Menor's Ferry was a river ferry that crossed the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...

near the present-day

Moose, Wyoming Moose is an unincorporated community in Teton County, Wyoming, in the Jackson Hole valley. It has a US Post Office, with the zip code of 83012. The town is located within Grand Teton National Park along the banks of the Snake River. It is populat ...

, United States. The site was homesteaded by Bill Menor in 1892-94, choosing a location where the river flowed in a single channel, rather than the

braided stream A braided river, or braided channel, consists of a network of river channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called braid bars or, in English usage, ''aits'' or ''eyots''. Braided streams tend to occur in rivers with high sediment lo ...

that characterizes its course in most of Jackson Hole. During the 1890s it was the only homestead west of the river. Menor's homestead included a five-room cabin, a barn, a store, sheds and an icehouse on , irrigated by a ditch from Cottonwood Creek and at times supplemented by water raised from the Snake River by a waterwheel. Menor operated the ferry until 1918, selling to Maude Noble, who continued operations until 1927, when a bridge was built at Moose.

Menor cabin and store

The Menor house and store are unusual in their application of classical forms to rustic log construction, an effect heightened by the whitewashed walls of the buildings. Menor made his own whitewash using materials from a lime pit on his brother Holiday Menor's property on the other side of the river. The Menor cabin has three rooms, built individually over a period of time, with a bedroom on the west, a store on the east, and a kitchen and storage room connecting them. The Menor cabin was the point of departure for the first ascent of

Grand Teton Grand Teton is the highest mountain in Grand Teton National Park, in Northwest Wyoming, and a classic destination in American mountaineering. Geography Grand Teton, at , is the highest point of the Teton Range, and the second highest peak in t ...

on August 11, 1898, and it hosted the celebratory party that evening. The Menor brothers were originally from Ohio. Holiday joined Bill in Jackson Hole in 1905, but the brothers did not speak for two years. Bill moved to California after selling to Noble. Holiday, eleven years younger, joined him about 1927.

Noble Cabin

The property also includes the log Maud Noble Cabin, built in 1916 to the northwest of the present site on Cottonwood Creek and relocated to the ferry site when Noble bought the Menor operation in 1918. Maud Noble was originally from Philadelphia; she arrived in Jackson Hole in 1915 on a visit to the

Bar B C Dude Ranch The Bar B C Dude Ranch was established near Moose, Wyoming in 1912 as a dude ranch by Struthers Burt and Dr. Horace Carncross, using their initials as the brand. Rather than converting a working ranch, Burt and Carncross built a tourist-oriented ...

and never left. The cabin is a one-story, three room structure that has been repeatedly renovated. The L-shaped building measures about by . Noble sold the property to the

Snake River Land Company The Snake River Land Company or the Snake River Cattle and Stock Company was a land purchasing company established in 1927 by philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The company acted as a front so Rockefeller could buy land in the Jackson Hole val ...

in 1929 after a bridge was built just downstream to replace the ferry. A tea room operated in the cabin about 1927 or 1928, and again in 1950-51. The cabin was the site of a meeting on July 23, 1923, where

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

superintendent and future

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

director

Horace Albright Horace Marden Albright (January 6, 1890 – March 28, 1987) was an American conservationist. Horace Albright was born in 1890 in Bishop, California, the son of George Albright, a miner. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley ...

met with local ranchers and businessmen, starting the process of creating Grand Teton National Park. Local attendees were Richard Winger, J. R. Jones, J. L. Enyon, and the Bar B C's

Struthers Burt Maxwell Struthers Burt (October 18, 1882 Baltimore, Maryland – August 29, 1954, Jackson Hole, Wyoming), was an American novelist, poet, and short-story writer. Life Struthers Burt grew up in Philadelphia, where he attended private schools a ...

and Horace Carncross. Noble provided the discreet premises, but did not attend herself.

Restoration

The property was bought in 1929 by

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in ...

, who restored the structures and the ferry and donated the property to the

in 1953. The property was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1969. The Park Service has restored the hand-operated ferry to operation from 2009. The ferry is a pontoon of two floats with a platform spanning between them, with sufficient room for a wagon and four-horse team. It is a

reaction ferry A reaction ferry is a cable ferry that uses the reaction of the current of a river against a fixed tether to propel the vessel across the water. Such ferries operate faster and more effectively in rivers with strong currents. Some reaction ferri ...

, which uses the force of the river to propel the pontoon along a cable stretched across the river. The Park Service has also restored Menor's well. The ferry district was placed on the

on April 16, 1969.

References

External links

Menor's Ferry
at Grand Teton National Park

at Grand Teton National Park * *
Menor's Ferry
at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office Menor Ferry in 1899 in Grand Teton NP-NPS

Menor Ferry in 1899 in Grand Teton NP-NPS

{{NRHP in Teton County, Wyoming Buildings and structures in Grand Teton National Park Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming Transportation in Teton County, Wyoming Rustic architecture in Wyoming Historic American Buildings Survey in Wyoming Ferry terminals on the National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Grand Teton National Park Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming 1892 establishments in Wyoming

Menor cabin and store

Noble Cabin

Restoration

See also

References

External links