Lucas-Fabian Homestead

Lucas-Fabian Homestead is a cluster of eleven surviving homestead buildings beside Cottonwood Creek, at the base of the Grand Teton. It is a worthwhile outdoor stop for the cabins, their mountain setting and the story of the woman who built her life here.

From Jackson, go to Moose Junction and take Teton Park Road toward Moose. Pass Teton Glacier Turnout and look for the small unpaved parking area on the west side just north of it; it is easy to miss. Park in front of the gate and follow the path across Cottonwood Creek to the homestead. Plan on an outdoor visit: available visitor information does not establish whether the buildings open inside.

Lucas left her husband, returned to college as a single mother and became a teacher. After retiring in 1913, she joined her siblings in Jackson Hole and homesteaded south of Jenny Lake. In 1924, at 58, she climbed the Grand Teton with 16-year-old Paul Petzoldt as her guide, becoming the second woman to reach the summit. The cabins are part of a much bigger story about a woman making a life in a demanding mountain landscape.

Lucas resisted selling to the Snake River Land Company. After her son sold the land in 1938, buyer J.D. Kimmel planned a subdivision; Harold Fabian befriended him, and Kimmel sold the property for future park expansion. Fabian later used Lucas's cabin as a summer home and office headquarters from the 1940s to 1985. The district carries both names because the homestead's history continued after Lucas.

The homestead and Fabian Place became a National Register historic district in 1998. After decades of vacancy and weather damage, restoration work in 2015 and 2016 repaired chinking and chimneys and replaced roofs, windows and doors. For a photo, frame one of the cabins in front of the Grand Teton; the building and mountain together show what makes this stop distinctive.