Many people may not know it, but the Rockefeller family’s history is inextricably linked to Wyoming.
America’s wealthiest family played a huge role in the formation of Grand Teton National Park, buying up more than 35,000 acres of land to protect it from development in the early 1920s.
The family ultimately donated it to help form Grand Teton National Park, as well as building museums in Yellowstone National Park.
Youthful Western trips to Jackson Hole had a lasting impact on all of John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s children, but none more so than Laurance S. Rockefeller, who would continue his father’s legacy of conservation by donating more land to Grand Teton National Park, including 1,100 acres that now is a wildlife preserve.
Laurance honeymooned with his wife Mary French Rockefeller at Colter Bay, where he also built a home and his first hotel.
While he was in Jackson Hole, he also created a 14-acre family retreat called the Valley Ranch in the 1980s. The Valley Ranch has served as the Rockefeller family’s springboard for adventure, as well as rest and relaxation, for going on a half-century.
But no more. The family has decided to sell this heirloom property, listing it for $12.9 million with Huff Vaughn Sassi of Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty.
Mercedes Huff and her daughter, Laurie Huff, are the listing agents for the property.
The reason the Rockefellers are selling the property is a reflection of changing times, they told Cowboy State Daily.
“By the time you get down to the third generation, people have just scattered,” Mercedes Huff said. “And the kids are playing lacrosse and soccer, so it’s hard to get everyone together.”
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft)
The View Is A Legacy
For the right family, though, this property remains an unparalleled gathering place, Laurie Huff said.
“This feels very much like an estate,” she said. “It’s a lot of acreage, but at the same time, you’re really close to everything. You’re close to a really beautiful golf course, and the Teton views are out of this world.”
Laurance could have built a ranch anywhere in Jackson Hole, Mercedes Huff added.
“I think when Rockefeller built it, he had the option to build practically anywhere he wanted, because they were so involved in the creation of conservation of this valley,” she said. “And he chose a piece that really represented what he was saving with the views and then the privacy, and it just is its own family estate.”
The home has been immaculately kept and maintained down through the years, including occasional updates, though the original design is classic and has never needed much help.
“When Laurance Rockefeller lived there, he hired an architect who is no longer alive by the name of Bob Kurt, who was really good at designs that have this rather timeless feeling,” Mercedes Huff said. “And the rooms were made large enough for families to gather in, so the house is very welcoming in that regard.
"Many of the bedrooms have their own sitting room attached so people can really go to their various areas and have privacy, yet everyone can gather in the main room.”
A Tale Of Intrigue
John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s love affair with Jackson Hole began in 1926, when Horace Albright, then superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, succeeded in convincing him to help save Jackson Hole and the Tetons from over-development.
While Albright had been cautioned not to say anything about his fears to Rockefeller, the park superintendent couldn’t resist showing Rockefeller the beautiful valley just south of Yellowstone.
That proved to be a conversation starter, exactly as Albright had hoped.
Rockefeller was astounded by the beautiful view and became just as concerned as Albright that development would ruin everything special about the place.
A year later, Rockefeller formed a front company called Snake River Land Co., which began buying up large swaths of land from residents. Rockefeller kept his identity secret because he feared people would start jacking up prices.
At the same time Rockefeller was doing this, some valley residents had been circulating a petition of their own to protect the open lands in the valley.
Their fears were much the same as Rockefeller’s.
Ranches were struggling amid dropping beef prices and drought. Some developer was bound to swoop in and buy the ranches up, and then who knows what would get built there.
In 1929, President Calvin Coolidge signed an executive order creating Grand Teton National Park, which at that time just consisted of the Teton Range and several lakes at the base of the mountains. Jackson Lake was even excluded.
Roads in the park were improved, however, and the first visitor services were created at Jenny Lake on existing U.S. Forest Service concessions.
An Ultimatum
Rockefeller would finally make his role in buying land in the valley public in 1930.
The backlash once the secret was revealed was swift and fierce. Even many of those originally in favor of selling their lands to preserve the valley were angry, feeling they’d been lied to and cut out of having any say over the land they loved so much.
There were lengthy public hearings to determine if any laws had been broken.
Rockefeller was cleared of wrongdoing, but the National Park Service deemed the acres too controversial to accept.
Finally in 1943, Rockefeller told President Franklin D. Roosevelt that he was going to sell the lands off to the highest bidder if they weren’t going to be accepted.
The ultimatum led to Roosevelt using the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create the 210,000-acre Jackson Hole National Monument, which later became part of Grand Teton National Park.
It was another controversial move, one that prompted lawsuits. But the judge at the time refused to comment on a disagreement between the executive and legislative branches of the government, leaving the monument intact.
It also left a lot of anger intact, which took many years to dissipate.
The rise of tourism to the area helped cool tempers, and efforts eventually shifted from fighting the national monument to marketing it to boost the local economy with more tourism.
The original opponents to Jackson Hole National Monument did manage to win one small victory when Grand Teton National Park expanded to 310,000 acres in 1950. That legislation included a provision limiting the president’s power to create national monuments in Wyoming.
The Cowboy State is the only one where presidents cannot create a national monument exceeding 5,000 acres without first gaining Congressional approval.
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft) 
The Rockefeller family has owned a remote retreat with unparalleled Grand Teton views for going on a half-century. The property has just hit the market for $12.9 million. (Courtesy Aaron Craft)
No Amenity Spared
Laurance Rockefeller’s property is a piece of that iconic Jackson Hole and American history.
The chance to own a slice of history is unique, Mercedes Huff said, and the design of the retreat itself speaks to Laurance’s love of the West and Jackson Hole.
“We’d all be delighted to live there,” she said. “When you walk through the living room and sit on that beautiful porch that’s right off, you see these two rocking chairs and a little table and you’re looking at the Grand Teton.
"That really just says it all. That’s really just what the house is all about.”
At the same time, no amenity has been spared in the property’s homes, which have served as a Rockefeller retreat for almost 50 years.
The more than 8,000-square-foot main house boasts seven ensuite bedrooms that include their own bathrooms and sitting areas, while the kitchen is set up for entertaining.
Clear cedar wood has been used throughout the home, contributing to its mid-century modern look, which is in demand to this day.
There’s also, on a separate deeded parcel, a 3,430-square-foot guest house with three bedrooms and multiple living areas. Attached to the guest house by a breezeway is a two-bedroom, two-bath caretaker residence.
The Property Is Fun, Too
A six-bay garage provides plenty of space for all the vehicles and toys, but perhaps one of its most unusual features is the outdoor heated swimming pool, which has a grand view of the Tetons.
“Our climate is not very conducive to outdoor swimming pools here,” Laurie Huff said. “So, it’s just rare. You don’t see many (pools). And this one is heated, and they actually drain it in the winter, although (Laurance) used to heat it in the winter. So, you can heat it.”
The 14-acre property itself is laid out almost as if it is a campground, Mercedes added.
There are places to sit and soak in the surrounding views, as well as an ephemeral creek that runs through the property on a seasonal basis that adds character to the property.
Mercedes said her first glimpse of the property simply took her breath away
“How dramatic,” she said she thought at the time. “What a lovely piece of property, with the most dramatic views of the Tetons, which is really a showstopper and what people have come here hoping to have, to own a part of that.”
Inside the home, large windows capture that view and bring it inside.
“With the acreage, this feels almost like a ranch,” Laurie Huff added. “A very, very private ranch. But yet it’s close to everything. Most ranches in Wyoming are a bit more rural or further afield. This really isn’t.”
Jackson is minutes away, Mercedes said, despite the illusion of isolation and wilderness that the property conveys.
“Jackson Hole Golf and tennis club is around the corner,” she said. “The airport is close by, so (for) people flying in and out, that’s convenient. And then access into Grand Teton National Park is within a couple of miles.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
