Grand Teton Historic Resource Study

1. On June 11, 1942, Ansel Adams wrote to Nancy Newhall that he was heading to Billings, Montana, "then to Yellowstone, then to Glacier, then on west to Rainier and Crater Lake, then home." He was on a Harold Ickes-inspired National Parks assignment. Adams apparently changed his itinerary to include Jackson Hole, the Tetons and the Snake River Valley. Just at that time, however, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the National Park Service were in a furious battle with the ranchers at Jackson Hole over young John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s secret purchases of land with the Snake River Land Company as a front. Rockefeller intended to give his huge parcel of Teton Valley to the National Park Service. The cattlemen, Wyoming congressmen and senators, local politicians and the U.S. Forest Service all objected. The movie actor and valley resident, Wallace Beery, led an armed posse and a herd of cattle across park land. Fortunately, the National Park Service ignored the opera bouffé gesture and no shootouts occurred.

With this heated conflict brewing, it appears that Ansel Adams detoured from Yellowstone into Jackson Hole and made his photograph The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park that included much land that Rockefeller intended to give for park expansion. Taken in a rainstorm, it was a majestic photograph that clearly touted the vast emptiness of unspoiled nature. Was it also meant as one of Interior Secretary Ickes's public appeal weapons in the war with the ranchers and the Forest Service over which he had no control? This would explain Adams's change of itinerary, See Ansel Adams, Letters and Images 1916-1984 (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1988), p. 135; and Betts, Along the Ramparts, Chapter 18; for Beery's action, see p. 209. Also see Righter, Crucible for Conservation, passim, especially pp. 114-115.

Ansel Adams himself said "I do not recall that I ever intentionally made a photograph for environmentally significant purposes"—this despite the fact that his photographs appeared regularly in Sierra Club books and calendars. Quoted in Robert Bednar, "Postmodern Vistas, Landscapes, Photography, and Tourism in the Contemporary American West," unpublished dissertation, University of Texas, Austin, American Civilization Program, 1997, pp. 145-146.

2. Righter, Crucible for Conservation, pp. 126-152; and author's personal inspection of the Bar BC Ranch, June 25, 1997.

3. Betts, Along the Ramparts, p. 147.

4. Ibid, p. 152. For the Spencer and Burnett killings, see Frank Calkins, Jackson Hole (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973), pp. 122-123.

5. For examples of the maps mentioned here, see Carl I. Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West, 1540-1861, 5 vols. (San Francisco: The Institute of Historical Cartography, 1958), vol. 2. For Lewis and Clark, opposite p. 56, for Chevelier Lapie, pp. 73-76, Aaron Arrowsmith, opposite p. 148, Capt. B. L. E. Bonneville, opposite p. 158, Capt. Washington Hood, opposite p. 160, Warren Ferris, opposite p. 156, Fremont, Gibbs Smith, opposite p. 128, but also see pp. 119-139. For Jim Bridger's map, see Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, p. 119. The original map is at the Wyoming Heritage Center, Laramie, Wyoming.

6. Betts, Along the Ramparts, p. 59.

7. Report on the Exploration of the Yellowstone River, by Brevet Brigadier General, W. F. Raynolds (40th Congress 1st Session, Senate Executive Document No. 77, 1868). Also see Mary C. Withington, A Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Collection of Western Americana Founded by William Robertson Coe, Yale University Library (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952) entry 393, pp. 214-217, in which she states that Yale has three watercolors, six pen and ink sketches, three pencil sketches, 41 photographs of paintings and sketches, and six photographs from the Raynolds expedition. For Schonborn's suicide, see Goetzmann, p. 503. J. D. Hutton did make two pencil sketches of the Tetons that are at Yale. Three early photo reproductions of sketches of the Snake River and the Tetons by Schonborn and one pen and ink drawing by Raynolds are in the Western Americana Collection of the Beinecke Library at Yale.

8. Haines, The Yellowstone Story, pp. 106-140. Two of Moran's Scribner's drawings appear on p. 136. Also see Bonney, Battle Drums and Geysers, passim, for a more complete account and analysis of Lt. Doane's expeditions. For the 1870 expedition see pp. 171-373. On the spot sketches by Walter Trumball, Private Charles Moore and Thomas Moran's site unseen Scribner's versions appear on pp. 251-253, 271-273, 275, 279 (compare with photo p. 278 and oil painting pp. 280, 346, 351, see photo pp. 352-353) 354, 356, 406, 425, see maps opposite p. 198 and opposite p. 294.

9. Ferdinand V. Hayden, Sixth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, Embracing Portions of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1873), opposite p. 255.

10. Betts, Along the Ramparts, pp. 121-123.

11. Capt. William A. Jones, Report upon a Reconnaissance of Northwestern Wyoming, including Yellowstone National Park, Made in the Summer of 1873 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1875), cartographic appendix.

12. Betts, Along the Ramparts, ch. 18. Also see footnote 1 supra.

13. Clarence S. Jackson, Picture Maker of the Old West, pp. 159-171.

14. Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, pp. 408-409. Also see J. W. Barlow, Report of a Reconnaissance of the Basin of the Upper Yellowstone in 1871 (42nd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Executive Document 66, 1872).

15. Montana Historical Society, F. Jay Haynes, Photographer (Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 1981), pp. 11-13; Betts, Along the Ramparts, pp. 139-145; and for the pictures described, see Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections 1878-1988, H-1044, H-1045, H-1236, H-1241, H-1242, H-1042, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.

16. For Edward Curtis see William H. Goetzmann and Kay Sloan, Looking Far North, the Harriman Expedition to Alaska, 1899 (New York: Viking Press, 1982), pp. 79, 185-191.

17. In Outdoor Life, p. 241.

18. Typescript, 12-42 J.H. Hist. Soc.

19. (1) Typescript HH and pp. 1 & 2 (2) Outdoor Life, p. 241.

20. Jackson Hole Courier, Issue 11, p. 5.

21. Jackson Hole Historical Society, Harrison Crandall, typescript, May, 1991, Obit, Jackson Hole Guide, Dec. 17, 1970; and Elizabeth Flood, "Harrison Crandall, photographer"; picture file, William H. Jackson at Grand Teton National Park dedication, 1929, 58.2207.01, QFL, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum, Jackson, Wyoming.

22. See Paul F. Healy, Cissy, A Biography of Eleanor M. "Cissy" Patterson (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1966), p. 57. Also see Alice Albright Hoge, Cissy Patterson (New York: Random House, 1966) pp. 55-67.

23. See footnote 17 supra.

24. Ansel Adams, An Autobiography (Boston: New York Graphic Society and Little Brown and Company, 1985), passim. Also see Jonathan Spaulding, Ansel Adams and the American Landscape, a Biography (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), passim.

25. Spaulding, Ansel Adams, pp. 171-172.

26. Goetzmann and Sloan, Looking Far North, pp. 79; 185-191.

27. Peter Goin, Nuclear Landscapes (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), passim; Patrick Nagatani, Nuclear Enchantment (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991), passim; Richard Misrach, Bravo 20: The Bombing of the American West (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), passim; Mark Klett, Second View: The Rephotographic Survey Project (Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1984), passim; and Rick Dingus, The Photographic Artifacts of Timothy O'Sullivan (Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1982), passim, but see especially pp. 28-29.

28. Thomas D. Mangelsen and Charles Craighead, Images of Nature: The Photographs of Thomas D. Mangelsen (New York: Hugh Lauther Levin Associates, 1989), passim.

29. David Muench, National Parks of America, text by Stewart L. Udall and James R. Udall (Portland, Oregon: Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co., no date), pp. 82-86.

30. Fryxell, Interpretations of a Mountain Landscape. Photographs opposite pp. vii, 6, 7, 14, 15, 30, 31, 46, 47, 62, 63.

31. Frederic Joy, Light Reflections. (Jackson, WY: no publisher, no date), passim. Also see Eliot Porter, The West (New York: Little, Brown Books, 1988), pp. 65, 66, 68, 69, 70.

32. Robert M. Bednar, supra footnote 1, p. 19 ff. It should be said that DiLillo's barn in White Noise is set in the Midwest, but the identical situation applies to the Moulton Barn.

33. Ezra Pound, The Cantos of Ezra Pound (New York: New Directions Books, 1943, 1937, 1940, 1948), "New Cantos' (following p. 150) p. 20.

34. See footnote 7 supra.

35. See footnote 17 supra, but also see Nancy Cooper and Quita Pownell, 32 Rocky Mountain Wildflowers (Laramie, WY, no date), Original painted photographs.

36. National Inventory of American Paintings. A telephone conversation on August 4, 1997, with Dr. Nancy Anderson, Associate Curator of American Art at the National Gallery of Art and co-author with Linda Ferber of Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise (New York: The Brooklyn Museum and Hudson Hills Press, 1990). Dr. Anderson, one of the major Bierstadt scholars, consulted her exhibition files on Bierstadt and together with Linda Ferber concluded that Bierstadt had never seen the Teton views that he painted, hence these are among his weakest works.

37. Thomas Moran, Field Notebook, Aug. 22-29, 1879 (MS Catalogue No. 1753, accession no. 114, History File, Grand Teton National Park Headquarters, Moose, Wyoming). This notebook was transcribed and published by park geologist Fritiof Fryxell. Also see "Thomas Morans Journey to the Tetons in 1879, Augustana Historical Society Publications (Rock Island, IL: Augustana Historical Society Publications), No. 2, 1932, pp. 7-12.

38. The most accessible reproductions of Moran's Teton watercolor sketches are in Peter Hassrick, Water Color Sketches of Thomas Moran, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks (Yellowstone and Grand Teton Natural History Associations, 1991), and Carol Clark, Thomas Moran: Watercolors of the American West (Austin, TX: Amon Carter Museum and University of Texas Press, 1980), see especially pp. 54-56, 97. For Peter Moran's watercolor of the Tetons, made in 1879, see Patricia Trenton and Peter Hassrick, The Rocky Mountains: a Vision for Artists in the Nineteenth Century (Cody, WY: Buffalo Bill Historical Center and Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983), p. 288. For dating Peter Moran's painting, see Robert P. Porter and Carroll D. Wright, Report on Indians Taxed and Indians Not Taxed in the United States (except Alaska) in the Eleventh Census 1890 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1894), pp. 628-630. For Moran's late oil paintings of the Tetons, see Nancy K. Anderson, Thomas Moran, catalogue, with contributions by Thomas P. Bruhn, Joni L. Klnsey, and Anne Morand, to accompany Thomas Moran Exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, September 24, 1997 (Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art and New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997), pp. 150, 154, 155, 157.

39. Ferdinand V. Hayden, Twelfth Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1878), see especially Atlas Folio Number 7. Also, see William H. Goetzmann, William H Holmes, Panoramic Art (Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum, 1977).

40. D. Duane Cummins, William Robinson Leigh, Western Artist (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press and Tulsa, OK: Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, 1980), p. 92.

41. Dean Fenton Krakel, Conrad Schwiering, Painting on the Square (Oklahoma City: Powder River Book Co., National Cowboy Hall of Fame, 1981), passim, see especially pp. 12-14.

42. For Clymer's "Platte River" drawing and painting see Mary Carroll Nelson, Masters of Western Art (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1982), pp. 46-51.

43. "Selling suds, Madison Avenue uses Jackson Hole to hook beer drinkers," Jackson Hole News, Sept. 24, 1986, cover and p. 37. Brad Johnson, a sometime star of movie westerns, was part of the fishermen's ensemble, where he was "discovered" by movie makers. He was not mentioned in the Jackson Hole News.

44. Jean Heller, "Film Company's use of river, forest land here criticized," Jackson Hole Guide, Sept. 1986.

45. Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, A Cast of Killers (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1986), passim, see especially pp. 28, 230-31, 249. Also see "Western Film Classics, Teton Magazine, 1994, p. 6, for location of The Cowboy and the Lady. Photo no. 315 of the Pederson Ranch and photo of Mary Miles Minter with cowboys in film files in Jackson Hole Historical Society.

46. Ephraim Katz, The Film Encyclopedia (New York: Harper and Row, 1979), p. 98.

47. Edward Buscomb, ed. The BFI Companion to the Western, (Andre Deutsch Ltd. and the British Film Institute, London, 1988) p. 250.

48. Elizabeth Downs, editor, "The Screen: Authentic comments on films in the field of nature, geography and exploration," Natural History: Oct. 1952, p. 384.

49. Personal tour with Grand Teton National Park architect Michael C. Johnson, June 26, 1997, and consultation with Wyoming film expert Walt Frazier, June 25, 1997, Jackson, Wyoming, to whom special thanks are due.

50. Calkins, Jackson Hole, p. 114.

51. "Return to Spencer's Mountain," Jackson Hole Guide, April 5, 1995, for locations and assessment of Henry Fonda and fish hook story, Another less flattering assessment by Marilou McCarthy, "Shoot Out at Jackson Hole," Chicago Tribune Magazine, July 21, 1963, see especially subsection three, "The Trouble with Henry." Several accounts mentioned the fact that Fonda was always accompanied by a striking brunette female companion. See Movie Files, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum. Jackson, Wyoming.

52. Walt Farmer's list of films up to 1996 at the Jackson Hole Historical Center.

53. Emory J. Anderson, "Reels roll in Jackson Hole" publication unidentified in Movie Files, Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum.

54. In 1919 Struthers Burt published John O'May and Other Stories with Charles Scribner's Sons in New York and shortly after the literary tradition in Jackson Hole centered on Struthers Burt and family, In 1920, he won the O'Henry Memorial Prize for his story "Each in his Generation." He also published Chance Encounters, a collection of short stories with Charles Scribner's Sons in 1921, The Interpreter's House in 1924 and The Diary of a Dude Wrangler that same year, both with Scribner's. The latter is one of the classic works on the subject. In 1927, just before the meeting with Hemingway, he had published The Delectable Mountains with Scribner's. Later that year, he would publish a collection of essays. Burt's stories appeared in most of the major magazines. He became a well-known popular writer and commentator. His wife, Katherine, published five novels in three years, mostly about Wyoming and especially about life in Jackson Hole in the winter. Her first novel, The Branding Iron (1919) was made into a silent movie, as were two others. Katherine Burt afterwards spent a great deal of time in emerging Hollywood. This brought Hollywood guests to their dude ranch, the Bar BC, and later to their new Three Rivers dude ranch.

Wister, already famous for The Virginian, took his family to the JY Ranch in 1911. By 1912 he had his own cabin on 160 acres along the Snake River. (This cabin has now been moved to Big Horn, Wyoming, the setting of The Virginian). Almost as soon as it was built, he became tired of it in 1913. As he put it in a letter to John Jay Chapman, "Strangely and rather sadly, my longing for Wyoming and roughing it is gone." Quoted in Darwin Payne, Owen Wister: Chronicler of the West, Gentleman of the East (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1985), p. 281.

Other writers who were in the Bar BC set were Gracie Lewis, the ex-wife of Sinclair Lewis, Stuart Cloete, a South African, Irwin Edman, Sally Carrigher, Margaret Murie and Josephine Fabian. Most of their books were about Teton Valley, Nathaniel Burt, Struther's literary son, called Carrigher's book a "classic." It was also made into a documentary film. See also Struthers Burt, The Diary of a Dude Wrangler; Nathaniel Burt, Jackson Hole Journal; Raymond C. Phillips, Jr., Struthers Burt (Idaho: Boise State University, 1983); and Carlos Baker, Ernest Hemingway, A Life Story (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969), p. 196.

55. Nathaniel Burt, Memorandum re: Three Rivers Ranch to the National Park Service, date unknown, Archives, National Park Service, Denver, Colorado.

56. Roy Eugene Graham Associates, "Bar BC Ranch Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, Historic Structures Report," July 1, 1994, Archives, National Park Service, Denver, Colorado.

57. Nathaniel Burt Memorandum in footnote 50 supra.