History of the White Grass Dude Ranch
White Grass Dude Ranch
The main cabin at the White Grass Dude Ranch in Grand Teton National Park. Learn More
It has been said that dude ranching is "the single most unique contribution of the Rocky Mountain West to the tourism industry."
White Grass was homesteaded in 1913 by Harold Hammond and George Bispham. It was not until 1919 that Hammond and Bispham welcomed their first dudes to the ranch. White Grass operated as a dude ranch from 1919 until 1985, making it the longest operating dude ranch in the Jackson Valley. In 1920 there were just four log buildings on the ranch—a main house, barn, storehouse, and bunkhouse—along with corrals and fencing. By 1922 Bispham had added three cabins, presumably for guests. Five years later White Grass could accommodate up to 25 guests. A year later Bispham retired and sold his share in the ranch to Harold Hammond. In the 1930s, despite the Great Depression, Hammond boosted his capacity to 35 guests by constructing more cabins, each with a private bath. The experience must have been satisfying because most guests were repeat visitors and some even convinced ranch owners to allow them to build their own family cabins which they returned to every summer.
After Harold Hammond's death in 1938, Marion and Frank Galey (Hammond's second wife and her son) took over ranch operations. Frank bought out his mother in the 1950s, and in 1957 he sold the ranch to the National Park Service retaining life estate. Frank died in 1984, and in 1985 control of the property transferred to the National Park Service. After the transfer, the White Grass cabins received little to no maintenance.
It was in 1987 that individuals who had been associated with White Grass as former dudes or employees began to voice their concerns about the fate of the ranch to the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The site was listed as a Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. However, all preservation ideas were dismissed based on the park's belief that protecting these places "contradicts the value which Congress sought to preserve the park." It was not until the mid 1990s that the park's stance towards historic preservation began to change. In 1996, the cultural resources in Grand Teton National Park were nominated as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
In August 2002, Richard Moe (president emeritus of the National Trust) and Karen Wade (former director of the Intermountain Region of the National Park Service) visited White Grass Dude Ranch. They were accompanied by Steve Martin (former superintendent of Grand Teton National Park) and Barbara H. Pahl, the vice president of field operations for the National Trust's Western Region. After seeing the neglect and lack of maintenance, Wade suggested that White Grass Dude Ranch be rehabilitated for use as a preservation training center, as a way to attract resources to address the Park's other preservation needs.
Plans were developed and work began in 2005 to rehabilitate the 13 historic cabins at White Grass Dude Ranch to be used as the Western Center for Historic Preservation (WCHP). WCHP’s primary purpose is to preserve the rustic park architecture and address the deferred maintenance backlog of historic structures in park units of Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and the Intermountain Regions of the National Park Service. In 2011, the work at White Grass Dude Ranch provided the impetus for the Vanishing Treasures of the North program.
The goal is to have the ranch rehabilitated and fully operational for the centennial celebration of the 1916 Organic Act.
