Coolidge establishes Grand Teton National Park
On this day in history in one of his final acts as president Calvin Coolidge dedicates acreage in the Grand Teton mountain range as a national park.A Vermont native Coolidge appreciated the outdoors and like many Americans enjoyed the romance of the American Wild West.He was an experienced rider and had an electric bucking horse installed in the White House as a form of exercise.Coolidges term coincided with the growth in popularity of dude ranches particularly in Wyoming and Montana.
Coolidge enjoyed them so much that the normally staid and unexpressive president even allowed photographers to photograph him in Indian headdress or cowboy attire.In the 1920s cattle ranching and homesteading in the Yellowstone and Grand Teton regions hit an economic slowdown.While some families persisted in farming and ranching others opened their lands to hunting fishing and dude ranching as a way to supplement their income.In 1925 residents of Jackson Hole Wyoming near the Tetons circulated a petition supporting the establishment of a park declaring we have tried ranching stock-raising and from our experience have become of the firm belief that this region will find its highest use as a playground.The petitioners found a receptive audience in President Coolidge who was an avid proponent of limiting commercial development in the Wests most spectacular natural areas.
In 1925 Coolidge signed Executive Order 4631 which marked off several hundred acres in the area for the preservation of the regions elk population.Two years later Coolidge closed an additional 23000 acres in the Tetons to homesteaders under Executive Order 4685.Coolidges actions angered many including farmers and ranchers who protested governmental control of how they could use land that was once considered their private property.
In addition Forest Service officials argued that Coolidges orders limited the agencys control over regional forestry practices.But with the help of a growing contingent of Americans from many walks of life who supported preservation of Americas natural wonders including industrialist John D.Rockefeller Coolidge persuaded Congress to approve the park.The original boundaries of the Grand Teton National Park included just the Teton mountain range and several lakes.
Total acreage of the park increased under Franklin Roosevelt in 1943 and again by an act of Congress in 1950.Today the park consists of more than 300000 acres.
