Jackson, Wyoming City Guide
For over 20 years, Pamela Lanier's Jackson, Wyoming Travel Guide has been your connection to Jackson's tourism community with invaluable details on local attractions, restaurants, shopping, museums, history, outdoor recreation and more.
Jackson Hole History
 Named for fur trapper Davey Jackson, the Jackson Hole valley was a good habitat for beavers and other fur-bearing animals and was a crossroads for six main trapper trails between 1810 and 1814. The mountain men of the area held annual summer fur trade shows, but in 1845 fashionable beaver hats were replaced with upscale East Coast silk hats and for forty years the Jackson Hole valley remained relatively uninhabited. In 1872 the government designated Yellowstone as America’s first national park, years before Wyoming even became a state. Settlers began arriving in the area in 1883 and by the 1890’s were sprinkled about valley villages. The town of Jackson was laid out in 1897 and a bank, stores, park, and churches were soon built. Ranching became the main industry and lifestyle in Jackson Hole, and today thousands of elk spend summers in Grand Teton National Park and their winters at the National Elk Refuge. After 1900 many ranchers became “dude ranchers,” receiving guests and offering guide services, attracting vacationing hunters, fly fisherman, and horseback riders. When the eastern half of the Teton mountain range was designated as a National Park in 1929, tourism began to outperform ranching as Jackson Hole’s main industry. Today, Jackson Hole thrives as a recreational playground during both the summer and winter months, also boasting numerous art galleries, award-winning bed and breakfast retreats, rodeos, live music, craft fairs, and, of course, breathtaking scenery.
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