Fire 2

05/23/2017 at 4:30pm

Hello Everyone!

Our “pack” (Fire 2 as we are known while in Yellowstone), was assigned to the far end of West Broadway st. which was approximately 1.3 miles away from the hotel we were staying at.  As we were being driven to the location (Albertson’s one of  the local grocery stores) where we were going to begin this adventure of learning more about the town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming we were able to get a feel of the geographic location.  We noticed the outer part of West Broadway was much more residential with nail spas, banks, houses, etc. which were all spread out when compared to the Broadway street you see in the more commercial central town area which consists of store fronts that are attached and clustered more together due to the limited amount of privately owned land.  The town is also full of short buildings, and no sky scrapers.  This is to conserve the western vibe of the town which is what attracts so many tourists each year to come and stay in the town.  We also noticed that street is surrounded by mountain ranges on both sides.  On one side you have the mountains which are used for skiing, and contain more trees and plants.  On the other side of the street you see mountains that are not as “lush” with less trees, and more bare ground.

When we arrived at the grocery store, we decided to enter the grocery store to see if we could find anyone to talk to briefly about their view on the town of Jackson.  After taking a short lap around the grocery store we found a man named troy in the produce section.  Troy has lived in Jackson his entire life, and loves this town for many reasons.  A direct quote form Troy as to why he loved this town was, “the people are nice, and there are no drive by shootings.”  This relates to his next point that this is a small town, and everyone knows everyone if they are locals.  There is a sense of community and safety that comes with the small town aspect.  Troy also loves the easy accessibility of outdoor activities such as: fishing, hiking, and camping that Jackson provides being so close to the Grand Tetons.  After we left the grocery store we started to head back down the path toward the the hotel, but we were able to recognize different stickers, signage, pamphlets and just observe the people in Jackson.

                       (Photo of car with bumper sticker that says, “JH.”)

As stated above, we saw many forms of public documents.  Although we were walking in a more residential area, locals were still promoting their stores to everyone, not just residents of Jackson as well as promoting lodging for guests even away from the commercial town where most hotels are.  We also saw a big sign that was warning drivers of deer crossing while walking down the street.  We saw a car with the bumper sticker that read, “JH.”  This shows the local pride throughout the town, and that they are proud to have Jackson Hole represented on their car  (picture of this posted above).

            (The photo to the left is cautioning drivers of potential animal crossing).

We saw homes that were built going up the mountain slope (skiing mountain side), and not just on the flat terrain.  The houses were not in a typical suburban community we would see in Farmville, but rather spread around as much as the small amount of private land available to them will allow.  This observation of the houses leads into the conversation we had with two individuals outside of a liquor store who were happy to talk to us about Jackson.  Originally we were speaking to a man named Mark who moved to Jackson 12 years ago for the skiing.  He said he saw moose quite frequently, and that tourists need to respect wildlife and the rules that are put in place to maintain the 25 yard rule for elk, moose, bison, etc., and the 100 yard rule for wolves and bears.  He focused a lot on the housing crisis in Jackson.  In summary, Mark said that most locals are working 2-3 jobs in order to just live in Jackson.  Then you have the millionaires that live in Jackson as well, but there is not “true” middle class in this town.  A woman named Tammy chimed in on the conversation, and said in summary as someone who moved here eight years ago she sees tourism as a great benefit to this town.  However, with all these tourist come people who fall in love with this town, and then in turn want to move to the town.  This great demand to live in Jackson, and the small amount of privately owned land allows the housing prices to remain insanely high.

(Picture above is of signs we passed that is promoting visitors to come stay on the residential side of town, also you can see the ski mountains in the background as touched on in the beginning).

All in all, Jackson is what we expected after doing some pre-departure quantitative investigation on the median income, and housing prices.  Jackson has turned into a “tourist” town after being promoted by those who visited before them.  Tourist flock to Jackson for its small-town western vibe it presents itself as.  Locals have differing opinions when it comes to the tourists, however, most will agree that they are necessary for the economy in Jackson.  Exploring Jackson was quite the adventure, and we cannot wait to be back for one last day at the end of our trip as we now head to Gardner, Montana for the next few days.

(The picture above is a rough sketch of the route we traveled (West Broadway) along with surrounding roads and views we saw).