single family home is more than $7 million.

Safeguarding a National Inheritance

In Wyoming, environmental issues simmer below the surface, often bubbling up like thermal mud pots. After years of litigation, a public comment period on haze pollution ended September 3. Lax regulations on coal power plants are blamed for a haze over the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, and the EPA has issued a "partial disapproval" of the state's plan. Its final decision is due in November.

A predictable man-made eruption occurred in March, when Wyoming legislators proposed auctioning off 640 state-owned acres bordered on three sides by Grand Teton National Park. Then they reversed course, announcing a plan to sell it to the Park for $100 million.

Wyoming is constitutionally obligated to raise funds from public lands, and most goes to public schools. But the legislators also want access to a SW corner near Rock Springs for natural resource extraction and grazing.

The Grand Teton National Park Foundation has two years to come up with funds, or it still could be auctioned for private development. Although there’s resentment of the federal government's role in private land ownership and regulation, packed public hearings earlier this year revealed overwhelming support for selling the 640 acres to the Park.

Who gets to decide the best future outcome for national treasures within a state? What role to do all Americans play in the visible impacts of a changing climate we saw, including charred forests and retreating glaciers. Perhaps a topic for a future column?

If Jackson Hole had been more easily accessible to settlers, it might have been too late to set aside the 310,000 acres in the Grand Teton National Park. If anything justifies this surreptitious purchase of Wyoming private land, there's one enduring positive outcome. National parks bring Americans together for a shared sense of wonder and appreciation. No artificial barriers or divisions, no red state/blue state boundaries, come between us, as we pull onto roadsides and bail out of our vehicles, cameras in hand. We're all simply Americans scrambling to catch a fleeting glimpse of unchanging mountain peaks, wild animals in their natural migration corridors, stunning waterfalls, recreational trails, and thermal wonders.

As Mom wrote in July 1940: "Drove to Hot Springs and saw geysers. Saw Old Faithful erupt twice. The park is full of boiling springs, mud-volcanoes, canyons, waterfalls, and there are more geysers here than in all the rest of the world together. No other place holds within its borders such numbers of so manty different species of native American big game."

Who can put a value on the national ownership of this generational gift