Trumpet Swan

Travel Destination - the Grand Tetons National Park

The Grand Tetons – Norman A. Rubin

(As one enters Grand Teton National Park the landscape can be overwhelming. The magnificent mountain range, as well as its historical background, captures the hearts of many, young and old.)

Standing on the edge of a rocky ridge, the mountain man squinted as he searched and studied the wide horizon. There in his sight were the peaks of the Grand Tetons cleared of their winter covering. The trapper threw off his furry cap in the air, and hallooed as loud as his voice can echo through the valley below.

Then the mountain pulled back from the edge of the ridge, lifted his trusty musket and pointed the barrel into the air and fired a shot. Soon returning halloos and shots were echoing over the valleys. Summer has come to the Rockies, and the mountain men gathered for another rendezvous.

One hundred and fifty years ago, when the fur trade was at its height, every mountain man would gather at the beginning of summer at a prearranged place under the Teton peaks.(1) There they would gather, barter the furs from the winter trapping, trade with local Indian tribe, swap yarns and gossip, and have one heck of a roaring time before heading back to the beaver streams for another lonely and long winter season.

Those spots for a mountain rendezvous were customarily held in a wide sheltered valley under the Teton peaks that was rich in water and game and with easy access through mountain trails. Such valleys were termed ‘holes’ by the mountain men; the one well known and popular with those grizzled trappers and trader was ‘Jackson’s Hole’, named after the famous mountain man Davy Jackson. (2)

But the valleys within the range have serious drawbacks. The mountain passes connecting the valleys are snowed in most of the year, and the wild and roaring Snake River coursing through the area is dangerously unpredictable, full of hidden rocks and sinkholes. As for farmers to plow the land or graze cattle, the soil is too rocky and there is little pasture during the winter months.

“Teton mountain range real wealth does not lie in furs, crops or cattle, but in the awe-inspiring scenery, especially the three peaks known as South, Middle, and Grand Teton.

‘Jackson Hole’ as it’s know today, is located at the Wyoming Teton Mountain Range just south of the Yellowstone National Park and has been one the crossroads of the west since prehistoric times. Blackfoot, Crow, Gros Ventre, and Nez Perce were among the Indian tribes that spent their summers there and frequently fought each other for the control of the valley’s vast herds of game roaming the pastures.

The Indians called the three peaks guarding the valleys “The Three Brothers’ or the ‘The Three White-haired Fathers’, or simply ‘the Pinnacles’. But the early French-Canadian voyageurs thought they looked like breasts, and they called these mountains them ‘Les Trois Tetons’, which means that in French and the name stuck and remained ‘The Tetons’ to this very day.

The Tetons rise so abruptly from the valley below that it is hard to believe they are actually mountains and not some skillfully artistic backdrop. Formations like these are the result of a geological movement called ‘slippage’. When pressure builds up along a fault line through the years, two rock faces slip past each other. One formation moves upward and the other move downward, creating mountains range. This is how the Teton mountain range was formed over five million years ago, which makes them comparatively young in geological terms.

Today the sharp crags and the sheer faces of the Teton Peaks provide and exciting challenge for mountain climbing enthusiasts. Visitors to Grand Teton National Park can take exciting rafting or kayak trips down the swift Snake River, or climb into a saddle for a pack trip into back country, with its spectacular scenery and the presence of great herds of elk and mule deer.

There’s a rendezvous in Jackson Hole every summer, and you’re invited. See you there!

NOTES:
1) With the decline of the fur trade and the passing of the great Indian tribes, Jackson Hole was largely abandoned except for a few homesteaders and other citizens who found the valley’s isolation to their liking.

2) The Snake River connected with the Columbia, Missouri River systems provided a convenient highway across the Rockies as far west as Oregon for the beaver hunters.

SIDEBAR:
“Located in northwestern Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park protects spectacular mountain scenery and a diverse collection of wildlife. The central feature of the park – the Teton Range — is a 40-mile-long mountain front rising from the valley floor some 6,000 feet. The towering Tetons were formed from earthquakes that occurred over the past 13 million years along a fault line. The jagged range includes its signature peak – Grand Teton, 13,770 feet (4,198 m) – and at least twelve pinnacles over 12,000 feet (3,658 m). Seven morainal lakes adorn the base of the range, and more than 100 alpine lakes dot the backcountry.
Elk, moose, mule deer, bison and pronghorn, are commonly found in the park. Black bears roam the forests and canyons, while grizzlies range throughout more remote portions of the park. More than 300 species of birds can be observed, including bald eagles, peregrine falcons and trumpeter swans."

National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior

About the Author

For Information Email, Call or Write:
GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK
PO Drawer 170
Moose, Wy 83012-0170

E-mail: Grand Teton National Park
Phone: 307-739-3300
Packet: 307-739-3600
Fax: 307-739-3488

The author is a former correspondent for the Continental News Service (USA), now retired - busy writing short stories and articles.

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[CD] The Trumpet of the Swan By White, E. B. $30.55 Louis, a voiceless Trumpeter swan, finds himself far from his wilderness home when he determines to communicate by learning to play a stolen trumpet. Author: White, E. B. Publication Date: 1992/04/01 Binding Type: CD/Spoken Word Grade Level: 46 Language: English Depth: 1.00 Width: 5.75 Height: 4.75

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