They made good use of a wide range of the region’s abundant food sources, following herds of elk, bison or bighorn sheep. These sites suggest that these groups used the valley seasonally, arriving in mid-May and following snowmelt into the mountains in late fall. Traces of their camps and transportation routes are still visible in the numerous archaeological sites on both the valley floor and in the high Tetons. These groups include but were not limited to: The Mountain Shoshone (also called Sheep-Eaters), Eastern or Plains Shoshone, Crow, Bannock, Blackfoot, Northern Arapaho, Gros Ventre and Nez Perce. Over the next several thousand years, many different indigenous groups would establish both campsites and transportation routes throughout the valley. The earliest documented evidence of people in Jackson Hole are Folsom projectile points from the Paleoindian Period which date to about 11,000 years ago. Visual courtesy of the archaeology collection of the Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum.Īfter the last major continental glacier receded, humans began to move into the valley. These cobbles are of mixed geologic origin and come from the several mountain ranges surrounding the Jackson Hole valley.Ĭlick on the image above for a full view. Most of the valley is covered with plains of sagebrush, the result of a wide glacial river that washed away sand and silt to leave behind larger river stone cobbles. Timbered Island, the Potholes and the vast sage flats are all evidence of glacial activity. Large continental glaciers covered the valley floor, while mountain glaciers extended down through the Teton canyons to carve out lakes such as Phelps, Bradley, Taggart, Jenny and Leigh, at the base of the mountains. Although the last glacial event ended around 12,000 years ago, clues can still be seen in the landscape today. Several periods of glaciation shaped the more prominent topographic features of the valley. This movement results in the distinctive look of the mountains which appear to be erupting directly up from the flat valley floor. Due to geologic forces, the valley floor is sinking, causing the Tetons to rise slightly. The Teton Range is one of the youngest mountain ranges in the country, yet it contains some of the oldest rocks. “Over these seemingly changeless mountains, in endless succession, move the ephemeral colors of dawn and sunset and of noon and night, the shadows and sunlight, the garlands of clouds with which storms adorn the peaks, the misty rain-curtains of afternoon showers.” -Fritiof Fryxell, The Tetons: Interpretations of a Mountain Landscape, 1966 The Tetons rising from the sage plains of the valley.
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