Grand Teton National Park (Agency : U.S.)

Grand Teton National Park is an American national park in northwestern Wyoming. At approximately 310,000 acres (480 sq mi; 130,000 ha; 1,300 km2), the park includes the major peaks of the 40-mile-long (64 km) Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. Grand Teton National Park is only 10 miles (16 km) south of Yellowstone National Park, to which it is connected by the National Park Service-managed John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. Along with surrounding national forests, these three protected areas constitute the almost 18,000,000-acre (7,300,000 ha) Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the world's largest intact mid-latitude temperate ecosystems.

The human history of the Grand Teton region dates back at least 11,000 years, when the first nomadic hunter-gatherer Paleo-Indians began migrating into the region during warmer months pursuing food and supplies. In the early 19th century, the first white explorers encountered the eastern Shoshone natives. Between 1810 and 1840, the region attracted fur trading companies that vied for control of the lucrative beaver pelt trade. U.S. Government expeditions to the region commenced in the mid-19th century as an offshoot of exploration in Yellowstone, with the first permanent white settlers in Jackson Hole arriving in the 1880s.

Efforts to preserve the region as a national park began in the late 19th century, and in 1929 Grand Teton National Park was established, protecting the Teton Range's major peaks. The valley of Jackson Hole remained in private ownership until the 1930s, when conservationists led by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. began purchasing land in Jackson Hole to be added to the existing national park. Against public opinion and with repeated Congressional efforts to repeal the measures, much of Jackson Hole was set aside for protection as Jackson Hole National Monument in 1943. The monument was abolished in 1950 and most of the monument land was added to Grand Teton National Park.

Grand Teton National Park is named for Grand Teton, the tallest mountain in the Teton Range. The naming of the mountains is attributed to early 19th-century French-speaking trappers—les trois tétons (the three teats) was later anglicized and shortened to Tetons. At 13,775 feet (4,199 m), Grand Teton abruptly rises more than 7,000 feet (2,100 m) above Jackson Hole, almost 850 feet (260 m) higher than Mount Owen, the second-highest summit in the range. The park has numerous lakes, including 15-mile-long (24 km) Jackson Lake as well as streams of varying length and the upper main stem of the Snake River. Though in a state of recession, a dozen small glaciers persist at the higher elevations near the highest peaks in the range. Some of the rocks in the park are the oldest found in any American national park and have been dated at nearly 2.7 billion years.

Grand Teton National Park is an almost pristine ecosystem and the same species of flora and fauna that have existed since prehistoric times can still be found there. More than 1,000 species of vascular plants, dozens of species of mammals, 300 species of birds, more than a dozen fish species and a few species of reptiles and amphibians inhabit the park. Due to various changes in the ecosystem, some of them human-induced, efforts have been made to provide enhanced protection to some species of native fish and the increasingly threatened whitebark pine.

Grand Teton National Park is a popular destination for mountaineering, hiking, fishing and other forms of recreation. There are more than 1,000 drive-in campsites and over 200 miles (320 km) of hiking trails that provide access to backcountry camping areas. Noted for world-renowned trout fishing, the park is one of the few places to catch Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout. Grand Teton has several National Park Service-run visitor centers, and privately operated concessions for motels, lodges, gas stations and marinas.

To the north of Jackson Hole, Yellowstone National Park had been established in 1872, and by the close of the 19th century, conservationists wanted to expand the boundaries of that park to include at least the Teton Range.[27][28] By 1907, in an effort to regulate water flow for irrigation purposes, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had constructed a log crib dam at the Snake River outlet of Jackson Lake. This dam failed in 1910 and a new concrete Jackson Lake Dam replaced it by 1911. The dam was further enlarged in 1916, raising lake waters 39 ft (12 m) as part of the Minidoka Project, designed to provide irrigation for agriculture in the state of Idaho.[29][30] Further dam construction plans for other lakes in the Teton Range alarmed Yellowstone National Park superintendent Horace Albright, who sought to block such efforts.[31] Jackson Hole residents were opposed to an expansion of Yellowstone, but were more in favor of the establishment of a separate national park which would include the Teton Range and six lakes at the base of the mountains. After congressional approval, President Calvin Coolidge signed the executive order establishing the 96,000-acre (39,000 ha) Grand Teton National Park on February 26, 1929.[32]

The valley of Jackson Hole remained primarily in private ownership when John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his wife visited the region in the late 1920s.[28] Horace Albright and Rockefeller discussed ways to preserve Jackson Hole from commercial exploitation, and in consequence, Rockefeller started buying Jackson Hole properties through the Snake River Land Company for the purpose of later turning them over to the National Park Service. In 1930, this plan was revealed to the residents of the region and was met with strong disapproval.[28] Congressional efforts to prevent the expansion of Grand Teton National Park ended up putting the Snake River Land Company's holdings in limbo. By 1942 Rockefeller had become increasingly impatient that his purchased property might never be added to the park, and wrote to the Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes that he was considering selling the land to another party.[33] Secretary Ickes recommended to President Franklin Roosevelt that the Antiquities Act, which permitted Presidents to set aside land for protection without the approval of Congress, be used to establish a national monument in Jackson Hole. Roosevelt created the 221,000-acre (89,000 ha) Jackson Hole National Monument in 1943, using the land donated from the Snake River Land Company and adding additional property from Teton National Forest.[34] The monument and park were adjacent to each other and both were administered by the National Park Service, but the monument designation ensured no funding allotment, nor provided a level of resource protection equal to the park. Members of Congress repeatedly attempted to have the new national monument abolished.[35]

After the end of World War II national public sentiment was in favor of adding the monument to the park, and though there was still much local opposition, the monument and park were combined in 1950.[31] In recognition of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s efforts to establish and then expand Grand Teton National Park, a 24,000-acre (9,700 ha) parcel of land between Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks was added to the National Park Service in 1972. This land and the road from the southern boundary of the park to West Thumb in Yellowstone National Park was named the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway.[36] The Rockefeller family owned the JY Ranch, which bordered Grand Teton National Park to the southwest. In November 2007, the Rockefeller family transferred ownership of the ranch to the park for the establishment of the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve, which was dedicated on June 21, 2008.[37][38]

Grand Teton National Park is one of the ten most visited national parks in the U.S.,[45] with an annual average of 2.75 million visitors in the period from 2007 to 2016, with 3.27 million visiting in 2016.[3] The National Park Service is a federal agency of the United States Department of the Interior and manages both Grand Teton National Park and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. Grand Teton National Park has an average of 100 permanent and 180 seasonal employees. The park also manages 27 concession contracts that provide services such as lodging, restaurants, mountaineering guides, dude ranching, fishing and a boat shuttle on Jenny Lake.[46] The National Park Service works closely with other federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, and also, in consequence of Jackson Hole Airport's presence in the park, the Federal Aviation Administration. Initial construction of the airstrip north of the town of Jackson was completed in the 1930s.[47] When Jackson Hole National Monument was designated, the airport was inside it. After the monument and park were combined, the Jackson Hole Airport became the only commercial airport within an American national park. Jackson Hole Airport has some of the strictest noise abatement regulations of any airport in the U.S.[47] The airport has night flight curfews and overflight restrictions, with pilots being expected to approach and depart the airport along the east, south or southwest flight corridors.[48] As of 2010, 110 privately owned property inholdings, many belonging to the state of Wyoming, are located within Grand Teton National Park. Efforts to purchase or trade these inholdings for other federal lands are ongoing and through partnerships with other entities, 10 million dollars is hoped to be raised to acquire private inholdings by 2016.[49] Some monies are allocated from congress via the Land and Water Conservation Fund, but Grand Teton National Park may not get all the money needed from the fund as it is divided up between four different federal agencies. Efforts to exchange federal land from other areas for inholdings were still in the negotiation phase in 2012.[50]