Jenny Lake Lodge: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Grand Teton National Park

Engle, Elizabeth; IR 6, 7, & 8 Cultural Landscapes Program

This Cultural Landscapes Inventory (CLI) report documents the Jenny Lake Lodge landscape. The Jenny Lake Lodge Historic District (48TE1177) is a component landscape of Grand Teton National Park, Teton County, Wyoming. Congress established the original Grand Teton National Park in 1929 to protect the Teton Range and several lakes at the foot of the mountains. In 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the park through the establishment of the Jackson Hole National Monument. Located northeast of Jenny Lake, the current Jenny Lake Lodge occupies approximately 20 acres at the base of the Teton Mountains. The district is comprised of a Main Lodge and collection of guest cabins, a group of employee cabins, a corral and tack house, and a network of pedestrian and horse trails that radiate from the core of the property into Grand Teton National Park. Teton views are present throughout the district; the topography is generally flat and vegetation predominantly native with a mix of grassy meadows and conifer forest. Tony Grace founded Jenny Lake Lodge as the Danny Ranch in 1922. Grace operated the property as a dude ranch through the 1920s, eventually selling to Rockefeller’s Snake River Land Company in 1930. Grace operated the dude ranch through the 1931 season before leaving the property. Between 1932 and 1936 the property was closed to guests, though seasonal employees of the newly established Grand Teton National Park (established in 1929) resided there for at least a few summers. The ranch was reopened to guests in 1937. It was leased to the Grand Teton Lodge and Transportation Company by the Jackson Hole Preserve, Inc, who owned the property. In 1950 the Jenny Lake Lodge was added to Grand Teton National Park. The period of significance identified in the 2010 determination of eligibility was 1922-1958, beginning the year Tony Grace filed his homestead papers (1922), and ending the year the Lodge reopened after a major rehabilitation effort, (1958). This CLI recommends extending the period of significance by one year to 1959 to include the final landscaping work associated with the rehabilitation in the period of significance. The Jenny Lake Lodge cultural landscape is significant both as a dude ranch and as a concessions guest facility.

Jenny Lake Lodge: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Grand Teton National Park

Series

See also