Why Nobody Wants to Visit Jackson Hole, Wyoming Anymore

In 1927, John D. Rockefeller Jr. secretly bought 35,000 acres of ranch land in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and donated it to the federal government. That act of conservation locked up 97% of Teton County as public land — and turned the remaining 3% into the most expensive real estate in America. Today, Teton County is the wealthiest county in the nation by a factor of two, with an average per capita income above $530,000 and an average home price over $7 million. The top 1% earns 221 times what the bottom 99% makes. But the workers who keep Jackson Hole running — the cooks, the nurses, the ski patrol, the librarians — can't afford to live there. They commute over an 8,431-foot mountain pass from Idaho, and in June 2024, that road collapsed. This is the story of how a tax haven disguised as a ski town became a preview of what happens when wealth concentrates so fast that the place it chose stops functioning — restaurants closing on their busiest nights, the county library shutting its doors on Sundays, and a valley so beautiful that the act of protecting it made it unlivable for almost everyone who loved it first. Sources WyoHistory.org — "The Establishment of Grand Teton National Park" Rockefeller Archive Center — "John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Creates a National Park" WyoFile — "Teton County Still Nation's Wealthiest with $471,751 Average Annual Income" (December 2024) Jackson Hole News & Guide — "Yes, Jackson Is Way, Way Busier" (July 2021) Writers on the Range / Daily Yonder — "Wyoming Road Failure Reveals a Housing Crisis" by Molly Absolon (July 2024) New York Times — "Welcome to Wyoming, the Frontier of America's New Gilded Age" (March 2026)