A tourist caught on video climbing on top of one of the iconic buildings in Grand Teton National Park not only broke the law, he disrespected “my family’s heritage,” said the grandson of Thomas Alva Moulton, who along with brother John Moulton, built the most famous homesteads on Mormon Row.
Instagram user julia_k_1904 witnessed the incident firsthand last week, and got it on video. A man climbed to the top of one of the historic structures adjacent to the pink house on the John Moulton Ranch.
“A tourist climbed onto the roof of one of the historic buildings just to take photos,” she said, but she didn’t say whether the man had been reported to park rangers.
Chip Jenkins, Grand Teton’s superintendent, could not be reached for comment by publication about whether the person has been identified.
My Family’s Heritage
While the Moulton family no longer owns the historic structures, they still have a deep connection to their homesteads in the Teton Valley.
Steve Moulton is the grandson of T.A. Moulton, who built the T.A. Moulton Barn, the most famous of the still-standing structures on Mormon Row and one of the most photographed barns in the world.
“My grandfather built the T.A. barn way back in the early 1900s,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “My dad helped build it and worked on it over the years. I have worked on it myself. I've been on the roof of the T.A. barn because we were putting a new roof on it.”
Moulton admitted that he climbed all over the T.A. Moulton Barn as a child, but that was when it was his family’s property.
The 1-acre parcel with the T.A. Moulton Barn was sold to the National Park Service in 2018, making it the last privately owned real estate on Mormon Row to be folded into Grand Teton National Park.
“I’m associated with the T.A. Moulton Barn, but that doesn't mean that I want to see anything going on down at the John Moulton Barn either,” Steve said. “It’s my family's heritage.”
Steve wasn’t happy to see the video of someone clambering over the historic building, especially since there’s been such an effort to ensure the remaining structures at Mormon Row remain standing.
“It's clear that there are people in this world who have no respect for public property,” he said. “To keep them in good condition, we have to take care of them, because yes, they are fragile.”
Loved To Death
Most people who visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks from around the world don’t have destructive intentions. They just want to take in the beauty of the landscape, like millions of others.
That, however, can be part of the problem.
As visitation to national parks increases, one commonly heard concern is that they’re “being loved to death.” The reason is that higher densities of tourists are, intentionally or unintentionally, causing more destruction and disturbance to the natural vistas that drew people there in the first place.
Steve shares some of that concern.
As Mormon Row has become more popular, the impact on the area is evident.
“What bothers me is there's so much foot traffic around the T.A. Barn,” he said. “The pictures used to have green grass in front of the barn. Now, it's just dirt because there is so much traffic.”
A significant infrastructure project at Mormon Row is underway. Jenkins has said it was part of several “micro-geographic” efforts to improve popular spots in the park for a better overall visitor experience.
“We want to be able to host more visitation at Mormon Row, so we're looking at things we can be doing to help manage that visitation,” he told Cowboy State Daily in May.
The list of desired site improvements includes a larger, centralized parking lot, new interpretive and wayfinding signs, distinct walking paths, and furnishings like benches and trash cans, new restrooms, and a 0.75-mile trail extension connecting Mormon Trail Road to Antelope Flats Road.
These improvements will go hand-in-hand with an ecological restoration of Mormon Row.
Native vegetation will be planted and damaged areas restored, and the new parking lot will be built further away from the historic homesteads to ensure the landscape and views remain as pristine as possible.
Steve is aware of these proposed changes and said he hopes they’d help to mitigate the damage of visitor traffic. However, that doesn’t eliminate the damage caused by reckless tourists who are determined to do their own thing to the detriment of the park and its visitors.
“We want (Mormon Row) to last many more decades, so we have to be really careful with anything that goes on around them, as far as touching, climbing, or taking stuff off them for souvenirs,” he said.
Many people value the serenity of Mormon Row and the Moulton barns as much as the Moulton family itself. Steve hopes that will lead to better decisions and increased awareness.
“I want visitors to understand their historical importance,” he said. “I want them to have the same feelings as my family does about preserving the integrity of those structures, so we have to take great care to not do anything that will be destructive to them.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
