Jackson

The valley was home to Native peoples long before Europeans arrived, among them the Shoshone, Crow, Blackfeet, Bannock and Gros Ventre. In the early 19th century it became a crossing for trappers and mountain men: John Colter, freshly discharged from the Lewis and Clark expedition, passed through in the winter of 1807–08, and Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith and William Sublette followed. The valley — "Jackson's Hole" to the trappers, who used "hole" for a high mountain valley — took its name from David Edward Jackson, who spent a winter on the shores of Jackson Lake. On the Hayden Expedition of 1871–72 the photographer William Henry Jackson took the first photographs of the Teton Range and Yellowstone, and in 1872 Congress made Yellowstone a national park.

Ranching settlers followed, and the town was named in 1894 and incorporated in 1914. In 1920 Jackson elected an all-woman town government, with women as mayor, council members, marshal, clerk and treasurer. Grand Teton National Park was created in 1929 to protect the peaks, and over the following years John D. Rockefeller Jr. bought more than 30,000 acres of the valley floor and gave them to the government; despite much local opposition, most of that land joined the park in 1950.

Skiing began on Snow King, the town hill, in the 1930s, and the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort opened at Teton Village in 1966. Since then tourism and wealthy second-home owners have transformed the old cattle town, and since 1978 the Kansas City Federal Reserve has held its annual economic symposium in the valley.

Jackson trades on its western past and its mountain setting at once. Cowboy hats, boardwalks and saloon fronts survive around the town square, where in summer actors stage a mock shoot-out with bank robbers and a stagecoach, and the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar keeps saddles for bar stools. The four antler arches on the square, built from elk antlers shed on the neighbouring refuge, became famous far beyond Wyoming after a live webcam of the square went viral on the internet in 2016. Each spring local Boy Scouts auction antlers collected on the refuge.

The town also has a serious arts scene for its size. Galleries of western and wildlife art line the streets around the square, the National Museum of Wildlife Art holds one of the major collections of its kind, and the Center for the Arts, founded in 1991, gives local artists and performers a home. The Grand Teton Music Festival, founded in 1962, brings an orchestra of musicians from across North America and Europe for seven weeks every summer.

Outdoor sport is central to local identity: skiing on steep terrain, climbing in the Tetons, rafting and fishing on the Snake River, and hiking straight from town into the hills. Hollywood has long used the valley as a backdrop, from The Big Trail in 1930 and Shane in 1953 to Django Unchained in 2012.

Jackson had 10,760 people at the 2020 census, and an estimated 10,680 in 2024. It is the only incorporated town in Teton County and the largest incorporated town in Wyoming, and the principal town of a micropolitan statistical area that also includes Teton County, Idaho. The town sits at 6,237 feet, with Flat Creek running through it and the elk refuge bordering it to the north-east.

Tourism drives the economy: hotels, restaurants, shops, galleries, guiding and the ski industry employ much of the town, alongside construction and services. Wealth is very visible, and housing is the defining local issue. Less than 3 per cent of the land in Teton County is privately owned, and the average home in Jackson was valued at more than USD 1.9 million in 2025. More than a quarter of residents were Hispanic or Latino at the 2010 census.

The year turns on the seasons. Summer brings crowds bound for Grand Teton and Yellowstone; winter brings skiers; spring and autumn are quiet, and some businesses shut for weeks while residents travel themselves. Public schools, a branch of the county library and the START bus serve the year-round community.

Jackson eats like a western ranch town with a resort's money. Beef and elk are menu staples, from burgers to steaks, and elk turns up in dishes as unexpected as Bolognese. Rocky Mountain food in general is hearty and plain, and in Jackson it is often served with views of the mountains.

The chuckwagon meal is the classic local experience: beef stew, ribs, beans and cornbread eaten at long picnic tables, as at Dornan's in Moose at the foot of the Tetons. In town, Jackson Drug serves ice cream, bagel shops and casual burrito places feed workers and hikers, while the streets around the square hold dining rooms aimed at visitors with money to spend.

Beer and bars complete the picture. The Snake River Brew Pub brews its own beer, and the western saloons around the square, the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar above all, are where visitors and locals meet after a day on the slopes or the trails.