[Illustration: _The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem supports the
largest elk herd remaining in the world. Nearly 3,000 of these
majestic animals, also called wapiti, summer in Grand Teton._]
[Illustration: _Mount Moran looms as the backdrop to a forested
slope in autumn._]
The Mountains
The tight concentration of tall peaks and pinnacles called the Cathedral
Group has been described as “Chartres multiplied by six, a choir of
shimmering granite spires soaring high above the nave and transept of
the valley below.” Few fail to be impressed by these most scenic of
mountains and by their staggering panoramic quality. Theodore Roosevelt,
so often given to eloquence, called this “the most beautiful country in
the world.” You may find yourself spending an inordinate amount of time
just staring at the mountains.
The Tetons, being classic fault-block mountains, were originally
mound-like, not jagged and spired. They were formed as the Earth cracked
along a north-south line at the base of the mountains. As the Earth’s
outer crust faulted under pressures deep within its mantle, the western
block tilted upward and the eastern block sank. We speak about this
mountain building in the past tense because, for us mortals, mountains
symbolize eternity. But the action continues.
The Tetons are the youngest mountains in the Rocky Mountain system, but
they are made out of some of the oldest rock in North America. The
granitic gneisses and schists north and south of the central, highest
peaks are some of the hardest and least porous rocks known. The rock of
the Grand Teton is a younger granite. These qualities, and the
accessibility of major peaks, attract technical rock climbers. The
handholds are secure and the views breathtaking.
The geologic time scale is so vast we cannot imagine it. Most of us
simply refuse to imagine more than a few thousand years: we find
anything greater too inhibiting. The Ice Age ended its major glacial
action about 10,000 years ago, the beginning of the Holocene or the
Recent, as early man wandered the glacial ice margins. But seven-eighths
of Earth history are tied up in the Precambrian Period, the period of
formation of the Teton Range’s 3.5-billion-year-old rocks. By contrast,
just east of Jackson Hole—Thermopolis on your Wyoming highway map—there
is now forming the youngest rock in the United States, travertine.
Further proof that geologic processes continue.
The massive Teton Range contains a miniaturized world on a different
time scale. The alpine world is a summer surprise because it offers
flowering displays long after the valley show concludes for the season.
Bloom time is delayed by ascending altitude: the rule of thumb is about
12 days delay per 1,000 feet. If you miss the yellow buttercups at lower
elevations, climb higher and you may overtake their montane flowering in
full bloom. Such are the rigors of alpine tundra life that here the
flowers largely depend on wind for pollination, or on flies, rather than
on bees. Bees cannot withstand the cold temperatures so common at these
heights. The alpine insect explosion is brief, but ants, ladybugs and
other beetles, and diminutive grasshoppers inhabit the alpine world.
They make fast food for alpine-nesting birds, such as pipits, horned
larks, white-crowned sparrows, and rosy finches that are desperately
trying to nourish their hungry broods between the two edges of winter.
Specialized and severe, the alpine world is sparsely populated. Here
eagles and weasels hunt for bird nestlings, marmots, pikas, pocket
gophers, deer mice, and voles. The heartbeat of the extremely fragile
tundra is slow by necessity. That any plants have adapted to this
environment seems incredible. Yet alpine laurel fills rock crevices.
Spring beauty blooms in pockets of soil. Mats of moss campion carpet
slopes of shattered rock. White columbine nod in the wind shadows of
larger rocks. Alpine sunflowers blaze like a galaxy of equal suns, their
disproportionately large flowers awkwardly seated on abbreviated stalks.
The process of developing from bare rock to fully developed alpine
vegetation might require thousands of years. By contrast, it is
estimated that 100 years are required to form one inch of soil on the
plains. On alpine heights the rate is many times slower. The first
plants to colonize bare mountain rock might be lichens, multi-colored
crustose plants adapted to extreme conditions. Lichens are tough. They
grow on rocky outcrops near the South and North Poles. They also thrive
on desert rocks that are too hot to touch. Lichen plants can first be
dried in air and then in a dessicator and then exposed to 514°F for up
to seven hours and yet, upon return to room temperatures, they will
resume normal metabolism. And lichens regulate, to some extent, water
flow at high elevations. On dry days their water content may be from two
to ten percent of dry weight. On rainy days that may soar to more than
300 percent. Mats of lichen hold so much moisture that even a rise in
barometric pressure may press some water out to resume its tortuous trip
toward the Pacific Ocean.
Seven Teton peaks exceed 12,000 feet and one, the Grand Teton, pushes
above 13,000 feet to 13,770 feet in elevation. At such heights,
conditions support mountain glaciers. The Teton Glacier is one of about
a dozen small alpine glaciers cradled in shaded east- or north-facing
cirques among the high peaks. Teton Glacier occupies a spectacular
cirque that faces east between the north face of the Grand and Mount
Owen. It is partially fed by avalanches from the cliffs around it. Some
of these cliffs are more than 3,000 feet high. The glacier’s terminus
has retreated markedly since 1929, but the rate of loss was less between
1954 and 1963 than it was between 1929 and 1954. The mountain glaciers
in today’s Tetons are not left over from the Ice Age. They began forming
about 500 to 1,000 years ago, during the so-called Little Ice Age.
As insignificant as these glaciers are compared to the colossal sheets
that repeatedly lumbered through the Tetons and Jackson Hole, they
slowly exact a toll on this hard rock, continuing to carve, etch, and
abrade the range. They host life too: algae of a reddish hue that give
rise to the phenomenon called watermelon snow.
The Teton Range
[Illustration: Teton Range panorama]
Any mountain range is the product of the struggle between uplift and
erosion, but in few places are the results as clear as on the crest of
the Teton Range. Today we do not first see the Teton peaks across 160
kilometers (100 miles) of wilderness and then struggle to them afoot,
on horseback, or by wagon. This spectacle may break upon us from the
window of an airplane, or appear around a bend in the John D.
Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. The telescoping of time does not
lessen the impact however. The range’s nearly even east base (see
painting) is the best place from which to grasp its formation. Along
this line the valley ends at an abrupt wall, with no foothills at the
mountain’s base. These are sure signs of faulting, the elevation of a
mountain block along a deep crack in the Earth’s crust. (See diagram.)
Shatter lines visible in many of the naked rock peaks show that the
uplift was no smooth ride. The Tetons are very young mountains
composed of very old rock. The range was thrust up about 9 million
years ago. Young? Yes, when compared to the main Rocky Mountains,
which rose 60 million years ago, and the Great Smoky Mountains, which
have been above water more than 200 million years. The Teton Range’s
crystalline rock is comparable to the 3-billion-year-old Allegheny
Mountains core. This hard, stable rock, more than 300 times older than
the mountains it forms, is a boon to climbers.
Another unusual feature of the Teton Range is its divide, the division
line at which water will flow off the mountains either west into the
Teton River or east into the Snake. The Teton’s divide lies well below
and to the west of the highest elevation. This is because the steeper
east face caused water to flow off faster and thereby to cut deeper.
These streams carved into the range and captured headwaters from less
erosive western streams. Erosion and uplift continue competing in the
range, which still rises through periodic earthquake activity.
1. Mount Wister
2. Shadow Peak
3. South Teton
4. Cloudveil Dome
5. Nez Perce Peak
6. Middle Teton
7. Mount Owen
8. Teewinot Mountain
9. Rockchuck Peak
10. Mount St. John
11. The Jaw
12. Mount Woodring
13. Maidenform Peak
14. Mount Moran
15. Window Peak
16. Bivouac Peak
Forming and Shaping the Mountains
[Illustration: Uplift, erosion, and glaciation formed and shaped the
Teton Range. Ice Age glaciers profoundly sculpted the horn-shaped
peaks and gouged out the U-shaped valleys (photo and diagram). The
present mountain glaciers were formed only 500 to 1,000 years ago.]
[Illustration: The Teton Range is a textbook example of fault-block
mountain building. The Teton Fault is about 40 miles long. Total
vertical displacement was about 30,000 feet. Erosion has removed
some 3,000 feet of material from Mount Moran, whose peak now stands
about 6,600 feet above the valley floor. Most of the displacement
took place with the dropping of the eastern block. The Range’s steep
east face eroded faster than the western slope, which still carries
some capping sedimentary layers.]
Upthrown fault block
Gentle western slope
Teton Fault
Steep eastern face (_Horn-shaped peaks and U-shaped valleys_)
Valley floor filled with sediments
Down-dropped fault block
[Illustration: _As massive Ice Age glaciers flowed through the Teton
Range_ (below), _moving ice changed the steep, V-shaped, water-cut
valleys_ (above) _into the distinctive U-shaped canyons seen
today._]
[Illustration: Teton Range today.]
Teton Country Lakes
[Illustration: Tarn.]
[Illustration: Jackson Lake.]
With only a brief itinerary in the park you might leave Jackson Hole
with a memory of the high peaks and just one lake, much the impression
that postcards give. But there are dozens of lakes. Most must be sought
off the highway behind fringes of trees or up a short reach of trail.
Some nestle in the alpine heights. A checklist of park lakes based on
how they were formed includes surprising variety. A few are oxbow lakes,
cut off meanders of the Snake River. Two are real oldtimers, Emma
Matilda and Two Ocean Lakes, formed about 30,000 years ago as the
glaciers melted back. But most are new glistening souvenirs of the
latest glacial advance that ended 8,000 years ago. This newest crop is
readily identified by the morainal dams that back up each lake. Most
easily recognized is the morainal dam of Jenny Lake. Unlike Jackson
(large photo), Jenny, Bradley, Taggart, Leigh, and Phelps Lakes mark
surfaces gouged by mountain glaciers. The many small ponds dotting the
sagebrush flats, such as The Potholes, are not gouge scars, but pits.
Here glacial outwash materials surrounded and buried small ice masses
that later melted. The technical term for these depression ponds is
kettle ponds, but The Potholes were named by a rancher, not a geologist.
The Tetons’ highest lakes are called tarns (small photo). Bearing names
such as Surprise, Grizzly Bear, Bear-paw, and Rimrock, these are
diminutive versions of the glacial lakes at the foot of major canyons.
They originate in ice-scoured pockets and are still forming under the
small glaciers at the heads of highcountry canyons. The largest and most
heavily fished lake is Jackson Lake. Cutthroat trout are native, but
lake trout (Mackinaw) were introduced in the 19th century. The lake is
130 meters (425 feet) deep and 26 kilometers (16 miles) long. Jackson, a
natural lake, was dammed before the park was established to store more
water and control the Snake River for irrigation in Idaho. The Teton
country’s lake and pond environment has benefited moose and ducks the
most, but nearly all park denizens—vacationing _Homo sapiens_
included—appreciate this aquatic resource. One species, the beaver,
extends its appreciation by creating more ponds. Once nearly
exterminated during the trapper’s era, beaver are now abundant here.
Mountain Climbing
[Illustration: Mountain climber.]
[Illustration: The Tetons offer the adventurous some of North
America’s most superb mountain climbing. The rock is very hard and
mostly free of slides. Cracks and ledges abound for hand and foot
holds. The mountains, rising sharply from the valley floor, are
unusually accessible. No expedition is required just to reach the
peak. All Teton peaks and spires have already been climbed. Many
have been climbed by several routes. Together they offer an
exceptional range of climbing difficulty, from a stiff uphill walk
with little hand and foot work to technical climbs that challenge
most experienced alpinists. Atop the 4,200-meter (13,770-foot)
summit of the Grand Teton you stand taller than anything nearby. (A
climbing permit is required. See “Mountaineering” in Part 3.)]
[Illustration: _This print, adapted from Leigh Ortenburger’s 1956 A
Climber’s Guide to the Teton Range, shows the Grand Teton from the
northeast. The four climbing routes indicated, and their
first-ascent dates, are:_ 1 _East Ridge (1929)_, 2 _Northeast
Couloir (1939)_, 3 _North Face (1936), and_ 4 _North Ridge (1931)_.
_First climbed (officially) in 1898, the Grand was not climbed again
until 1923. Since then, however, it has been one of the country’s most
popular peaks._]
[Illustration: The first ascent by a Jackson Hole woman, Geraldine
Lucas, aged 59, is shown here in her triumphant moment in 1924.
Officially, the first party to climb the Grand Teton was the W. O. Owen
party in 1898, although Hayden Survey members James Stevenson and
Nathaniel Langford said they climbed it in 1872. Owen carried on a
30-year war to have history rewritten his way. He finally won—by act of
the Wyoming legislature in 1929. Even a member of Owen’s party thought
Stevenson and Langford had climbed it. And among Owen’s papers at his
death was an 1899 letter, with route map, from a man who evidently
climbed the Grand in 1893 with two soldiers. The man was not interested
in particular credit for it.]
The Mountain World
Above the tree limit and around snowfields and glaciers lies the
alpine tundra. This fragile ecosystem challenges plant and animal
survival with temperature extremes, high winds, a short growing
season, frequent drought, and poor soil. Basic plant survival
adaptations include dwarfism, oversize root systems, matting growth,
succulent leaves or stems, and warmth-producing red pigments. Some
high mountain plants are almost brown, not green, but perfectly alive.
Dwarfism and matting keep plants snugged low to the ground where
conditions are less severe than just a few centimeters higher. Animals
tend to adapt to subalpine and alpine rigors by modifying their
behavior rather than their structure. Exceptions include flightless
grasshoppers and the pika’s fur-covered feet.
The summer alpine tundra provides insects, seeds, leaf crops, lichens,
and fungi as wildlife food. For this short season animals are well
supplied and may become conspicuous. Birds, with their advantage of
flight, can cover vast areas quickly in the search for food. They can
also readily change ecozones. A bird flying from alpine tundra down to
a forested slope makes a journey between ecozones equivalent to
migrating from above the Arctic Circle to northern Maine. Hawks and
eagles, in a regular search for pikas or mice, can cover all of the
Teton high peaks in 2 hours or less.
[Illustration: _Plants and animals of the mountain world:_]
1 _Prairie falcon_
2 _Pika_
3 _Yellow-bellied marmot_
4 _Cushion buckwheat_
5 _Whitebark pine_
6 _Subalpine fir krummholz_
7 _Dwarf willow_
8 _Pixie-cup lichen_
9 _Black rosy finch_
10 _Alpine forget-me-not_
11 _Moss campion_
12 _Haircap moss_
[Illustration: Wary bighorn sheep are the largest mammals of the
high mountain realms. The male’s horns, curved back, down, and
around, may cap a 135-kilogram (300-pound) body. Sheep wear thick,
tannish-gray hair. Their specialized footpads enable them to scale
rock that might stymie a roped alpinist. Rams and ewes hold to
separate bands except during the mating period. Generations of sheep
will occupy the same range. The Teton population, numbering between
100 and 125 animals, is wary because the sheep are hunted in fall on
adjacent national forest lands. Hikers and climbers occasionally see
them on the range’s east side, but you will not see bighorn sheep
from your car except sometimes in the winter when they may move down
into Jackson Hole.]
[Illustration: _Autumn aspens lend what prospectors never found in
this valley—large touches of gold._]
The Valley
With the Louisiana Purchase treaty signed, President Thomas Jefferson
wanted to know what he had bought, so he sent the Lewis and Clark
Expedition overland to the Pacific in 1803 to find out. On the return
trip John Colter left the expedition along the Yellowstone River to stay
in the West and join a trapping venture. He is considered the first
white person to discover what is now Jackson Hole. Colter supposedly
wandered through this high, mountain-encircled valley—trappers called
such valleys holes—in the winter of 1807-1808. Colter was soon followed
by other trappers, and 40 years later the trappers were followed by
homesteaders. Several homesteaders became dude ranchers, and their dudes
were followed by vacationers, who now number nearly three million each
year.
The flatness of Jackson Hole comes as a surprise, considering that the
Teton Range was formed by a fault-block process. You would expect a deep
valley, but it has been filled repeatedly by rock debris transported by
glaciers and their meltwaters. The Snake River does little cutting into
the valley floor today. The flat areas above the river, called benches,
were carved out when the river had the torrential force of glacial
meltwater. The river’s north-south flow shows that the valley slopes
southward. The valley also tilts westward, toward the fault that gave
rise to the Teton Range. For reasons not fully known, the valley has
sunk more than the mountains have risen. We know this because a
sedimentary cap of rock atop Mount Moran—nearly 6,000 feet above the
valley floor—was once connected to the same rock layer that now lies an
estimated 24,000 feet below the valley surface.
The glacial material that fills the valley is largely quartzite rock
rounded by tumbling in running water into softball- to basketball-sized
cobbles, supplemented by gravel, sand, and silt. This rock came from
long-vanished mountains to the northwest. The depth of the valleys
cobble material is estimated at perhaps about 2,000 feet. This cobble
material has been washed by glacial runoff so often that it lacks the
clay content that is essential for the ground to retain water. Melting
snow and rain rapidly percolate through, so that only grasses and other
plants adapted to arid conditions can thrive in the valley’s
coarse-textured soil. This is why sagebrush dominates the valley floor,
except where streams and ponds provide enough water for willow bushes,
spruce, and cottonwood trees. Lodgepole pines grow atop the recent
glacial moraines that contain sufficient nutrients and clay, such as the
one surrounding Jenny Lake.
[Illustration: _The Snake River meanders through the surprisingly
flat valley called Jackson Hole._]
[Illustration: _Jackson Hole was settled around the turn of the
century, initially by homesteaders._]
[Illustration: _John D. Rockefeller, Jr., donated more than 32,000
acres of valley land, which were added to Grand Teton National Park
in 1950._]
[Illustration: _Local residents were divided over the park issue.
Two local park proponents, Mardy and the late Olaus J. Murie, are
shown at a 1949 annual council meeting of the Wilderness Society.
The Muries advocated park enlargement._]
Geologic forces have not always been subtle influences in the valley.
Melting snow and heavy rains in June 1925 saturated a layer of clay
sandwiched between sedimentary rock layers that form the north end of
Sheep Mountain, near Kelly. An earthquake, probably, triggered an
enormous landslide, and thousands of tons of debris raced down into the
river, damming it and backing up a lake 5 miles long and 200 feet deep.
Two years later the top 50 feet of the dam broke off and a wall of water
rushed down through Kelly, leveling all buildings except the church and
school. Six lives were lost, despite ample warning. The landslide scar
on Sheep Mountain’s north end is more than 5,000 feet long and 2,500
feet wide. Geologists say that more of Sheep Mountain is perched to
slide, given similar spring rainfall and an earthquake trigger.
The rise of the Teton Range and the corresponding sinking of Jackson
Hole continues, although not at an even rate. The action continues by
irregular crustal movements known as earthquakes. Geologist John D.
Love, longtime interpreter of the dynamics of the Teton Range, feels
that a major earthquake movement along the Teton fault, of as much as 20
feet, could happen at any time. The impact would be many more times
severe than the landslide and ensuing flood at Kelly. But such things
are not given to easy and precise prediction.
The Elk Herd
[Illustration: Elk with antlers.]
[Illustration: Elk herd.]
The Jackson Hole elk herd is free ranging and migratory. About half of
its 15,000 elk winter on the National Elk Refuge. By midsummer, many
graze on bunchgrass in high meadows near the Continental Divide, more
than 110 kilometers (70 miles) to the north. Moving north in spring, the
elk feed on succulent new growth of grasses and forbs in the sagebrush
flats. Cow elk, pregnant since last fall, separate from the main herds
to linger on calving grounds. Newborn elk hide in sagebrush or aspen
cover while the cows feed. Elk tend to feed in the open in morning and
evening, retreating to forest shade during the day. All summer they gain
weight in preparation for winter. Full grown cows often exceed 230
kilograms (500 pounds). Bulls may stand 1.5 meters (5 feet) at the
shoulder and weigh 405 kilograms (900 pounds). After their antlers drop
off in March, bulls begin growing a new annual set. Antlers, furry
nubbins in May, become velvet covered branches by July. By late August
the velvet, which supplied blood and nutrients for rapid antler growth,
hangs in tattered shreds as bull elk rub their antlers against flexible
saplings. In September, mature bulls polish the velvet from their
antlers and join the cows on their summer ranges. Then the dominant bull
elk gather harems of 6 to 20 cows. These bulls establish and maintain
dominance by displaying massive branched antlers, impressive bugling,
chasing off less aggressive bulls, and occasional combat with other
males. Fall migratory herds sometimes number 200 or more. Migration
begins when the snow reaches a critical depth. It is a special
experience to witness this exodus of elk streaming down the valley. Many
elk return to winter on the National Elk Refuge and in the Gros Ventre
drainage. Supplemental feeding is provided on the refuge to maintain the
Jackson Hole herd because some two-thirds of its traditional winter
range has been lost to development. The remaining habitat, and the elk
hunt permitted by the law that added Jackson Hole to the national park,
is cooperatively managed by the National Park Service and other Federal
and State agencies to perpetuate and protect the majestic elk of this
great herd.
Settling the Valley
[Illustration: Homesteader’s Cabin.]
[Illustration: Washing dishes.]
Shoshone, Crow, Blackfeet, Gros Ventre, and other Native Americans
hunted and picked berries in the valley in summer, but winter was
unbearable. During the early 1800s, solitary mountain men trapped valley
beaver, sometimes wintering through intense and deep snow. After the fur
trade collapsed in 1840, occasional trappers and prospectors ventured
into Jackson Hole. Well-known pioneers built temporary cabins. Jackson
Hole was settled late in the frontier era, when limited technology,
supply routes, and food storage made winter bearable. The first
permanent settlers, John Holland and John Carnes, homesteaded north of
the town of Jackson in 1884. Significant settlement came after 1900 as
schools, post offices, and churches were built. Jackson, Wilson, Moran,
and Kelly became the dominant communities. Getting supplies and mail
into Jackson Hole was always difficult. Most supplies came from Idaho
over rugged Teton Pass. Pack horses and supply wagons then faced the
Snake River, often dangerous or impossible to cross. Menor’s Ferry,
built at Moose in 1894 by William D. Menor, was a major crossing until
replaced by a bridge in 1927. Ferries, and later bridges, at Wilson also
improved valley transportation. Most valley homesteaders became cattle
ranchers, grazing their herds on the public range and cultivating enough
hay for winter feed. But the harsh climate and porous soils made
ranching risky. When some ranchers recognized the value of scenery and
wildlife, they began operating dude ranches and hunting lodges. In 1903,
Ben Sheffield catered to wealthy hunters from his headquarters at Moran.
In 1907, Louis Joy operated the first dude ranch in Jackson Hole, the
JY. The age of tourism had begun.
[Illustration: A rodeo at the Elbo Ranch, which was located near
Cottonwood Creek.]
[Illustration: _The Snake River cuts through moraines and exposes a
vast rubble of glacial cobbles. An evening float trip offers an
opportunity to view wildlife, a part of the river’s biotic
richness._]
The Snake River
Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole have no corner on the Snake
River, boasting as they do a mere 40 miles or so of the sinuous Snake’s
more than 1,000 miles of progress from the Continental Divide near
Yellowstone National Park to its confluence with the mighty Columbia
River near Pasco, Washington.
Judging from its almost leisurely mid-summer passage as a braided river
through the park you would not guess what chaos lies downstream. The
river had at least two names before the Snake was affixed. A group of
French-speaking trappers who crossed the river in September 1811
encountered such difficulty they decided to give it the name Mad River.
Sometime later this trapping party had to cross it again downstream near
its confluence with the Hoback River and renamed it _La Maudite Rivière
Enragée_—Accursed Mad River. Those names properly hint at what lies
downstream as the Snake flows in every direction but east in a great
sickle-shaped curve, its watershed embracing the largest chunk of
wilderness in the United States outside Alaska. The Snake’s beautiful
Shoshone Falls in Idaho is a full 43 feet higher than Niagara Falls. And
the Snake’s Hells Canyon, also in Idaho, is North America’s deepest and
narrowest major gorge, averaging a deeper gash across the land than the
Grand Canyon itself. Hells Canyon plunges 7,900 feet at its deepest
point. What is more, it averages 5,500 feet deep over its course.
In a valley this high (the elevation of Jackson Hole at the lower end
measures 6,000 feet) the Snake should have cut, with its steep
gradients, permanent channels. Instead, it still wanders in myriad
channels across the glacial debris filling the fault basin. Here the
Snake looks more like a prairie river rambling with the restlessness of
youth. Its banks are a checkerboard of successional stages, as plant
communities rise and fall with disturbances created by flooding, channel
shifting, or fire. This benefits the moose and beaver by assuring
continual supplies of willow and cottonwood that would otherwise soon be
succeeded by blue spruce.
The Snake, discovered by Lewis and Clark in 1805 but not fully explored
until its headwaters were pinpointed in 1970, is no longer a completely
wild river even in the park. Jackson Lake Dam, built before the park was
established, controls the water flow below the lake, moderating natural
surges that used to follow rapid spring snowmelt or violent summer
thunderstorms. Since the river no longer scours the valley regularly,
these stabilized conditions favor the development of larger tracts of
blue spruce.
Compared to the lakes, the Snake harbors a wealth of aquatic life. A
river is richer partly because its linear structure provides more
shoreline. The plant complex that the river makes possible continually
enriches the water with leaves and other debris. This energy subsidy,
along with the countless terrestrial insects caught by the river, is
passed up the food chain. Eventually the additional energy is translated
into the fish that help support the herons, mergansers, eagles, ospreys,
otters, and other terrestrial predators that use the aquatic food
pyramid.
The plant and animal composition of the riverine world varies with the
rate of water flow. In slow water areas, such as the Oxbow Bend, where
the river has cut off and abandoned a former looping meander,
bottom-rooted aquatic plants attract herbivorous animals—moose,
mallards, golden-eyes, and cinnamon teals—to graze these underwater
gardens. Such quiet stretches also attract carnivores to exploit the
greater variety of prey. Great blue herons stand motionless along the
shoreline, waiting to spear passing fish or the mice, frogs, and snakes
at water’s edge. Mink and coyote patrol the shoreline.
Insects are important river denizens, as the fly fishing angler’s art
attests. The nymphs of mayflies and stoneflies and the larvae of
caddisflies eat algae and other plant detritus, in the process becoming
attractive fare for the cutthroat trout and Rocky Mountain Whitefish.
The caddisfly larvae have adapted to fast water by constructing
protective body cases from sand grains, pebbles, plant stems, and other
stream bed materials. The faster the current, the heavier the case,
which enables the larvae to settle rapidly into a new cranny, should
they be swept away.
The sturgeon used to populate the Snake in what are now park waters, but
the erection of more than 20 hydroelectric and irrigation dams
downstream so changed the river that these very large fish are now hard
pressed to survive above the Columbia River confluence.
[Illustration: _Shaped like a short-handled dipper, the Snake River
progresses westward through the nation’s largest chunk of wilderness
outside Alaska. The Snake’s drainage also figured in historic exploring
expeditions and scientific, military, and railroad route surveys during
the 19th century. Some important expedition and survey routes are shown
on this map._]
Expeditions and Trappers
[Illustration: “Beaver Flats”]
[Illustration: “John Colter Visits the Crows 1807”]
Jackson Hole witnessed the exploration, settlement, and exploitation
that characterized the opening of the West. Early events centered
around the fur trade and survey expeditions. John Colter generally
gets credit as the first white man to visit the valley, purportedly
crossing it in the 1807-1808 winter. Colter trekked west with Lewis
and Clark and got permission to leave them on their return east. Other
trappers whose names pop up before Jackson Hole’s fur trade died out
in the 1840s are Jedediah Smith, David Jackson, William Sublette, Kit
Carson, and Jim Bridger. All were inveterate explorers and
adventurers. Sublette probably named the valley, after his trading
partner, Jackson. The fur trade died out when beaver hats—the prime
pelt market—went out of fashion in Europe. By then, beaver had been
severely reduced over much of North America, anyway, and a process for
making felt from far cheaper rabbit pelts had been developed. The
first survey expedition ventured into Jackson Hole in 1860, guided by
Jim Bridger. In command was Capt. William F. Raynolds, topographical
engineer. The War Department conducted these early surveys to find out
about the Indians, farming and mining possibilities, and potential
transcontinental routes. Raynolds turned thumbs down on a rail route
here. In 1861 and 1862 gold seekers prospected the valley but found
nothing. An Interior Department mission, the 1872 Hayden Survey led by
Professor Ferdinand V. Hayden, explored the Tetons and Jackson Hole,
guided by Beaver Dick Leigh. Many Jackson Hole features are named for
Hayden Survey members. These include Jenny, Bradley, Taggart, and
Leigh Lakes. An expedition led by Lt. Gustavus Doane nearly perished
here in the 1876-77 winter and would have starved but for the fishing
skills of one private. The color illustrations are by Jackson Hole
artist John Clymer.
The Indians
[Illustration: Indians in Camp.]
No Indians made permanent, year-round homes in Jackson Hole. Winters
were too severe. Before white settlement, a small, recluse Shoshone
group camped in the area for as many months as possible because of
repeated raids from northerly tribes who had British-supplied guns.
Other Shoshone knew this small band as Sheep Eaters, because they
depended on the bighorn sheep for food. They lived scattered in family
groups, not as a tribe. When it seemed safe, they would fish, hunt,
and gather plants, seeds, and berries. They used dogs as beasts of
burden.
[Illustration: Codsiogo, a Shoshone warrior.]
They made bows of elk antlers and sheep horns reinforced with elk and
deer sinews. Early trappers seldom encountered the Sheep Eaters although
they sometimes saw smoke from their fires. The Sheep Eaters stayed near
the mountains until joining other Shoshone under Chief Washakie on
reservations in Idaho and Wyoming about 1879. Some artifacts and other
evidence of their life are still found today in the Tetons.
Archeological studies show that various Indian groups migrated through
here on a seasonal basis. The Shoshone peoples arose in the semidesert
Basin of the upper Southwest. As food became scarce they migrated east
of the Rockies, into the plains and mountain parks of Wyoming and
Montana, probably in the 1500s or mid-1600s. In part they were escaping
slave-trading Ute Indians. By 1730, however, records begin to show the
Shoshone as the most important plains tribe. They were walkers until
about 1740, when they got Spanish horses from the Comanches to the
south. Mounted, they would raid as far as the Saskatchewan River to the
north and the Black Hills to the east. During the whites’ overland
migrations, the Eastern Shoshone, under Chief Washakie, avoided
confrontations. But Chief Washakie knew his people’s nomadic way of life
was over.
[Illustration: A Sheepeater Indian family.]
Cutthroat Trout
[Illustration: An osprey landing on its nest.]
[Illustration: Trout in shallow water.]
The 17 species of fish in Grand Teton National Park include brown,
brook, rainbow, and lake (Mackinaw) trout. These introduced species
are found in a number of lakes and streams. Perhaps the most
impressive fish is the Snake River cutthroat trout, the native trout
so dependent on the park’s natural aquatic system. The deep red or
orange-red marks under its jaws give the impression of a slashed
throat, hence cutthroat. The Snake River cutthroat is a distinct
subspecies of the cutthroat trout identified by the hundreds of tiny
dark spots on both sides of its body. In spring, particularly May and
June, the Snake River cutthroat will travel upstream into tributary
waters to spawn. The female digs a nest (called a redd) in the gravel
and the male and female lie side by side while simultaneously
contributing the sperm and eggs. The fertilized eggs settle to the
bottom and hatch into fry within 40 days. The young fish usually
remain in the tributary stream until fall but will sometimes wait a
full year before migrating to the river. Juveniles, called
fingerlings, and sub-adults feed on a variety of aquatic invertebrate
larvae such as caddisflies, mayflies, and stoneflies. The older fish
become more predaceous and feed on a variety of smaller species of
fish living in the river. The cutthroat trout reach sexual maturity at
three to four years of age. Few cutthroats live longer than five
years. The post-spawning mortality rate is 50 percent. The Snake River
cutthroat trout indeed delights the angler, but more important is its
role in the wildlife community. The cutthroat consumes aquatic
insects, invertebrates, and small fish, helping to keep these
populations in check naturally. This trout is also consumed, providing
food for bears, eagles, ospreys, and otters. If the fish population
declines, so will the animals that depend on it for food. As fishing
pressure continues to grow, park managers may have to protect this
natural population of Snake River cutthroat to maintain the national
park’s wildlife community.
[Illustration: _Mule deer, named for their large ears, occur in
surprisingly small numbers in the park. Competition with the large
elk herd and deep winter snows may be limiting factors._]
Wildlife and Wildflowers
When the Shoshone Indians sat down with government officials at Fort
Bridger in 1863 to conclude a treaty that would define their lands, the
parcel that the parties arrived at totaled 30,000 square miles. A very
small part of that was Jackson Hole, but this was such rich hunting
ground in summer and fall that even the Shoshone dared not lay sole
claim to it. Blackfeet, Bannock, Crow, Gros Ventre, and probably other
tribes were drawn here to hunt. What would you have seen on a hunting
trip in those days? Bison, pronghorns, and at least three times as many
elk as exist here now, but far fewer deer. Near wall-to-wall beaver
along the waterways, but nary a moose. And bighorn sheep peering down at
you from nearly every crag and butte.
When settlement in the late 1800s at the south end of the valley
eliminated about two-thirds of their winter range, as many as 500 elk
sometimes ended up on the streets of Jackson on frigid nights. Winter
starvation and poaching pressures took many elk.
The fur trade decimated beaver populations. But what of moose, deer, and
bighorn? Moose and mule deer probably benefited from white settlement.
Moose increased because of the suppression of fire, which permitted the
increase of sub-alpine fir, a winter food source. Moose graze but little
grass, mostly browsing coarser plants. Likewise mule deer. Livestock
overgrazing hindered elk but favored moose and mule deer. The latter
evidently usurped bighorn wintering range, reducing the sheep
population. Wolves were extirpated and grizzly bears nearly so. That
favored—within range support limits—every four-footed vegetarian not
beset with other insurmountable problems.
Grizzly bears roam only the northern part of the park. Predation on
large mammals must be carried out by seldom seen black bears, rare
mountain lions, and coyotes, who largely feed on rodents. Red foxes
(rare here), lynxes, and bobcats are crafty and formidable, but at best
threaten only the young of large mammals. Formidable predators of a
smaller scale are the many members of the weasel family, including two
weasels, the badger, pine marten, wolverine and fisher (very rare here),
and mink. The prey of these creatures includes many of the more familiar
small mammals, such as shrews, hares, chipmunks and golden-mantled
ground squirrels, Uinta ground squirrels, red and flying squirrels,
mice, pocket gophers, woodrats, voles, and muskrats, and also small
birds, bird eggs, reptiles, and amphibians. Porcupines and beavers are
both large rodents and both feed on bark, but their defenses differ.
Beavers escape to their snug lodge protected by the surrounding water,
while porcupines are protected by quills. But porcupines sometimes fall
prey to fishers and maybe smaller cats and other critters able to get at
their unprotected faces and bellies.
[Illustration: _The vigorous, brief blooms of alpine plants edge a
high mountain meadow, with only the tips of peaks as a backdrop._]
Bird watchers are content here just to see the rare trumpeter swan—on
the Elk Refuge, or at Christian and Hedrick Ponds. Other large birds
include bald eagles, ospreys, sandhill cranes, Canada geese, and great
blue herons. The water ouzel (dipper) walks underwater in fast current,
a marvel to behold. Bold and brassy are the crafty magpies, who won’t
hesitate to let you know if you annoy them. More than 100 species of
birds have been identified in the park.
Four major natural communities provide a way of understanding the park’s
wildlife patterns. The water communities include lakes, ponds, rivers,
and streams. The sage and grassland community is the most extensive and
most often overlooked. The forest community appears randomly
distributed, but soil moisture properties, the direction it faces,
elevation, and weather patterns influence where trees grow. Blue spruce
and cottonwood thrive along valley streams. Aspen, Douglas-fir, and
lodgepole pine inhabit the valley and lower slopes. Sub-alpine fir,
Engelmann spruce, and limber pine stand on mountainsides and in canyons.
The edges where communities meet are richest in wildlife. The alpine
community crowning the highcountry shares the least characteristics and
organisms with the other three communities.
Water communities call to mind perhaps the trout and beaver (see pages
48 and following), and lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers interrupt or
dot the other three communities. In winter moose inhabit the river flats
to browse the cottonwoods and willows.
The pronghorn and sage grouse characterize the wide open sage and
grassland community, whose purpose otherwise seems simply to provide the
Teton Range a foreground. This world is alive with small birds feeding
on masses of insects and spiders. These songbirds, along with gophers,
mice, and snakes, provide the diet for weasels, hawks, and ravens. The
sage grouse depends largely on the evergreen sagebrush for food. The
pronghorns depend on it part-time, being unable to subsist on grasses
alone. This is North America’s fastest mammal, able to run at more than
45 miles per hour. For added security it boasts oversize lungs and
windpipe, and the largest eyes by body weight of any mammal. Faster yet
is the prairie falcon that hunts these flats, streaking out of the sky
at speeds up to 200 miles per hour.
An aspen grove of only 27 trunks may shelter more than 12 pairs of
birds—house wrens, mountain bluebirds, swallows, and woodpeckers. It may
also shelter an understory of young spruce and fir that could one day
replace it. Deer and elk wander out of the forest to browse the aspen,
which can produce more than 2.5 tons dry weight of vegetation per acre.
Ironically, aspen have suffered somewhat in the park for lack of forest
fires. It turns out that fire suppression suppresses aspens, which
recover burned areas quickly. In respect of natural processes, the park
now practices wildfire management instead of complete suppression,
except where human life and private property might be threatened.
The alpine world (see pages 36-37) stands as magic for some. Its
lilliputian scale fascinates. A tiny rabbit, the pika (or cony), gathers
grasses there all summer in miniature haystacks you may discover. The
yellow-bellied marmot, on the other hand, stores fat, its body being
adapted to pass the winter in hibernation. Surprising numbers of insects
are found there. And spiders wander the snowfields to feed on
cold-sluggish insects blown up from warmer elevations.
Diminutive alpine creatures aren’t seen from a car, but much of the
park’s wildlife bounty reveals itself to casual observers. The national
park tries to offer the wild community a haven where natural processes
can work, but this is no simple task. The park includes only portions of
some creatures’ annual ranges. And underlying the ideal balance of
natural processes are complex relationships we only gradually unravel.
Mammals
[Illustration: _Bobcat_]
[Illustration: _Weasel_]
[Illustration: _Yellow-bellied marmots_]
[Illustration: _Pika_]
[Illustration: _Moose_]
[Illustration: _Deer mouse_]
[Illustration: _Coyote_]
[Illustration: _Elk calf_]
[Illustration: _Badger_]
[Illustration: _Black bear_]
[Illustration: _Snowshoe Hare_]
[Illustration: _Pronghorn (antelope)_]
[Illustration: _Mule Deer_]
[Illustration: _Uinta ground squirrel_]
[Illustration: _Beaver_]
[Illustration: _Porcupine_]
Birdlife
[Illustration: _Yellowthroat_]
[Illustration: _Killdeer_]
[Illustration: _Screech owl_]
[Illustration: _Blue grouse_]
[Illustration: _Prairie falcon_]
[Illustration: _Great gray owl_]
[Illustration: _Sandhill crane_]
[Illustration: _Sage grouse_]
[Illustration: _Bald eagle_]
[Illustration: _Mountain bluebird_]
[Illustration: _Greentail towhee_]
[Illustration: _Steller’s jay_]
[Illustration: _Goshawk_]
[Illustration: _Canada goose_]
[Illustration: _Western tanager_]
[Illustration: _Common snipe_]
Wildflowers
[Illustration: _Columbine_]
[Illustration: _Sugarbowl_]
[Illustration: _Leopard lily_]
[Illustration: _Mountain or False dandelion_]
[Illustration: _Geranium_]
[Illustration: _Yellow violet_]
[Illustration: _Phlox_]
[Illustration: _Low larkspur_]
[Illustration: _Calypso orchid_]
[Illustration: _Green gentian_]
[Illustration: _Indian paintbrush_]
[Illustration: _Yarrow_]
[Illustration: _Lewis flax_]
[Illustration: _Harebell_]
[Illustration: _Mule ears_]
[Illustration: _Scarlet gilia_]