Grand Teton Historic Resource Study

Rivers in Jackson Hole hindered travel, therefore bridges, ferries, and reliable fords became important points in the valley's transportation network. And, like travel in winter, the valley's rivers and streams posed significant dangers. For example, John Sargent's partner, Ray Hamilton, drowned while fording the Snake River prior to 1900. A search party lit a bonfire on the summit of a hill south of Jackson Lake when they found his body—hence the name, Signal Mountain. In 1917, Lorin Loomis disappeared in the Moran area. Search parties dragged the river presuming he had drowned, but failed to locate his body. People speculated about Loomis's fate until memory of him faded. In 1923, the elder John Smejkal disappeared while hunting. A year later, his body was found in the Snake River at the Harrison Ranch below Menor's Ferry. Tragedy struck on the Hoback River in 1928, when the Davis family tried to cross the river at the old Granite Creek ford while on a fishing holiday. The wagon tipped over, throwing the family into the river. Huldah Budge Davis and her two-year-old son, James, drowned in the accident. [27]

Rebuilding the Kelly bridge after the original washed out in the 1927 flood. Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum

T. M. Bannon's survey of 1899 provides the best record of river crossings above the town of Jackson prior to 1900. The map shows fords across the Snake and Gros Ventre Rivers at their confluence. Three fords existed on the lower portion of the Gros Ventre, over the next six miles from its mouth. The next crossing was near the present town site of Kelly, which was either a bridge or a ford. A photograph in the Harold Fabian Collection shows workers rebuilding a log truss bridge over the Gros Ventre River around 1902. On the Snake River, one ford existed between its junction with the Gros Ventre River and Menor's Ferry. Between Menor's Ferry and Conrad's Ferry east of the Oxbow, no fords are indicated on the map. Two crossings are shown near the mouths of both the Buffalo Fork and Pacific Creek. [28] Three crossings on the Snake were especially important transportation links: the Wilson crossing, Menors Ferry and the Moran area.

The first settlers forded the braided channels of the Snake east of Teton Pass, just as trappers and explorers had done before them. The emergence of a community around the Jackson Post Office and Deloney's Store, along with concentrated homesteading in South Park and the Flat Creek area, magnified the importance of this crossing. High water not only made fording dangerous, but altered channels and scoured huge holes in the river bottom, sometimes at fording points. Residents operated a ferryboat for some years at the location, but shifting gravel bars and snags hampered the operation. They may have installed a winter bridge during the cold season, assembling and taking it down each year. The Jackson-Wilson ferry ran until 1915 when it was replaced by a steel truss bridge. Workers completed the bridge in 1915 at a cost of $26,000, leaving $10,000 for riprap to protect the approaches to the bridge.

The riprap failed in 1917. Swollen with snow melt, the Snake River washed away the approaches to the bridge. A report in the Courier laid the blame on the Reclamation Service, charging that they released too much water from the dam. Reclamation Service officials refused to accept responsibility, asserting that no excess water had been released from the dam in July 1917. They countered that the wash out had occurred because Lincoln County had not properly repaired the cribbing that protected the approaches. Citizens and officials representing county, state, and federal government wrangled over responsibility and ultimately who should pay for new approaches to the bridge. In September 1918, an engineer representing the Bureau of Public Roads opposed allocating federal funds for the repairs. While the haggling went on, the citizens of Jackson Hole had a more immediate problem—no bridge. The 650-foot, five-span bridge, once the longest in Wyoming, protruded across the Snake, a useless monument for five years.

Meanwhile, to cross the river, valley residents strung a primitive cable car across the Snake River at the bridge. In April 1918, County Commissioner James Budge hired William Crawford, a pioneer rancher, to build a ferry until the bridge could be repaired. The ferry was less than three months old when floodwaters washed away a deadman and tripod, causing the ferry to break loose and drift down stream. Even after the ferry was repaired, the washed-out approaches caused delays and inconvenience for freighters, mail carriers, and travelers. Rather than attempt a crossing at the Wilson Bridge, travelers often diverted north nearly 20 miles to Menor's Ferry in order to cross the Snake. Finally in 1921 and 1922, contractors rebuilt the approaches and modified the existing bridge. Lincoln County provided $20,000, supplemented by state and federal funds, while citizens raised an additional $14,000 to ensure completion of the work. A worker drove the last spike on February 2, 1922; to celebrate, local citizens organized an informal program, setting off 25 sticks of dynamite. [29]

Approximately 15 miles above the Jackson-Wilson Bridge, the Snake River contracts into a single channel for about one mile. Not an ideal ford, it is a superb site for a bridge or a ferry. On July 17, 1894, William D. Menor took up a homestead with that in mind. Moreover, the banks were low, allowing relatively easy access to the river. Because the channel was narrow, the water was deeper than in the braided channels above and below this point. Menor had spent ten days with Jack Shive and John Cherry at their homesteads on the Buffalo Fork, who advised him to pick a location along the Snake River. By 1903, Menor had built improvements valued at $2,500. The most important improvement was his ferry. [30]

Menor's Ferry became the most important river crossing in Jackson Hole, with the exception of the Jackson-Wilson Bridge. Maggie McBride left the earliest record of crossing the ferry. On July 9, 1896, the party reached Menor's Ferry:

Took a long time to get our outfit across. The loose horses swam the river. We tried to jew Mr. Menor down on the ferry bill, but nothing doing, even tried to pay him in flour and cured pork, but after we got across and paid him in cash, then he wanted some bacon, but we didn't let it go, kept it four [sic] our winter supply.

Mrs. McBride's description is generally in keeping with other accounts of Bill Menor. But most important, her narrative stresses the point that Menor built the ferry to make a living; public service was secondary.

Menor operated the ferry during periods of high water. With the aid of neighbors, he assembled a bridge during periods of low water, such as winter. Occasionally he used a small platform suspended from the cable to get passengers across the river. During periods of high water, valley residents seemed to prefer Menor's Ferry over less reliable fords. For example, in May 1914, the Courier reported that teamsters were hauling supplies into Jackson via Menor's Ferry because of high water. After the 1917 flood wiped out the approaches to the Wilson bridge, the ferry assumed greater importance as freighters and mail carriers often traveled the extra 30 miles from Teton Pass to the ferry then back to Jackson. [31]

However, Menor's Ferry was not always reliable. Shifting gravel bars and uprooted trees, called "snags," posed serious hazards. When the river was "in spate," that is, overflowing its banks, Menor refused to risk himself or the ferry. On at least one occasion, a snag struck the ferry with such force that the ropes securing it to the steel cable parted, and the river swept it downstream. The ferry went a short distance, when it struck a gravel bar. While neighbors gathered and considered the best way to rescue Bill Menor, "he stood on the ferry violently cursing the rescue crew and acting, in general, as though they alone were to blame." Struthers Burt recalled that the ferry "went out" in the spring of 1912, "cutting us off completely for a while from the town." It could not have happened at a worse time for Burt and Carncross, who were frantically constructing cabins at the Bar BC to house their first dudes. [32]

Menor's Ferry was an ingenious contraption, consisting of a platform set on two pontoons. The ferry was attached by a rope to a steel cable suspended across the river by cableworks and deadmen, which were logs buried in the ground. The rope was secured to a pulley system on the cable and pulleys and a pilot wheel on the ferry. The current powered the ferry across the river. By turning the pilot wheel, the operator manipulated the angle of the pontoons and steered the ferry to either bank. Menor rebuilt the ferry at least once around 1910.

As Maggie McBride's memory indicates, Bill Menor did not intend the ferry to be a charitable operation. Many early river crossings were built by private individuals, and whether bridges or ferries, they charged a toll. There is some discrepancy regarding Menor's rates. According to Frances Judge, he charged 50 cents for a team and 25 cents for a horse and rider. Yet, an illustration in her article shows a sign bearing the following prices:

Foot Backers	25 cents
Horse Backers	50 cents
2 HORSE TEAM AND WAGON	$1.00
4 HORSE TEAM AND WAGON	$2.00

Stan Boyle, the son of a teamster named Sam Boyle, accompanied his father on several freighting runs into Jackson Hole around 1915. He recollected the rugged trip over Teton Pass to Wilson, which then followed the wagon track to Menor's Ferry. Taking into account that he was a young boy at the time, Boyle remembered prices being 50 to 75 cents for a wagon or team, and 25 cents for an individual on horseback. Thus, only approximate prices can be established. [33]

In 1918, Bill Menor decided to sell out, tired of "high water and low water" and "fog, rain, wind, snow, and sunshine on the Snake." In late July he concluded negotiations with Maud Noble, Frederick Sandell, and Mrs. May Lee and sold out. Menor retired to California where he died in 1933. [34] Noble and Sandell bought out Mrs. Lee and operated the ferry until 1927. Menor's Ferry remained a major crossing after the advent of the automobile. Noble and Sandell doubled the fare, taking advantage of the increasing tourist traffic of the 1920s. The sharp price increase angered residents. In one instance, a man became so angry upon discovering the price increase that he leapt into the river and swam across the channel, while "the pilot stood on the ferry cursing the swimmer and yelling that he hoped he would drown." [35]

Cars took America by storm in the 1920s as manufacturers produced affordable vehicles. Americans took to the roads, but found that many of these roads were little more than wagon tracks. Automobile owners pressured governments to improve the nations road network. Thus, in 1924, the Bureau of Public Roads announced plans to build a 13-mile road between Jackson and Menor's Ferry. In 1926, a construction crew began work on the steel bridge at the ferry. The work did not progress smoothly however. Si Ferrin provided lumber for the bridge, cutting it at his Elk Ranch mill. He transported one of the first loads down the river on a raft. Above the Bar BC, the raft jammed against a snag and sank, stranding Frank Petersen and a crew of three. After rescuers saved the crew, the tree was dynamited to free the raft, which drifted to a gravel bar just above the ferry. Despite such difficulties, the bridge was completed and operational by 1927, ending the monopoly of Noble and Sandell on the river. [36]

In the northern end of Jackson Hole, important crossings were located on the Snake River between the outlet of Jackson Lake and Pacific Creek. Mystery surrounds Conrad's Ferry because so little information is available. According to Nolie Mumey, Harris-Dunn & Company constructed the ferry in 1895 to transport equipment and supplies to their placer mine on Whetstone Creek. They freighted supplies over Teton Pass and up the west side of the river. They hired the Conrads to operate the ferry. James M. Conrad homesteaded 157.76 acres east of Oxbow Bend in June 1896. Conrad was a disabled Civil War veteran and widower. Aided by his son, Conrad constructed a 16-by-18-foot log cabin and a barn. It is likely that the elder Conrad operated the ferry, rather than Ernest Conrad who was 11 years old in 1896. No photographs of the ferry are known to exist, but Moran resident Herb Whiteman described the ferry as nothing more than a square barge with no side rails. A winch and the current powered it across the river. According to Mumey a herd of cattle stampeded on the ferry in 1897, causing it to "upset" with considerable damage. Conrad rebuilt the ferry and continued to operate it. The T. M. Bannon survey of 1899 shows Conrad's Ferry, suggesting that it operated until the turn of the century. Because of poor health, Conrad left the homestead in 1900 and relinquished his claim to the homestead to Homer Guerry in 1902. By this time, Conrad was residing in a soldiers' home in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and was "compelled to remain quiet because of his disabled physical condition." [37]

In 1903, Ben Sheffield bought up property at Moran to serve as headquarters for his hunting and fishing camp. Around this time, he built a toll bridge just below the outlet of Jackson Lake that served travelers until 1910, when the Reclamation Service's log crib dam gave out, destroying the bridge. The new concrete dam served as a bridge. [38]

Establishing reliable mail service was one of the first and primary concerns of Jackson Hole pioneers. Mrs. Mae Tuttle, who was the former Mrs. Fred White and first postmaster in Jackson Hole, recalled vividly the erratic mail service and isolation prior to 1900. To Cora Nelson Barber, she wrote:

Don't you remember how we saw or spoke to a neighbor only once or twice a year and we never got word or mail from the outside from snowfall to spring thaw unless some hardy individual took it into his head to ski across the mountain and bring everybody's mail, and as soon as we heard about it how we all made ski tracks to that man's cabin, pronto. [39]

Around 1891, residents of Jackson Hole and some living in the southern part of Teton Valley petitioned the Postal Service for a mail route from St. Anthony and for a post office in Jackson Hole. Before granting the request, the Postal Department stipulated that local residents carry the mail for a year to prove the feasibility of regular mail service over such a difficult route. Settlers accepted the challenge and took turns carrying mail for the year. On March 25, 1892, a post office was established at Marysville near Botcher Hill, and a mail carrier was paid to make the run between Rexburg and Jackson Hole. S. N. Leek described the rugged mail run in an unpublished memoir. Traveling on homemade Nordic skis, Leek packed provisions, elk tallow for ski wax, and outgoing mail. He recalled that carriers stripped from the waist down to ford the ice-cold Snake, wading across the river laden with pack, skis, pole and a bundle of clothes. Once on the west bank, the mail carriers hand-rubbed themselves dry, dressed, then set out for the trail over Teton Pass. One carrier was not so lucky as Leek. In February 1896, the Wyoming Tribune reported that a mail carrier had lost his boat, toboggan, and snowshoes while trying to cross the Snake River. He managed to save the two most important things—his life and the mail.

Snowslides were always a problem. If a mail carrier happened to be buried in a slide, his chances of survival were slim. The trip to Rexburg took the better part of six days; Leek recollected the trip required one snow camp and four nights at isolated cabins. Mae Tuttle skied over Teton Pass at a later date. The trek to the summit was arduous, making the lunch break at the mail carrier's small snow cabin or "igloo" all the more welcome. Although her description is vague, the shelter seems to have been a snow cave. "The snow was so deep over it that there was just a little hole in the snow down which we had to slide yards and yards till we got to the entrance and then when we made a fire in the corner chimney to boil our coffee, the melted snow began to drip down on us." Leek hauled around 100 letters per trip from Rexburg to homesteaders in Teton Basin and Jackson Hole. [40]

Regular mail service brought immediate changes, as pioneers were no longer quite so isolated. Further, in a land of scarcity, people could take advantage of mail order retailers to order both necessities and luxuries, rather than wait for the annual trip to Rexburg to purchase them. Mae Tuttle remembered "then we really did feel important. We could order things from the mail order houses and get them without waiting for six months." She once ordered a pair of slippers from Montgomery Ward; the company sent a pair of wooden shoes that weighed nearly ten pounds. Mrs. Tuttle shipped them back the next day. As the mail carrier plodded over the pass on skis carrying "that awful parcel," she could well imagine that "what he said about wooden shoes and my bright mind probably melted some snow." [41]

Daily mail service to Jackson began around 1900. According to one newspaper article, James Riggan, 14 years old, began transporting mail in saddle bags over Teton Pass in 1897. Another source stated that daily mail service began in 1902. The census of 1900 listed a Thomas Patten as a mail carrier. By 1900, there were five post offices in Jackson Hole: Jackson, Elk, Grovont, Wilson, and the short lived South Park, which opened in 1899 and shut down in 1902. [42] In 1909, nine post offices existed in the valley with mail service six days per week at two of them: Jackson and Wilson. [43]

The United States Postal Service issued mail run contracts, which attracted many local residents because of the reliable income. For example, Si Ferrin secured the Jackson-to-Moran mail run in 1914 at $3,000 per year for service three times per week. Many Jackson Hole pioneers carried mail at one time or another; among them Jack Eynon, Fred Topping, Andy Chambers, and Mart Henrie. William Manning made news in 1930 when he secured a contract to carry mail. He was 94 years old at the time. [44] Although the contracts provided a reliable source of income, the work could be dangerous. Avalanches were a serious hazard, as the deaths of mail carriers Gwen Curtis and Frankie Parsons proved. River crossings could be hazardous, too. Mail carrier George Kissenger drowned while fording the Gros Ventre around 1910. [45]

Mail service was amazingly reliable considering severe weather and distances from rail service. Pioneers did not complain much about mail service, having to cope with difficult travel conditions themselves. There were exceptions, however. At the end of 1918, the Jackson's Hole Courier reported that valley residents were "thoroughly disgusted" with mail service between Jackson and the rail terminus at Victor. The contractor, D. B. Brinton of Victor, let parcel post pile up in Victor and failed sometimes to meet schedules. "Getting on in years," Brinton acknowledged his inability to perform the job and eventually sublet the mail contract to Wallace Ricks. [46]

Around 1918, gasoline-powered trucks replaced horse-drawn vehicles, at least during the warmer months. With the onset of winter, trucks were replaced by sleighs. In 1919, Jack Eynon used a truck to deliver mail in the valley. Trucks cut time and, therefore, costs. In 1921, Fred Topping went to Salt Lake City to pick up a one-ton White truck to be used to carry mail between Jackson and Moran during the summer. Topping planned to leave Jackson at 7:00 A.M. and return by 6:30 PM., allowing him to make daily deliveries on his own, and avoiding the cost of another driver and team. But even gasoline engines could be unreliable. In June 1919, the Courier reported that Jack Eynon's mail truck had broken down near Kelly, delaying mail service. [47]

As governmental agencies improved roads to accommodate increased automobile traffic, mail routes shifted in the 1930s. For example, in 1931, residents in the northern end of Jackson Hole found it more convenient to route mail through Lander, Wyoming, during the summer. A year later, the Courier reported that the Rock Springs postal inspector was reviewing the idea of having Jackson Hole mail routed to and from Rock Springs rather than the Oregon Short Line route to Victor, Idaho. According to the report, the Rock Springs route would save one day on the delivery of eastern mail over the Victor route. In addition, Rock Springs would provide access to air mail. In 1934, the Postal Service switched the mail route to Rock Springs. [48]

Transporting freight and passengers was another concern. Stage service was established by 1909. The first edition of the Jackson's Hole Courier reported "in connection with the mail service there is a stage between St. Anthony and Jackson, by Wilson, making the trip of 88 miles in 18 hours of actual travel, the passenger stopping over one night on the road." A postcard printed in Germany shows the Jackson stage on March 1, 1909. Drawn by a pair of draft horses, the "stage" is a small cutter consisting of a platform set on two runners. The service predated 1909 in all probability, but these are the first good references to it. [49]

The extension of the Oregon Short Line tracks to Victor reduced time of travel considerably. But stage trips from Jackson to Victor still took one day until automobiles and improved roads reduced travel time. Several teamsters achieved a measure of fame for their skill and exploits. Most well known were Clay "Old Rawhide" Seaton, Amasa James, and Henry Scott. They carried mail, freight, and passengers over Teton Pass at all times of the year, over roads turned to a muddy paste by spring rains and runoff, or on a snow-choked pass in winter. The drivers also kept the winter road packed and usable. The teamsters cleared snow and packed the track with a wye, also called a go-devil. This was a simple W-shaped device made of planks used to grade both dirt and snow-covered roads. James and Scott converted to trucks, probably in the 1920s, but continued to use sleds in winter months through the 1930s. [50]

Picking up culverts at the railhead in Victor, Idaho, for construction projects in Jackson Hole. The extension of the railroad to Victor improved links with the outside world. Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum

The Ashton-Moran freight road, also known as the Reclamation Road, was established in 1910 to transport supplies from the Oregon Short Line terminus at Ashton to Moran, the construction site of the Jackson Lake Dam. On July 5, 1910, the log crib dam gave way in its center portion, releasing a torrent of water down the Snake River. The Reclamation Service prepared to construct a new dam, selecting engineer Frank T. Crowe as project supervisor. Crowe recognized immediately that the remote location of Jackson Lake posed a notable obstacle that could delay or even prevent, the completion of a new dam. He established a supply center at Ashton and constructed a freight road to Jackson Lake. From the Snake River crossing north of Jackson Lake to Grassy Lakes, the freight road followed the alignment of the old Marysville wagon road, which dated from circa 1888. At Grassy Lakes, the new freight road diverted west, while the Marysville Road cut northwest into Yellowstone. The Reclamation Road turned southwest near Loon Lake, before running a course to Squirrel Meadows and Indian Lake. From this point, the road ran west to Ashton. At the Snake River, the road joined the military road connecting Yellowstone with Fort Washakie. [51]

To supervise the important freighting operation, Crowe hired Joseph "Hold" Egbert. The Service contracted the work to local settlers both in Jackson Hole and the Teton Basin, who welcomed the chance to earn ready cash. Each teamster completed about ten trips per season, the 150-mile round trip taking a minimum of six days. To be as self-sufficient as possible, freighters carried horseshoeing equipment, emergency food, clothing, tools, and extra hay and grain in the winter. The Reclamation Service built or set up roadhouses along the route at Squirrel Meadows, Cascade Creek, Dime Creek, and the Edward's Ranch on Lizard Creek. [52]

Sleighs were used from November through April, and wagons during the remaining months. The Studebaker was the standard freight wagon, being 24-feet-long (probably from tongue to rear) by 3-feet-8 inches wide. Most often, an outfit consisted of two wagons coupled together, pulled by teams of six to eight horses. As a rule of thumb, each horse could generally account for 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of freight; thus a double-wagon outfit could transport up to 12,000 pounds. Four thousand barrels or 850 tons of cement mix for the concrete dam constituted most of the loads in 1910 and 1922. By 1914, teamsters had hauled an estimated 300,000 tons of supplies and equipment over the Ashton-Moran Road. After the completion of the dam in 1916, people continued to use the freight road to bring supplies into the northern end of the valley. According to one account, freight wagons last traveled over the road in October 1927, when teamsters George Osborne Jr., and Charles Myers brought supplies into Jackson Hole. The Ashton-Moran freight road may have been the last such route used by wagons in the United States. [53]

Not only freighters, but tourists and other travelers created demand for food and lodging. At first, pioneer families extended their hospitality to these people, either free or for a small charge. As demand grew, a few started roadhouses or small hotels. By 1900, there were four hostelries in Jackson Hole: Mrs. John Anderson's boarding house, located at the wye near the future community of Jackson, the hotel at the base of Teton Pass built by Abraham Ward, and at Moran, Edward "Cap" Smith's hotel and Charles J. and Maria Allen's Elkhorn Hotel. Sources suggest that fire destroyed Smith's hotel after 1900. Hoping to profit from tourist traffic to Yellowstone, a few offered lodging and food to travelers bound for the south gate of Yellowstone. John Sargent catered to travelers at his homestead on Jackson Lake. Several miles north of Sargent's place, Cora Heigho and Herb Whiteman built several cabins about 1896 with the same intentions. Neither were particularly successful. The Heighos and Whiteman gave up around 1900. Several roadhouses were built on the Teton Pass Road: the Lee Roadhouse west of Wilson, a lodge on the summit of the pass operated by Mrs. Harry Scott, and Bircher's on the west side of the range. Owen Wister's daughter, Fanny Kemble Wister, recalled a tedious three-day journey to Jackson Hole over Teton Pass in 1912. She remembered the roadhouses as miserable affairs—guests sat on uncomfortable benches at tables, dining off tin plates and cups in dirty surroundings. [54]