JACKSON, Wyo. — Vastly unchanged in the past 80 years, Trail Creek Ranch has been owned and operated by women since 1943. Alex Menolascino and Jules Buchenroth are keeping the realized dream of Olympic skier, Elizabeth “Betty” Woolsey alive near the base of Teton Pass.
1989 was Alex and Jules’ first summer at the ranch, which had grown from 40 acres to 270 acres in the 45-odd years since Woolsey’s purchase. Woolsey began operating the property as a full-service Dude Ranch in 1946, and had two right-hand women helping her run the place; Margaret “Muggs” Schultz and Marian “Sis” McKean Wigglesworth.
“Betty was 20 years Muggs’ senior, then there was Sis, then Muggs,” Alex said.
Sis passed away in 1989 and Betty took Alex under her wing as her chosen successor.
“Betty was getting older and she [Alex] was just sort of this natural person to step in to help the place keep going,” Jules said. “Betty really had a vision.”
In 1997, Betty passed away but placed a conservation easement on the property through the Jackson Hole Land Trust to protect the ranch from development. Alex took the reins at the helm of the operations, transitioning the ranch to a bed and breakfast in 2000, and then a guest ranch in 2005, which is how it operates today. Up to 20 guests can stay in eight units in the summer, and six to eight guests in the winter in three winterized units, a part of the business Alex says they are working to expand.
“Betty sort of put it on me to keep it going the way it was, so we take great pride in having it be just the way it was.”
Alex Menolascino
About five to seven events, mostly small weddings, are held at the property every summer, and they also board horses year-round, with nine this winter and about 25 every summer.
Alex married her husband on the ranch, with Jules by her side. She said most of the weddings the ranch hosts are for local couples with a preference for the backdrop of the Sleeping Indian.
“The business is really fun, it’s been challenging keeping up with property taxes and changing things,” Alex said. “Betty didn’t really leave us any money so it’s pretty year to year.”
Alex explained that property taxes have increased from $6,000 to $65,000 — something many local landowners have grappled with in recent years.
In Betty’s autobiography, Off the Beaten Track, Woolsey admitted her motivations.
“I never tired of life in the valley, with the ranch to work on, mountains to climb, streams to fish, game to hunt and powder snow on the ski slopes,” she wrote. ”I lived as simply as possible, saving every penny to put back in the ranch.”
While the business has evolved to survive the changing times, Alex has worked to keep the guest experience close to what it was when Betty first started inviting folks to stay.
“Betty sort of put it on me to keep it going the way it was, so we take great pride in having it be just the way it was,” Alex said. “People come here and can’t believe how simple it is. There’s really not a place like it.”
“I brought my kids up here,” Alex said. “It’s a nice lifestyle, and I can’t think of any other place we’d like to be.”
Jules spent some time away from the ranch and started a family, splitting her time between Jackson Hole and Little Cayman for many years but Alex “kept after her” and “the best chore girl in the world” returned to the ranch in 2012.
“I was outside again, which for me is my happy place,” Jules said.
She lives on the property in the summer, and Alex’s guest house just down the road in the winters. Both women now have children in their 20s and say they enjoy the simplicity life on the ranch affords them, along with the great people they host from all over the world.
“Out here I can do what I kind of like to do.”
Margaret “Muggs” Schultz
Muggs still lives on the property and turned 95 in January. She mentored Jules about all the details of the ranch, above and below ground, and is still very involved.
“Muggs is always a consult,” Alex said. “She was on the tractor until she was 88. Even at 95, we can go back into her brain and she’ll remember stuff. It’s amazing.”
When talking with Buckrail in her cabin overlooking the horse pasture, Muggs seemed to have a map of the entire property imprinted in her brain. She knows all the neighboring properties, the forest service easements and details of the ranch’s water rights. She looks after the horses, counting them throughout the day through her big window.
“This is really where she’s been since she was a teenager,” Jules said. “And the cycle of the seasons, still in her mind she’s thinking about what needs to be done now.”
When asked about what has kept her on the ranch all these years, Muggs joked, “No one else would hire me I guess.”
She went on to say, “Well, I liked it up here. I liked to get out of town, and I was not going to be stuck behind a desk anyway.”
“Out here I can do what I kind of like to do,” Muggs said. “We learned to farm and that was fun too. Even after 30 years I still liked to get on the tractor and go cut the hay.”
“It’s still quiet up here,” she said.
Editor’s Note: Learn more about the history of Trail Creek Ranch through this recent article by Jim Stanford.
