Welcoming Sign, 1930's Jackson, until comparatively recently, has remained a small isolated town, primarily devoted to agriculture. In recent years a major change has overtaken the town and the valley. Jackson, undated. Photo by Charles Wesley Andrews. Charles Wesley Andrews (1875-1950) was a Portland, Oregon, postcard publisher who documented scenes in Washington State, Oregon, and Idaho. Many call Jackson "Jackson Hole." The "Hole" is a valley lying to the north of the town. The town is not "Jackson Hole." The area was settled in the 1890's and is named after a partner in the Ashley Fur Company, David Jackson. For discussion of the founding of Jackson, see below. Jackson, Wyoming, 1930's Teton County, of which Jackson is the county seat, was formed out of Lincoln County in 1921 notwithstanding that the area embraced by the new county failed to meet either population or valuation requirements for the formation of a county. As explained by Chief Justice Potter in State ex rel. Budge v. Snyder, 31 Wyo. 333, 225 P. 1102 (1924), an appeal challanging the formation of the County: The fact is, as we judicially know, that the territory within the boundaries of Teton county is surrounded on all sides by high mountain ranges, without railroad communication with the county seat of the parent county, except by wagon road over a mountain pass about 28 miles to a railroad station in Idaho more than 100 miles from said county seat. Indeed, there was not then and is not now any railroad within said boundaries. And for many months during each year it was very difficult, and at times practically impossible, for the people of that area to reach the county seat of the county to which they then belonged, and the expense was usually too great for a trip upon ordinary business. In actuality, the round trip in the 1920's to the Lincoln County seat of Kemmerer took three days. The person who wished to visit the court house would have to drive over Teton Pass to Idaho, then take the train to Kemmerer. Not withstanding that the Valley and Teton Pass had been traversed by early trappers including John Colter, John Hoback and William Sublette, as well as the 1872 Hayden Expedition, no wagons were brought through the pass until 1885 when R. E. Miller brought one across. Stage Station, Teton Pass, approx. 1900. The alternative to Teton Pass, would be to attempt the crossing to Pinedale in Sublette County through Hoback Pass and then to Kemmerer. The road over Teton Pass to Victor, Idaho, 1920's Bringing in freight was an interesting proposition. Indeed, one early settler allegedly ordered a piano from a mail order house. The piano in due course arrived via train at Victor, Idaho. It was then discovered that the wagon with the piano could not make it up the steep grades of Teton Pass. It was necessary to build a special cart and bring the piano in by way of an old Indian trail. Freight Wagons crossing Teton Pass between Victor, Idaho, and Jackson, undated. Indeed, the isolation was noted by Owen Wister who summered in the Hole near Moose. Wister in his novel The Virginian wrote: Somewhere at the eastern base of the Tetons did those hoofprints disappear into a mountain sanctuary where many crooked paths have led. He that took another man's possessions, or he that took another man's life, could always run here if the law or popular justice were too hot at his heels. Steep ranges and forests walled him in from the world on all four sides, almost without a break; and every entrance lay through intricate solitudes. Snake River came into the place through canyons and mournful pines and marshes, to the north, and went out at the south between formidable chasms. Every tributary to this stream rose among high peaks and ridges, and descended into the valley by well-nigh impenetrable courses: Pacific Creek from Two Ocean Pass, Buffalo Fork from no pass at all, Black Rock from the To-wo-ge-tee Pass--all these, and many more, were the waters of loneliness, among whose thousand hiding-places it was easy to be lost. Down in the bottom was a spread of level land, broad and beautiful, with the blue and silver Tetons rising from its chain of lakes to the west, and other heights presiding over its other sides. And up and down and in and out of this hollow square of mountains, where waters plentifully flowed, and game and nature' pasture abounded, there skulked a nomadic and distrustful population. This in due time built cabins, took wives, begot children, and came to speak of itself as "The honest settlers of Jackson's Hole." It is a commodious title, and doubtless to-day more accurate than it was once. Some of the first settlers in the isolated valley were Mormons, guided in over Teton Pass by former Pony Express rider Nick Wilson in 1889. Others with a less sterling reputation may have also come into the valley. Idaho bank robber Hugh Whitney was suspected of hiding out in the area as was the horse thief Jack Bliss. Indeed, in 1895, the Indian Agent at Fort Hall wrote his superior in Washington City of the reputation of Jackson's Hole, "There are a few good citizens ranching in the Jackson Hole country, the majority of the citizens being men 'who have left their country for their country's good,' the Jackson Hole country being recognized in this country as the place of refuge for outlaws of every description from Wyoming, Idaho, and adjacent States." Winter Stage from Jackson, Wyoming to Victor, Idaho, undated. Photo by charles Wesley Andrews. As late as the early 1920's, the United States Mail was delivered by stage coach rather than by motor truck and in the winter passage out of the valley was by means of a horse-drawn sleigh. Winter Stage from Jackson to Victor, Idaho, undated. Photo by Charles Wesley Andrews. Teton Pass, 1946. Photo by William P. Sanborn. Music this page: When Its Springtime in the Rockies The twilight shadows deepen into night, dear The city lights are gleaming o'er the snow I sit alone beside the cheery fire dear I'm dreaming dreams from out the long ago I fancy it is springtime in the mountain The flowers with their colors are aflame And ev'ry day I hear you softly saying "I'll wait until the springtime comes again" When it's springtime in the rockies I am coming back to you Little sweetheart of the mountains With your bonny eyes of blue Once again I'll say "I love you" While the birds sing all the day When it's springtime in the rockies In the rockies, far away When it's springtime in the rockies I am coming back to you Little sweetheart of the mountains With your bonny eyes of blue Once again I'll say "I love you" While the birds sing all the day When it's springtime in the rockies In the rockies, far away I've kept your image guarded in my heart, dear I've kept my love for you, as pure as dew I'm longing for the time when I shall come, dear Back to that dear, old western home and you I fancy it is springtime in the mountains The maple leaves in first sky-green appear I hear you softly say, my queen of Maytime "This springtime you have come to meet me here" When it's springtime in the rockies I am coming back to you Little sweetheart of the mountains With your bonny eyes of blue Once again I'll say "I love you" While the birds sing all the day When it's springtime in the rockies In the rockies, far away Next Page: Jackson continued.