White Grass Dude Ranch
Grand Teton National Park
White Grass Dude Ranch
View of Grand Teton National Park from the main cabin at White Grass. Learn More
White Grass Dude Ranch
The National Park Service works to stabilize a cabin at the White Grass Dude Ranch. Learn More
This Place Matters!
The White Grass Dude Ranch historic district encompasses approximately thirty acres and thirteen buildings, including the main cabin, the Hammond cabin, 10 guest cabins and the shower/laundry building. Learn More
White Grass Dude Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming is one of the last great pioneer dude ranches. Homesteaded in 1913 by Harold Hammond and George Bispham, White Grass operated as a dude ranch from 1919 until 1985 when it was acquired by the National Park Service as part of Grand Teton National Park. The thirteen buildings on approximately thirty acres, designated the White Grass Dude Ranch Historic District, are being rehabilitated for use as the Western Center for Historic Preservation, a public-private partnership project of the National Trust and National Park Service.
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Vanishing Treasures
Raising the Hammond Cabin to make room for a new foundation.
Credit: Western Center for Historic Preservation
Rustic architecture has become synonymous with the National Park Service. Architectural icons like the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park and Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier National Park exhibit exquisite craftsmanship and irreplaceable log features. However, parks in the northern reaches of the West include other vernacular buildings, structures and sites that also merit attention, like White Grass Dude Ranch. These sites are part of our nation’s history and worthy of preservation, but many are in grave danger.
The State of America’s National Parks report released by the National Parks Conservation Association in June 2011 detailed the National Park Service’s lack of funding to adequately protect its historic and cultural resources and lack of staff skilled in historic preservation practices to provide maintenance for historic buildings and structures. The National Park Service estimates that of the $10.5 billion deferred maintenance backlog, $3 billion is for the 27,000 park structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including many that are located in national park units in the Alaska, Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain states.
Following in the path of the National Park Service’s Vanishing Treasures of the Arid West program that successfully preserves prehistoric and historic structures in National Parks in the Southwest, the Vanishing Treasures of the North program will preserve western vernacular structures while providing park maintenance staff with the technical and traditional skills to restore vernacular buildings.
Western Center for Historic Preservation
The Western Center for Historic Preservation (WCHP) plays a key role in the Vanishing Treasures of the North program by providing classroom and hands-on preservation training of preservation skills and traditional building crafts for National Park Service employees, volunteers, and contractors who will work side-by-side with the WCHP preservation crew on the rehabilitation of historic buildings at White Grass Dude Ranch and other historic buildings in Western park units. The 13 historic cabins at White Grass Dude Ranch will provide housing and training facilities for WCHP.
New log sill installed over the Hammond Cabin's new foundation.
Credit: Western Center for Historic Preservation
The rehabilitation of the Main Cabin, Hammond Cabin, shower/laundry building, and guest cabins will provide for a fully functional WCHP. The Main Cabin will be used as a classroom facility and office space for the center's employees. The Hammond Cabin will become a research library/meeting space, community kitchen and housing for the seasonal, on-site volunteer caretaker. The service/laundry building will be used to house utility services for the ranch. The ten guest cabins will provide lodging for volunteers and seasonal historic preservation crews and cultural resource researchers working in the park. The Main Cabin, a guest cabin, and the Hammond Cabin will be handicap accessible.
WCHP will operate seasonally at the White Grass Dude Ranch for a maximum 7-month period, with most activities taking place between late April and September. It will accommodate 15 to 30 daytime users. Ultimately, about 12 to 15 overnight users, including the volunteer site manager, could be accommodated as additional cabins are rehabilitated. The main carpentry and masonry shop for WCHP will be located in the Moose maintenance area (park headquarters) housed in the 5,000 square foot shop, a historic barn moved from the JY Ranch.
The National Park Service will complete the $3 million rehabilitation of the 13 cabins. The National Trust is raising $950,000 in private funds to match federal project dollars to assist in the restoration.< /p>
Scope of Work
The rehabilitation of White Grass Dude Ranch will encompass several treatments to adaptively use the Hammond Cabin, Main Cabin, service/laundry building and ten guest cabins for WCHP. All of the buildings are of log construction with rough hewn timbers and brown-stained log exteriors. The Main Cabin and Hammond Cabin provide the center of activity with easy access to the shower/laundry building and guest cabins.
Work will occur in four phases:
- Stabilize all 13 ranch buildings, including roofing, temporary door and window coverings, and shoring of any structural walls or roof components.
- Contractors and Grand Teton National Park maintenance staff will install basic utility infrastructure.
- WCHP crew will rehabilitate the Main Cabin, Hammond Cabin, and the shower/laundry building.
- WCHP crew, trainees and volunteers will rehabilitate the remaining buildings.
The construction season in the Jackson Valley is short and will have an effect on the amount of work that can be completed in a given year. It is estimated that six months of on-site work can be completed from May to October, depending on snow accumulation. During the winter, mill work for architectural features, such as doors, windows, and interior components, will occur in the shop at park headquarters in Moose, Wyoming.
Project Timeline of the White Grass Dude Ranch »
Contact
Barbara Pahl, Vice President of Field Operations
Western Region, National Trust for Historic Preservation
535 16th Street, Suite 750
Denver, CO 80202
Phone: 303-623-1504
Sande McDermott, Deputy Associate Regional Director
Intermountain Region, National Park Service
12795 West Alameda Parkway
Lakewood, Colorado 80228
Phone: 303-987-6611
Website: http://www.nps.gov/grte/historyculture/wgran.htm
