JACKSON, Wyo. — Jenny Lake, one of Grand Teton National Park’s (GTNP) most iconic features, is named for Jenny Leigh, a young Newe (Shoshone) woman.
According to GTNP, Leigh was born in 1849. She married Teton mountain man and trapper Richard ‘Beaver Dick’ Leigh around 14 to 16 years old, and the pair lived in Teton Valley, Idaho. The Wyoming Historical Society (WHS) writes on its website that, because there are no existing marriage records, Leigh’s Shoshone name is not known; Beaver Dick allegedly gave her the English name of Jenny. According to WHS, Beaver Dick wrote often and favorably of Leigh in his letters and journal entries.
The couple assisted the Hayden Expedition of 1872, which resulted in the team naming Jenny Lake and Leigh Lake after them. According to GTNP, it was unusual to name a place after someone outside of the expedition. The honor indicates she played a major role in the expedition.
“Jenny shared critical knowledge about the land with members of the expedition,” GTNP posted to social media this month. “Her understanding of the environment, rooted in generations of connection to this valley, aided their success. Many early expeditions by explorers and trappers in this ecosystem relied on the guidance and assistance of Native American peoples who had lived here for generations and shared their knowledge of the land. … This Women’s History Month, we remember Jenny Leigh and the many generations of Indigenous women whose lives and knowledge remain part of this place.”
According to Leigh’s cemetery marker in Idaho, which is on an unnamed road near State Highway 33 outside of Rexburg, Idaho, she and her six children would accompany Beaver Dick on his hunting trips and expeditions into the mountains of what became Yellowstone National Park (YNP) and GTNP.
Leigh and all of her children died of smallpox in 1876, when she was 27.
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