Armed Cowboys Tried To Sabotage Grand Teton National Park

Armed cowboys once pushed a cattle drive in front of Wyoming's Tetons as an act of protest over the area becoming a national park.

They had some legitimate concerns, at the time.

There was a time when people fought the Tetons being named a national park

At the peak of the controversy in the early 1940s, some Jackson Hole residents had been working the land for generations and thought of it as their right.

Taking the land for a park or monument would mean the end of how they made a living.

Devils Tower, on Wyoming's eastern side, had already been named a national monument. But those who wanted the Tetons preserved, also wanted the land around it set aside.

In 1897 President Grover Cleveland set up the Teton Forest Reserve on 829,440 acres south of present-day Yellowstone National Park.

In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt expanded the reserve into the 1,991,200-acre Teton National Forest, covering all of the Teton Range and including half of the land that would later become Grand Teton National Park.

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson made a move toward more protection of the area by giving the National Park Service veto power over any development plans the Forest Service might have in 600,000 acres of the northern Tetons.

But what about locals and their grazing rights?

This was still cowboy and sheep country.

There was also infighting between the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., one of the richest men on the planet at the time, agreed to buy as much as 114,170 acres in northern Jackson Hole for $1,397,000.

He was then going to donate it to the park service.

He tried to buy the land through third-party names so people would not suspect what he was doing.

But locals got wind of it.

For months, residents of Jackson Hole speculated about why the Snake River Land Company would buy so much land for no apparent purpose.

In 1930, after all the desired land was purchased, Albright, now director of the National Park Service, and Rockefeller admitted to their plans to buy and turn over the land.

Landowners cried out that they had been coerced into selling their land, or had received an unfairly low price.

The battle spawned widespread controversy in the area

A local newspaper, The Grand Teton, was formed in 1931 for the express purpose of fighting the enlargement of the park

Wyoming’s congressional delegation, especially Carey, refused to endorse any bill establishing a park.

Hearings were held in Jackson during the summer of 1933 and looked into the accusations of unfair payments to locals.

In 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order, that created Jackson Hole National Monument and contained the Rockefeller lands.

You can imagine the outcry that action created.

Wyoming Gov. Lester Hunt threatened to remove "any federal official who attempts to assume authority in the monument area," although he never did. Cowboy actor Wallace Beery joined a group of armed ranchers, including future Wyoming Gov. and U.S. Sen. Cliff Hansen, who protested by trailing their cattle without a permit across the grounds of the monument. The Park Service ignored the trespass. (WyoHistory.Org).

Time Magazine reported the ride.

Newspaper columnist Westbrook Pegler compared Roosevelt's action to Hitler’s annexation of Austria.

Congress passed a bill abolishing Jackson Hole National Monument. Roosevelt vetoed it.

After WWII Americans began to travel and explore their country.

The automobile had improved enough, along with roads, to allow it.

Americans found the Tetons and tourism surged.

All that money coming in changed the minds of residents who once worried about making a living off of cattle and sheep.