ANATOMY OF

LOCAL LIFE

MY JACKSON HOLE LIFE

Bonnie Budge // BY PENNY NAKAMURA

At 91 years old, Bonnie Budge is still a force to be reckoned with in Jackson Hole. She says her no-nonsense attitude toward life was forged in the valley long before the arrival of “all the conveniences we have today.” Budge’s grandparents and parents were part of the original families that first homesteaded the area in the late 1800s, in an area now known as Mormon Row. By the time Bonnie was born in 1931 (to Joseph and Chloe May), her father had already purchased his own 160 acres between Mormon Row and the town of Kelly. It was on this expansive stretch of land, the JM Ranch, that Budge and her six siblings grew up, learning to ride horses, ski, and generally survive in the massive shadows of the Tetons. “When you grew up the way we did, we had to learn to be very resourceful,” says Budge, who now lives in East Jackson (her family moved into town when she was 12 because the Jackson school was better than the Kelly school). “My siblings and I all agreed that when you’re growing up on a ranch, you can’t get into too much trouble, because if you do, you better know how to get out of it, or you won’t survive.” Budge has lived in Jackson Hole her entire life. Though she’s traveled extensively and enjoyed many places around the globe, she says she always comes back to the most spectacular place she calls home, the Tetons.

Bonnie Budge has seen a lot in her 91 years living in Jackson Hole. She spent the earliest years of her life on her family's 160-acre ranch between Mormon Row and Kelly.