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PHOTO BY RYAN DORGAN
Triangle X Celebrates Five Generations of Welcoming Guests
// By Jim Mahaffie
In 1926, John S. and Maytie Turner bought a 160-acre homestead that included their favorite campsite in the valley, which had sweeping views of the Tetons. They immediately began building the main house, and they greeted their first guests—big game hunters—that fall. Today, the Turner’s Triangle X is the last dude ranch concession still operating in a U.S. national park. (This summer marks its ninety-fifth anniversary.) Despite the ranch’s longevity, the Turner family owned it for only three years. They’ve been leasing it since 1929, when they sold it to John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s Snake River Land Company. In 1943, the ranch was part of 35,000 acres the Snake River Land Company gifted to the U.S. federal government that later became part of Grand Teton National Park. Since then, the family’s landlord has been the National Park Service. There are now fifth-generation Turners who guide trips, work in the gift shop, and run amok around the ranch, greeting guests and enjoying their great- great- great-grandparents’ great idea. JH