Why National Monuments are BANNED in Wyoming 

The ironic thing about this is that nearly the exact opposite thing is happening to my little unincorporated hometown village in Central Florida. It's one of the last places in the area that has practically no development. In fact the locals want to keep it that way. They would've loved something like the antique act to have swooped in and done something to permanently prevent homebuilders from attempting to develop the land any further.

I was a park ranger at GTNP many years ago and heard only a vague version of this story during my job orientation. A few times, I did get some comments from locals about government overreach and the park belonged to them, but that was about it. Thank you for a great and informative video!

The mentioned cross-purposes between federal agencies reminds me of an encounter I had in 1995. I was on a project in Tucumcari, New Mexico. As we walked toward the only open restaurant with breakfast, I noticed a federal truck peppered with hatches on its sides. As the driver climbed out, I asked “what does that truck carry?” he replied that they are transporting muskellunge to the Pacific Northwest to stock the Columbia river. I asked why. He said, for sport fishing. I was incredulous because there are protected salmon on the Columbia river and muskies would be their top predator. He assured me that the muskies were sterilized. That reply reminded me of the less than 100% efficacy of fish sterilization. I asked if fish and wildlife knew about this stocking effort, and he said he did not know.

I just visited the park a month ago. I had no idea of its history. But the magnificence is undeniable. I really really loved the production value in this video. Your organization and storytelling is awesome and I feel you've improved since I first started watching you. Especially with the subtle music in the background as you spoke.

I live in Western Canada, but have been on many roadtrips across the western states & provinces. Grand Teton is in my top three favorite places I've ever been. The natural beauty is just indescribable and unmatched. So glad it's a protected area! I've been there three times now (only once as an adult), but I hope to go back many more times. I'd love to see the valley in the winter, covered in snow.

Great story! I visited the park several times as a child in the early 1950’s and later as an adult. We did a 19 mile hike behind the mountains when I was 10. I never really understood why the Tetons were separate from Yellowstone given that it was so close to it, and I’ve never understood😢 why Jackson Hole got its fame. Thank you so much. It’s all much clearer now. I never knew about the politics.

People are unaware of the loss of land use when it becomes a national park, swimming holes go away primitive camping is restricted it is no longer used by locals as public lands it is you can use what we say. Some are good and some are not good, ck out little river canyon alabama to see what was lost.

your enthusiasm is infectious, It's a gift you use well in these videos. Thank you

We drove through both Yellowstone and Grand Teton just 4 days ago, and I'm very grateful both parks exist. If the effort and sacrifice hadn't been made all those years ago, we wouldn't be enjoying the beautiful scenery that we now have. The mountains would still be there, but there would be million dollar homes in the landscape with the owners enjoying their magnificent views while ruining ours.

Hey Cameron, I had been curious about why the corridor between The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone is associated with John D. Rockefeller Jr. and this video cleared that right up. Keep the good stuff coming!

Thank you for all the awesome content and great videos!!

Just found your channel and I am hooked. Loads of great information I did not have any clue about. Thank you so much !

Informative and well-told. Thank you! I subbed and look forward to more stories.

You should make a video on why there are no national parks in Idaho, its an interesting history! edit: I know there are many national forests, historical sites, reserves, monuments, etc, I live here and have been to a lot of them. Im referring specifically to the attempts to raise them to become one of the few (63 today) National Parks.

This is a crazy story, thank you for taking the time to research and put it all together in a nice narrative way. I've never heard any of this information before and it is fascinating to learn about.

You did a fantastic job articulating the many facits to this story. And aside from the beauty and grandur of the park, I had no idea of its turbulent backstory. Very interesting; thank you for sharing.

I love the Wind River Range as much or more than the Natl Parks. Fewer people, fewer rules, ranchers allowed. It works.

A video on your recommended reading list for topics on our national lands would be great. Thanks!

I had heard of this struggle over the park land, but not in this detail. We stayed at the Moulton Ranch cabins when they were still renting. The park is truly stunning. Thank goodness it has become a national park, because it would absolutely be GONE if it wasn't. It would all be private property with no chance to see it from the spread of mansions built there. Just look at the town of Jackson Hole. The rich people can't live there, because the SUPER rich people have priced them out of town. The businesses have to bus the workers into town from 90 minutes away. There is no place where they can afford to live.

Fascinating history and evolution of a National Park. Well told and researched, thank you for providing this good content!

I love this channel, while I don't watch it religiously or binge it when I do it's just so good. Thank you for spot lighting National Parks!

You did an excellent job in presenting this. You have a future in this biz for sure. I was not aware of this well done history of the Grand Teton National Park. I subscribed to see more.

Very interesting! I lived in Jackson Hole Wyoming. And I also lived in Teton Village. I worked at snow King and Alpenhof . Alpenhof was sold in 1988 but it’s an historical site. What an awesome place to live in the early 80’s. Haven’t been back heard it’s changed as all towns do!

Very interesting and fascinating history. Thank you for posting this!

In 1972, Fossil Butte National Monument was established near Kemmerer, Wyoming. It was established via Congress and not through the antiquities act. Also, the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, which is managed by the National Park Service, was established in 1966 via Congress. It's conceivable that another monument could be established in Wyoming.

That was interesting. I hadn't realized that the park, as now delineated, was brand new when my parents took us on family trips out west in the early 50s. I sympathize with just about all groups whose interests came into conflict, and appreciate the way you told their stories.

Great video dude! Love the way you explain things ❤️

Just recently spent a few days in the park and couldn't help but be curious about the background behind the tourism situation there while planning the trip. The whole area (park and surrounding cities) all thrive on tourism and ensure you pay handsomely into their system for your visit.

The Grand Teton Park is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It is heart achingly beautiful. I am so glad that all those people persevered. Thank you so much for telling its story.

Just before the total eclipse in 2017, I drove up to the Gran Tetons and discovered that the camping spots had all filled up a week or more earlier. The Park Service people were not about to change the rules and let people share camping spots. It didn't matter to them that people needed someplace to camp in anticipation of this once in a lifetime event, no, the rules were that one person per camp site and no tents outside of designated sites. Thus I quickly discovered that the P.S. takes "The Rules" to a absurd extreme and there is no flexibility in their thinking. The rules are the rules and the rules are the rules are the rules and the rules are the rules, Etc, Etc. My backup plan was to go to the beautiful Slide Lake camp run by the Forest Service. The guy who ran the campgrounds there was much more practical and sympathetic and allowed a kind of "tent city" to be established on some open land. I just happened to drive by as a family was leaving and I asked if I could have their spot and they said yes. I then went to the Forest Service rep. and he said "sure, if the first group gave it to you, it was yours." Knowing the Park Service, this never would have happened. There are so many other places where the Park Service has taken complete control in the last few years, I'm getting to really dislike them and all their inflexible, unbreakable, brain-dead RULES. In Utah I avoid the P.S. camps and greatly prefer the State Park camps. By the way, it is amazing how much money the P.S. has pumped into beautiful and elaborate "visitor's centers" when it is the natural scenery I've come to see, not the inside of a palatial "visitor's center."

Breath taking beauty. Spent a week at Colter Village Campground. A few of the pics are hanging on my walls as I write this. Love our Parks.

Well told, Cameron. I wonder which landmarks in Wyoming might have become national monuments or parks if the Antiquities Act had not been banned.

Fascinating story, definitely would like to hear more of these.

Very interesting! Excellent video on one of the absolute best National Parks in the USA. Loved the park footage too. Really enhances the story. I need to get back to this park soon!

I'm very glad that RU-vid suggested your channel! Excellent video on Jackson Hole and the Tetons!

You have a good voice for narrating. Good channel.

Another great video! keep up the great work!

This is the first of your episodes I have seen - worth a subscription. I wish (boy, do I wish!) I could afford a Patreon commitment at this time. Hopefully by Q3 of next year....

Really interesting. I've seen this sort of tension and controversy at the state level as well. In Wisconsin, the creation of Peninsula state park was fraught during the interwar years, now, it's the gem of the entire area. I imagine people haven't changed much.

I live outside the park, I love to visit and recreate whenever possible. I also know people whose families homesteaded here over 100 yrs ago and were run off their land, I understand their hatred of the gov't intrusion.

I have lived in Wyoming my entire life and have been in the same area within a two-hour drive east of the park. I've known it has quite the history but never studied it. Listening to the research you have presented makes sense and all ties in with the political climate and money there. It is considered the only blue part of the state. And yes, the locals still have the attitude it belongs to them and not the government. I go there frequently and love the scenery but don't care to drive into Jackson Hole or Teton Village anymore.

Very good presentation, thank you. The famed actor who took part in the cattle drive was Wallace Beery. You can pronounce his last name as beer with a y at the end, or as berry as in raspberry.

This guy looks like someone who would have a national park diary. Thanks for sharing this is a great idea look forward to you getting a new microphone and using compression. Can tell you love this stuff

Excellent story telling and excellent footage. Glad to see you are a fan of Dune, as well!

I'm from Florida but I like to go to Jackson for the Rendezvous Festival, I go snowmobiling for a few days in Yellowstone and Bridger, then a few days of skiing at Teton Village or Snow King. I just love it there, the place is beautiful. I'm glad our forefathers persevered it.

I was not aware of this. I had no idea about all the opposition. Thank you for sharing! I’ll be sure to share this video with friends and family.

The history of GTNP you describe here is truly amazing. How it all came to be, and I hope I speak for many - the reason we all love this national park. What a beautiful place to visit without restrictions for the most part. So grateful for those who sacrificed to make this happen, and thanks for a great explanation - well done!

This was a very cool episode. Thank you 😊

Excellent documentary. Nice channel. Thank you.

I didn't know this! I'm glad it is all preserved. Such a pretty place with so much wildlife

This was fascinating! I think it all sounds so crazy but thank goodness we have Grand Teton NP-l love it. I love all of the NPs. Thanks for this!

Fascinating and very well done. I just discovered this channel and have subscribed.

Great job! Very informative about the Grand Tetons. Thanks

I first visited grand Teton NP in March 1988 by a 50 passenger flight out of Denver. The pilot lost control of the plane on the snowy runway and we skidded sideways down the tarmac. We all cheered when he regained control. Collectively we all took a breath and got off the plane. Later I learned the Airport is in the national park. Odd.

Saw your video on our coastal redwoods, while I think it’s a bit of an incomplete picture as to the question it answers I still liked it. In that vein have you consider doing Stout Grove ?

Great job! I did a book report on this park as a kid...in the 60's.

Thank you, I spent the summers of 68 and 69 travelling the country and visiting many of our National Parks and Monuments. Although I visited Yellowstone, I only saw The Grand Tetons from a distance.. I see now what a wonderful area I missed, but your story adds a whole new dimension to this beautiful place ands what it took to protect it. I spent more time in Monuments than Parks and unlike popular belief, many Monuments can be as beautiful and almost a large as the parks. Though often less visited, which I liked because sometimes I was nearly the only visitor, I had a glimpse into significant areas of our Nation which are often overlooked. You are doing a wonderful service to us because you are highlighting what is often unknown about the history of these great regions. Thank you so much, Frederick "Rik: Spector

very cool journalism keep going

I love your storying telling ability

Wow! I have been there and skied Jackson Hole for a week. Did not know about this. Interesting. Thank you.

This is probably why the area is separate socially from the rest of the state. Most of the people in Jackson are not part of the original residents. There always tension between them and the rest of the state because of the wealth that flows through it.

Really fascinating. What a tug of war that Antiquities Act. I'm a Canadian following the development of our own National Park (Parks Canada and Historical branch) system. I wonder if Aldo Leopold had any input into Grand Teton's establishment? Thank-you!

You should look into Wisconsins Apostle Islands. I know they're technically a national lakeshore, but I really think they could be a candidate for a future national park

Enjoying your posts. BTW, I think that is Wallace Beery, not Beede.

Many years ago, we had an opportunity to stay out at the incredible Muir Wilderness Center in the area. Jackson Hole was too snooty back in 2006, I'm sure it's horrible now.

I love Grand Teton NP! Very interesting history. Thanks. I’ll be subscribing.

Thank you for this excellent teaching tool.

Great story! No, I didn’t know this before your presentation. 😮

Great storytelling!

Great job. I think it is always important to keep the phrase public land, public access at the forefront of any discussion about our public lands. The national monument classification pretty much keeps everyone off land we all own.

Very informative. Thanks for sharing.

Those Dune books in the background looking pretty fly!

Hey! So I’d love to see more information on Katahdin Woods and Waters national monument. The place is beautiful and wild and I feel like the situation there might have some story. The only way to get into it is through an unpacked road and there’s no facilities. The only visitor center is miles away

I was not aware of the legalities. But in 2001 I went to Jackson Hole for Christmas, my husband having passed recently.. I took two different sleigh rides out with the Elk in the Elk Preserve and enjoyed the mountain views and the little communities in the area. I also enjoyed driving around some of the farms and seeing the hay stacked like loafs of bread. I am glad they included the land that Rockefeller bought and donated. It helped to make my trip a success. Thanks for making this video and explaining the different actions that the government took to make it what it is now.

Great video and narrative. Thank you for the research and effort. The Grand Tetons is probably the most beautiful range I have run across in my travels in North America. The lowlands only make the mountains look more majestic. I have Kodak slides from the 70's when I was just a kid. They look fantastic.

Back in 1968, my parents and I went on vacation and visited the Teton/ Jackson Ho;e and Yellowstone area. All three of us loved the areas, the beauty and more. I am extremely happy that all of the Teton/ Jackson Hole area was saved since it would have been a vast loss to the natural beauty of the area if it was not all saved.

Very interesting history - I knew part, but not all of the background. I was a resident of Jackson, WY for 15 years (2005-2020) and found an unfortunate, subtle shift in the purpose and usage of both YNP and GTNP. Originally, the parks were preserved so people could enjoy the unspoiled, natural beauty, as well as see wildlife in its natural environment. The shift I that I saw, is that the land is now preserved for the wildlife primarily, and not so much for the people to enjoy - with more and more restrictions being placed on spaces within the parks. With only 3% of Teton County being private land, it has artificially raised the price of real estate in and around the Jackson Hole area, so that only the extremely wealthy can afford to live there. Sad.

Excellent content and a well-written script, much superior to most YT videos.

Just found your channel. Great stuff! Has a Johnny Harris vibe.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton really should be operated as one park. I was out there in 2017 for the Eclipse and traffic was backed up for miles going North getting through the Yellowstone gates.

Excellent summary. New subscriber.

Have you done one on the Boulder-whitecloud wilderness in idaho? Definitely another interesting battle that took decades.

Thanks for sharing this story, I didn't know.

Years ago I gentleman that had been a history professor at the University of Wyoming wrote a book called "The Cruible for Conservation" all about the strugle and the fight for Teton National Park. I gave my copy of the book to the public library in Falgstaff Arizonia I believe. There use to be a book that the NPS was forced to sell in the late 80's because it show them in a good light. Called "Playing God in Yellowstone" and that is what the Author Alston Chase contened that that is what park Service was doing especially in the Yellowstone NP. I wound up speniding the better part of 30 years working on yellowstone, the Everrglades, and both the North Rim and The South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

What an excellent summary of the complex and complicated history surrounding the creation of Grand Teton National Park. Missing from the narrative is the perspectives of the Native Americans who lived in the greater Yellowstone-Teton region. I realize that this omission probably reflects the lack of political power among these marginalized people.

The French Canadian Voyageurs named the mountains Grande Taton . You can guess what they were equating the mountains to.

Good job, great story !!!

If you're looking for story ideas, I have a suggestion (how good a suggestion it is I'll leave up to you): the history of professional sporting events in national park service units. Surprisingly, there's been at least one. In the 1980s there was a professional bicycle stage race, the Coors Classic, that used the road through Colorado National Monument in Colorado. The annual event used the national monument as a venue four or five years in a row, until the Coors Classic ended around 1988 or '89. In early 2010s a group created a new bicycle stage race in Colorado that came to be called the USA Pro Challenge. The race organization and local boosters wanted to once again use Colorado National Monument as the location for a stage but the National Park Service declined the request. While I personally completely agree with the decision by the National Park Service to decline to host the event, even I have to admit that the reasons given for refusing the event weren't consistent and often changed. As a result, I can't say for certain why the National Park Service refused the event organizer's request. I don't know if there are any other examples of a professional sporting event, or even an amateur sporting event, taking place in a national park or monument or if there were other attempts to do so. I believe Canyonlands National Park has hosted some sort of racing events on the White Rim Trail, but that may have been more informal. There may be others examples, though.

Like the content and appreciate all the effort

Excuse me. This first national monument America ever had is Devils Tower National Park. Located in WY.

Thank you. That was well written and I enjoyed your narrative. The ranchers and tourist wranglers were probably better served by leaving the area a national monument, but some folks are stubborn in spite of their best interests. Now that we have a park, the protections are locked in. I've lived in the American West for all of my adult life and have visited the parks many times. If you're reading this and have never been, that area of NW Wyoming is uniquely beautiful and still very wild. Auto access to most of Yellowstone and the uplands of the Tetons is restricted -- similarly to my neighborhood park, Rocky Mountain -- however, there is still plenty to see from the roads. To enjoy the wilderness areas, as in most of our western national parks, you must get out and walk. I lost count the number of times I've enjoyed these parks, but it is probably well over a dozen. If you haven't been, go. Mid-September is a good time to visit, after the crowds have gone and before the snow sets in, although that's a winter experience many enjoy in the Jackson area. Thanks again for your video.

Very informative. Subbed 👍

Well done. I wonder if you could take a look at a National momument in my area that has been used to limit human access, Organ Mts National momument. It was originally just that, but has been change to Wilderness research areas as well that is beginning to limit human access. What are the long term issues human access? again I enjoyed this look at the Tetons. Thanks

Grateful for this presentation. It's obvious a lot of time and energy went into the concise explanation. On another note. I find it remarkable that use without ownership is allowed. It's stealing from my vantage point. What do I know. I live in suburbia.

Top shelf, man. Loved it. Now regarding Jackson lake… I’ve heard a couple of stories. One, the recent drought has brought water level way down. The other, Idaho potato farmers have claim to the water and can draw anytime. Any one know what’s going on?

Knew lot of this as is one of my favorite places, so beautiful there

I always admired that country. Good to know the history of the park and the people who live around there.

Just found this channel. Subscribed.

Great video!

For complex issues try Pt. Reyes National Seashore. Ongoing competing constituencies stemming from how it was created. Poorly managed and loved to death by millions.