White Grass Dude Ranch Rehabilitation
The White Grass rehabilitation project was begun in 2005 and is scheduled for completion in 2016 for the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. The project is jointly funded by Grand Teton National Park and the National Trust for Historic Preservation in a 60/40 match between government funds and privately raised dollars from the National Trust. The project encompasses approximately thirty acres and thirteen log cabins, to be rehabilitated for adaptive reuse by the Western Center as lodging and training facilities for historic preservation education. The focus of this training will be for NPS employees in the Rocky Mountain Region, including contractors, volunteers, and students interested in learning how to restore and use historic log buildings.
Planning for the rehabilitation of the thirteen structures divided the work into three key phases: Phase I includes the stabilization of the thirteen buildings. Phase II consists of installation of utility infrastructure and rehabilitation of the first three structures, and Phase III calls for the rehabilitation of the ten remaining structures. In the summer of 2006 onsite work began, and WCHP employees and volunteers prepared the site for work and stabilized the structures. Historic windows were incrementally removed for rehabilitation in the Moose WCHP workshop, and the foundation and floor joists in the Girls’ Cabin were replaced. Since then, all infrastructure has been installed, and the Hammond Cabin, the Girls’ Cabin, and Cabin 15 are nearing completion. Phase III will begin in 2010.
The rehabilitation of White Grass represents the first major stride towards preserving a piece of the dude ranching past integral to the history of Wyoming, Jackson Hole, and Grand Teton National Park.
For more information and current updates on the White Grass Dude Ranch rehabilitation project, please visit the , and the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s White Grass webpage.
For more information on the history of White Grass, visit the White Grass History page.