White Grass Dude Ranch

White Grass is a historic dude-ranch complex in the Moose-Wilson area of Grand Teton, now the base of the Western Center for Historic Preservation. It stopped operating as a guest ranch in 1985. The cabins are not a public inn or indoor attraction, and current visitor access to the grounds is unclear. Treat it as a preservation site: do not assume you can walk in or enter the buildings, and verify that any approach is open before setting out.

Harold Hammond came to Jackson Hole in 1901 and homesteaded here in 1913. George Tucker Bisham filed for the neighboring homestead two years later; the partners opened White Grass to paying guests in 1919, the valley's third dude ranch. The ranch passed through Depression-era ownership changes Hammond became sole owner in 1936 and married Marion Galey; her son Frank later revived the business after it came close to closing during World War II; Frank's death in 1985 ended ranch operations.

The ranch complex covers about 30 acres and includes 13 historic buildings. The Main Cabin served as the social hub, with a kitchen and dining room. The Girls' Cabin housed female employees, the Bachelors' Quarters housed male workers, and Hammond Cabin was home to the Hammond and Galey families. Repeat guests often came back to the same cabins, giving the place the feel of a small seasonal community.

Ranch hands diverted Stewart's Draw and ran cooling ditches beside the guest cabins. Runoff fed a swimming pool and Lake Ingeborg, named for Frank Galey's wife Inge. One more improvised detail survives in the history: an old car packed with cobbles was buried as a drain field.

White Grass was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. Stabilization and restoration began in 2005 with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the ranch became the first project of the Western Center for Historic Preservation. The center teaches traditional building crafts to National Park Service employees and volunteers so they can care for log architecture in western parks.