60 Fun Facts About Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park is in the northwest corner of which US state?

It sits just 10 miles south of Yellowstone, and together with the surrounding forests the two parks anchor the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

How tall is Grand Teton, the peak the park is named for?

It rises more than 7,000 feet above the valley floor and is the second-highest peak in its state after Gannett Peak.

In which year was the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway added to the park system?

The 24,000-acre strip honours the man who quietly bought up much of Jackson Hole for the park; the road runs from the park's south boundary to West Thumb.

French-speaking trappers called the range's peaks les trois tétons, which translates as what?

Earlier parties had called the peaks the Pilot Knobs; the more colourful name was later shortened to the Tetons.

Which president signed the executive order creating Grand Teton National Park on February 26, 1929?

That first park was just 96,000 acres, covering the peaks and six lakes at their base; the valley floor stayed in private hands.

Which president used the Antiquities Act in 1943 to create Jackson Hole National Monument over local opposition?

Interior Secretary Harold Ickes suggested the move after Rockefeller threatened to sell his land; Congress repeatedly tried to abolish the monument.

In which year were Jackson Hole National Monument and Grand Teton National Park finally combined?

The merger law included an unusual provision that still allows a regulated elk hunt inside the park each fall.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. secretly bought up Jackson Hole ranches through a front called what?

When the plan was revealed in 1930 the valley erupted in anger, and Congress left the purchased land in limbo for more than a decade.

Which fur-trade partner of Jedediah Smith gave his name to the valley east of the Tetons?

He ran the Rocky Mountain Fur Company's trapping in the region from 1826 to 1830, and Sublette dubbed the valley Jackson's Hole in his honour.

Which former Lewis and Clark expedition member is credited as the first white man to see the Tetons, in 1807-08?

Widely called the first mountain man, he had taken early discharge to go trapping; a stone carved with his name and 1808 turned up west of Teton Pass in 1931 but has never been authenticated.

The Tukudika, or Sheep-eater Shoshone of the Tetons, were named for which staple animal?

Stone enclosures on several peaks, including one just below the summit of Grand Teton, are thought to have been used by them for spiritual rites.

After 1868, the Shoshone of the Teton and Yellowstone country were relocated to which reservation?

It lies about 100 miles southeast of Jackson Hole on land chosen by Chief Washakie.

In which year did Owen, Petersen, Shive and Spalding make the first substantiated ascent of Grand Teton?

After that climb no one else recorded a summit until 1923; the party set out from Bill Menor's cabin and celebrated there that evening.

Which 1872 Hayden Survey member claimed, with James Stevenson, to have summited Grand Teton 26 years before Owen?

Later parties think they got no higher than The Enclosure; the dispute is often called the greatest controversy in American mountaineering.

Glenn Exum founded the Exum Mountain Guides in 1931 with which fellow climber?

Exum had just pioneered the northeast ridge of Grand Teton; the company is still regarded as one of the finest guide services in the country.

Which monolithic peak, capped by Flathead sandstone, rises 5,728 feet above Jackson Lake?

Its Direct South Buttress offers a vertical mile of climbing that was considered the hardest route in the country when first done in 1953.

The oldest rocks dated in the park, among the most ancient in any US national park, are roughly how old?

They are Archean gneiss and schist; the light granite of the central peaks intruded them about 2.5 billion years ago.

The Tetons are the youngest range in the Rockies; roughly how long ago did they begin to rise?

They are a fault-block range with no foothills, tilting west as earthquakes on the Teton Fault lift the mountains and drop the valley.

Jackson Lake, the park's largest, is about how long?

It is a natural lake, but a dam at its outlet raised the water level almost 40 feet before the park existed.

The Jackson Lake Dam stores water for irrigation as part of which federal irrigation scheme?

The first log-crib dam failed in 1910; its concrete replacement sends water to farms more than 100 miles downstream.

Jackson Lake Dam designer Frank A. Banks later supervised the building of which giant dam?

His Jackson Lake structure raised the lake 30 feet above its natural level and holds 847,000 acre-feet.

Which English-born trapper's Shoshone wife, Jenny, gave her name to one of the park's best-known lakes?

Jenny and their six children died of smallpox in 1876; the neighbouring Leigh Lake carries his surname.

Jenny Lake sits behind a terminal moraine pushed out by a glacier that flowed out of which canyon?

The lake formed about 12,000 years ago, is 256 feet deep and is the launch point for most climbs of the big peaks.

Grand Teton contains the only commercial airfield inside a US national park; what is it called?

It was built in the 1930s and swallowed by the 1943 monument; it now has some of the strictest noise rules of any US airport.

Which president landed at the park's airport in an Army helicopter on September 25, 1963?

The runway had been extended to its current length in 1959, the year Frontier Airlines began the first scheduled service with DC-3s.

Which Fed chairman's love of fly fishing helped settle the Jackson Hole symposium at Jackson Lake Lodge in 1981?

The New York Times has called the late-August gathering the world's most exclusive economic get-together.

Which regional Federal Reserve bank hosts the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium?

Central bankers from some 70 countries have attended, and markets watch the speeches for hints about interest rates.

The Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center at Moose, opened in 2007, is named for a late what?

It was designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and paid for with a mix of federal grants and private donations.

Which woman bought Bill Menor's Snake River ferry at Moose in 1918 and ran it until 1927?

Her cabin hosted the 1923 meeting where Horace Albright and local ranchers began plotting a national park.

The 1925 log Chapel of the Transfiguration was sited so its altar window frames what?

The tiny Episcopal chapel belongs to St. John's in Jackson and was built for guests and staff of nearby dude ranches.

Mormon Row's much-photographed barns were built by the Chambers family and which other family?

The homesteads went up from 1908 on, and the district joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

The Mormon homesteaders who settled Antelope Flats in the 1890s arrived from which neighbouring state?

They created a clustered community of 27 homesteads, unlike the isolated ranches typical of Jackson Hole.

In December 2016 the park bought the 640-acre Antelope Flats parcel from the state for how much?

Half came from the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the other half from 5,421 private donors.

Which 1953 Western, shot near Kelly in Jackson Hole, has the Tetons looming behind its homestead sets?

Its plot echoes the 1892 Johnson County War between cattlemen and homesteaders.

Hunters taking part in the park's fall elk hunt must hold a state licence and be deputized as what?

The hunt is confined to areas east of the Snake River, and critics say wolves and grizzlies now make it unnecessary.

Elk migrating through the park winter on which federal reserve in Jackson Hole?

Their route between the refuge and Yellowstone runs straight through the park, so they are most numerous in spring and fall.

Which park resident is the fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere?

They share the sagebrush flats with bison and moose, while a small band of wild sheep keeps to the high rocky zones.

How many species of mammals have been recorded in Grand Teton National Park?

The return of the gray wolf, which wandered in from Yellowstone after reintroduction there, means every native mammal is present again.

What is the only trout native to the park's waters?

It is the only cutthroat subspecies native exclusively to big rivers, and its range is only the Snake below the dam down to Palisades Reservoir.

Which park bird is North America's largest waterfowl?

More than 300 bird species have been seen in the park, including 14 kinds of owl and a dozen woodpeckers.

Which park bird is the smallest species in mainland North America?

At the other end of the scale, the harlequin duck is occasionally spotted in the high canyons and the endangered whooping crane very rarely visits.

How many species of reptiles are documented in the park, none of them venomous?

They are three snakes and a single lizard, the northern sagebrush lizard, first reported in 1992.

Park bears can eat 40,000 of which insect a day when swarms die after mating?

That is roughly 20,000 kilocalories of fat and protein a day, one of an estimated 10,000 insect species in the park.

Researchers concluded in 2005 that Teton Glacier, the park's largest, could disappear within how long?

The park's dozen glaciers are all young, having re-formed during the Little Ice Age between 1400 and 1850.

Hidden Falls, the park's best-known waterfall just west of Jenny Lake, is roughly how high?

The park is not famous for waterfalls, but this one is a short hike or a boat shuttle away.

The Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve, opened in 2008, sits on the shore of which lake?

It was carved from the JY Ranch, the first dude ranch in Jackson Hole, which the Rockefeller family gave to the park in 2007.

What is the last dude ranch still operating inside the park boundaries?

It is a private inholding; the park still had about 110 such inholdings as of 2010, many owned by the state.

A 1925 landslide that reshaped the land just east of the park is named for which river?

It is the most recent example of rapid landscape change in the region.

Which photographer with the 1872 Hayden Survey took the first pictures of the Teton Range?

He travelled with the survey's Snake River Division under James Stevenson; the survey named many of the region's peaks and lakes.

The 1870 Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition recorded Grand Teton under what name?

The Grand Teton name won out on USGS maps by 1901, and the Board on Geographic Names trimmed 'Peak' off it in 1970.

The Enclosure, a stone structure below Grand Teton's summit, served the Shoshone for what?

It sits near the Upper Saddle at about 13,160 feet and may mark an ascent long before written records.

Roughly how big is Grand Teton National Park?

It includes the major peaks of the 40-mile Teton Range and most of the northern part of Jackson Hole.

The classic Owen-Spalding route up Grand Teton carries what Yosemite Decimal System rating?

Around 4,000 climbers a year attempt the peak, most via the Lower Saddle, and 38 distinct routes reach the top.

The park's whitebark pines are weakened by which invasive fungus, leaving them prey to native beetles?

Whitebark seeds are a fat-rich food for grizzlies, red squirrels and Clark's nutcrackers, which is why the tree is called a keystone species.

Since 1972, the David T. Vernon Native American art collection has been shown where in the park?

The exhibit has been there since 1972, though the 1956 building was judged substandard for the collection in 2005 and renovated in 2011-12.

Roughly how many climbers attempt to summit Grand Teton each year?

Most climb Garnet Canyon to the Lower Saddle, then take the Owen-Spalding or Exum Ridge routes; there are 38 distinct routes to the top.

How many distinct climbing routes lead to the summit of Grand Teton?

By the mid-1930s more than a dozen had already been established, including Glenn Exum's northeast ridge in 1931.

Where is the only place in Grand Teton National Park that snowmobiles are permitted?

Even there, the Park Service requires machines that meet its 'Best Available Technology' standard.

How many visitors did Grand Teton National Park receive in 2016?

It ranks among the ten most visited US national parks, averaging 2.75 million visitors a year from 2007 to 2016.

How many Teton peaks besides Grand Teton rise above 12,000 feet?

Eight of them, between Avalanche and Cascade Canyons, form the much-photographed Cathedral Group.