In the 1840's the value of beaver skins declined and with it the fur trade. By 1845 the romantic trapper of "the Fur Era" had vanished from the Rockies—not, however, without having won for himself an imperishable place in American history. During the next four decades the valleys near the Tetons were largely deserted, except for wandering bands of Indians that still occasionally drifted in. But the frontier was relentlessly closing in, and one Government expedition after another passed through the Teton country or skirted its borders. Most important of these were the Hayden surveys, which in 1871, 1872, 1877, and 1878 sent parties into the region. The names of several members of the 1872 expedition are perpetuated in connection with Leigh, Jenny, Bradley, and Taggart Lakes. Orestes St. John, geologist with the 1877 Hayden party, and the great artist, Thomas Moran, who in 1879 went with a military escort to paint the Tetons, are similarly remembered in the names of two of the principal peaks. To this transition period also belong the earliest prospectors of Jackson Hole, as well as several famous big-game hunters who came here in search of trophies—forerunners of the hundreds of hunters who now annually invade this region.
In the middle eighties came the first settlers. They entered by the Gros Ventre River and Teton Pass, and to begin with naturally settled in the south end of the hole. Here as elsewhere the story of the homesteader has been one of isolation, privations, and hardships, met, however, with persistency and indomitable courage. Nor is the story confined to the past, for maintaining a livelihood amongst these mountains still calls for resourcefulness, fortitude, and—not infrequently—even heroism.
History, here, is still in the making. Teton Forest Reserve was not created until 1897; the railroad reached Victor in 1912; the Jackson Lake Dam was finished in 1914; many of the roads and bridges of the region were constructed within the past decade; and the Grand Teton National Park was created in 1929. The detailed exploration of the range and the conquest of its high peaks have taken place in relatively recent years, and since 1929 trails have been built which for the first time make the Tetons really accessible to the public.
In later paragraphs will be found an account of the mountaineering history of the Tetons. And so the dramatic human story of these mountains is brought down to the present.
TEEWINOT, THE GRAND TETON, AND MOUNT OWEN FROM THE NORTHEAST