In attendance:
Dwayne Meadows, Univ. of WY
Mary Berger, JHHS
Lokey Lytjen, JHHS
Emily Hagedorn, TCD
Lorna Miller
Don Turner, Triangle X
Bill Resor, Snake River Ranch
Ernie Patterson, Vet
Pam Holtman, GTNP Historian

Jonathan gave an introduction. Along with Charture, NRCC, & the JH Chamber of Commerce, we are the three sponsoring organizations for SJH.

Today we are starting a new group on Agriculture & Heritage. The idea behind SJH in general is to get as comprehensive a picture of JH as possible. We did this for the first time last year, and we realized that we didn’t incorporate agriculture, or JH history.

We’ve divided JH into 12 areas of interest and developed a working group for each. What do we know about JH? There are a lot of beliefs out there. Our hope is to mine these nuggets of knowledge to see all of the different elements that fall into ag/heritage. We hope to have three meetings. The first question is “where are we.” Today we will give an overview of the process and ask what we know about JH. What are the key facts that we can identify? The way to think about the fact-orientation/information gathering is to filter it through a 10-15 minute presentation. What would you like the community to know about our background? At the end of October, we will have a one-day “state of our community” conference at the new Journeys School. Each of the groups will give a 10-15 minute presentation in the morning of the conference. At this conference we will have the 8 major public officials in town give a “State of my Jurisdiction” speech. We will be publishing a book related to the conference.

This first meeting is a brainstorming session- what do we know, and what is important to know? The stuff that is really important will end up in the chapter; any other info will go into the appendix. At the second meeting, we will revisit this question. Hopefully over the next few weeks we’ll be able to gather data about JH. What do we know, what is important to know? Then we will ask is, “where do we want to be?” Where do we want to see the community go in terms of sustaining agriculture and our heritage? What do we want future generations of JH to enjoy? At the third meeting, we will revisit the data and talk about the statement of ideal; finally, we will ask about steps to take in the next year to move us closer to ideal.

It’s very important to us as organizers to recognize that you are volunteering your time. We will cut the meeting off at 2:30. We want everyone to feel as though you feel that this was a worthwhile use of your time and some good has come out of it. We envision this as an ongoing process, repeated every year.

First, we will do self-introductions.
Dwayne is working on the Miller House. Mary Berger is the curator of education at the JHHS. Lokey is the ED of the JHHS. Lorna Miller is working with Dwayne on the Miller House. Emily is with the Teton Conservation District. Ernie Patterson is a local vet. Bill Resor- Snake River Ranch. Don Turner- Triangle X. Pam Holtman- GTNP Historian.

Jonathan said that we have experienced a lot of dialogue between folks. People here have a similar sense of interests/respect for JH. Jonathan will keep nudging the meeting along, but everyone should consider this their meeting and feel free to jump in with comments/questions.

Because there wasn’t an Ag/Heritage group last year, Jonathan passed out a copy of last year’s BE chapter to give a general sense of the structure that we are looking at. We will give a quick overview of Ag/Heritage, participants, then indicators- what are the things that are important to express to JH about agriculture/heritage? IV is the wish list- a list of things that we wish we knew about JH. In the course of this, we will identify things that are and are not known about JH. V (p45) is our statement of ideal, related to a mission statement. This is the group’s idea of what qualities we want future generations to be able to enjoy about JH. We will put the info through the Joe Sixpack test- what do you think someone out there would like to know about Ag/Heritage? What are the obvious questions people might ask?

When it comes to data, we are looking for good, hard reliable numbers to share with the community. Jonathan asked Lokey to start talking about, from her perspective at the Museum, what is important. What are the things you know about your enterprise that are important to know?

Lokey said that in terms of resources, they have their library, artifact collection, document collection, photograph archive, and oral history collection. They work hard to offer programming in the community that shares the heritage of the valley with people- Pre-Native American use, Native American use, to white settlement to the present day. For their measures, they have visitation & program statistics- who do they serve? Walking tours? Number of people participating? Lokey focuses on education- they try to interpret the history of the valley and make it interesting & engaging- they serve youth groups, children, adults, amateur genealogists, scholarly research. Their services spread the gamut of an audience for a museum. They provide museum & historical society services- their primary mission is education, done through exhibitions & programs offered.

Lorna said that the Miller House is just getting started- Dwayne is working on an interpretive plan. It is a tremendous opportunity to interpret the NER, FS, & homesteading in the formation of JH. It’s more of an opportunity. She is interested in hearing what this group has to say in terms of how to interpret it. This summer, Tiffany is working on displays about the NER & the Millers, & the time capsule. There is not much in terms of interpretation regarding the formation of the NER that is available to the public. Proximity to town is important, as it can engage the local community, in terms of a living history perspective, which hasn’t been happening. The history part of JH is what engaged her when she came to the valley. This speaks to the legacy thing. They have national registered buildings out there, but the Refuge hasn’t focused on a theme yet.

Emily: the TCD was formed in 1946. They have a low profile. They help farmers & ranchers, although those numbers are dwindling. Emily wondered if there would be a land trust representative in the group. We could get one.

The TCD doesn’t have ag numbers; they do a lot of water quality testing, and sporadic programs. Brian did a beaver deceiver project so beavers can’t plug culverts. She doesn’t know how to encapsulate what they are doing in terms of Ag & this group. They are starting a private lands weed cost-share program for people who do noxious weed spraying on their property- they are doing 50% cost-share, which increases agricultural property value.

Don said that in the mid-1980s, TCD did an economic impact study of the outfitting industry which was very insightful. Bill said additionally they did an e. coli study- by animal source. Is it coming from people, elk, dogs, cattle? By doing genetic mapping on e. coli, they got some counterintuitive results that will be useful in recognizing problems, and seeing which things aren’t important in water contamination.

They have livestock, types of livestock, hobby farmers, acres of ag land, acres of open space. There are still some crops here, such as hay. Emily thinks she could get some of this data from various sources. She will look into those numbers. She also has ranches: working, dude. How the land is being developed- no. over parcels over 5 acres, 10, 20 acres?

Jonathan asked Emily to forward this to Lydia.

Ernie is not sure how much input he has in terms of stats. In the vet community, Ken Driggs might have more perspective because he has practiced for 10 or 12 years longer. There wasn’t a permanent vet here until the 1960s. They have evolved from servicing the ranching community, but now this is much less, to more of a companion practice. As far as how ag use is evolving, an interesting perspective might be from when the valley was more isolated- we had more homegrown food, there used to be a dairy on Mormon Row. There are some pockets of ag use in the valley which are no longer in existence in the valley because they don’t need to be. Ranching going out goes hand in hand with development- it is not feasible to grow hay in the summer and move cows. Snake River is not a cow-calf population so they are an exception. Those are perspectives that would be interesting to have- maybe one of the Lucas boys, someone who has seen this transition.

Ernie said that there is hobby ranching v. ranching as the sole source of income for the valley. For example, the Walton ranch. Dude ranching has been a big economic support in the valley for many years, and probably has gone through changes. When he first started his practice in 1979, he worked 1/3 on cows, 1/3 on horses, 1/3 small animals. A decade before it would have been more cattle. There wasn’t as much recreational horse work except dude ranching. As far as companion horses, this has evolved since he has been here. A companion practice is a lot more small animals, and more of pet horses instead of cow/calf ranching, dude ranches.

Bill said it would be interesting to know the number of horses over the past 30 years. This is a significant growth area that would continue to grow. Ernie said that there were few horses that wintered here in the 1950s; now, most horses spend the winter here. Total horses have increased, but probably companion. Bill thinks this is a major demand in the summer for feed, and in the winter for hay. This is a big deal for land use. Jonathan wondered about getting at the number of horses. Ernie doesn’t know.

Bill said that there is no taxation of livestock now. On brand inspection, there might be a record of lifetime brands. Ernie thinks that you could find these stats through state sources. Don said that there is a significant cycle going from summer to winter. All but half of the horses in the summer are rented horses. Bill wondered if the trend was up b/c of pleasure horses. Don thinks that & recreation. Members of our community have nice horses. Also there have been more people using public lands as far as those with special use permits; they are using the permits up to 100% instead of historically 30%. Bill thinks that this is available- outfitter days on NF, either with or without horses. Lorna suggested permitted cows on the forest - this number is going down, in terms of showing trends.

Lokey asked Ernie about other vets giving anecdotal information. Ernie thinks yes, and Ken would be the one to ask. The decade of the 1970s was transitional, moving from agriculture/ranching families & outfitting to the beginnings of development.

Don asked if Ernie has had more horse work lately. Ernie said now he has almost no cattle work, and 70 % small animal, 30% equine. The number of horses has increased, and the number of dollars people spending on their horses has increased- people can offer the best care for their horses. Before, it was more like running a ranch- horses had a function/job to do, and there was more of a budget to keep the horse working.

Jonathan said that the homework is to review minutes. He mentions that because between twelve of these meetings x 3, we don’t have time or resources internally to do original research. Over the years, we will hopefully have students, or other research types to do original research. He mentions that because we will always be looking to the group to provide info. If you can’t, that is why we have the wish list.

Bill thinks that there are two topics on the table: historical/culture aspects and land use. In the past, and as we go forward, there is land that has to be managed, one way or another. What he is interested in is how we manage that land, and how we do this. The land trust has a job to permanently provide oversight for 1000s of acres. They aren’t managing the land; the land is better managed by owners, not someone on the outside. The community is concerned about land planning. Noxious weeds are a major problem whether they are in the park or private land. Unless there is an active management across the board, they will get out of control. What he does is manage about 8000 acres of private and state land- what is the future going to be, and what do you do on a daily basis? They graze yearling steers and horses. They also manage wildlife that they have an indirect ability to manage. That is the most effective way to get a trend on the land. Any land is managed for long-term real estate value. In the meantime, doing it through agriculture provides advantages. First, tax-wise. There should be data on tax status. People would be surprised about how much is in this; most of it is in the future with a question mark category. You can have significant income from the agricultural industry. He would be interested in the land management part- there have been changes lately. The Teton Science Schools are the owners of permanently restricted land. They have hired someone to manage it, and are grazing Bob Lucas’s cattle. This would be a useful educational aspect. They have to explain why they have steers on that open space; it will be helpful to have that point get across. They have to deal with fences, trespass, leaving gates open.

One of the things this community hasn’t focused on is what to do permanently with the open space. An example is the TC Scenic Preserve Trust- they do absolutely nothing with it. The Land Trust is more active in monitoring & working with their land. It is not land use planning, but land use that we have to deal with. In his case, they have changed over the years. One of the advantages he has had is that they got rid of their Bridger-Teton permits and still have enough land for their operation. There are a few cow allotments left that are actively used. The Porter estate had that disaster with their herd being condemned. There will be an attempt by landowners to stay in agricultural tax status. How that evolves, he doesn’t know, but it would be good to look. Trends in livestock- how many cows shipped out off the valley, you need a brand inspection before they are shipped out of the valley. There are still a fair amount, although more and more yearlings and less and less cow-calf.

Jonathan said we divided Jackson arbitrarily. There are no clean and bright lines between the groups. Last year, we hoped that agriculture would come up in the land use group, but the focus there was more on planning & housing. This is why we created this whole separate group. Hopefully in time, each of these groups will reach out and start to break down the artificial barriers we have set up. He is sure a lot of stuff that comes up in these discussions has links to other groups.

Lorna wondered if you could think of these in overlays, on a map. She agrees with Bill, but wildlife is important to the economy- it’s in agriculture, housing, environment. You can begin to see patterns that way. Jonathan said that in terms of wildlife, it is being looked at in environment. Lorna thinks it plays into agriculture- it plays into open space. The ranching lands are critical habitat for wildlife. Jonathan said that part of the theory behind SJH was a strong reaction against things having people at one table- it seemed as though those meetings quickly got crosswise. His hope is that as years go on, each group will not feel tremendous pressure to get the answer. That way, people will feel successful. The other is that as these overlay issues come up, there will be interaction between groups in future years. You can’t talk about agriculture without wildlife.

Don will talk about dude ranching/ outfitting. Dude ranching started the tourism industry in WY. It didn’t start in Jackson first. You can see where there were railroad spurs, dude ranches popped up. The biggest area was Sheridan, and the Bighorns. Then it moved to Cody. Cody has done the best in saving dude ranches. Then through Yellowstone to Jakcson, a relative newcomer (early 1900s). In fact, the dude ranches were at their height in 1929, and then started decreasing (in number of ranches, not visitors). Triangle X: 2 homesteads bought in 1926. Three years they sold the property to Snake River Land Co. who they had year round leases from until 1949, until the company was turned over to the park service, from whom they get their permits now. What started dude ranches was that in the early 1900s, Europeans fell in love with the American West; railroads provided easy access. There were no hotels, boarding houses- only the ranches. All of this started through hunting. A lot of the ranches started taking hunters in the fall as a supplement to their income. The outfitting industry saved smaller ranches. In Jackson, unless you had a big ranch, you didn’t make it. You need a lot of acreage. Dude ranching saved Triangle X. They are strategically located. In town, hunters were shipped from town to the ranch. In the first couple of years, his dad & uncles set up tents for the hunters. Then they built some cabins for summer trips. It’s amazing how many Europeans, especially from Britain, came to ranches. A lot of them bought the ranches they used to come to throughout the area. The first dude ranch in Jackson was the JY, then the Bar BC. Jackson lost a lot of its dude ranches when the Park Service took over a lot of the area they were on. There is a still a big demand for ranches, they could fill three more up then they have. Lokey asked who comes to the ranches. Don said plumbers to multi-billionaires from Germany, they stay a minimum of a week to two weeks. Historically, people would stay all summer because of access. Jonathan asked when the shift occurred from staying all summer. Don said with better transportation- railroads, highway systems. Bill thinks it is a trend that has affected everything- change in transportation over the last 100 years, from being an extremely difficult place to get to, and now having people come here for a night. Lokey said it made JH accessible to people who aren’t very wealthy. There was a change in the dude ranches in the 1930s & 1940s- shorter term guests. You see cabin courts come up- you can stay for a night or two. Bill said that for good data, from 1923-1965, the Union Pacific published Dude Ranches Out West (the JHHS has it). Don said that there was a close relationship between the dude ranches and the railroads.

Lokey noted the relationships between recreation & dude ranches- climbing, pack trips, rafting, fishing, hunting. Bill said that there was are offshoots- Crystal Springs ranch, Double Diamond- camps for kids. Lorna asked if the original visitors were generated by Buffalo Bill’s tour through Europe. Don said definitely, but there were people coming in the 1800s. Ernie said that there were also European investors in the 1880s in cattle. Don said that one guy paid Jim Bridger $500 to follow him around all summer.

Jonathan asked if there were measurements of how many dude ranches/outfitters there are- these basic things and how they have changed over time. Don thinks that you can look at the history of the dude ranches. You just open the phone book to see who is left. Bill asked about taxes- Don said they pay sales tax on rooms, but not food or activities. Lokey said that there is the dude ranch association, and they have a fair amount of info in their collection on dude ranching. Jonathan said that the tax data doesn’t tell much. Lokey said that there are ranches with permits as dude ranches now, and permits for hotels in the off-season. Their classifications change. Don said they stay open for the winter, but not as a dude ranch b/c there are not horses. It’s played out to be a 4-day a week business, Thur-Sun. A lot fly in, but their biggest customer lives within 25 miles right now- they have to get away for the weekend.

Jonathan asked about outfitters. Dude ranches used to run hunting operations- they got started as hunting. But not a lot of the dude ranches hunt now. The whole perspective of outfitting has changed considerably. People would stay at the dude ranch, and go to hunting camps. Now, people come to town, stay at hotels- most of the outfitters don’t have accommodations except for the campsites. Lokey asked about pack trips. Don said that they do, and here they use their hunting equipment. It keeps the critters busy doing pack trips.

Pam comes to this from a different perspective. Being the historian for the park, she deals more with historical buildings. We have to start talking about Native American use- there is evidence in the park for ongoing Native American use; they use it today for traditional uses and plant gathering. In themes, she starts with American Indian use, then fur trader use, explorers & scientists (Haydon expedition w/ William Henry Jackson); settlement (late 1800s for first permanent settlers). Why did people settle here in the 1880s? How did they make it through the winter? Then we get into pioneers/homesteaders, who started out as cattle ranchers or agriculture, and then turned into dude ranches. The settlement period is 1880s – currently. She looks at the whole valley as JH history. She doesn’t work on post-1950 history. She would touch on each of those themes so people understand how we came to be today. How have we been using the land over the past several hundred years, and how does it change? We can measure homesteads, dude ranches, hobby ranches, other tourism related things in the park, but these things are not going to change. You can measure interpretation. Lokey said that we already have data on historical properties- what has disappeared. Pam said that this is part of land use- change from private to federal land.

Jonathan asked what easy data would be. Pam has all the National Register nominations, spreadsheet on all buildings. Jonathan asked everyone to identify everything that is important that might feed into this. The group will be the ultimate editors. Part of what we are trying to do is create as comprehensive a compendium of info about JH so that anyone interested in the community can find it.

Pam said that the historical things have been written in the Park on homesteading/settlement, hobby ranches, etc. can be applied to other aspects of the valley.

Lokey has interpretive themes- natural setting (evidence that homesteaders have come here for the natural setting); biodiversity, Native American presence, land use & changes over time, human history (white history: fur trade, settlement, tourism); the myth & reality of the west- rugged individualism v. neighbors. Lokey asked what data you would want to deal with in terms of history. You don’t maintain a lot of data as a historical organization.

Jonathan said that first, with the idea of the 15 minute presentation, what would the community like to know? How do you think about those things? How do you evaluate yourselves? To the extent that pieces of this can be quantified, that’s great. The niche that wasn’t being filled is that there is so much passion about JH, but little hard info. A lot of public discussion tends to focus on opinions, which are coincidentally linked with information. What we are trying to avoid in this process is creating a debating society. What we are trying to do is ask what we really know. There are some things that don’t lend themselves to hard data. If you can’t convey something numerically, but they are statement of fact, that’s ok. If we can get trend data- horses, outfitting, etc., that tends to be useful & easily understood.

Lokey said that other then the number of participants they have, they do exit surveys, analysis of public relations. She doesn’t know what to ask for.

Bill said that one of the big changes that people tend to ignore is the role of the government in salaries & wages. Is there a way to break out salaries & wages in government v. private sector? The government income would have been the dominant payroll until recently. Jonathan said it is 6%. Bill said it would be interesting to see when private sector wages & salaries outweighed the govt. sector. Jonathan said that govt. as the feds define it, which is federal, state, local (not schools, hospital or contract work), has never been as high as services (schools, hospital, lodging). Don said that we can look at the budgets of the Park service and the BT- they are a very low percentage.

Bob Rider has a topo map of the valley in the 1940s with all of the ranch names- and we can compare it today. Bill asked about lands in ag tax status- is this relatively easy to collect? Emily has it, and asked how far back to go.

Jonathan said that one of the most significant graphs is looking at the census. In 1930- population was about 2000, in 1960, it was 3000. In 1970, it was 4500, 1980-9000, 1990- 11,000. 2000-18,000. There was a jagged curve up. When the ski area opened, everything flipped. Anything before the ski area opened would be good. Emily will try 1940-2005. Bill said that in 1940, TC was one of the poorest counties here. In the 1960s, the state financed Paul McCollister. From Cheyenne’s perspective, Teton Village was one of their greatest economic successes aside from minerals. The idea of something to do in the winter here had not taken off.

Pam asked if there was a group talking about the impact of the ski area on the community. Jonathan said that there are recreation & business groups.

Lorna asked about second homeowners. Census data is taken in April/May (mud season). Most other resort communities are seeing a decrease in 2nd homes. The decrease here is not tax reasons- it’s happening everywhere with state income tax. Here, it is a quality of life thing.

Bill said that transportation and communication improvements also help.

Emily said that they could do 1930 on, and compare census & ag numbers. Maybe Lokey & Pam can look at the breakdown of ranching. The Homestead Act was made for people in the east, so people here had to be creative in using it, like Dornan’s. Bill said people homesteaded (hay) and looked for cash jobs- working on the dam, beef with elk hides on them.

Dwayne noted the concept of topophilia- a visual quality about a landscape. Where are the cultural landscapes? There are sections of this valley and qualities of landscape that would fit here, and we should map these. Where are the viewsheds, and agricultural land- are they threatened by sprawl? That data is important and helpful in identifying historical properties not on the register. As far as historic preservation goes, there are tons of cabins walking around the area that are really nice that are threatened by people buying them and tearing them down. There is also a conservation history. All of these things he would like to see. There are a lot of buildings around here that aren’t protected at all.

The homework assignment is this: review the minutes. The second meeting will focus on the statement of ideal. For those who have access to info that you would like to feed into this process, please email this to Lydia. In terms of indicators, data, information, to convey to the community- what is out there? If you have the info, and you can provide it that’s great. If you don’t know that it exists, shoot it into the dialogue and we will put it on the wish list. The homework is what information would you like to see out there? Either relating to your operation, or the larger milieu in which you operate. The next meeting, we will start putting an outline together of the indicators.

Jonathan asked folks for ideas about research- we will be working with local schools to develop research projects as well.