JACKSON, Wyo. — The fall brings gold to Jackson Hole, despite the fact that prospectors in the 1800s were unable to find much gold themselves. Prospector’s Mountain was named to celebrate the rare discovery of galena in Death Canyon, while the rest of the mountains and valley left a disappointing mark on mining history.
The California gold rush that occurred in 1849 triggered a national obsession with prospecting that displaced a vast number of frontiersman, according to the National Park Service (NPS). As the gold opportunities in California dried up, prospectors dispersed throughout the Rocky Mountain West and discovered gold in Colorado, Nevada and British Columbia in the 1850s, eventually discovering gold in Montana in 1863. The NPS confirms that from Montana, prospectors found their way south into Jackson Hole.
That same year, 1863, a party of 26 prospectors led by Walter W. DeLacy and including a thief and potential murderer set out seeking gold on the south branch of the Snake River. The NPS claims the expedition made notable accomplishments in terms of cartographic exploration, but failed to find gold. According to the NPS, from the Snake River the expedition scouted the Hoback River, Spring Creek, Gros Ventre River, Jackson Lake and Pacific Creek.
The NPS notes that DeLacy’s accounts of the area suggest Jackson Hole was mostly unoccupied.
“The landscape of this valley would look much different today had there been a strike,” the NPS writes. “Hundreds of miners would have stampeded into the valley and boomtowns would have sprung up. The adjacent forests would have been denuded to provide lumber for buildings, millraces for placer mining and timbers for shoring up shafts and tunnels. Given the boom-and-bust character of mining, the mines and towns would have been abandoned, leaving eroded hillsides, small mountains of tailings and hillsides scarred by hydraulic mining.”
Still, the end of the 1800s saw a few more operations conducted throughout the valley, though none especially successful. In 1870, a small rush in the Wind River Range was based on false mineral reports. In 1886, four German prospectors came from Montana and set up camp near what’s now known as the Snake River Overlook, but one member of the group murdered the rest at what became known as Deadman’s Bar. In 1889, a mining company set up a mine in the present Teton Wilderness, but by 1897 it had shut down. Around 1900, the NPS says 160-acre placer claims were filed up and down the Snake River from Jackson Lake to Menor’s Ferry, but the claims expired after no gold was found.
Death Canyon did see a small success; Grand Teton National Park says galena, a primary ore of lead, was discovered and a mine was worked for several years there around the turn of the century. The foundation of a prospector’s cabin still exists in upper Death Canyon. Prospector’s Mountain was named for this success despite not containing any mineral discoveries itself. The NPS still emphasizes that no fortunes were ever reported in Jackson Hole.
In 1924, however, the NPS does note that the Courier published a report about a prospector named John Hayball, who allegedly located a local mine that produced high-grade gold ore. According to the report, Hayball interested two Idaho Falls men in the project but died before revealing the exact location of the mine.
Coal seemed to be the only commercially available resource in Jackson Hole. Starting in 1892, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) says the Jackson Hole Coal Company mined coal on the north side of the Gros Ventre River near what is now Upper Slide Lake. Additionally, coal was mined on Cache Creek, but the U.S. Geological Survey confirms the official records don’t show how much coal was actually mined in those early days.
In 1914, the Reclamation Service developed coal mines on Lava Creek and Pilgrim Creek to provide a fuel source for the Jackson Lake Dam, according to the NPS. In 1917, the Lava Creek mine was opened to the public. While the USFS suggests most Jackson Hole settlers still used wood from the nearby forests as their primary source of fuel at the time of Lava Creek mine’s opening, the NPS says local demand for coal increased during the 1920s and 1930s.
Additionally, the USFS confirms there were two copper mines in the northern portion of the Tetons that were never worked extensively, quarried limestone near Moose and two asbestos mines that were active in 1923 on Berry Creek and Owl Creek. Even with these endeavors, though, the local mining was too marginal to ever impact Jackson Hole’s development and history.
Regardless of the small scale, and sometimes failure, of local mining, it’s notable that, according to the USFS, Jackson Hole is still rich in places with gypsum, copper, graphite, ferric oxide, lead, mica and galena.
