Teton Valley Magazine - Summer 2013

Summer 2013 • Complimentary Copy

From Railhead to Trailhead

LO C A L F L AV O R S • O V E R T H E H I L L • VA L L E Y V O I C E S • D I N I N G G U I D E

ROGER BRINK ASSOCIATE BROKER

BEAUTIFUL CUSTOM MASONRY, marvelous rock features, quality construction and high end finishes highlight this magnificent home on 3 acres in serene Alta, Wyoming. The home consists of approximately 4900 square feet with 5 bedrooms and 6 baths designed with a thoughtful floor plan and abundant living space. The attached 3 bay garage allows for plenty of storage for sporting/recreational gear and it’s all situated within minutes of Grand Targhee Ski/Summer Resort, public lands and the recreational opportunities that abound in Teton Valley. $1,250,000. #4415684; MLS 12-1584

BEAUTIFUL UNDULATING PARCEL with Conant Creek bisecting the length of the property. Partially wooded and partially open, allowing for a variety of potential building sites, some with both creek and Teton Range views, on this 157 acre piece. $1,080,000. #4427987; MLS 12-2004

WONDERFUL FAMILY HOME located centrally in the valley, with exceptional views of both the Teton Range and the Big Hole Range. 4776 square feet, 6 bedrooms, each with its own walk-in closet, offering lots of space for family and guests. Some furnishings included. Additional 1500 square-foot shop/barn. Lots of additional amenities. $689,000. MLS 13-588

TETON VALLEY, IDAHO AND WYOMING roger.brink@jhsir.com • Mobile: 208.351.7417 • Office: 888.354.8880 • Fax: 208.354.8895

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“Local Brokerage, National Results” Teton Valley Magazine

LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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Exceptional Properties... in an Exceptional Place

Teton Valley, Idaho

HO ME O N T H E R I VER Located on the banks of the Teton River with 550 ft of frontage, this exquisite home boasts Big Hole and Teton Peak views, a large pond, and an irreplaceable setting. The 3,400 sq ft home is perfect for entertaining, with expansive decks, open floor plan, cathedral ceilings, R09-008 spacious kitchen and more. $1,150,000

Y E L L O W R O S E H OME! Impressive 4 bedroom, 4 bath home in Alta, Wyoming sits on two lots totaling 13 acres. Fabulous valley views and adjoining BLM and National Forest provides great riding trails out your back door. A detached shop, backup generator, hot tub, and loafing shed compliment this R08-002 wonderful home. $950,000

A LTA ’S BES T TETON VIEWS This custom-designed Wyoming home enjoys breathtaking Teton views and stunning valley views. With cathedral ceilings, rock fireplace and expansive wrap-around deck, this 2,975 sq ft 4 bedroom, 4 bath home on 3 acres was remodeled to draw natural light from all directions, R12-016 and offers unparalleled views of the stunning mountain landscapes. $595,000

TEEWINOT HOME

COUNTRY LIVING IN VICTO R

This 2,352 sq ft home has Grand Teton views, 2 bdrms, 2 baths, and an attached 1-bed, 1-bath mother-in-law suite with separate entry. Custom floor plan with cathedral ceilings in the great room, bright south facing kitchen, granite countertops, breakfast bar and in-floor R11-017 hydronic heat. $328,000

This 2,300 sq ft, 4 bedroom, 3 bath ranchstyle house sits on 3 acres just outside the city of Victor, Idaho. With hardwood floors, wood burning and propane stoves, upgraded appliances, 3-car garage, and irrigated horse pasture, this home offers the convenience of living close to town with the benefits of R13-006 country living. $289,000

There has rarely been a better time than now to buy property in Teton Valley!

My expert knowledge of this area can make your Teton Valley dream a reality.

Ken Dunn BROKER

208 .221.3866 kdunn@sagerg.com

CO U N T R Y H O M E This beautiful 2,784 sq ft home offers direct Teton views from Hastings Farm. The custom home features Australian Cedar floors, river rock fireplace, granite counters, tiled bathrooms, a steam shower and 3 covered porches. With 3 bedrooms, 3 baths and a large dining area, this home R11-024 offers tasteful finishes and an exceptional location. $445,000

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Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

Teton Valley Magazine

189 NORTH MAIN SUITE 100 DRIGGS ID 83422 208.354.9955 www.sagerg.com

DEPARTMENTS

6 EDITOR’S NOTE 10 CONTRIBUTORS 14 TETON VALLEY

top to bottom

30 Ways to Play, and more!

20 VALLEY VOICES

Gear stores galore in Driggs

BY AMY HATCH

24 FAMILIAR FACES

table of contents

Vounteers extraordinaire

BY JEANNE ANDERSON

28 ALL IN A DAY’S WORK

46

Derek Ellis’ custom butchery

BY MEL PARADIS

52 TEENS & TWEENS

Rodeo under the lights

BY LIZ ONUFER

PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY OF LYNN SESSIONS; KATHY KESSLER-YORK; COURTESY OF THE KNOTTY PINE

56 OVER THE HILL

Commuting to work(out)

BY KATE HULL

Craters of the Moon beckons

BY JEANNE ANDERSON

60 OUT BELOW

64

72 FEATURES: PIONEER TRANSPORTATION

34 CONANT TRAIL: KNOWN TO BUT A FEW

Biking the Great Divide in Canada

BY MICHAEL McCOY

72 LOCAL FLAVORS

BBQ ribs and rock ’n’ roll

BY JENNIFER REIN

80 EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPH BY BETH WARD

DIRECTORIES

BY EARLE F. LAYSER

With a storied past and a promising future

BY DAN BUCHAN

46 FROM RAILHEAD TO TRAILHEAD

Some say the way is haunted ...

40 THE VICTOR DEPOT TURNS 100

64 COMPASS POINTS

Fran Gillette’s Teton Transportation Company

BY KAREN L. REINHART Teton Valley Magazine

11 73 76 78 78

ADVERTISERS’ DIRECTORY DINING GUIDE LODGING GUIDE CHURCH DIRECTORY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

ON THE COVER: Hundreds of visitors disembarked Union Pacific passenger trains at the Victor Depot, where they would transfer to buses and be motored over Teton Pass to the national parks. Photos courtesy of Lynn Sessions and E.O. Gibson.

LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

Teton Valley Magazine

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Teton Valley Magazine

LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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editor’s note

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John McIntosh 208-787-9836 snakeriverbuilders.com 6

Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

I

f you’re a history buff like I am, you’ll get a charge out of this edition of Teton Valley Magazine. Specifically, we investigate the early days of valley transportation, from age-old mountain trails, to the train tracks that were laid down in the early 1900s, to the buses that later in the twentieth century picked up pilgrims at the railhead to haul them over Teton Pass.

These wheels of early transportation started turning when Lynn Sessions, who with her husband Dennis was longtime owner of Ace Hardware in Driggs, mentioned to one of our staffers that her father, Francis Gillette, used to own a company that bused dudes from the Victor Depot over the hill to Moran and back. A few of the buses he purchased are still stored around Teton Valley, Lynn said.

Not long after this encounter with Lynn, a reader reminded us that 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the Victor Railroad Depot and the first train into Victor. That topic seemed like a natural for this summer, as well, a birthday tale that goes hand in hand with the Francis Gillette story. And we already had Earle Layser’s story about the historic Conant Trail slated for the “Trail Talk” department; when we realized that this subject, too, is relevant to early travel in and out of the valley, we found ourselves with yet another themed features section. (By the way, be sure to note the message at the bottom of the depot piece—it tells you how to read the “rest of the story,” as the late radio commentator Paul Harvey might say.)

Even if you’re not that hot on history, there’s still plenty to enjoy in this issue. In “Volunteers Extraordinaire,” Jeanne Anderson writes about two women who are just that. Good friends Lynn Sandmann and Phyllis Anderson can be seen at countless nonprofit events each year, selling tickets, pouring beer, organizing food stops for runners, and more.

In “All in a Day’s Work,” Mel Paradis profiles butcher Derek Ellis of Ellis Custom Meats, who, Mel writes, “specializes in traditional butchering cuts, such as rib-eyes and tenderloins. But what truly stands out are his sausages and charcuterie; chorizo and pastrami are just two of his more unique items.”

In “Over the Hill,” we learn about some of the recreational facilities our valley lacks and which locals go to Jackson to utilize, while “Out Below” takes us to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, one of the more strange and fascinating landscapes of the Rocky Mountain West. We also learn about the Teton Rodeo Team in “Teens & Tweens,” and, in “Compass Points,” take a trip along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route in Canada with myself and about a dozen others.

And there’s more! So get reading, and have a great summer—whether you’re finding new trails, paddling the Teton, or feathering a putt.

Teton Valley Magazine

O F D R I G G S, I D A H O

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LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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peaked sports for the mountain minded

208-354-2354 • 70 E. Little Ave • Driggs, ID

YouR onE-stoP-sHoP in tEton vallEY

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Publisher Nancy McCullough-McCoy nancy@powdermountainpress.com Editor in Chief Michael McCoy mac@powdermountainpress.com Art Director Sage Hibberd graphics@powdermountainpress.com Photo Editor/Ad Design Marianne Sturken art@powdermountainpress.com Marketing & Sales Representatives Dawn Banks dawn@powdermountainpress.com Mollie Flaherty mollie@powdermountainpress.com Marketing & Sales Assistant Joan Mosher info@powdermountainpress.com Copy Editor Jeanne Anderson Contributors Jeanne Anderson Jeannette Boner Dan Buchan Meghan Hanson Amy Hatch Julie Huck Kate Hull Holly Kays Earle F. Layser Liz Onufer Mel Paradis Jennifer Rein Karen L. Reinhart Beth Ward Teton Valley Magazine is published twice yearly by Powder Mountain Press, LLC. 110 E. Little Ave. • P.O. Box 1167 Driggs, Idaho 83422 (208) 354-3466 tel • (208) 354-3468 fax www.LifeInTheTetons.com

Hiking • Biking • Camping • Running • Kayaking Paddle Boarding • Disc Golf • Eyewear • Dog Gear 8

Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

Teton Valley Magazine

©2013 by Powder Mountain Press, LLC. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Editorial comments, ideas, and submissions are welcomed. The publisher will not be responsible for the return of unsolicited photos, articles, or other materials unless accompanied by a SASE. Printed in the U.S.A. Volume 17, No. 1

TETON VALLEY’S ONLY YEAR-ROUND RESORT

Summer is truly our season to shine at Teton Springs Resort & Club!

Enjoy deluxe accommodations in one of the well-appointed Lodge guest rooms and suites, or upgrade to a luxury mountain log home. Experience ultimate relaxation in the Stillwaters Spa and Salon and top off a perfect day with an intimate dining experience at the Headwaters Grille overlooking the first fairway of the Headwaters golf course. Weddings are also our specialty! This luxury community truly offers the best of all worlds—an extraordinary combination of upscale amenities and endless recreational activities that visitors enjoy year round.

SUMMER IS MAGICAL AT TETON SPRINGS RESORT & CLUB! 208.787.7888

www.TetonSpringsLodge.com

Teton Valley Magazine

Resort Amenities for Teton Springs Lodge Guests: • 18-hole Byron Nelson-designed golf course • 9-hole par-3 course • 25-meter outdoor heated pool & hot tubs • Tennis courts and full-sized basketball court • Private stocked ponds for fly fishing • Hiking and biking • Children’s Camp Programs • Full-service concierge

LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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contributors

Kate Hull (Over the Hill, page 56) moved to Teton Valley from Austin, Texas, in June 2012 to pursue magazine freelance writing while fishing the South Fork as much as possible. Her work has appeared in Texas Monthly, Texas Highways, Culture Map Austin, Living Local, and Home Town Living magazines. Kate also works as a content editor for a book publishing company in Austin. Locally, she is the new editor of Teton Home and Living magazine and a contributing writer for the Jackson Hole News&Guide and Images West magazine.

The words of writer Earle F. Layser have frequented the pages of this magazine since its inception in the late 1990s.

“I first discovered Teton Valley when I came here to ski Targhee thirty-three years ago,” Earle says. After retiring, he moved here, starting a new life with his wife Pattie (also a frequent contributor to the magazine) and dog Benji. “It’s been history ever since,” says Earle, the author of four books, including The Jackson Hole Settlement Chronicles. For this issue, he contributed “Conant Pass Trail: Known to But a Few” (page 34).

Freelance wordsmith and longtime Powder Mountain Press contributor and editor Jeanne Anderson has a favorite six-word memoir: “Thinker, writer, reader; volunteer, catalyst, leader.” This is her third summer as event coordinator of the Tin Cup Challenge, a role she says has given her great admiration for volunteers like Phyllis Anderson and Lynn Sandmann (Familiar Faces, page 24). Jeanne’s other passions include worldwide travel and discovering the treasures of her own backyard, such as Craters of the Moon (Out Below, page 60).

Twenty-year Jackson Hole resident Dan Buchan (“The First and Next 100 Years,” page 40) writes about and photographs trains. In this issue, he explores the past, present, and future of the Victor Depot.

“With the tracks having been pulled up in the 1980s, it’s easy to forget the significant role the railroad once played for communities on both sides of Teton Pass,” Dan says. “The Victor Depot’s 100th birthday gives us reason to celebrate both its historical significance and the exciting plans for making it one of the cornerstones of the city’s future.”

WE DO IT ALL!

With over 67 years of serving the public in the same location— We “moose” be doing it right!

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Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

Teton Valley Magazine

On-The-Farm Service 4x4 Bearing Packs ” Oil Changes “ Alignments Brakes On-The-Road Service Safety Siping & Studs Best Buy on Tires

80 W. Little Ave., Driggs • 354-8161

Agave............................................................................. 63 All Season Resort Realty............................................... 4 Barrels and Bins Community Market........................ 44 Billings, Montana......................................................... 31 Blue Sky......................................................................... 27 Broken Spur.................................................................... 7 C.R.A.S.H................................................................. 54, 55 Chandler Insurance...................................................... 30 Community Foundation of Teton Valley.................... 79 Corner Drug................................................................... 45 Dining In Catering, Inc.................................................. 6 Driggs Digs Plein Air................................................... 27 Driggs Health Clinic.................................................... 38 Driggs Veterinary Clinic.............................................. 11 Drs. Toenjes, Brizzee & Orme, P.A............................. 77 Elevate Salon................................................................ 27 Fall River Rural Electric Co-Op................................... 68 Family Safety Network................................................. 58 Fitzgeralds Bicycles..................................................... 59 Garage Door Handiman.............................................. 38 GRAHAM FAUPEL & Associates................................ 77 Grand Targhee Resort ................................................BC Grand Valley Lodging................................................... 50 Guchiebird’s.................................................................. 68 Habitat........................................................................... 63 Harmony Design & Engineering................................. 58 High Peaks Physical Therapy Health & Fitness.............. 44 Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce...................... 71 Kaufman’s OK Tire....................................................... 10 Kisa Koenig Photography........................................... 27 Linn Canyon Ranch...................................................... 51 Madison Memorial Hospital................................. 26, 54 McDonald’s® of Jackson Hole.................................. 31 MD Nursery & Landscaping, Inc.......................... 17, 19 Mountain Knits............................................................. 27 O’Brien Landscaping................................................... 26 Peak Printing................................................................. 62 Peaked Sports................................................................. 8 Plan One Architects..................................................... 69 Sage Auction Solutions.............................................IBC Sage Realty Group-Ken Dunn...................................... 2 Snake River Builders, Inc.............................................. 6 Snake River K9............................................................. 66 Sotheby’s International Realty-Roger Brink............ IFC St. John’s 4 Peaks Clinic............................................. 67 St. John’s Medical Center........................................... 12 Targhee Village Golf Course....................................... 50 Teton Aviation Center/Warbirds Café........................ 70 Teton County School District 401............................... 69 Teton Springs Lodge & Spa........................................... 9 Teton Thai........................................................................ 9 Teton Timberframe ...................................................... 59 Teton Valley Bible Church........................................... 32 Teton Valley Cabins...................................................... 30 Teton Valley Foundation.............................................. 13 Teton Valley Health Care............................................... 5 Teton Valley Realty Management................................. 1 The Driggs Stovehouse............................................... 45 The Lodge at Palisades Creek.................................... 55 The Rusty Nail.............................................................. 37 The Summit Foursquare Church................................ 39 Therapeutic Massage.................................................. 27 Valley Lumber & Rental............................................... 37 Victor Emporium........................................................... 51 Victor Health Clinic...................................................... 39 Victor Rendezvous........................................................ 67 Victor Valley Market..................................................... 62 Western Design Conference....................................... 33 Wildlife Brewing & Pizza............................................. 63 Yöstmark Mountain Equipment................................. 11

GO WITH THE FLOW

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LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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Get Back on Your Game Consider St. John’s first for the knee, hip or shoulder replacement surgery you need Jackson Hole’s orthopaedic specialists are renowned for their experience and credentials Nursing compassion and excellence make St. John’s a top choice in the region

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Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

Teton Valley Magazine

Teton Valley Foundation brings you

2013 Lineup: Thursday, June 27, 2013 | 6:00 PM Fox Street Allstars Opener: Alta Boys Thursday, July 11, 2013 | 6:00 PM Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers Opener: Screen Door Porch Thursday, July 18, 2013 | 6:00 PM White Water Ramble Opener: Benyaro

Victor City Park Victor, ID Every Thursday June 27 - August 15 (except July 4)

6pm - 10pm

Thursday, July 25, 2013 | 6:00 PM March Fourth Marching Band Opener: Flannel Attractions Thursday, August 01, 2013 | 6:00 PM Monophonics Opener: Jackson 6

Free fun for all ages

Thursday, August 08, 2013 | 6:00 PM Ray Wylie Hubbard Opener: Jeff Crosby & the Refugees Thursday, August 15, 2013 | 6:00 PM Vagabond Opera Opener: Jeanne Jolly

teton valley FOUNDATION

Teton Valley Foundation works to make the good life in Teton Valley even better by providing cultural, recreational, and educational programs and facilities that boost the local economy and make our community a better place to live and to visit. Our programs include Music on Main, Kotler Ice Arena, the Great Snow Fest, Driggs Art Walk, Oktoberfest, and Bingo. For more information, visit www.tetonvalleyfoundation.org

PO Box 50, Victor, ID 83455 | (208) 201-5356 | info@tetonvalleyfoundation.org

Teton Valley Magazine

LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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t e t o n va l l e y t o p t o b o tt o m

Summer Relief:

3 30 times of day

ways to play

Midday 11 Take the scenic chairlift ride at

Grand Targhee Resort and/or

Morning 1 Golf nine holes at Targhee

Village, “where golf is a game, not a status symbol”

2 Book a fishing trip with the

Lodge at Palisades Creek, and make the scenic drive to Swan Valley

3 Race, walk, hula-hoop, and have tons of other fun at the Tin Cup Challenge in Driggs, July 20

4 Run or ride the awwwwwwsome

12 Earn your burn at Agave, the

8 Rent an inflatable kayak and float

the glassy waters of the Teton River

9 Bike the Tetonia-to-Ashton rail-

trail, and cross the thrilling Bitch Creek Trestle

10 Enjoy the views horseback on an

outing with Dry Ridge Outfitters or Moose Creek Ranch

Visit our Dining section for some bountiful breakfast suggestions

new trails at Grand Targhee Resort

5 Inhale some haute air with the

Wednesday lady’s hiking group

6 Stock up on produce at the Teton

Valley Farmers’ Market (Fridays beginning at 9 a.m.)

7 Sip a latte and a taste a pastry in

14

the garden at Pendl’s (live music on Sunday mornings!)

Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

take a walk with the naturalist

Teton Valley Magazine

valley’s newest Mexican eatery

13 Slurp a lime freeze at

Corner Drug

14 Attempt to eat an entire

half-pound Yellowstone

Burger at the Brakeman

American Grill

15 Treat yourself to a spa-and massage at Teton Springs

Resort’s Stillwaters Spa & Salon

Evening 21 Take in Huntsman Springs’

Celebrate America event, June 29

PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: STAFF (2); ISTOCKPHOTO; DAVID AGNELLO; STAFF; HUNTSMAN SPRINGS; ROYAL WOLF; TETON SPRINGS; PENDL’S BAKERY & CAFÉ

22 Sip a homegrown hucktini made of Grand Teton Vodka and wild

huckleberries

23 Dig Victor’s Thursday Music on

Main (do not eat dinner before you

get there)

16 Visit the Teton Regional Land Trust’s Woods Creek Fen wetlands

17 Gulp some gelato at Teton

Valley Creamery

18 Pound a Cow Tipper from the

24 Watch a softball game in the

Driggs City Park

25 Spread a blanket and enjoy a

locavore picnic in the Big Holes

26 Sip a brew and nibble on a pizza at Wildlife Brewing in Victor

deli at Victor Valley Market

27 Take a scenic airplane or glider

ride, then dine beside the runway at Warbirds Café

28 Screen a movie after dark at the

Spud Drive-In

29 Kick back on a sunset dinner ride at Linn Canyon Ranch

30 Get tongue-tied with the curry at

Teton Thai (be aware that four- or five-star spice level is hot) Flip over to our Dining section for more delectable dinner ideas

19 Help yourself to a huckleberry

shake at the Victor Emporium

20 Do lunch alfresco in the shade

at the Royal Wolf

Check out our Dining section for more luscious lunch options

Teton Valley Magazine

LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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Summer of Music Teton Valley’s standing in the world of live music seems to grow taller every year. No exception this summer, when the highlights of harmony are Targhee Fest, Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival, and Music on Main, along with a triple dollop of Widespread Panic. Fresh off a four-night stint at Denver’s heralded Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the jam-band boys from Georgia get even higher in elevation by making their second threeday appearance at Grand Targhee Resort, July 4–6. A bunch of other bands will fill the mountain air with song between WP sets.

Just when you think Targhee Fest can’t get any better, the 9th annual rendition (July 19–21) brings Alabama Shakes, an on-fire band that was nominated for three 2013 Grammy Awards. Also on the slate: Los Lobos, John Hiatt, Bruce Hornsby, Son Volt, Anders Osborne, JJ Grey and Mofro, and more.

For the 26th annual Grand Targhee

Packrafting 101 Amy Hatch of Victor is as passionate about packrafting as she is about exploring wild places. Her company, Jackson Hole Packraft, allows her to share that passion.

“This will be my third season [of running the business],” says Hatch.

Before the advent of packrafts, rivers were barriers to wilderness travel; now, she says, “Packrafting becomes an efficient and fun mode of travel that you could have never imagined possible.”

Hatch, who says the activity is just now catching on in the contiguous 48 states, was introduced to the concept when living in Alaska. There, she says, packrafting is as common as fishing or hiking. After moving to Teton Valley, she was surprised at the lack of availability of the gear, and then happy to start growing the options.

Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

—Lukas Boone

As a founding member of the newly established American Packrafting Association, Hatch says her success is largely due to word of mouth. The incredibly lightweight, durable packraft can comfortably fit one adult, or there is a larger version for an adult and a child. You can take the raft for a leisurely float on a lake, or use it to negotiate seemingly inaccessible wild rivers.

“The main purpose of packrafting is access,” Hatch says. “From my perspective, I like what packrafting represents: conservation and maintaining a light footprint in the backcountry. ” For more information, call Hatch at (907) 830-1016 or visit www.jhpackraft.com.

Rafts can be sent via FedEx to any address in the Lower 48.

—Jeannette Boner

16

Bluegrass Festival (August 9–11), performers confirmed at press time include the Infamous Stringdusters, Trampled by Turtles, Guy Clark, Sam Bush Band, and Foghorn Stringband.

Down at an elevation where it’s a bit easier for performers to breathe— and the same goes for boogying, hulahooping concert-goers—the city park in Victor vibrates with the Teton Valley Foundation’s Music on Main on seven Thursday evenings, from June 27 through August 15 (MoM takes a holiday on July 4). Featured acts include the crazy fun March 4th Marching Band (back by popular demand), Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers, and outlaw-country icon Ray Wylie Hubbard, straight out of Austin, Texas.

That city, of course, is known as the Live Music Capital of the World.

But watch out, Austin—we’re gaining ground here in Wydaho.

More info: www.grandtarghee.com and www.tetonvalleyfoundation.org

Teton Valley Magazine

Remembering Rex Meikle “Rex put forth a big chunk of the money” to start the museum, Fullmer said. “And the historical society [also] went around getting donations.”

A successful entrepreneur, Rex worked in the heavy-hauling business at Teton Crane and Transport in Idaho Falls and Boise. He also co-founded the Taylor Mountain Ski Area in the foothills of Idaho Falls in 1958, and was a partner in the Kelly Canyon Ski Area throughout the 1970s and ’80s.

Through the years, Rex and Vernita continued to contribute to the museum, making donations through the Old Bill’s Fun Run and, as Fullmer said, acting as a “sugar daddy” when the building needed repairs, including $8,000 for a leaky roof. Rex passed away in 2010 at the age of 85, but his children continue to honor his wishes by maintaining a family trust intended to support the Teton Valley Museum into the future.

The nonprofit Teton Valley Museum is open Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Sundays and Mondays. For more information, call 208-354-6000 or e-mail tvmuseum@silverstar.com.

LANDSCAPES • HARDSCAPES WATERSCAPES DESIGN & INSTALLATION

—J.B.

PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: STAFF (2); CORY HATCH; AMY HATCH

From the fur traders who bartered with Native Americans when the basin was known as Pierre’s Hole, to the homesteaders who endured long winters to establish a growing community, there’s no question that Teton Valley’s roots of history run deep.

Before there was any formal means to house the artifacts and recollections in a museum, there was Vernita Meikle (nee Beesley), the wife of Robert Rex Meikle. Both were born into homesteading families in the valley: Vernita hailed from the Darby area and Rex’s family lived in Cache.

Vernita was a passionate genealogist. A few decades back, so goes the story, when the couple lived in Star Valley, she would make the drive to Teton Valley several times a month to research her family’s history in archived Teton Valley News articles. Kay Fullmer, now executive director of the Teton Valley Museum, said that one wintery evening Vernita was late getting home, worrying Rex. That was motivation enough for him to contact an individual in the Teton Valley Historical Society, a group of residents who, at the time, were working to preserve the valley history. That unplanned contact started the ball rolling, ultimately leading to the creation of the Teton Valley Museum.

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Teton Valley Magazine

LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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The nonprofit Teton Regional Land Trust (TRLT) has worked with the help and commitment of more than six dozen local families to attain a high mark of 10,000 conservation acres in the valley (and the organization boasts 30,000 acres-plus under easement regionally).

“Our community is fortunate to have so many passionate landowners who have cared for the farms, ranches, and habitat in this valley for the past century,” says TRLT executive director Chet Work. “The work the land trust is doing with these families will forever influence the water, wildlife, and working lands in Teton Valley and throughout the Yellowstone region.”

With the completion of a 400-acre conservation easement with Nancy Hamill Winter and her family, the TRLT also continues to focus on important wild stretches of the Teton River. The staff has, since 1990, worked to protect more than twenty-seven miles of riverbank total. The Winter Family easement joins a cluster of sixteen other easements to create a corridor of protection along the river that now stretches for seven uninterrupted miles.

More good news: In late August, through a partnership involving the TRLT, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Wyoming Wetlands Society, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a conservation easement property in Teton Valley will become home to a quintet of trumpeter swan cygnets. A foster mother will be released with the five young birds to help them learn to feed on their own and to keep them safe. The project is one component of a mission to encourage additional trumpeter nesting in the Greater Yellowstone region, and specifically in Teton Valley.

—J.B. 18

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Teton Valley Magazine

PHOTOS: JENNIFER WALTON; EMILY NICHOLS

Teton Regional Land Trust Hits 10,000 Acres

MORE THAN JUST A GREENHOUSE

PHOTOS: HOLLY KAYS

Rendezvous Reenactment Celebrates Teton Valley History Summer 1832 in Teton Valley must’ve been a dizzying mix of sounds and smells: the whinnying of horses, hatchets thudding into trees, thick wood smoke, sizzling steaks.

The rough-and-tumble crowd of mountain men and Native Americans gathered here alternately brawled and guffawed, celebrating a welcome respite from long months of fur trapping in the mountains.

Between 1825 and 1840, the heyday of the Rocky Mountain fur trade, trappers and traders met for their summer rendezvous yearly in a different part of the region. Each gathering was more than just a chance to trade beaver pelts for wintertime necessities. It was also an opportunity to swap stories, demonstrate prowess during the weapons contests, and enjoy a good time.

“There was a lot of rowdiness going on,” says Jim Hardee, a local scholar on the lore of mountain-man culture.

So much rowdiness, in fact, that the 1832 rendezvous ended in a battle pitting mountain men and their Native American allies against a party from the Gros Ventre tribe, an incident that was largely the result of pent-up energy.

“While it wasn’t exactly every man for himself, there was a certain degree of that,” Hardee says of the culture. “At the same time, you still had everyone’s back. [They were] a real independent kind of folks.”

A decrease in demand for furs

brought the way of life largely to an end in the 1840s, but modern groups such as the Fort Henry Buckskinners make it their goal to keep alive the culture that brought the first EuroAmericans to the Rockies. Every summer, rendezvous-goers travel to any of the dozens of events held in the region to try their hand at weapons competitions, sport their best period apparel, sleep in a teepee, and enjoy time with their families and kindred spirits.

“It’s just a family event with a friendly atmosphere,” says Jason Hammond, a Driggs resident who attends several rendezvous each year with his wife and children. “My youngest one [age eight] has a blast throwing the tomahawk. Anywhere else you’d probably get in trouble.”

This summer, Victor will see its first modern tribute to the rendezvous tradition from August 15 through 17 at the Teton Valley Mountain Rendezvous.

Dale Burr, who is working with the City of Victor to organize the event, expects it to draw around eighty representatives of the Native American, mountain man, and cowboy cultures to bring the valley’s past to life.

“Beaver Dick Leigh seemed to love to rendezvous in Teton Valley,” Burr says of the trapper for whom Leigh Canyon and Leigh Lake are named, “because, well, he called it ‘the beautifulest place in the world.’ I wanted to let the world know how beautiful this valley is.”

—Holly Kays

Teton Valley Magazine

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va l l e y v o i c e s

Rich Rinaldi (left) and Jake Holmes are among those providing expert advice and service at Yostmark Mountain Equipment.

Sporting Gear Galore A quartet of Driggs specialty shops persevere in the face of competition from the Internet and big-box stores

by Amy Hatch

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or a town with a population of less than 2,000, Driggs boasts an impressive array of outdoor gear stores. Fueled by loyal locals and a profusion of summer and winter visitors, no fewer than four brick-and-mortar retail fronts offering recreational equipment line the streets of this cozy western town.

Each has carved out its own niche, catering to specific customers and interests.

Yostmark Mountain Equipment is known as the mountaineering and backcountry store with deep roots in the valley, dating back twenty years.

Peaked Sports is a full-service bike shop in the summer and alpine ski shop in the winter—with a specialized stone

Teton Valley Magazine

grinder that can set different patterns into the bottom of skis.

Habitat, selling “High Altitude Provisions,” is characterized by its manager as “a lifestyle shop, a fly-fishing shop, and a pretty core mountain biking shop.” Snowboarding is also a significant part of Habitat’s business.

Finally, Dreamchasers specializes in running, while also finding space for nutritional supplements, sports injury equipment, and hockey gear.

The thread that ties these stores together is the owners’ and employees’ passion for the outdoor pursuits for which they’re gearing up customers. That, in turn, translates into knowledge and service.

PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: STAFF (2); COURTESY OF DICK WEINBRANDT; STAFF

“First off, you’d have to look a long time to find another gear store owned by a guy with a Ph.D. from Stanford.” —Dick Weinbrandt Yostmark The hands-on, longtime use of mountaineering gear is what Yostmark’s coowner Rich Rinaldi says sets his staff apart. “We’re always planning our next adventure—and because we’re in the business, we’re always trying to get our systems dialed,” Rinaldi says.

Yostmark stocks climbing gear, ice axes, backcountry gear, Nordic skis, outdoor clothing, and maps, along with other equipment. Under the name Yostmark Backcountry Tours, it also offers guided backcountry ski tours, avalanche safety courses, and Nordic skiing classes.

Recently celebrating its twentieth anniversary, Yostmark was founded

by Claire Yost, who blazed the way by manufacturing a line of powder boards in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Today, a few pair of those skis, known as the Mountain Noodle— boasting tip/waist/ tail dimensions of 99/76/87 millimeters—are mounted on the store’s walls.

About eight years ago, Yost sold Yostmark, originally located near the main downtown intersection in Driggs, to Rinaldi and Lars Onsrud; Onsrud subsequently sold his share to David Jennings, now the co-owner.

Rinaldi has his own deep history in the valley, having taught Nordic and telemark skiing at Grand Targhee before taking the reins at Yostmark.

While I was in the well-lit, spacious store chatting with Rinaldi, mountain guide Eric “Hendy” Henderson buzzed through the door to get his new skis mounted. “Rich is a pioneer in so many ways; back then, ski guiding was so new, it was hard to find mentors,” he said. “I know, the ’90s—back then,” he added, laughing.

mountain at Grand Targhee Resort—is this Abraham Lincoln quote: “Live a good life. In the end it’s not the years in a life, but the life in the years.”

That attitude seems prevalent among the store’s employees and, most definitely, is exuded by the store’s owner. At the young age of sixty-nine, Dick Weinbrandt dedicates himself almost fulltime to Ironman triathlons, with some notable recent finishes.

“I tell people that a few years ago I asked myself what I wanted to do when I grow up, and the answer [was] that I want to be a professional athlete,” Weinbrandt says. “And that’s essentially what I’ve become. I train the same amount of hours a professional would. Obviously, I’m a lot slower, but it’s been fun and hopefully I can continue doing it a long time.”

Weinbrandt, a petroleum and mechanical engineer by training, worked in the consulting and corporate world for decades. In the late 1970s he invested in Hoback Sports in Jackson Hole, which he owned until 1995. When he sold Hoback, he decided to start a new

outdoor store “and that’s how Peaked came be,” he says.

What sets Peaked apart?

“First off, you’d have to look a long time to find another gear store owned by a guy with a Ph.D. from Stanford,” Weinbrandt says. “I’ve really taken an engineering approach, because I am an engineer. That’s worked really well with the hard goods. And I’ve been lucky enough to have my daughter involved in the business, really from the start, and she buys the soft goods.”

Rentals are a major part of Peaked’s business as well, totaling almost 50 percent of revenue in the winter, when the store rents alpine skis, snow bikes, cross-country skis (both classic and skate), and snowshoes. In the sumRight: Dick Weinbrandt of Peaked Sports at Ironman Cozumel 2010, after a 1:03 swim. He was en route to an age-group win by half an hour, a course record that still stands in the Men’s 65-69 category.

Peaked Sports Inscribed on the ceiling beam of Peaked Sports—predominately a bike and alpine ski shop named for the iconic

Teton Valley Magazine

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21

of running the shop is “happy customers, with the product and knowledge they got from our shop.”

Habitat When I entered Habitat, reggae music beat loudly, brightly colored walls featured displays mounted ceiling to floor, and a bike hung over the cash register. Here you can find the newest, hippest brands—Lole, Burton, and Armada

to name a few.

“It’s a pretty unique shop,” says manager and former owner Mitch Prissel (it’s now owned by Geordie Gillett).

“There’s definitely a different vibe. It’s an experience.”

In the summer, Habitat focuses heavily on mountain biking, and also puts a lot of its resources into fly-fishing gear.

“It covers a broad base, because everyone here either mountain bikes or fly fishes or does both,” Prissel says. “So it’s a good one-stop shop.”

When not on the retail floor in the summer, Prissel can be found building mountain bike trails; he and his employees work closely with the Teton Mountain Bike Alliance. In the winter, snowboards, skis, and casual and outdoor apparel fill Habitat’s space. The store also offers demos, rentals, and a tune shop.

Operating Habitat is an act from the heart—my question, “What did it take to open the store?” was answered with, “Both arms and both legs.” But the little moments of customer satisfaction make it worthwhile, Prissel says.

“I just had one of those moments when a little girl came back and told me how cool her snowboard is and wrote me a card,” Prissel says. “Overall, that’s what I take away—happy customers, with the product and knowledge they got from our shop.”

Dreamchasers Primarily a running store stocked with shoes, apparel, and accessories, Dreamchasers also carries a solid line of nutritional supplements and sports injury equipment, such as foam rollers, IT (iliotibial) band wraps, and knee braces.

And recently it ventured into hockey gear—an experiment that received a good response last winter.

The store’s owners, Jay Batchen and Lisa Smith-Batchen, strive to find and stock products a bit out of the ordinary, such as Altra and Hoka One One shoes.

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PHOTOS: STAFF

Mitch Prissel of Habitat says his favorite part

mer, you can take out kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, and nearly every kind of bike—full-suspension mountain bikes, road bikes, and downhill mountain bikes.

Weinbrandt uses Peaked Sports as a way to give back to the local community; for example, by participating in 1% for the Tetons and by supporting the Tin Cup Challenge, a huge communitywide fundraiser for area nonprofits.

“I do it for a lot of reasons other than profit motives,” Weinbrandt says, noting that he’s at a stage in his life when he can afford to do this.

Lisa Smith-Batchen and Jay Batchen of Dreamchasers are both seasoned competitors who can provide advice based on years of experience.

SHOP LOCAL, PLEASE! In the age of the Internet, as elsewhere, making a living in Driggs by retailing outdoor gear is becoming increasingly difficult.

“We’re up against so much now, it’s almost impossible,” Yostmark’s coowner Rich Rinaldi says.

Peaked Sports owner Dick Weinbrandt echoes Rinaldi’s sentiments: “It is very, very difficult to even break even in the business, let alone make money.

It’s incredibly financially challenging; nobody in his right mind would go into the business with the objective of making money.”

In 2010, the City of Driggs published a supply-and-demand report, compiled

by Harmony Design & Engineering, on a variety of retail sectors. The “2010 Retail Trade Area Analysis” concluded that the sporting goods sector had a retail surplus, meaning that the amount of annual sporting goods retail sales exceeds the amount of sporting goods purchases made by locals. The consumer sporting goods purchases made by locals totaled $1.8 million, while the actual sales by Driggs sporting goods businesses totaled $2 million, the report says.

However, not all of that $1.8 million flowing from the pockets of locals is being spent in Driggs; it also accounts for purchases made in other cities or on the Internet. While it may not be news that stores in Driggs rely on tourism to stay afloat, the report underscores local buying power.

“Everyone wants a downtown—but you have to support it to have a downtown,” says Habitat manager Mitch Prissel. “Everyone wants a swimming pool, but you have to have tax dollars [generated from local sales receipts] to have a swimming pool.”

Dreamchasers’ co- owner Jay Batchen says that at least once a week a customer will mention that he or she has found a product available for cheaper online—or will even browse e-commerce sites on a smartphone to compare prices while in the store.

“It’s definitely a drawback to having a brick-and-mortar store,” Batchen says.

Weinbrandt details some of the reasons he urges people to shop locally: Sales tax supports local projects and services, store employees earn a paycheck that in turn gets cycled back into the local economy, and businesses often make charitable donations back to the community.

Teton Valley Magazine

The latter features an oversized, cushy sole; the former is a minimalist shoe designed to mimic barefoot running.

“I want to bring in products that we have used,” says Jay, “reliable, durable, and functional for what people need around here.”

Dreamchasers even lets customers take running shoes outside for a spin around the block, giving the shop an edge over Internet competition (see sidebar “Shop Local, Please!”).

“That gives them a reason to come in and shop,” Jay says, “because you let them go out and experience the product and let them decide which one works best.”

In addition to retail, Dreamchasers offers a wide-ranging schedule of fitness classes. Getting both the fitness classes and the store up and running simultaneously has required “a little bit of balance,” says Jay, referring to both the time and funding needed. But ultimately, the fitness classes and store, along with the various local and international foot races sponsored by Dreamchasers—including Marathon des Sables (a run through the Moroccan Sahara) and the Grand Teton Races at Grand Targhee—complement and spur on one another.

Dreamchasers “started amassing a little collection of things that were working for some of these events,” Jay says, explaining that eventually, this led to the storefront the business now occupies. TV

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fa m i l i a r fa c e s

Volunteers Extraordinaire Phyllis Anderson and Lynn Sandmann give freely of their hearts and their hours

by Jeanne Anderson

Above left: Phyllis Anderson and Lynn Sandmann toasting another successful Taste of the Tetons in 2007. Above right: Phyllis and Lynn get into a tight squeeze in Utah’s Escalante Canyon during a canyoneering course.

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lthough Phyllis Anderson and Lynn Sandmann laugh about being called “universal volunteers,” perhaps no other two people in Teton Valley are more recognizable at the various events and activities put on by our forty-plus local nonprofit organizations.

Attend any one of a score of annual events hosted by a local group, and your path will likely cross that of Phyllis and Lynn. Last January at SnowFest, as they worked to collect the SnowScapes ballots from the judges of the sculptures, an acquaintance said to them, “It seems like I see you just about everyplace.” Another visitor commented, “I should have known you two would be here.”

So very true!

When there’s a big—or small—job to

Teton Valley Magazine

be done, whether it’s to promote a cause or make an activity succeed, they’ve stepped forward.

Phyllis and Lynn often serve in some of the least glamorous, yet vital capacities.

They have sold beer, accepted admission money, stuffed envelopes, skied to raise pledges, served on boards, shelved books, and, along the way, coerced others to help.

Volunteering has also provided an avenue for them to get to know people and become involved in the community.

“Before moving to Teton Valley, I had met Kathy Stillman [another local übervolunteer], and asked her ‘How do you get socially plugged into this town?’”

Lynn recalls. “Kathy said ‘That’s easy— volunteer for a nonprofit.’”

Close friends for more than a decade,

PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF TETON REGIONAL LAND TRUST; RICK GREEN; COURTESY OF FRIENDS OF THE TETON RIVER; COURTESY OF PHYLLIS ANDERSON

Lynn and Phyllis are also well known for their prowess at demanding seasonal recreational pursuits. For example, to celebrate her seventieth birthday, Phyllis and a group of friends, including Lynn, rode seventy miles on their bikes.

(Just two days later, Phyllis, her son, and grandson kayaked the Alpine section of the Snake River.)

“Phyllis taught me all about [skiing] powder, too,” Lynn says.

“Well, I got her out there in it,” Phyllis quickly responds.

When her friend learned that Lynn was riding her husband’s bike, which was too big, “Phyllis pulled her old bike out and sized it up for me,” Lynn says.

Since then, the two have logged literally thousands of vertical feet and hundreds of miles together.

Over the course of several hiking expeditions and organized bike rides with WomanTours, Lynn and Phyllis have found they travel well together, too.

When they went to the Galapagos, they slept in a treehouse, among the fittest of the twenty group members and thus best able to make the ladder climb. They’ve bicycled through Glacier National Park, in the eastern Sierras, across Wyoming, and in Moab. Other memorable international trips include visits to Bhutan, Italy, Antarctica, Ireland, and, most recently, a nine-hundred-mile train trip across

Manitoba to see the northern lights.

They’re as humble about such adventures as they are about what they do for the nonprofits of Teton Valley. “We’re lucky,” Lynn says. “We’re healthy, retired, and we like to do a lot of the same things.”

Both women moved here in 2001, but their paths to Teton Valley were quite different.

“I was sorta looking for a ski town my whole life,” says Lynn. Born and raised

der and said, ‘This is the place,’” Lynn recalls. The Sandmanns started figuring out when they could move to the West permanently. Retirement was the ticket.

Billings-born Phyllis and her husband Jay, a biology professor at Idaho State University in Pocatello, started coming to Teton Valley in 1975, when he was working as a volunteer ski patroller at Grand Targhee Resort. Phyllis, a former physical education teacher, ran the Craft Shop in the basement of the ISU

The two have logged literally thousands of vertical feet and hundreds of miles together. in the Midwest, she took winter vacations with relatives in Colorado. At age twenty-seven she spent a memorable winter in Breckenridge, and discovered she liked the high-elevation environment. However, it was a bad drought year: “I was depressed, the town was depressed,” she says.

So, Lynn moved back to Ohio, holding onto the idea of mountain living. She worked as an operating room nurse and “had a good career,” she says, marrying her husband George in 1990. The couple felt a “real connection” when they visited Teton Valley in 1991, and soon bought land here. “I tapped him on the shoul-

Student Union for seventeen years. She took up spinning her own yarn, a hobby she still pursues. The Andersons, who were married for forty-three years, built a cabin here in 1978 on Leisure Lane and Howard Avenue, back when “that was on the outskirts of town,” Phyllis says.

They moved here permanently in 2001, into a newly built view-corridor house north of Driggs.

The first time the two couples met was when the Sandmanns walked by as the Andersons worked in the yard at their unfinished house (their homes are a mile apart). The two met again and reconnected permanently when Phyllis, by

Arizona in on a cold morning in Left: Lynn and Phyllis g Womatin ebr cel e rid e mil 70a February 2012, during ident) res ley Val on part-time Tet anTours founder (and ing at eer unt Vol ht: Rig ay. thd Gloria Smith’s 70th bir er’s annual river party.

Friends of the Teton Riv

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LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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fall of 2012.

then widowed, sent Lynn a note offering to help during George’s illness.

Their husbands died about nine months apart. “I knew I was going to be okay,” Lynn says, noting that Phyllis was really helpful in the final stages of George’s life. “It was huge knowing that she’d already gone through this herself.”

On their own and still fairly new to Teton Valley, both Lynn and Phyllis jumped into the nonprofit scene and turned to establishing friendships with others. After taking a bike ride with the executive director of Friends of the Teton River, Phyllis helped with a mailing and ended up serving on the FTR board.

Lynn served on the board of Teton Valley Community Recycling, back when they had to cart recyclables out of the valley; once a week, she’d fill her Suburban with empty beer cans to take to Jackson or Idaho Falls. “We called it the PBR run,” she says with her typical grin.

One of their most visible volunteer gigs earned them the name of “bar babes.” Michael Whitfield, former executive director of Teton Regional Land Trust, recruited the dynamic duo to assist at the organization’s annual Taste of the Tetons. “They really were the bar queens,” he says. “It was a complicated event that took a lot of volunteer time, and they just did it year after year, successfully and efficiently. We always knew they would be there and that it would come off well.

PHOTO: SUSAN BRADSHAW

In Antarctica during the

275 E Little Ave • Driggs, ID “They were always a lot of fun to do it with, too,” Whitfield adds. “They interacted with a lot of people, and kept people happy.”

One aspect of volunteering that Lynn particularly relishes, she says, is that it gives her a chance to work with the “young parents, thirty-somethings with kids. Otherwise we might not have met them,” she says.

Their young friends would agree.

“They’re phenomenal,” says Eva Dahlgren, who first met Lynn on the recycling board, and knows both Lynn and Phyllis as volunteers at the Alta Branch Library. “They’re the quintessential perfect volunteers that any organization would die for.”

The fun factor figures into many longtime relationships the pair have made.

Eva happened to ski with them a couple of winters ago: “It was a hoot, just so much fun. If you could be half as active and engaged at their age, you’d be doing well,” says Eva, who admits to having been “floored” when she found out their ages (Phyllis is seventy-five, Lynn sixty-four).

The legacy of these two volunteers also includes trails cleared, streamside vegetation planted, voters called for upcoming elections, and, at the offices of the Community Foundation of Teton Valley, a two-inch-thick notebook recording their time as Aid Station captains. They coordinated nearly fifty volunteers each summer for the Tin Cup Challenge fundraiser run, and the nine aid stations the event required.

They’ve retired their captain hats after five years, but are likely to be volunteering this year—if their travel schedule allows—in any of the many other ways they’ve helped at Tin Cup, including making medals and registering runners.

Cathy O’Connor, former executive director of the CFTV, sums up Phyllis and Lynn just about perfectly: “Those two, they’re just so great.”

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a l l i n a d ay ’ s w o r k

Clockwise, beginning with left: Derek Ellis, ready for action; stoking the smoker, which is loaded with bacon and hams; breaking down a lamb carcass; holding a pork belly Derek is curing in preparation for smoking it into bacon.

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Teton Valley Magazine

A Cut Above

Ellis Custom Meats offers a range of butchering services

by Mel Paradis

T

eton Valley is such a beautiful place that a lot of people will find almost any excuse to move here.

Once they’re here, of course, it’s often challenging to find fulfilling work that pays the bills. Consequently, many people come and go.

Yet the valley also has a long history of roots planted by those with an entrepreneurial spirit. From the earliest homesteaders to the more recent ski bums, many individuals have created work for themselves so that they could call this place home. Derek Ellis of Ellis Custom Meats is one such person who has found a way to make a satisfying life for himself in Teton Valley.

Derek moved to the Tetons in the 1990s to utilize his biology degree, working as a biotech for the National Park Service. During the summers he worked on plant and fire ecology, while enjoying deep powder throughout the long winters and cooking up food at eateries on both sides of the Tetons.

PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: STAFF; MEL PARADIS (3)

Knowing what he needed to get things started, Derek reached out to friends to help turn his dream into reality.

In 2001, Derek left behind restaurant work to join Intermountain Aquatics in Driggs. Although he enjoyed many aspects of the work he was doing for the environmental consulting firm, after several years he longed for a career that was both different and more personally challenging. He wanted to create a unique niche for himself in the valley.

Teton Valley Magazine

One morning while listening to National Public Radio, Derek heard a piece about a resurgence in the art of butchering. The story struck a chord. For years, he had been hearing Jed Restuccia of Cosmic Apple Gardens, a commercial organic farm in Victor, complain about having to take his farm animals sixty miles away to be slaughtered and processed in a certified organic processing plant.

Derek thought he might be on to something. Via Internet research, he tracked down a program that sounded perfect: Fleisher’s, a butcher shop in Kingston, New York, that offered training courses. These ran from a five-day “Butchering 101” class to a comprehensive, three-month internship. Derek opted for the latter and, along with one other intern, he spent three months in the Hudson River town, situated between Albany and New York City, learning the ins and outs of hands-on butchering from the “MooRu,” Joshua Applestone. Most days, Derek broke down lambs, pigs, and steers alongside the working butchers, while on “off-days” he absorbed lectures on weights, anatomy, and other topics.

Once finished with the program, Derek returned to Teton Valley to set up shop. Knowing what he needed to get things started, he reached out to friends to help turn his dream into reality. Tye Tilt of Mountain Valley Mushrooms and Tim Watters of North Fork Native Plants, two men who are no strangers themselves to creating successful businesses, stepped in to help. Tye offered up butchering and walk-in refrigeration space, while Tim lent Derek equipment

LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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and supplied start-up capital.

For the first autumn, Derek butchered wild game while he researched inspection and licensing requirements.

Shortly after the big-game season was over, he received additional help from Dining In Catering owner Bill Boney, who made space in the garage at The Wildwood Room for Derek to house his newly purchased walk-in refrigerator, and allowed him to use his kitchen for processing animals.

Ellis Custom Meats has grown dramatically in just three years. In addition to owning all his own butchering equipment, which includes a homemade smoker, band saw, and a slew of other cutting implements, Derek now carries certifications for both mobile slaughter and custom processing. With the mobile slaughter license, he is able to offer an alternative to farmers and ranchers who would prefer to remove the stress and logistics of loading up livestock to move to a meat-processing facility. With his custom processing license, he is then able to take that animal and break it down for the client.

Derek specializes in traditional butchering cuts, such as rib-eyes and tenderloins, but what truly stands out are his sausages and charcuterie. Chorizo and pastrami are two of his more unusual items. When he is not working the

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Teton Valley Magazine

smoker or grinding meat for sausage, he enjoys educating his half- and wholeanimal customers on the best ways to prepare lesser-known cuts of meat.

Derek can help satisfy the meat cravings of valley omnivores in several ways. If you participate in 4-H or purchase livestock through the county fair this summer, Ellis Custom Meats offers a discount on both mobile slaughtering and processing fees. Derek can also help connect farmers with those seeking to buy a half or a whole animal, which he will then process to your specifications.

Not looking to buy your meat in bulk?

A few times a year, Derek partners up with Dining In Catering to hold a meat sale at The Wildwood Room. Dining In serves dinner and beverages, while Derek weighs out and sells steaks, sausages, bacon, and jars of pork rillettes—aka pork jam, a devilishly decadent treat that could cause your cholesterol to skyrocket a hundred points just from looking at it.

(You can send him an email at derek@elliscustommeats.com or “Like” Ellis Custom Meats on Facebook to get updates.)

What’s next for Derek? Possibly a retail processing license, so that he can sell his sausages, cured meat, and cuts at local grocery stores. For now, though, he is plenty busy enjoying the life and career he has created for himself here in Teton Valley. TV

PHOTO: MEL PARADIS

Derek describing some various cuts of lamb.

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Teton Valley Transportation

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Conant Pass Trail: Known to but a few

Hear the crack of breaking limbs; the pounding of trotting ponies being driven single file along the moonlit forest path … some say the trail is haunted.

by Earle F. Layser Illustrations by Meghan Hanson

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Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

Teton Valley Magazine

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wen Wister, in his 1902 Western classic The Virginian, penned: “Next day we swung southward from what is known as the Conant Trail, and headed for the shortcut through the Tetons which is known to but a few, Bitch Creek was the name …”

Not much has changed. Although romanticized in local lore and recalled in annals, it remains a trail known only to a few.

More than a path, the Conant Trail was once an important route across the northern end of the Teton Range, connecting Yellowstone and northern Jackson Hole to Teton Valley—and to the closest railheads and the outside world. Historic accounts of

the route rival those told of Teton Pass.

On the Jackson Hole side, the trail crossed the Snake River three miles above the natural Jackson Lake, just north of Berry Creek (the historic ford has been inundated by Jackson Lake dam waters). Heading west, it passed north of Elk Ridge following the open, park-like glades up Berry Creek south of Survey Peak, and over what used to be called Conant Pass.

Historic Conant Pass, elevation 8,520 feet, is shown on maps nowadays as Jackass Pass. The name Conant has been misapplied by government cartographers to a pass south of Carrot Knoll. The Ashton-Moran freight road—an early wagon route; and after 1910, an engineered road—has sometimes

Teton Valley Magazine

LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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Teton Valley Transportation

been confused with the Conant Trail, too. They overlap in part around Squirrel Meadows, but the two are not the same.

On the west slope, the segment from Conant (Jackass) Pass west to Squirrel, Idaho, is the historic Conant Trail. Long ago, the way led on from there to the Snake River Plain and Fort Hall; later, it was used to access the 1879 railhead at Market Lake (today’s Roberts, north of Idaho Falls). In the more recent historic past, a wagon road from Squirrel connected to the 1899 railhead at St. Anthony, with a thriceweekly stagecoach running between the two.

A route variation from the above is that east of Hominy Peak in Wyoming, a connecting trail branching south to Conant Basin, past Hidden Lake, and down Conant Creek; and, historically important, another that diverges to Bitch Creek, leading into the north end of Teton Valley. These trails are often loosely spoken of as part of the Conant Trail, too, since they also connect to the pass.

And, if a fellow wanted to lose himself or pursuers, still another trail turns back up Bitch Creek to the easily corralled-off narrows below remote Hidden Corral Basin—a location vital to the nineteenthcentury outlaw lore.

Branded the “Horse Thief Trail” by Wister, the Conant Trail was used by Native Americans, mountain men, outlaws, game poachers, elk tuskers (hunters who illegally killed elk for their valuable eyeteeth ivory), outfitters and sportsmen, and early-day northern Jackson Hole settlers. A local name for the Bitch Creek segment is the “Poacher’s Trail,” recalling a time when Teton Basin families relied yearround on game meat and market hunting for subsistence and livelihood, an era when Wyoming had game laws but Idaho did not.

In Tetonia resident Jim Hardee’s Pierre’s Hole!, Jedediah Smith’s 1824 band of trappers is said to have utilized this “well-used Indian trail”; and William Sublette, in 1826, recorded “circling around the Tetons into Jackson Hole.”

Mountain man Osborne Russell, in Journal of a Trapper, writes that he and his companion— wounded and without possessions, following an 1839 skirmish with Blackfeet Indians near Yellowstone Lake—made their escape by this route: “near to Jacksons Lake on the west side … [we] took up a small branch in a West direction …” After crossing the Teton Range they descended to the confluence

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Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

of the Henry’s Fork and the Snake River, then continued south to Fort Hall.

The Conant Trail was named by Richard “Beaver Dick” Leigh, credited as the first Euro-American to take up permanent residence in the shadow of the Tetons. Leigh named the pass, trail, and creek after Al Conant, another early Teton Valley inhabitant, who, Leigh claimed, in 1865 nearly drowned in his namesake creek.

Leigh and his family commonly used the Conant Pass Trail to travel between Teton Valley and Jackson Hole. The route accessed the Jackson Lake Meadows at the head of the lake (before construction of the Jackson Lake dam). The large meadows served as a traditional Native American encampment site used for eons. Leigh, who reportedly maintained a cabin at the meadows, also cached teepee poles at locations along the trail for setting up temporary shelter when needed.

Leigh was a promoter for the trail to be made into a stagecoach road.

The general area was designated part of the Teton Forest Reserve in 1897; when the Jackson Hole National Monument was established in 1943, it came under the purview of the National Park Service. The agencies built and maintained a number of snowshoe or patrol cabins along the route. A Forest Service cabin listed on the National Register of Historic Places still exists—and remains in use through their rental program—where the trail passed through Squirrel Creek Meadows. The Park Service continues to maintain patrol cabins in upper and lower Berry Creek.

Others built cabins along the route, too.

The Berry for whom the creek was named had a squatter’s cabin near the stream’s mouth in 1903; and, in 1904, an eight-byeight-foot snowshoe cabin sat midway

Teton Valley Magazine

The trail was named by Richard “Beaver Dick” Leigh, the first EuroAmerican to take up permanent residence in the Tetons.

Simply... everything interior

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down Berry Creek. A talc mine with associated cabins also once existed near Berry Creek, and both were accessed by the trail. And still another cabin at Survey Peak is believed to have served as a Forest Service fire lookout station. A telephone line ran to it along Berry Creek. Considerable all-season use of the trail occurred during that era.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Edwin Trafton (aka Ed Harrington), Teton Valley’s most infamous early-day resident, used the trail to access a cabin he had on the east side of Jackson Lake.

Trafton and his compadres reportedly used the route to move stolen livestock, earning it the “Outlaw Trail” reputation.

Wister, it is believed, learned about the trail through interviews conducted with Trafton.

Trafton’s grandson, John Watson, noted in The Real Virginian, “Farmers bought the livestock little concerned about where it came from as long as they got a bill of sale proving they hadn’t done the stealing.”

Early-day Wyoming game wardens were well aware of the problems the

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Conant Trail posed for enforcement. In A Community of Scalawags, Renegades, Discharged Soldiers and Predestined Stinkers?, Kenneth and Lenore Diem describe it as an easy way for poachers and tuskers to exit Jackson Hole and Yellowstone Park, with illegal booty, and enter Idaho, where at the time there were no game laws or wardens.

After convicted Yellowstone National Park game poacher and tusker Charles Purdy served out his sentence in the Yellowstone Guardhouse at the beginning of the twentieth century, he filed a claim under the 1890 mining law at Loon Lake and built a cabin there. Locally admired in the nearby Mormon settlements in Idaho for his outdoor survival skills, Pur-

Their furnishings were mule packed in over the Conant Trail and included, remarkably, a baby grand piano. dy became known for his winter treks to Moran, Wyoming, across the Conant Trail on homemade ten-foot skis.

The trail was used not only by outlaws and poachers. Legitimate settlers in northern Jackson Hole moved supplies and livestock across it. Settler John “Jack” Shive (best known as a member of the Owen-Spalding party that summited the Grand Teton in 1898) brought seventy-five cows, five saddle horses, and four pack horses into Jackson Hole over the trail in 1896. A daughter wrote about the experience: “We crossed the northern end of the Teton Range by the Conant Trail route. For two whole days we wound up and over the mountains through pine woods, never seeing the lead cattle except when we rounded up

for noon or night.”

John Sargent, a controversial earlyday Jackson Hole figure, along with his family, settled and built his tenroom lodge Marymere at Sargent’s Bay (north of Colter Bay) in 1898. Their supplies and expensive furnishings were mule packed in over the Conant Trail, including a pool table, Victrola, classical music records, and, remarkably, a baby grand piano. The hired lodge builders came from Ashton, Idaho, undoubtedly over the trail, too.

Literate and from a well-to-do Eastern family, Sargent was in Western parlance a “remittance man.” He and his family made frequent trips across Conant Pass, sometimes in order to winter outside of Jackson Hole.

The importance and use of the Conant Trail pretty much came to a close when, early in the twentieth century, the Reclamation Road was constructed and the Jackson Lake Dam flooded the river ford accessing the trail. It also lay to rest proposals for constructing a road from Idaho across Conant Pass. Instead, we are left today with remote backcountry in the northern Teton Range prized for its wilderness habitat.

Considering hiking the trail? Be forewarned, one park ranger contends that there is “one grizzly bear for each mile of trail.”

And do you think stories of outlaws and poachers using this trail are merely worn Old West tales? Think again. In 1980, park rangers busted an Idaho outfitter and his client for illegally hunting and killing elk in Grand Teton National Park. Likewise, in 1985 a Jackson Hole outfitter and his clients, after a Wild West horseback pursuit on the trail, were apprehended for unlawfully killing elk in the park. In both cases, for access into and egress out of the park the poachers used … you guessed it, the Conant Trail. TV

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Teton Valley Transportation

The First and Next 100 Years

Victor Railroad Depot has a storied past and a promising future

by Dan Buchan

The Victor Depot as it appears today (above) and a schematic of what the site will look like after the depot revitalization and addition of the scenic byway interpretive center.

VICTOR DEPOT : TIME OF EVENTS AND MILESTONES IN ITS 100-YEAR HISTORY

1913: Victor Depot constructed; first train into Victor

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1916–1955: Jackson Hole cattle ranchers drive cattle over Teton Pass to Victor railhead

Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

1917: First sled-dog race train from Victor for races between Ashton and West Yellowstone

Teton Valley Magazine

1926: Dude Ranch Association created, t generating significan ses passenger increa through Victor

1928: Expansion of passenger waiting room with larger restrooms and showers

V

ictor Depot’s 100th birthday in 2013 is worthy of celebrating for the significant way the structure has served the community during its first one hundred years, as well as for the exciting plans in store for its future.

From 1913 through 2013, this crown jewel of Teton Valley architecture has served as a railroad depot, office and light industrial space, and residential apartments. Entering its second century, the depot will become the cornerstone of a revitalized downtown district that will preserve the city’s unique cultural history, provide space for community uses, and support economic growth and development.

Origins By the early years of the twentieth century, thousands of communities throughout the U.S. had benefited from the arrival of the railroad. Its capacity to move people and goods faster, farther, and more efficiently than a horse, previously the fastest means of transportation, promised greater prosperity and an easier life.

Victor wanted in, as did surrounding communities. They got their wish in 1905, when the Union Pacific Railroad (U.P.)—inspired by a trip to Yellowstone National Park taken by its then CEO, E.H. Harriman— created a subsidiary railroad named the Yellowstone Park Railroad Company.

Included in the new railroad’s plans was a rail line from Idaho Falls to West Yellowstone, as well as a connecting branch line from Ashton to Victor.

Victor’s dreams were almost dashed when the railroad announced, after arriving in Driggs in 1912, that there wasn’t the need to build farther south.

As an incentive, funds were gathered by citizens on

both sides of Teton Pass, including a reported 25 percent match from Jackson Hole residents. This supported the purchase of land for the railroad’s right-of-way between Driggs and Victor. The extra funds tipped the scales for completion to Victor— though in fact the rails may have been laid anyway, as the railroad’s original 1905 charter showed that was the ultimate plan.

1913–1981 The last spikes were driven on what became known as the Teton Valley Branch, and the first train steamed into Victor on July 1, 1913. Construction of the Victor Railroad Depot followed shortly thereafter, using lumber brought in from the outside. By this time the Yellowstone Park Railroad Company had been dissolved, and the Oregon Short Line, another subsidiary of the U.P., was the owner, operator, and builder.

The railroad depot became the hub of the community; the central location into and out of which the majority of personal travel, commercial shipping, and news and information from around the world occurred.

The depot’s design catered to these multiple needs. It included a passenger waiting room and restrooms at the south end for travelers, and a freight room at the north end for shipments. The depot agent, in charge of all activity there, lived upstairs with his family in a 500-squarefoot apartment, and performed his duties from an office located in the center of the first floor.

Total railroad mileage in the U.S. peaked in 1916, and then began to decline. But Victor and the surrounding communities were just getting started enjoying their expanded access to the outside world.

PHOTOS: TOP, STAFF; ILLUSTRATION, MEGHAN HANSON

Victor’s dreams were almost dashed when the railroad announced there wasn’t the need to build farther south.

idents 1930s–1940s: Valley res ride beflagged down trains to s for 10 tween Victor and Drigg ilroad cents; Union Pacific Ra wstone advertised Teton/Yello Victor Park packages through

1938: First Ski Train to Victor from Pocatello and Idaho Falls

1940s: Dartmouth College Ski Club in New Hampshire travels to ski on Victor Ski Hill

Teton Valley Magazine

1959: 50,000-gallon steam engine water storage tank and tower decommissioned

1960: Tetonia and ; Driggs depots closed Vic o int ted da consoli t po tor De

LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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During its heyday, the depot served thousands of travelers, including locals moving up and down the line and to points beyond, skiers bound for the Victor Ski Hill, Jackson Hole dude ranch guests, and tourists visiting from around the world on trains named the Yellowstone Special, the Northwest Special, and the Park Special.

Shipments into Victor included all types of products purchased by families and churches directly or for sale at local businesses, including groceries, hardware, clothing, fuel, farm machinery, construction materials, and even hay during times of drought.

Though infrequent, gargantuan pieces of equipment would arrive, such as the six boilers weighing eight tons apiece destined for the Jackson Lake Dam, and cables for the first lifts at Teton Village.

Shipments out included sheep from Teton Valley and cattle from Jackson Hole ranchers, who drove their herds over Teton Pass and stored them in stock pens northwest of the depot. Outbound shipments also in-

1965: Last scheduled train out of Victor

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1971: Last train available for service from Victor

Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

1981: Interstate Commerce Commission grants U.P. right to abandon line from Tetonia to Victor

cluded some of freshest and tastiest peas available in North America, grown in Teton Valley, as well as limestone, lumber, sheep’s wool, horses, and cream.

Until the 1950s, mail, newspapers, and magazines were the primary means for staying in touch with national and global happenings, and most of these were brought in by train. For urgent messages, the depot agent could send a Western Union telegram.

Demand for the railroad’s services declined in the 1950s, as travelers and shippers began to prefer the convenience and speed of automobiles, trucks, and airplanes. As a way to cut costs and try to remain competitive, the railroad consolidated the Tetonia and Driggs depots into the Victor Depot in 1960 and reduced the number of scheduled passenger and freight trains. Still, there were not enough local users to keep the line profitable. So, in 1981, the U.P. applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission for the right to abandon the rail line between Victor and Tetonia. The abandonment was granted.

1982: Last snowplow and maintenance train from Victor to remove remaining pieces of equipment

Teton Valley Magazine

1984: Rails and ties pulled from railroad bed between Victor and Driggs

1989: U.P. sells depot to John Horn of Jackson

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF E.O. GIBSON/WX4.ORG; COURTESY OF JHHSM

Teton Valley Transportation

From left to right: The depot circa 1960s; outbound shipments from Victor included Jackson Hole cattle and sheep raised in Teton Valley; cattle were driven in herds from Jackson over Teton Pass and stored temporarily in stock pens located near the depot; passenger and freight trains made regular runs into and out of Victor until the mid-1960s.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF JHHSM; COURTESY OF E.O. GIBSON/WX4.ORG

The Late Twentieth Century The depot sat vacant for much of the 1980s, until listed for sale by the railroad in 1989. It quickly received multiple offers, including a winning bid from John Horn of Jackson. So began a period of post-railroad, private ownership that continued with the sale to Jim Wurth of Wilson in 1992 and then to John Wasson of Wilson in 1998. Each of these owners appreciated the depot’s charms, kept it in a state of good repair, and tried to optimize the return on their investment with its highest and best use.

Perhaps the most notable event during this period of private ownership was the achievement of getting the Victor Railroad Depot formally listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Occurring on April

1992: Horn sells depot to Jim Wurth of Wilson; Wurth converts space into five apartments

1995: Wurth earns depot designation on National Register of Historic Places

27, 1995, the listing came as a result of the efforts of then-owner Jim Wurth. Jim renovated it from office and light industrial space to five apartments in 1993, but continued to work tirelessly, investing tens of thousands of additional dollars to meet the requirements necessary to finally attain National Register designation. In so doing, Jim helped the community recognize what a valuable resource it had. This was exactly in keeping with the spirit of the Historic Places program, which is to support efforts to identify and protect America’s significant cultural resources.

The depot remains the only building in Victor on the list, and one of only five structures or sites listed in Teton County, Idaho.

Nevertheless, even with such a designation—unless government monies are involved—any private property owner can essentially still do whatever they want with a listed property, including tearing it down.

But the possibility of such a dire outcome for the Victor Depot has been eliminated, thanks to the vision and efforts of Victor’s leaders, past and present,

1997: Idaho Department of Parks & Recreation lays asphalt for rail-trail from Victor to Driggs

Teton Valley Magazine

1998: Wurth sells depot to John Wasson of Wilson

2011: City of Victor purchases depot from Wasson

LifeInTheTetons.com | Summer 2013

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and certain citizens. Former mayor Don Thompson supported the creation of an economic development fund for the type of city center the depot could become.

Another former mayor, Scott Fitzgerald, subsequently saw the potential for the economic development that City ownership of the depot could provide. Current city planner Bill Knight envisioned cultural preservation and practical uses.

And Envision Victor, the landmark visioning tool involving hundreds of citizens, made its mark by identifying as one of its shared “Heart & Soul” values the preservation and recognition of the community’s cultural history.

DASHED LINE INDICATES LIMIT OF SCENIC BYWAY PROJECT (TYP.)

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Into the Future These visions and values began to take a more tangible form when depot owner John Wasson and the City of Victor began to discuss a sale. Their plan included the City getting the depot and the adjacent one-acre lot to the west, while John would split off and retain a portion of the lot to the south.

They agreed on a sale price of $416,000, and in July 2011 the City formally took title to the two prize proper-

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Funding for the purchase included City of Victor "End of $200,000 the Line" in the economic development way Railroad Interperative Center ho State highways and 33 by Mayor Thompson. The fund 31 started difference is being paid back to the City from tenant rental income.

Purchasing the depot in itself was HARMONY adequate reason to celebrate, but having the foresight to purchase the adjacent lot at the same time was an act of genius. The lot will provide a place to expand the preservation and interpretation of community history, while setting the stage for increased economic development—through the creation of a scenic byway interpretive center constructed next to the depot.

Hats off to Victor, for restored depots have been energizing and revitalizing downtown districts throughout the U.S. for decades. The depot and adjacent interpretive center will provide a tangible connection between the past and present, while providing a foundation for future growth. As a result of the vision and hard work of many, the future is looking very promising for the City of Victor. TV

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To read a continuation of this story, which includes an in-depth explanation of the future plans for the Victor Depot, go online to www.LifeInTheTetons.com/ Teton-Valley-Magazine.

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45

Teton Valley Transportation

From Railhead to Trailhead and Back Fran Gillette’s Teton Transportation Company

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF LYNN SESSIONS

by Karen L. Reinhart

A “stretch out” Ford station wagon trails a 21-passenger Flxible bus, first acquired by Fran Gillette in 1941.

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Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

Teton Valley Magazine

T

ransportation, in its various forms, is a vital cog in the wheel of local economies, and much history of the West can be told through the tales of moving people and goods. It was often on the trail of transport that residents made their livings, providing services in this region to well-heeled tourists who flocked to destinations like the national parks.

Francis Cloward Gillette was one such person, spending most of his career in transportation-related businesses.

Coming into the world on the first day of 1901 in Teton City, Idaho, “Fran” grew up alongside the automobile: The legendary Model A, the Ford Motor Company’s first car, began production in 1903.

The ultra-popular Model T first left the factory in September 1908, when Fran was going on eight; in production for almost twenty years, the “Tin Lizzie” is widely considered the first affordable automobile, the personal vehicle that opened up independent travel to middle-class Americans.

Despite the popularity of it and other motor vehicles, only horse-drawn conveyances were allowed in Yellowstone National Park until 1915. On July 31st of that year, a Model T became the first auto to legally roll into the park. (Ironically, just two years later, horse-drawn vehicles were banned in Yellowstone.)

It was at about this time that Fran went to work as a clerk for his father, who managed a mercantile in Teton City. In the spring of 1921 the family relocated to Victor, where Fran continued working for his father at the Victor Mercantile Company. He never did finish high school, but his on-the-job training of working with the public provided an invaluable education for his future pursuits.

About three years later, following a year-long stint pounding nails in California, Fran returned to Victor and went into the pool hall business. He struck up a friendship with William J. Hynes, the Union Pacific Railroad agent in Victor. This evolved into a business partnership when the two purchased a Model T for hauling freight from Victor over Teton Pass to Jackson and Moran. Fran’s work in transportation began to roll.

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Teton Valley Transportation

By 1927, Fran—at just twenty-six years old—and his partner had a trucking business that was thriving and growing. To house and make repairs on their fleet, they purchased a Main Street garage in Victor from George Woolstenhulme, whose daughter Ora would marry Fran the following year. Fran soon diversified and went into the wholesale gasoline and oil business, working first as an agent for the Standard Oil Company of California and later for the Utah Oil Refining Company. He also had a bulk plant in Jackson that he operated in partnership with his brother, Wendell. Finally, Fran acquired a Ford

yet another Gillette enterprise. Among the properties purchased by the Snake River Land Company was the original Moran town site, or “Old Moran,” located at the outlet of Jackson Lake Dam. Geographically, Old Moran was the ideal stopover for tourists who had seen the wonders of Yellowstone and were en route to catch the Union Pacific Railroad’s Teton Valley Branch in Victor [see preceding story, “The First and Next 100 Years”]. Rockefeller was not interested in funding tourist operations— he essentially wanted to erase evidence of human occupation and restore the park’s natural beauty. So,

Left: Francis C. Gillett e in his mid-forties. Rig ht: Loading passenger onto the bus at the Vic s tor Depot for the trip to Moran, circa 1950.

Motor Company franchise and another large garage, and now had an impressive triad of transportationrelated businesses: a gasoline and oil distributorship, a freighting company, and a car dealership.

T

he fledgling Grand Teton National Park, protecting the high peaks and southerly piedmont lakes, was established in 1929. Private owners retained most of the valley below—which, in an oft-told tale, John D. Rockefeller Jr., under the guise of the Snake River Land Company, began buying up, with the intent of adding huge acreages to the national park. And this he ultimately did. In 1943 much of the valley was set aside as the Jackson Hole Monument, which was incorporated into the national park in 1950.

The creation of Grand Teton National Park fueled

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in 1930, in the spirit of free enterprise, a group of Idaho-based businessmen joined forces to create the Teton Investment, Lodge, and Transportation Companies, soon making accommodations available at their Teton Lodge and the [original] Jackson Lake Lodge in Old Moran.

The transportation company bused passengers between Moran and Victor, where they would board and/or disembark the train. According to a life story penned by Fran, he “became acquainted with the early management of the Teton Lodge Company and acquired service stations at Moran, Jenny Lake, and at the junction … north of Moran on the road to Yellowstone Park.”

Mary McKinney, in her book The View that Inspired a Vision: The History of the Grand Teton Lodge Company and the Rockefeller Involvement, writes

Teton Valley Magazine

that visitors sometimes boarded the wrong train car in Salt Lake City, thinking they were headed for West Yellowstone, Montana, but finding themselves instead at the end of the line in Victor. Of those who decided to visit Jackson Hole from there rather than backtrack to Ashton, some caught a ride with Fran on his fuel delivery truck over Teton Pass to Jackson or Moran.

America’s national parks were becoming ever more popular. Although visitors could drive personal automobiles in Yellowstone by 1915—and in Grand Teton National Park since its inception—a lot

picked up after World War II, Fran purchased two larger buses that carried about thirty-seven people each. Eventually, he and his employees drove a pair of forty-five-passenger 1957 Crown buses between Moran and Victor.

From the beginning, because of her responsibilities at home—including the raising of five children— Ora hadn’t the time to participate in her husband’s business endeavors. As the years passed, however, two of their offspring drove for the Teton Transportation Company. In his memoir, Fran wrote, “My daughter Donna began driving one of the station

Left: Jackson Lake vie w stop. Right: Yellowsto ne Park buses and Teton Transp ortation Company bus es at Old Moran. The bus on the left is the third one pur chased by Fran; the bus on the far right, the fourth.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF LYNN SESSIONS

of people still came to the region by rail. The demand to transport visitors to and from railroad termini near the national parks grew.

“The Lodge Company requested that I take over [their bus] operation, which I did in 1935,” Fran wrote. The company leased its transport concession to Fran to run as an independent subcontractor. The first public transit vehicle he used was a Ford station wagon, “which adequately took care of the number of passengers in 1935, but [that number] grew each year.” When the capacity became inadequate, he bought “stretch outs,” very long Ford station wagons that had been cut in half and had two rows of seats added. In 1941 he graduated to a twenty-onepassenger Flxible bus (the Flexible Side Car Company changed its legal name to “Flxible” in 1919 for trademark purposes). Later, when visitation really

wagons for me in her teenage years, and my son Jerry drove the small Flexible [sic] bus over Teton Pass like a veteran driver when he was a teenager.

This was a tremendous responsibility for a boy so young.” Jerry also worked at his dad’s service station in Moran, and daughter Barbara worked as a waitress in Old Moran, riding in one of her dad’s buses to get to work.

“We had some wonderful drivers that drove those buses over the Teton pass to Jackson,” Fran wrote; “through Grand Teton National Park and finally to Moran. [There] we traded passengers with Yellowstone Park [buses] and then drove back the same way, arriving in Victor in time to have supper at the Timberline Café and board the Union Pacific Railroad train for the trip to their destination.”

Perhaps the most wonderful driver of all was

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Stanley M. Boyle, who met with Fran in 1935 to talk about buying a car. But rather than selling Stan his own wheels, Fran offered him a job driving one of his station wagons transporting tourists. Stan was the high school principal in Victor and needed a summer job, so he accepted and moved his wife and two daughters into a small cabin at Moran.

Stan drove the road between Moran and Victor twice daily. He loved history—he majored in the subject in college—so he began giving historical lectures as he drove along. Tourists enjoyed these narrations and considered them a bonus to their western adventure.

Fran encouraged Stan to continue his interpretive tours, and even sent new drivers to train under him so they too could learn the history. As time passed and more people booked guided tours, microphones and loud speakers were added to company vehicles.

According to Stan’s son, Stanley S. Boyle, the bus trip was his dad’s life. Stan worked for Teton Transportation continuously for more than forty summers, except for 1942–1944, when park visitation plummeted during World War II. Fran remembered other regular drivers who were assets to his bus business, as well: Floyd Stratton, John Gunner, Bryan Wahlquist, and Russell Stone, Fran’s “right hand when it came to keeping the buses in top condition.” Other drivers hauled passengers for only a summer or two.

A

s mentioned previously, John D. Rockefeller Jr. initially had no interest in creating tourist services. But soon, understanding that he was largely responsible for the hordes of people now pouring into the park, he apparently felt obligated to do it. “I suppose I ought to build a hotel,” he reputedly said, and started planning it.

At about the same time, the Interstate Commerce Commission ruled that franchise holders, such as Rockefeller’s Grand Teton Lodge Company, had to

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operate their transportation lines directly and not under subcontractors like Fran. Rockefeller approached Fran in 1955, offering to purchase his transportation company, which the wealthy industrialist wanted to operate from his newly constructed Jackson Lake Lodge north of Moran.

With some reluctance—knowing he couldn’t compete with Rockefeller’s company otherwise—Fran sold his successful Teton Transportation Company.

But he stayed on as the superintendent of transportation for the Grand Teton Lodge Company.

“I was still in charge of everything having to do with the maintenance of the buses,” Fran wrote, “[and with] storing them for the off season, hiring the drivers, scheduling the tours and meeting the Union Pacific train in Victor & Yellowstone Park buses at the lodge. It was a big job and a lot of responsibility, especially when I was required to be at the lodge in the office they provided, so I was away from my family for four months out of the year.”

Fran retired at the end of the 1959 season, deciding it was “time to … spend some time doing other things. I had worked in the tourism business for twenty-four years and loved being in it. … Russell Stone was hired to take my place as the transportation manager for the Lodge Company.”

For a quarter century, Fran and his drivers provided visitors a crucial link between the train platform and their national park destinations—during the early boom years of visitation to those parks. TV

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teens

&

tweens

Friday Night Lights, Western Style Teton Rodeo Team wrangles time-honored ways

Teton Redskin Tristan Hansen turned in a fine ride last July to take first place in the District Seven High School Rodeo held in Tetonia.

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Teton Valley Magazine

by Liz Onufer

I

t’s the end of the school week in Teton Valley. Stadium lights glow against a dark, open sky. The voice of announcer Fred Crane enthusiastically resounds in the crisp May air. Two teenagers greet cars on the dirt path at the entrance to a potholed field off Packsaddle Road. The makeshift parking lot is a maze of pickup trucks and horses tied to trailers.

Welcome to high school sports, played the cowboy way.

The Teton Rodeo Team began riding and roping “a long, long time ago,” says Lane Hillman, an alumnus of the team and a volunteer today. And the traditions from long ago are evident to this day. The young athletes are part of a Teton Valley tradition, the cowboy culture—one in which “yes ma’am” and “yes sir” are spoken, doors are held open for others, and hats are tipped at introductions. The local teens seamlessly blend these once-common courtesies into a lifestyle consistent with today: Outside the chutes and around the warm-up ring, riders are texting from atop their horses.

The Teton Rodeo Team is part of the National High School Rodeo Association, encompassing more than 12,000 students competing in 1,100 sanctioned rodeos across forty-one states.

Throughout the country, high school rodeo teams carry on a way of life that’s a growing rarity in twenty-first century America. As the North Texas High School Rodeo Association boasts, “No other athletic activity in history was ever developed which so embodies the traditions in history of an entire way of life.”

Membership on the Teton Rodeo Team is open to all students. The team does not make “cuts,” and horse ownership is not a requirement. Borrowing and loaning horses are common practices among team members. “There was one year I didn’t have a calf roping horse, and a buddy did, so I just used

his horse,” recalls Hillman. “The next year, someone needed my team roping horse. We just used each other’s.” And not every event requires a rider to be on a locally owned horse, anyway. For the rough stock events, athletes ride the broncs and bulls hauled in for the rodeo, and they need only provide their own safety gear and other equipment.

Once a year, in mid-May, Teton hosts their “home” rodeo at the arena near Tetonia, while the rest of the season is spent traveling and trailering horses around eastern Idaho. The regular season consists of twelve rodeos, but for many team members, the competition extends beyond the local high school circuit. Regional rodeos in Teton Valley,

PHOTO: JEANNETTE BONER

Welcome to high school sports, played the cowboy way.

Jackson Hole, and the surrounding areas offer opportunities to continue the season long into the summer.

Local success has led to much bigger stages for several riders. Teton athletes have qualified to compete at state championships, and even earned spots at national level competitions, from the National High School Finals Rodeo to Miss Rodeo America. Tristan Hansen, a senior at Teton High School, earned the top spot last summer in bareback riding at the Silver State International Rodeo in Winnemucca, Nevada. Hansen acknowledges the competition feels different when he leaves the local scene.

“When I come to the bigger rodeos, I feel a little more nervous,” he says. “I have to ride way better to keep up. With all that, it just makes me a better rider.”

Even though competition can be tough in the arena, the cowboy culture transcends the traditional rivalry of high school sports. “You don’t see [participants in] a lot of other sports loaning their equipment to competitors,” says

Teton Valley Magazine

Events recognized by National High School Rodeo Association Girls: barrel racing, breakaway roping, pole bending, goat tying, team roping, girls cutting Boys: calf roping, steer wrestling, bareback, saddle bronc, bull riding, team roping, boys cutting Common Rodeo Terms Slack: Competition to accommodate the overflow of competitors, typically held in afternoon Rough Stock: Bulls and broncs used in rodeo, bred and trained for the role Bull dogging: Another name for steer wrestling

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Teton Redskin barrel racer Ryleigh Green and

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Cyndi Friend, Teton Rodeo Team advisor; “horses, rough stock equipment, ropes—and helping them get ready to compete against you.

“You will see the boys behind the rough stock chutes helping one another all the time,” she adds, “even at the NFR [National Finals Rodeo]. Girls will ride their horse next to another’s if it is a little nervous about going on a run, lots of stuff like that.”

The focus in high school rodeo isn’t on winning; it’s about having a strong personal performance. The victory comes from an athlete’s good day, rather than someone else’s bad day. After all, in rodeo’s birthplace—the ranch— community and teamwork were, and are, essential to survival.

Teamwork in rodeo involves the whole family. Parents help haul horses, siblings assist with gates; there may be a grandstand at the arena, but there are no sidelines. After a ride, boots reverberate metal bleachers as athletes find a seat with family and friends. For parents watching their children perform acts at high speeds on large animals, Friend offers her perspective: “It is a lot easier for me to watch my kids ride a bronc

PHOTO: JACKIE COOKE

her horse, Moon.

than watch some of the kids play football. Some may find that weird, but we as parents and advisors make sure that the kids have the right equipment, the correct training, and the right attitude.”

The work involved in rodeo requires more than the skill and agility to round a barrel or wrestle a steer. At the end of every day, rodeo athletes have to take care of their equipment; they can’t just toss uniforms or pads in a bag. That equipment includes their horses, requiring daily care and training, regardless of weather, schedules, friends, or weekend plans.

Ryleigh Green, a rodeo team member and senior at Teton High, compares rodeo to her other sport, basketball. “I think sometimes it’s harder to get ready for rodeo than basketball,” she says, “because not only do you have to build your own skill and muscle—you have to train and work with an animal that has its own thoughts and ideas on how things should be done.” Ryleigh trains her horse daily, in addition to doing her own leg and core workouts three times a week.

The arena lights glow late into the night. For these athletes, there is no locker room, time clock, or halftime show. After the competition is over and the dust has settled, tired cowboys and cowgirls still have work to do. Horses must be cooled off, fed, loaded, trailered home, and put away. Only then can a rider or roper shower and relax—dirty boots in the corner waiting, perhaps, for a trail ride into the Big Holes the following day. TV

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over the hill

Commuting to Work(out) Teton Valley resident Dan Willert doing laps in the pool at the Jackson Recreation & Aquatic Center.

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Lacking local facilities, dedicated athletes go high and far to stay fit

I

t’s 6:30 a.m. The water is a warm eighty degrees.

Half a dozen swimmers of a wide range of ages say their hellos and talk about the day’s upcoming activities. One of the regulars, Teton Valley resident Dan Willert, is ready to get in his morning practice, training for the U.S. Masters Swimming competition or his next triathlon. But unlike most of his fellow swimmers, to utilize the pool Willert makes the twenty-three-mile journey from his home and over Teton Pass before the sun even rises.

A deep-seated fervor for hobbies and pursuits of all types sends Teton Valley residents around the world. From fly-fishing in Belize to heli-skiing in Valdez, valley denizens seem to know no bounds when it comes to doing what they enjoy. But for some residents, the trek over the pass is all it takes to utilize the best training and exercise facilities around, like the Jackson Recreation & Aquatic Center or the Teton Ice Park.

Teton Valley Magazine

PHOTOS: STAFF

by Kate Hull

A

fter swimming nearly his entire life, the seventy-year-old Willert has continued his passion for training and racing to become a continuously ranked competitor and accomplished athlete.

“It either takes a mental discipline or a mental defect to make yourself swim over a black line for an hour and a half,” Willert says, reminiscing on his decades of doing exactly that. “You just get used to it over sixty-five years.”

Always training or getting ready for his next competition, driving the pass is part of Willert’s routine to participate in what he loves, he says. “For me, it is all about the competition in the pool and other people participating and pushing you.”

In the summers, Willert practices openwater swimming, bypassing the indoor pool for Jenny Lake or Phelps Lake in Grand Teton National Park. “You can’t beat the scenery,” he says.

Along with his wife, Pat, Willert travels all over the country to compete in swimming competitions or Half Ironman triathlons—his distance of choice.

But he always enjoys returning to the quaint community he calls home.

“If we lived in California, for example, there would be more swimming events than I could possibly take advantage of on a weekly basis,” he says. “But we don’t live there, because I prefer the small town community here, and the people and the varied recreational opportunities. There is just lots of it.”

Park at Snow King Resort in Jackson.

(Originally built at Grand Targhee Resort, a lack of easy access to water sent the park to its new location last winter.)

Bosworth, forty-five, spends his summers in Washington state working as a sea kayaking guide and instructor, and he rock climbs there as often as possible. In the winters, however, he trades hard rock for frozen water and manages the ice park. He began ice climbing twenty-five years ago, adding it to the list of outdoor sports he actively pursues, including not only rock climbing but also mountain biking. Although he calls himself more of a summer guy, he enjoys the easy access to tactical climbing available at the ice park.

“Once you get the skills down, it is more the thrill of it,” he says. “It is the fact that this is ice you are climbing, and every time you climb it, you can climb it differently.”

Bosworth can get to ice climbing terrain on the west slope of the Tetons, but for ease of access, he says making the short drive over the pass to the park is well worth it.

“There is no approach; you park your car and you are right there,” he says.

“There is some ice climbing in Teton Canyon [west of Driggs], but that all involves an hour, or two hours, of hiking to get into it.”

“For me, it’s about competition in the pool.” ­—Dan Willert

D

avid Bosworth, a winter valley resident who takes advantage of most everything the outdoors has to offer, has turned his passion for ice climbing into both business and pleasure. This makes him no stranger to the commute to get to the Teton Ice

T

he Teton County/Jackson Recreation Center, located just past the elementary school on Gill Avenue, has an abundance of pool lanes, exercise facilities, and programs for residents. Recreation superintendent Jill Russell says that although the center does not offer memberships to nonTeton County, Wyoming, residents, they do sell non-resident punch cards so ath-

Teton Valley Magazine

Top: Willert, who swims in Jenny Lake or Phelps Lake during the summers, appreciates having the indoor option for the winter months. Bottom: Olympian Barb Metz Lindquist, on her way to Jackson Hole for a workout.

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The Teton Ice Park at Jackson’s Snow King Resort offers ice climbing that’s varied and easily accessible, facts celebrated by David Bosworth (right) and ice park founder

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Teton Valley Magazine

Christian Santelices.

letes like Willert can utilize the facilities.

“We realize and know a lot of folks from Teton Valley do work over here,” Russell says, “and we want to be able to give them a little incentive and a price break, because this is the only pool [around]. We realize that not all [nonJackson] folks who come are tourists.”

In 2012, the recreation center sold thirty-five punch cards to Teton Valleyites and has already sold more than a dozen in 2013. Although the numbers are small, the valley punch-card holders are regulars.

Former Jackson resident and Olympic triathlete Barb Metz Lindquist doesn’t make the drive over the pass as often as she would like nowadays, but when she does, she says the water feels just like home. Now an Alta resident, Lindquist was ranked the number-one female triathlete in the world for 2003 and 2004, and represented the U.S. in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. But at age forty-three, and with twin boys and a

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bustling career coaching and mentoring young athletes, she and her husband Loren are playing the balancing game.

“My sons started kindergarten this year; I am able to get over not as much as I like,” she says. But she still has the flexibility to go swim in Jackson two or three times every few weeks. Sometimes she sees Willert and other familiar valley faces in nearby lanes.

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Barb Lindquist and her husband Loren are playing the balancing game.

“I love the feeling of my body in the water,” Lindquist says. “Every time I dive in, it is like returning home. It is a way that I get to stay connected to my friends over there who have helped me so much during my career. We motivate each other.”

Lindquist is one of many accomplished athletes who call the valley home, from world-class runners and swimmers, to ice climbers and skiers.

“You have to be tough to live here,” she says; “there is no riffraff. Whether you are tough at making the financial aspect work or tough about the cold weather, there are certain types of people who are drawn to this place who are not soft, and those are the athletes that you are going to get.”

With residents from all over the world, Teton Valley attracts people with a unique affinity for the outdoors, health, and fitness, who also prefer a slower-paced, neighborly community— even one lacking its own recreation center or ice park. TV

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o u t b e lo w

Land of Lava Craters of the Moon’s secrets are well worth seeking out

D Craters of the Moon is managed by a pair of federal agencies: the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Each of the monument’s three sub-units has a unique set of rules. In the original section, the regulations are the same as at most national parks: no hunting, no grazing, and no collecting of any kind—meaning it’s illegal to pick up even a rock. In other parts of the monument administered by the Park Service, grazing is allowed; on the BLM section, basically the grassy areas of the monument, both hunting and grazing are allowed.

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riving southwest from Arco, there’s a certain curve in the highway. Just beyond it, the countryside opens to vistas of black, ropy rock, dotted with rolling dark mounds and stretching endlessly to the horizon. It’s otherworldly; vastly different from the green farm fields and silver sagebrush stands you’ve been driving through.

A bit farther along, you’ll turn at the sign marking Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. Aptly named, Craters of the Moon is a sizable mass of what looks like dead ground, “young” lava flows covering so much land that they can be seen from space.

But you needn’t be an astronaut to walk on this moon.

Fewer than 160 miles from Driggs, Craters provides a terrific excuse for a road trip: It’s an easy drive and well worth a visit. Or bypass the interstate and go that way when heading to or from Boise for a fresh perspective on what makes Idaho unique.

Teton Valley Magazine

Craters of the Moon sits atop the Great Rift, the deepest and longest volcanic fissure in the continental U.S.; this crack stretches like a giant scar for some sixty miles. The monument and preserve is a giant playground where you can see and touch what most of us access only in geology classes.

About a quarter of a million people visit Craters each year. Compare this to Yellowstone’s 2012 visitor count of 3.4 million, and it’s easy to deduce which is the more famous as a geological hotspot. But Craters of the Moon is truly fascinating, and it has special appeal simply because it is off the beaten path.

It’s a perfect place for sky gazing, bird watching, photography, biking, hiking, and camping—or just for finding a bit of solitude—all in a most unusual environment.

“It’s an incredible place for kids,” says park superintendent Dan Buckley.

“They can crawl in the lava-tube caves, look down the scatter cones, even climb up to the top of a volcano.”

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

by Jeanne Anderson

Far left and center: Pahoehoe lava is smooth and ropy, while a’a lava is more spiny, or blocky.

Above: Thanks to snowmelt and spring rains, dwarf monkeyflower and other wildflowers turn the black landscape into “a profusion of color,” says park ranger Lennie Remacher.

IF YOU GO: For a summer hike, plan to wear long sleeves and a hat for sun protection, and sturdy footwear, as even the developed trails feature sharp pieces of lava. A flashlight is handy for exploring, even if not going caving. Be sure to pick up a map and ask for specific tips at the visitor center, beyond which, among the lava formations, sits a fifty-one site campground (firstcome, first-served). Website: www. nps.gov/crmo

Named Idaho’s first national monument in 1924, Craters contains the first sections of land within the National Park System designated by Congress as wilderness (in 1970). In its 1,100 square miles, roughly the size of Rhode Island, more than 750 types of plants and some 300 animal species—not including insects!—have been documented.

The bloom of wildflowers peaks as they grow to take advantage of every bit of soil, water, and shade.

“Especially in the springtime, with the snowmelt and spring rain, it’s a profusion of color as wildflowers turn the black landscape into a riot of color, both magenta and white,” says interpretive park ranger Lennie Remacher, one of a dozen year-round monument employees. “That’s really fascinating to see.”

Also thriving in the seemingly inhos-

pitable setting are small mammals like squirrels and chipmunks, Remacher notes, along with larger species such as pronghorn, mule deer, bobcats, and foxes. A wolverine, one of the rarest mammals of the West, surprised a park employee near the highway last year, Buckley says.

Although its busy season is summer, parts of the monument are open year-round. Each winter, about ten miles of trail are groomed for cross-country skiing. Park personnel also regularly lead snowshoe hikes for adult visitors and schoolchildren from throughout Idaho.

The park’s ranger programs ramp up in May; by the second week of June, guided cave walks take place several times a day, and rangers also conduct patio talks at the visitor center. Through at least the middle of August, a full slate of programs, geared to visitors of all

Craters sits atop the Great Rift, the deepest and longest volcanic fissure in the Lower 48.

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Left: Park staff, including superintendent Samuel Paisley (left), in front of Cinderhurst Camp, the monument’s first visitor center. Right: Early accommodations at the monument included the Crater Inn, operational until the mid-1950s.

LANDFORMS AND LAVAS The lava fields at Craters of the Moon were generated during eight major eruptive periods that started about fifteen millenia ago. The most recent flows occurred approximately two thousand years ago, just an eyeblink in geological time.

Pahoehoe lava is the smoother ropy type made of thinner sheets of molten basalt; a’a lava has irregular surfaces that are spiny or blocky.

Volcanic bombs are numerous in the monument, and easy to spot. Before they cooled, these hot globs of lava were hurled from the Great Rift’s volcanoes. Geologists describe their shapes with names like “breadcrust,” “spindle,” and “ribbons.”

Some five hundred higher areas of older flows, called kipukas, now covered in sediment and sparse grasses, are important from a scientific standpoint, park superintendent Dan Buckley explains. Never grazed or burnt by fire, the kipukas evoke the sagebrush-steppe condition of pre-European times on the Snake River Plain.

Teton Valley Magazine

ages, is available. A special highlight: The Idaho Falls Astronomical Society provides telescopes and expertise for others to become better acquainted with nighttime skies full of stars, with little land light to interfere.

Not much of the traffic at Craters comes from destination visitors, though.

Most people “just happen upon us driving by,” Remacher says. “They see a sign along the highway, or they might even be on their way to Yellowstone. … Most visitors to the monument, it’s their first time here, and they’re not sure what to expect. They usually only have half a day or less to explore.”

A minimum stop takes fifteen minutes, time enough to pop into the Craters visitor center to get an orientation to the monument through exhibits and a short film. Staffers can answer questions, share longer videos, and provide advice to those who want to explore further.

For a more thorough overview of the park, paying the $8-per-car fee and driving the scenic seven-mile Loop Road requires at least another half hour. But even that doesn’t do Craters justice, according to Buckley.

Is there a single piece of advice he offers?

“Get out of your car!” Buckley says.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

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“People who drive by and don’t stop always think to themselves that it’s just a barren place of rocks. The people who take time to get out of their cars and explore, even a bit, find that it’s a really enchanting place. The more time I spend here, the more enchanted I am with the place.”

Well-developed trails include the North Crater Flow Trail, Remacher’s favorite because of the variety of terrain it takes in. It leads around and through the bottom of North Crater, crossing lava flows and cinder fields. “It finishes up on the rim of the big craters, a whole series of huge volcanoes,” says the ranger, who leads some of the walks as part of his job. “It is one of the less-visited trails, so there are a number of opportunities for solitude and reflection.”

With a little more time, consider hiking to Big Craters from the Spatter Cones parking lot. Another popular option is exploring Indian Tunnel; obtain a cave permit at the visitor center if you want to do this. Note that only a few caves are open to visitors.

Longer hikes, like Broken Top Loop or the Tree Molds Trail, require at least half a day, while forays to Lava Trees and Echo Crater, well into the Craters of the Moon Wilderness, require at least a full day, and necessitate carrying your own water. TV

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c o m pa s s p o i n t s

The Great White North on the Riding Canada’s contribution Great Divide to the 2,774-mile-long route

by Michael McCoy photos by Julie Huck

Ready and rarin’ to ride, Kathy Kessler-York of Missoula poses in front of the magnificent Banff Springs Hotel.

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“F

olks, DO NOT forget: Passports are now required to get into and back out of Canada!”

I used this stern reminder last summer at the end of at least three email updates to the ten individuals who, along with Nancy and me, would soon be riding 267 miles over six days along the Canada section of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

I initially envisioned the outing as a simple research trip. In my role as writer-researcher for the Missoula-based Adventure Cycling Association, I was under contract to prepare a manuscript for a new edition of the book Cycling the Great Divide. The original edition lacked the newish Canada section, so I needed to go up and ride the route, photograph it, and gather details for writing about it.

But word spread and interest grew.

Soon we had riders signed on from Teton Valley, Denver, Laramie, and Missoula. Throughout May and June, Nancy and I worked on logistics: I planned the itinerary, made campground reservations, and tracked down a shuttle service out of Calgary; Nancy devised

Teton Valley Magazine

the menus and cooking rotation, got a trailer hitch installed on our Subaru Outback, and compiled a recommended equipment list for the riders.

Sunday, July 22, 2012 I admit to feeling nervous as the dozen of us approached Eureka, Montana, in three cars. I hadn’t heard from the shuttle company in a few days, and I didn’t have the driver’s cell-phone number (being Sunday, the Calgary office was closed). What if he didn’t make it by the planned hour? And if he did, what if someone forgot their passport?

The shuttle contract specified that if any member of the group got turned away at the border, everyone would be taken back to Eureka and dropped off.

No worries. The driver, with his van and trailer, appeared on time. He quickly got us packed up and to the border at Port of Roosville, just eight miles north of Eureka. The Canadian official at the crossing took a quick glance at our twelve passports and waved us on.

“Have a good ride, eh?” she quipped.

We arrived at the Tunnel Mountain

Campground in Banff National Park late afternoon. While the other ten rode or walked into Banff townsite to find dinner, Nancy and I drove to the world’s smallest and most crowded Safeway, where we power-shopped for camp meals to the tune of $650 Canadian.

Days One, Two, and Three The morning broke cloudy and cool, threatening rain. As Peggy and Robin, part of the Missoula contingent, packed up the trailer, the rest of us hopped on our bikes and pedaled off in search of the Spray River Trail—the northern trailhead of the Great Divide route.

We found the trail and hit it, departing from the parking lot behind the spectacular Banff Springs Hotel. Instantly we went from the bustle of Banff to the empty Canadian wilderness; the rich scent of duff and pine supplanted the diesel-infused air of a small but crowded downtown.

east we saw Teck’s Fording River openpit coal-mining operation. Weirdest and most impressive at night, giant trucks crawled over the mountain and illuminated what otherwise would have been dark skies.

Day three: Oh, the aroma of bacon frying in the intoxicating early morning air of a northern coniferous forest!

Our ride began with a big hill climb out of Elkford on pavement. Then, elevation gained, we hit pay dirt on the Fording River Road, reveling in a generally downhill cruise the rest of the way to Sparwood, British Columbia’s easternmost town. There we were drawn— like fly fishermen to a Teton River grasshopper explosion—to the local A&W for root beer floats and onion rings.

Mountain Shadows, the sole private campground we utilized on the trip, dished up the yin and yang of camping: The only camp with traffic roaring by on a nearby highway all night was also our

Instantly we went from the bustle of Banff to the empty Canadian wilderness and the bear-aware mindset it naturally inspires.

From top: Indian paintbrush and other wildflowers embellished the route; Sarah Raz and Josh Tack, former Adventure Cycling employees riding from Alaska to Mexico, fell in with the group in Banff; in Corbin, preparing to tackle the climb to Flathead Pass.

We enjoyed easy cruising until a little over six miles out, when we turned onto the more technical Goat Creek Trail. A vast array of riding conditions and surfaces followed; all in all, the day was long and hard. (In hindsight, I see that I should have scheduled two days for that mileage.)

The next morning we pedaled south from Peter Lougheed Provincial Park to begin climbing Elk Pass, the only Continental Divide crossing on the Canada section of the route. Descending toward Elk Lakes Provincial Park, we earned views of distant peaks and glaciers, many of them named for French leaders of World War I: Foch, Petain, Joffre, Castelnau, and others. (Yep, we’re definitely in Canada and not the U.S.A.) Shocking contrast: When we reached our dispersed campsite along the Elk River, high on a mountainside to the

Teton Valley Magazine

only camp with showers—deliciously hot and powerfully streamed showers, perfect for sandblasting off that trail grime.

On this, grill night, Mick and my brother Roger cooked up a fine feast of burgers, baked beans with Idaho potatoes, corn on the cob, and watermelon.

Mmmmmmm.

Into the Flathead From Sparwood south to the international border, the route encompasses a hundred miles of wild-country dirt and gravel roads known regionally as the “Grizzly Bear Highway.” Indeed, the Flathead Valley of British Columbia hosts the largest population of inland grizzlies on the North American continent.

But bears were not what worried me most. My biggest concern was that the Subaru wouldn’t be able to get the cum-

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65

From left: Roger McCoy, Ramsey Bentley, Teri Lund, Peggy Patrick, Nancy McCullough-McCoy, the author, Robin Hamilton, Kathy Kessler-York, Mick McGeady, Liz Davy, Michael Whitfield, Julie Huck, Sarah Raz, and Josh Tack.

bersome U-Haul trailer to the campsites I’d earmarked for overnights. I did know it couldn’t possibly make it over the route we’d be riding, but my BC Backroad Mapbook depicted mediumquality gravel roads coming in from the west that I thought should be negotiable. Fortunately, they were.

After rolling through the mining settlement of Corbin, we veered right to begin the climb to Flathead Pass on a spooky dirt road all brushed in with thick willows. The narrow road surface bore bear poop, and wolf and cougar tracks imprinted roadside mud. We heard things moving just beyond the brush line—or at least thought we did. We made a lot of noise as we climbed.

On the other side of the pass we encountered extremely rocky conditions, with areas of severe erosion where the road and streambed had become one.

Our feet did not stay dry. But we dried them out later at Lower Harvey Recreation Site, a wonderful place to camp, with its picnic table, outhouse, broad meadow for tenting, and whispering stream for cleaning up and sleep inducement.

Our ride on day five, Friday—my birthday—would take us up and over Cabin Pass, a sometimes very steep climb of about twelve miles. Early on, Roger, Nancy, Ramsey, Teri, and I fell behind the others, taking opps to shoot photos of semi-wild horses wearing bear bells and two big friendly fellows sitting in the front yard of the Butts Pa-

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trol Cabin watching the cyclists roll by.

We later referred to them, fondly, as the Butt Patrol.

What can I say? Next, I got us lost.

Once found, we had to backtrack uphill for six miles and then begin the grueling Cabin Pass climb. It made a planned long day an unplanned very long day.

But the ascent of Cabin Pass was stupendous, with surroundings that grew ever more fantastic the higher we went. We ran out of water en route, saved by the magic combination of a portable water filter and cold rushing stream. Even so, I found myself dreaming of that heavenly A&W junk-food treat back in Sparwood.

By the time we arrived late at RamWigwam Recreation Site, we found the others seriously worrying about us— but there we were, so let the birthday party begin! Martinis, s’mores, gummy bears (my favorite), and, best of all, a dinner of barbecue chicken breasts, fingerling potatoes, green salad, and lots of laughs: A major component of each evening’s frivolity was making fun of the day’s cooking team as they toiled; tonight it was Julie and Kathy’s turn to cook and be roasted.

After dinner, we sat around a big campfire, chatting.

“Liz and I never would have done something like this before,” Michael said. “It’s been fantastic.”

“It sure has,” said Mick, a Denver resident and friend of Roger’s still recovering from throat cancer and chemotherapy (and thus winner of the unofficial

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Finishing Up Our sixth and final day began with twelve miles of roller-coaster pedaling along a closed-to-traffic road on the western bench of the Wigwam River. Through forested areas and occasional clear-cuts we proceeded, before turning at a rock cairn onto a trail that’s fast becoming infamous among Great Divide riders: The roughly half-mile-long singletrack/bushwhacking path that links the Wigwam drainage and the Phillips Road.

After traversing some very wet wetlands, we climbed radically up an indistinct trail for about a quarter mile. From the top of the precipice, we still had a ways to go through thick woods to claim the clear-cut and log landing described on our map as the high end of the Phillips Road. Even from there, it was not all downhill: We commenced an unrelenting climb of five miles, finally topping out at 6,319-foot Galton Pass.

The temperature skyrocketed as we soared downward, losing 3,500 feet of elevation in eight miles, over an exceedingly steep, rutted road littered with scree. On finally meeting the highway in the sweltering valley bottom, we had just two flat, paved miles to go to the international border. When we got there, the friendly U.S. official on duty asked for our passports and held out his hand.

He then spent a few moments going over them, obviously much more carefully than the Canadian official a week earlier had.

“Hmmm,” he said, clearing his throat.

“Two of these are expired. Which of you are Michael and Nancy McCoy?” “We are,” I said, mentally scrambling to make up something about having not received new passports. But in fact—it hit me at that moment—we had, a small

PHOTOS, OPPOSITE PAGE: TOP, MICHAEL WHITFIELD; BOTTOM, STAFF

Inspiration Award). “In fact, I think this trip is the most fun I’ve ever had.”

Pause.

“You don’t want it to end, do you Mick?” I asked.

Another moment of silence.

“No,” he said, eyes gleaming.

From top: Recovering from the climb out of the Wigwam River valley; getting ready to cross back into the U.S., unaware of the ‘passport caper’ soon to take place.

matter I’d spaced when grabbing the expired ones out of the file back home.

I told the guard my fabrication.

“Okay,” he finally said, after pushing a bunch of keys on his computer keyboard (notifying national security, I supposed). “You can go on. Just be sure to get those new passports before traveling out of the country again.”

“Yes sir, thank you,” I said, chagrined.

To think I could have been responsible for getting our entire group turned away from the border before the trip even began. Holy cow.

After a few more miles of pavement we returned to the fenced storage facility in Eureka where we’d left the two other cars. Safely back in the U.S., despite a couple of expired passports. And happy. Very very happy. TV

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Picture an endless sea of brilliant blue sky while soaring so close to the Tetons it feels like you could almost touch them...

Destined to be one of the most unforgettable highlights of an already spectacular vacation—a scenic flight above the Tetons promises to be an adventure of a lifetime.

Scenic Flights Airplane Scenic Flights

Your visit to Teton Valley is not complete until you have experienced the surroundings from the air. Teton Aviation offers scenic flights that cater to the customer’s interests.

Choose from a fleet of aircraft ranging from three passenger Cessnas to a seven passenger turbinepowered Kodiak and fulfill whatever air adventure you have in mind.

High Energy Aerobatics

Need a shot of adrenaline? How about an aerobatic thrill ride? With Teton Aviation’s Extra 300, a plane designed specifically for aerobatics and having the same roll rate of an F-16, it’s game on! You ride up front, and it’s like riding a roller coaster, only this ride has no rails and comes with sustained G’s in every attitude imaginable.

Glider Scenic Flights

If “yanking and banking” is not for you, then you might opt for a scenic glider flight.

Gliders offer an unparalleled experience of serenity. It’s like sailing through the air viewing the Tetons in your own private Imax Theatre, except it’s real life.

Warbirds Café

As the daylight lingers late in the summer months, and the light rests low on the mountains, you can catch the beauty of the fading day by scheduling a sunset flight. Follow it up with dinner at the Warbirds Café situated right on the flight line.

Warbirds Café’s bistro style food and full bar is complemented by stunning views of the Tetons. While you wait for your meal, step out into the Warbird Museum and enjoy their collection of vintage aircraft including the last flying FJ-4B Fury in the world.

800.472.6382 208.354.3100 tetonaviation.com Warbirds Café 208.354.2550 70

Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

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lo c a l f l av o r s

BBQ Ribs with a Side of Rock ’n’ Roll

by Jennifer Rein

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Knotty Pine Supper Club dishes up food and plenty of fun

Summer 2013 | LifeInTheTetons.com

Teton Valley Magazine

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE KNOTTY PINE

T

he dining landscape of Teton Valley includes restaurants that come and go, but the mainstays favored by locals are the joints that reflect our unique mountain lifestyle. At the top of the list is Victor’s Knotty Pine Supper Club. Known to many simply as “the Knotty,” this rustic structure plays host to full time residents and valley visitors, and offers much more than a hearty meal.

Restaurateur Brice Nelson has held the reins in the Knotty’s kitchen for going on seventeen years, doling out authentic Kansas City barbecue to diners who keep coming back for more. “I am proud of those ribs,” he says, referring to the special dry rub used. He then smokes the meat over hickory chips that have been transported directly from Kansas City.

This home-style cooking isn’t just about Nelson’s roots in the Jayhawk State. The vegetables served come from his place outside of Victor, which features a greenhouse and a half-acre garden that together yield a multitude of produce. Nurturing relationships with local organic farms, especially Victor’s Cosmic Apple, gave Nelson the skills that he needed to tackle this farm-totable approach.

Beyond the fare, it is the restaurant’s vibe that creates a draw. The staff has worked nonstop to build a buzz that has made the Knotty a renowned livemusic venue. In the past, shows were booked through the tireless pursuit of musicians known to be passing through the region. Now, Nelson can rest a little.

“We have built a reputation as a great venue,” he says. “The musicians know that our sound system is solid. They get in touch with us.”

A full house of fans means “intense, crazy energy,” Nelson says. “It can get pretty wild in here.” (One can find evidence on YouTube that this is true.)

From nationally known acts such as the Reverend Horton Heat’s Texas-based

dining guide “psychobilly,” to San Diego’s Latin funk BSide Players, to Rocky Mountain acts like Ten Foot Tall & 80 Proof, the Knotty packs in music fans craving an experience like no other Teton Valley venue delivers.

Warm weather brings on special events such as the eatery’s 4th of July barbecue.

Sides like mac and cheese, coleslaw, and BBQ beans are offered year-round to accompany the rich flavor of hickory-smoked meats, but this party plays special homage to the traditional picnic delicacies that continue to inspire the kitchen. The music is brought outside, with guests unleashing their dance moves on the front lawn; moves that may have a little extra cocktail-packed punch in them. Nelson reveals that the most popular drink no doubt is the “Greyhound,” a combination of freshly squeezed grapefruit and Driggs-distilled Grand Teton Vodka.

Bartender Stephanie Rhodehouse agrees.

“Our drink menu includes a lot of fresh juice,” she says. “We squeeze fresh orange juice into

AGAVE 310 N. Main St., Driggs, ID 83422 208-354-2003 Open daily 11am–10pm From the owners of El Abuelito in Jackson comes Agave, Teton Valley’s very own family Mexican restaurant! Serving fajitas, burritos, and all of your Mexican favorites cooked to perfection seven days a week with lunch specials from 11–3pm daily. Bienvenidos Amigos, mi casa es su casa! (p. 63) BANGKOK KITCHEN 220 N. Main St., Driggs, ID 83422 208-354-6666 Open Daily 11am–9:30pm www.bkkitchen.com Bangkok Kitchen offers authentic Thai-style dishes with tastes that will transport you to the very threshold of Thailand. Our experience and formal training ensure that only the highest-quality dishes are served with as much Thai authenticity as desired.

Review the lunch and dinner menu and you will want to try our delicious Thai-style cooking. We also offer a sushi bar. We look forward to seeing you, and we believe that your experience at Bangkok Kitchen will be one you will want to have again and again.

BARRELS & BINS 36 S. Main St., Driggs, ID 83422 208-354-2307 Open Daily 9am–7pm Teton Valley’s source for all-natural and organic products including local produce, meats, cheeses and bulk food; 460 Bread baked fresh daily; beer and wine; nutritional supplements; health and beauty products; all natural pet foods; and much more!

Now serving organic wraps and quinoa salad for those on the go. Coming soon—an organic juice, smoothie, and sandwich bar! (p. 44)

Knotty Pine Supper Club Hours: Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to midnight Catering Available 58 South Main, Victor 208-787-2866 www.knottypinesupperclub.com

BROULIM’S FOOD AND PHARMACY 240 S. Main St., Driggs, ID 83422 208-354-2350 Open Monday–Saturday 7am–11pm The Service Deli at Broulim’s grocery serves breakfast daily from 7am to 9:30am. Broulim’s also features a Daily Special six days a week (closed Sundays). You can order sandwiches to go made from your choice of Columbus meats and cheeses. There is a full menu at the Pack Saddle Grill, with burgers and sandwiches to go, as well as hot baked or rotisserie chicken all day, along with Italian sodas, smoothies, take-and-bake pizza, and other meals to go. Don’t forget about all the freshly prepared salads, and Broulim’s has its own Sushi Bar and hot Asian food. Inquire at the Deli for catering services.

our margaritas. Some find it unusual, but I haven’t gotten any complaints yet.” Nelson’s own favorite is the summer season mojito, mulled to perfection using mint from the herb garden just outside his restaurant’s front door.

Embracing everything the Knotty Pine has to offer takes the Teton Valley experience to a higher level, offering insight into how longtime locals have helped make this place special. And Brice Nelson continues to lead the charge, with no signs of slowing. TV

CORNER DRUG 10 S. Main St., Driggs, ID 83422 208-354-2334 Open Mon–Sat 9am–6:30pm Located at the stoplight in historic downtown Driggs, the family-owned and -operated Corner Drug has been a local favorite for satisfying that ice cream craving for more than a hundred years. Try a fresh lime freeze or a huckleberry milkshake. Corner Drug also has your weekend essentials and a fullservice pharmacy. Hunting and fishing licenses and tackle available. (p. 45)

This summer, the Knotty Pine hosts “LaidBack Rides & Ribs—One Smokin’ Car Show and BBQ Contest” on July 13. The car show starts at 10 a.m., and BBQ judging happens from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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dining guide

continued

DINING IN CATERING, INC. Bill Boney, Owner & Executive Chef 208-787-2667, toll-free 800-787-9178 www.diningincateringinc.com Dining In Catering, Inc. is the region’s most experienced outdoor event catering company, receiving rave reviews for great food and service. Owner and executive chef Bill Boney and his staff have catered the biggest events, weddings, and corporate retreats to take place in Jackson Hole and Teton Valley. Dining In Catering also offers a banquet location in Teton Valley—The Wildwood Room, the gathering place for Teton Valley’s best events since 2003! (p. 6) GRAND TARGHEE RESORT 800-TARGHEE (827-4433) www.grandtarghee.com Looking for a romantic dinner after taking in those incredible views of the Grand Teton? Or a pint and some world-famous Wydaho Nachos after a day of mountain biking through the aspens? The variety of restaurants and eateries at Grand Targhee Resort offers just the ticket. We feature the finest local ingredients and a wide variety of menu items made from scratch. The Branding Iron offers fine slopeside dining created with inspiration and a casual, family focus. The famous Trap Bar is the place to unwind after a day of activity in the high mountain air. Enjoy great food, great drinks, and live music. See you at the ’Ghee! (BC) LINN CANYON RANCH 1300 East 6000 South, Victor, ID 83455 208-787-LINN (5466) www.linncanyonranch.com Whether you are staying at Linn Canyon Ranch or just want to join us for dinner, the Sunset Dinner Ride is not to be missed! Friendly mountain horses will be waiting to take you for a leisurely guided ride through the foothills of the Tetons, winding through aspen groves and fields of wildflowers. After your ride, members of the Linn family will welcome you back to an elegant western evening at our historic lodge. Appetizers and music on the porch precede a gourmet dinner, after which we’ll gather around the bonfire to roast marshmallows and stargaze. (p. 51) McDONALD’S® 1110 W. Broadway @ Hwy 22, Jackson, WY 83001 307-733-7444 Open daily 5am–12 midnight or later Fast, Affordable, and On Your Way! Whether you’re driving over the pass on your way to Grand Teton National Park or commuting to your job on the “other side,” make McDonald’s® a part of your day. We’re serving your breakfast favorites like the classic Egg McMuffin®, new Egg White Delight McMuffin®, and McCafe™ beverages featuring Lattes, Mochas, and Frappes. Premium Salads and new McWraps®, Real Fruit Smoothies, and Fruit and Maple Oatmeal are delicious choices to support your healthy, active lifestyle. (p. 31) O’ROURKES SPORTS BAR AND GRILLE 42 E. Little Ave., Driggs, ID 83422 208-354-8115, Open Mon–Sat 7:30am–9pm, Sun 7:30am–Noon A favorite among locals for years, O’Rourkes is open all day, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This sports-style restaurant/bar packs the plates with homestyle breakfast, fresh-cut steaks, burgers, delistyle sandwiches, and all-time favorites like fish and chips. Pesto and traditional pizzas, meal-size salads, and standard “pub grub” round out the menu nicely.

Dine in or carry out.

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PENDL’S BAKERY & CAFÉ 40 Depot St., Driggs, ID 83422 (1 block northwest of the stoplight) 208-354-5623 Open daily Looking for a latte and warm Apple Strudel? Find them at Pendl’s, where Kitzbuehel Konditor Fred Pendl has passed his baking traditions on to daughter Martha. From Nussknackers to Florentiners, Linzertorte to Chocolate Rolls, Old World Austrian pastries and confections continue. Delectable assortments of Strudel and fruit-filled Danish baked daily, with homemade muffins, savory quiches, and cranberry granola rounding out your morning. Enjoy fresh coffee and fine espresso any time of the day.

Refreshing iced coffees and summertime drinks can be savored in our beautiful backyard garden. Eat in or take out a tasty lunch special from 11:30am to 2pm. We are proud to be part of our Teton community, and look forward to welcoming you at Pendl’s.

SPOONS BISTRO 32 W Birch St., Victor, ID 83455 208-787-2478, Open Nightly at 5:30pm, Reservations recommended and can be made at www.spoonsbistro.com This small boutique restaurant of 32 seats is tucked just off Main Street in Victor. Chef and Pastry Chefowners Travis and Nicole utilize cutting edge techniques of molecular gastronomy to bring a new twist to old favorites. Offering local favorites such as Seasonal Salad, Seared Trout, A Bistro Filet, and nightly Chef Specials. Spoons Bistro makes every effort to support our fellow local businesses, sourcing many of the menu items and products used at our restaurant from right here in Teton Valley.

TETON THAI 18 N. Main St., Driggs, ID 83422 208-787-THAI (8424) Lunch Mon–Fri 11:30am–2:30pm; dinner Mon–Sat 5:30–9:30pm Voted “Best Restaurant, Teton Valley” in the Jackson Hole Weekly. Teton Thai offers something for everyone. Enjoy a variety of exotic dishes, from Crispy Duck Pad Gar Pow to Muslim-style Masaman curry, all made from our family’s recipes first created in Bangkok. Sit at the kitchen counter and watch our chefs prepare your dish. Enjoy specialty saki cocktails, as well as a range of imported beers and wine.

Dine in or take out. (p. 9) THE HEADWATERS GRILLE AT TETON SPRINGS RESORT & CLUB 10 Headwaters Dr., Victor, ID 83455 208-787-8130 Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; hours vary with the season Conveniently located at Teton Springs Resort & Club in Victor, the Headwaters Grille offers outstanding fresh fare in a casual and spectacular environment. Guests enjoy an intimate dining experience in a warm and friendly atmosphere that affords incredible views of the surrounding mountains and golf course. Cozy up to the fireplace or soak up the sun with patio seating overlooking the first fairway at this award-winning golf facility. Full bar service available. Teton Springs is also the optimum place to host business meetings or to say “I Do!” (p. 9)

THE BRAKEMAN AMERICAN GRILL 27 N. Main St., Victor, ID 83455 208-787-2020 Open 11:30am–8pm Mon–Thurs, 11:30am–9pm Fri–Sat Freshly ground chuck is where The Brakeman Burger begins. Our butcher, Josh, grinds select cuts of beef daily here at The Brakeman and blends it with very special spices. We serve our burgers up on a terrific bun with the freshest lettuce, tomato, and red onion, and pair it with our fresh-cut fries. Our customers insist we’ve got the best burger they’ve ever tasted! We’re all about fresh at The Brakeman American Grill: crisp, tasty, and innovative salads, along with veggie burgers and other sandwiches.

Great atmosphere, terrific music. Dine in or take out.

THE LODGE AT PALISADES CREEK 3720 Hwy 26, Irwin, ID 208-483-2222, toll free 866-393-1613 palisades@tlapc.com, www.tlapc.com The Lodge at Palisades Creek serves dinner from mid-May through mid-October. The Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing lodge offers incredible food in a spectacular setting. Seating is limited, so reservations are essential! American food, and full bar. Located in Irwin, Idaho, just four miles downstream of Palisades Dam on Highway 26. It’s a beautiful 30-minute drive from Teton Valley. Call for reservations and directions. (p. 55) THE ROYAL WOLF 63 Depot St., Driggs, ID 83422 (from the stoplight, go one block north and turn left) 208-354-8365 Open seven days a week, serving lunch and dinner 11am–late www.theroyalwolf.com Since 1997, locals and visitors alike have enjoyed discovering this off-Main Street establishment offering a diverse menu of sandwiches, burgers, salads, appetizers, and entrées—all served in a casual, smoke-free pub-style environment. Complementing our menu is a full bar serving all of your favorite beverages, including cocktails, wine, and an everchanging selection of regional microbrews on draft.

Please visit our website to view the full menu. The Royal Wolf also features outdoor dining on our spacious deck during the summer, daily food and beer specials, Wi-Fi, and billiards. Stop by to meet old friends and make new ones. Snow sagas and fish tales told nightly.

TONY ’S PIZZA & PASTA 364 N. Main St., Driggs, ID 83422 208-354-8829 Open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, 11am–11pm www.tonysbrickovenpizza.com Tony’s Pizza & Pasta is one of the best-known and -liked restaurants in Teton Valley. We use 100 percent fresh products for our hand-tossed pizza and Italian entrees, and we bake all of our items in an Italian brick oven. Try our exciting grill items, such as burgers, steak, and salmon. You can choose from our selection of 25 beers on tap while you watch your favorite extreme sport or sporting event. Come in and enjoy our vaulted-ceilinged, log-cabin ski lodge/ Italian restaurant complete with a sun deck where you can enjoy the feel of being at the beach while still in the mountains. We deliver to Teton Valley!

Teton Valley Magazine

VICTOR EMPORIUM 45 N. Main St., Victor, ID 83455 208-787-2221 Open seven days a week For more than sixty years the Victor Emporium Old Fashioned Soda Fountain has served milkshakes, including the World Famous Huckleberry Shake.

Gourmet coffee and espresso served daily. The Emporium is also a great place to pick up those unusual gifts. Where the locals meet before and after fishing!! (p. 51) VICTOR VALLEY MARKET 5 S. Main St, Victor, ID 83455 208-787-2230 Open daily 7am–9pm Victor Valley Market is your local grocer and THE place to get fresh seafood and choice meats in Teton Valley. Our community market offers a unique selection of groceries, from organic and specialty items to your everyday kitchen needs, including a full selection of wine and beer. Stop by our gourmet deli counter where we offer delicious house-made takeout dishes along with sandwiches made with locally baked bread, fresh salads, house-made soups , and so much more! Whether you’re planning an evening in or a day out enjoying the wonders of the Tetons, Victor Valley Market has all that you need to make it delicious. Every day, every grocery need … we’ve got you covered. (p.62) WARBIRDS CAFÉ/TETON AVIATION CENTER 253 Warbird Lane, Driggs, ID 83422 Located at the Driggs-Reed Memorial Airport, one mile north of downtown Driggs 208-354-2550, Serving lunch and dinner; evening reservations recommended Enjoy delicious food seasoned with spectacular views of the Tetons at Warbirds Café. A full bar and thoughtful wine list complement our contemporary bistro fare, which is enhanced by daily specials and occasional live music. Our window-banked dining room parallels the taxiway, where an impressive array of private planes arrive and depart throughout the day. You can turn your meal into an adventure with a scenic airplane or glider ride; or, if you prefer to stay grounded, a visit to our free display of restored vintage warplanes. Drive or fly in today for a memorable dining experience. (p. 13) WILDLIFE BREWING & PIZZA 145 S. Main St., Victor, ID 83455 208-787-2623 Open 4–10pm daily; Lunch Thurs–Sat beginning at 12 noon Teton Valley’s most popular establishment! An award-winning and family-friendly microbrewery with the best pizza in the Rockies. Also offering salads, appetizers, sandwiches, pastas, wraps, buffalo chili, nachos, desserts, a kids menu, and yes, even vino! Come in and enjoy a game of shuffleboard, pool (free on Sundays), darts, or bubblehockey, and stop by on Wednesday evening for Open Mic Night.

Groups and private parties are welcome, and kegs are available on request. Come see why Wildlife Brewing is the locals’ place with big taste! (p. 63)

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lo d g i n g g u i d e GRAND TARGHEE RESORT 800-TARGHEE (827-4433) www.grandtarghee.com After a day of mountain biking, horseback riding, or hiking at Grand Targhee Resort, it’s time to relax with the family in a variety of western-style slopeside accommodations. All lodging is located just steps from an array of shopping, dining, and activity opportunities. For those who desire a more intimate family retreat, consider Grand Targhee Resort’s Vacation Rental lodging accommodations in Teton Valley, perfectly situated between Driggs and the resort. Call today to book your stay. (BC) GRAND VALLEY LODGING PROPERTY MANAGEMENT PO Box 191, 158 N. First Street E., Driggs, ID 83422 208-354-8890 or toll-free 800-746-5518 mail@grandvalleylodging.com www.grandvalleylodging.com Grand Valley Lodging is the premier property management company in Teton Valley, Idaho, renting properties since 1992. We offer great rates on vacation homes, cabins, and condominiums throughout Teton Valley, as well as managing and renting long-term homes and apartments. Our beautifully equipped vacation rentals can be found thirty miles west of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Our location on the quiet west side of the Teton Mountain Range offers exquisite views and access to Grand Targhee Resort and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, as well as to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Please contact us about managing your second home in Teton Valley. (p. 50) LINN CANYON RANCH 1300 East 6000 South, Victor, ID 83455 208-787-LINN (5466) www.linncanyonranch.com Our lodging combines the best of luxurious accommodations with nature’s simple pleasures. Sleep peacefully in one of our luxury platform tents, or indulge yourself in creature comforts and rustic elegance in our artisan-built timberframe cabin. Our guests feel relaxed and inspired in our cozy mountain sanctuary. When you make your lodging reservation, we will also book your riding and dining activities at the ranch. We are also happy to help you reserve off-site adventures such as floating, fishing, hiking, and sightseeing. (p. 51) TETON SPRINGS LODGE AND SPA 10 Warm Creek Ln., Victor, ID 83455 208-787-7888, toll-free 877-787-8757, fax 208-787-7889 guestservices@tetonspringslodge.com www.tetonspringslodge.com Teton Springs Lodge and Spa operates year-round, offering fifty-one casually elegant guest rooms and suites, and beautiful luxury mountain log homes nestled in the aspen and pine trees surrounding the golf course. The Sage Gourmet is a wine café with a relaxed atmosphere—the perfect space for hosting private groups and social functions. The popular

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Stillwaters Spa & Salon offers a full range of services, including massage therapies, body treatments, facials, skin care, and hair and nail services. Summer fun for lodging guests includes fishing on the resort’s private stocked ponds, swimming, fitness center, tennis, basketball, and hiking and biking in the adjacent Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Stay and Play Unlimited Golf Packages for outings on the Byron Nelson-designed Headwaters Club Golf Course are offered throughout the golf season. (p. 9) TETON VALLEY CABINS 34 E. Ski Hill Rd., Driggs, ID 83422 208-354-8153 or toll free 866-687-1522 stay@tetonvalleycabins.com www.tetonvalleycabins.com Nestled amongst mature cottonwoods, Teton Valley Cabins welcomes you for your special getaway, vacation home base, or family or group reunion. Quaint charm, rustic cabins, and affordable rates await you at Teton Valley Cabins, just one mile from Driggs, with its restaurants and shops. Enjoy our grounds with the Jacuzzi, or explore Teton Valley from here.

We are centrally located, with Grand Targhee Resort up the road, and recreational opportunities within a few minutes’ drive. Various room types are available.

Our rooms are equipped with microwave, fridge, satellite TV, and Wi-Fi. (p. 30) TETON VALLEY REALTY MANAGEMENT 253 S. Main St., Driggs, ID 83422 208-354-3431 mail@tvrmanagement.com www.vacationrentalstetonvalley.com We hope you will allow us to find that perfect home or condominium to make your vacation a memorable and extra-special one. All of our homes are nicely furnished, meticulously maintained, and fully equipped to accommodate your group at a fraction of what you would pay for a few hotel rooms. All homes come complete with linens, kitchen necessities, cable or satellite TV service, soaps, and paper products; some have high-speed Internet service.

Basically, you receive all the conveniences of home, away from home. (p. 1) THE LODGE AT PALISADES CREEK 3720 Hwy 26, Irwin, ID 208-483-2222, toll free 866-393-1613 palisades@tlapc.com, www.tlapc.com The Lodge at Palisades Creek is located on Hwy. 26 in Irwin, Idaho, on the fabled South Fork of the Snake River. Our Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing lodge offers nine elegant yet rustic cabins for rent. Lodging is all inclusive and promises a first-class memory of a lifetime. We are proud of our reputation as one of the finest fishing lodges in the “tailwater” section of the Snake River, among the richest trout streams in North America, making us one of the finest Orvis destinations in the world. Open mid-May through October. (p. 55)

adorable cabin on 10.94 acres

beautiful modern log home

exquisite alta estate

•Partially Treed Acreage, Fenced

• 5100 Sq Ft Golf Resort Home

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• 6 Bed, 6 Bath, 3 bay garage

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• On 3/4 acre lot along 17th tee

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Dr. Gabe Brizzee, D.D.S.

Teton Valley Magazine

Dr. Drostan Orme, D.D.S.

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c h u r c h d i r e c t o ry CALVARY CHAPEL TETON VALLEY 53 Depot St., Driggs, ID 208-354-WORD (9673) www.ccteton.org Visitors welcome. Our motto is to simply teach the Bible simply— and thus, our pattern of study is verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, right through the Bible. Sunday service starts at 10am, and typically consists of worship, teaching, and fellowship. Dress is nice casual and the service usually lasts about an hour. Children’s church and a nursery room are provided. Wednesday Bible study starts at 7pm and lasts about an hour; dress is casual. One block north of the stoplight in Driggs, turn left (west) on Depot Street (opposite Wallace St. and the gas station); the church will be on your right.

GOOD SHEPHERD CATHOLIC CHURCH 245 S Hwy. 33, Driggs, ID 83422, 208-354-8960 www.uppervalleycatholic.com Starting Memorial Day weekend (May 26) and continuing through Labor Day, mass held Sundays at 5pm in English, and at 6:30pm in Spanish. Also, every Wednesday, adoration, from noon to 6:15pm, is followed by Mass at 6:30pm. Confession is offered on Wednesday from 5 to 6:15pm. For more information call 208-624-7459 or email idahocatholic@yahoo.com.

LDS DRIGGS IDAHO STAKE The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints— Teton Valley Wards Ward Contact Person Phone Driggs I Roy Moulton 354-8211 Driggs II Gordon Woolley 354-8806 Driggs III Max Woolstenhulme 354-2379

Times 9am 1pm 11am

Tetonia I Tetonia II

Brent Robson Ronald Berry

456-2871 456-2362

9am 11am

Victor I Victor II Victor III

Lynn Bagley Val Kunz Stan Marshall

787-2211 787-2026 787-3678

9am 11am 1pm

ST. FRANCIS OF THE TETONS EPISCOPAL CHURCH Ski Hill Rd., Alta, WY 83414, 307-353-8100 Sunday worship includes Sunday School for children at 10am. St. Francis of the Tetons Episcopal Church welcomes worshippers of all walks of faith. In the shadow of the Tetons, this historic church offers an opportunity to experience God’s presence and join in fellowship, spiritual renewal, and service to others.

TETON VALLEY BIBLE CHURCH 265 N. 2nd E., Driggs, ID 83422, 208-354-8523 www.tetonvalleybiblechurch.org, tvbc@silverstar.com Sunday School starts at 9am; Morning Worship at 10:30am, with Pastor Jim Otto teaching. Youth group meets Tuesday nights 6:30 to 8pm (seventh through twelfth grades). AWANA meets Wednesday nights during the school year at 6:20pm.

Monthly men’s breakfast meetings, weekly Bible studies, and ladies’ ministry meetings: Call church for dates and times. (p.

32) THE SUMMIT FOURSQUARE CHURCH 30 N. 1st St. E., Driggs, ID 83422, 208-354-8822 www.thesummitlife.com Sunday Worship starts at 10am. Because of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, The Summit is Loving God, Loving People. We are real people with real stories of God’s love and forgiveness, learning to love others as we: Gather to worship, offering our lives; Grow in our ability to love others; and Go serve all creation as God directs. Please join us for a Sunday and see all that we have to offer. We have kids’ church for ages 2 through 12, and a nursery. (p. 39)

p u b l i c sc h o o l s

Teton High School—grades 9–12 (208-3542952): As a four-year high school, THS strives to recognize the uniqueness of the individual in preparing the student for a lifetime of learning.

THS provides a safe and academically focused learning environment, where students are challenged for career and college readiness.

Basin High School—grades 9–12 (208-3548280): Basin High School is an alternative option for students who meet the state criteria for enrollment. Students obtain credits through a state-approved, independent study format, with assistance from certified staff.

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Teton Middle School—grades 6–8 (208-3542971): Teton Middle School is dedicated to providing a quality education through which students will grow in academic achievement, respect for themselves and others, selfdiscipline, integrity, honesty, and responsibility.

Teton Elementary Schools—grades K–3 at Victor (208-787-2245), Driggs (208-354-2335), and Tetonia (208-456-2288); Rendezvous Upper Elementary grades 4–5 in Driggs (208-3548280): The mission of the elementary schools of Teton School District 401 is to be integral in the partnership between school, home, and community, in nurturing and encouraging all children to become productive citizens and lifelong learners.

PHOTO: ISTOCK.COM/SELIMAKSAN

TETON COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT 401 District Office: 208-354-2207 www.tsd401.org (p. 69) Teton School District 401 strives to provide a safe and exceptional learning environment where career and college readiness are the academic cornerstones of a relevant and progressive education. The three focuses for students in all schools are Respect, Responsible, and Ready.

Teton Valley Magazine

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exposure

photograph by Beth Ward

moose on the loose The shiras moose (Alces alces shirasi) is a favorite animal of Teton Valley residents.

As big as a horse, only the bulls have antlers, which they shed in winter and regrow in spring. Moose are mostly solitary, gathering only in small family groups or, occasionally in winter, in bunches of ten or more at locations where an abundance of food is available.

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Teton Grandeur Live the Grand Teton Mountains from Inside Your Home.

70 acres of the most beautiful mountain location on earth

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Designed by world renowned architect Richard Keating, this home is nestled in the rural community of Alta, WY窶馬ext to Targhee National Forest and Grand Targhee Ski Resort. Nordic skiing, fishing, dog-sledding, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, balloon rides, paragliding, hiking, biking, and climbing will be part of your daily life. Convenient to five major golf courses and the Teton Aviation Center.

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