KELLY, Wyo. — It’s been 100 years since the landslide that started, or ended, it all for the town of Kelly, which once competed against the town of Jackson for the Teton County seat.
According to Grand Teton National Park, Kelly was founded by William Kelly, who built a sawmill there in 1907 (it was removed in 1918). History Jackson Hole (HJH) confirms on its website that Kelly was originally known locally as “Bridge” for the timber bridge that spanned the Gros Ventre River, one of the few early bridges built in the valley. The Kelly Bridge was one of four (along with the Jackson-Wilson Bridge, Menor’s Ferry and the bridge at Moran) until the mid-1920s.
According to HJH, Kelly became a “modest but thriving rural town.” In 1904, the first school opened on the Warren Henry homestead, and by 1909 families from the surrounding areas started constructing small cabins in the area to stay in while children attended the school.
In 1914, HJH writes that Kelly was approved for a post office, which remains open today. By 1925, the town had amenities that included a mercantile, a blacksmith, a dance hall and the Riverside Hotel, in addition to a flour mill from 1917 until it burned down in 1921.
Also in 1921, HJH confirms Kelly competed against Jackson for the Teton County seat and gave the town a run for its money, losing by only 26 votes.
But four years later, in 1925, 50 million cubic yards of Sheep Mountain broke free and fell in a half mile-wide landslide into the Gros Ventre River, forming a natural dam and creating Lower Slide Lake. Two years later, in 1927, Teton County writes on its website that a portion of the natural dam broke and caused a flash flood to rush down the Gros Ventre river.
“The flood was at least 6 feet deep for at least 25 miles downstream, and wiped out the town of Kelly, which was 6 miles downstream,” the Teton County website reads. “Six people died, and many others lost everything they owned.”
In HJH’s words, the town Kelly was “obliterated” by the flood, which left only the school and church intact.
“Everything else was flattened or swept downriver,” HJH writes. “It took the town decades to rebuild, but it would never reach the level of prosperity that it had enjoyed prior to the flood.”
Teton County notes that damages from the flood totaled $500,000 from Kelly to Wilson, which would be over $27 million today.
