Teton Valley Magazine's Summer 2017 Issue

Farming at Altitude

THE ECLIPSE IS COMING! THS GRADS GOING PLACES WILDERNESS GOLF

This 2-bed/2-bath, 1,680-sq-ft, new custom home is one level with an attached 2-car garage, tool shed & mountain views. Comfortable home features an open floor plan, master bedroom suite, office/laundry room, hardwood floors, southside deck & Teton views! $246,000 R17-479

Bordering the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, on 5.56 acres in the secluded north end of Teton Valley. This custom built, 1,200-sq-ft timber frame home has every feature imaginable for a mountain cabin. This is truly a beautiful and unique home. $249,000 R16-1604

Cricket

Claire

Glenn

We know Teton Valley

Custom home borders public lands near Fox Creek. This 4-bdrm, 4-bath, 3,326-sq-ft home features reclaimed trestle floors, granite counters, tiled baths, custom cabinetry & abundant natural light. Located in the Teton foothills, the home captures canyon views & offers an exclusive & private setting within minutes of Driggs & Victor. $749,000 R17-846

REMODELED

Driggs home with 5 beds and 2 baths with new fixtures & tile, hardwood floors, a beautiful chef’s kitchen with custom cabinets, baking station, double ovens, and 2-car garage. A well-lit sunroom sits just off the living room. Walking distance to the park & Driggs. $345,000

The current Clubhouse is actually a custom home with 3 bedroom suites, each with its own exterior door. HOA-approved for use as a B&B and already has a commercial kitchen and huge great room with full-size bar. 2-car garage opens into 3,870-sq-ft basement, allowing storage of several more vehicles. Includes neighboring lot. $800,000 L17-808

FOUR PEAKS ESTATES

One of two great adjacent lots with full Teton views. Close to Driggs yet feels out in the country. A great place for a cabin or single family home. Minimal but protective CCR’s. Horses allowed (one per acre). Got friends and family? Buy one for yourself and one for them! New homes are going in!

$49,500 L16-2941 & 16-2942

QUIET LOCATION, SUPERB TETON VIEWS

This 4.97-acres is only a short drive north of Driggs and is a great place to build your getaway. Older subdivision with western and mountain-style homes. Close to Teton River’s Cache Bridge for easy access to boating, fishing, and plentiful wildlife.

$65,000 L17-389

CROOKED TREE LODGE

Teton Valley Health Care is the first Critical Access Hospital in Idaho to receive STEMI II, STROKE III and Trauma IV designations.

STEMI II

We’re ready to diagnose and treat heart attacks.

9 Level II STEMI (ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction) indicates that the hospital’s cardiac team is appropriately trained and certified in recognizing and treating acute coronary syndromes.

9 STEMI patients can receive the initial medication, treatment and stabilization for a heart attack onsite at TVH.

9 After initial treatment and stabilization, patients are then transferred to EIRMC to determine the extent of cardiac damage, coronary artery involvement and possible further intervention that requires a cardiac surgeon.

STROKE III

We have the equipment and expertise to diagnose strokes.

9 TVH offers a trained stroke team 24/7 and a neurologist or physician available to assist in diagnosis (in-person and via University of Utah Health Care Telestroke services).

9 TVH utilizes protocols and procedures to support treatment of ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes.

9 For stroke patients, TVHC can provide the initial diagnosis within a very rapid time frame through a CT scan with subsequent ability to provide the clot-busting medication for ischemic strokes.

9 The patient would then need to be transferred to EIRMC for Neurology ICU and any further interventions.

TRAUMA IV

We can provide advanced trauma life support.

9 Teton Valley Hospital has bolstered its standardized system of care approach for time sensitive emergencies including trauma, stroke and heart attack.

9 Hospital staff is also required to collect program-specified data for analysis and reporting to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and TSE Council.

9 All of our medical providers are approved for Advanced Trauma Life Support.

Targhee Village Golf Course

A lot of people, especially among those living east of the Mississippi River, confuse Iowa with Idaho, and vice versa. Not me: Though I was born in Wyoming, I spent most of my first eighteen years in Iowa, and I’ve spent the past twentytwo years in Idaho. I know as well as anyone just how different the Hawkeye State is from the Gem State.

Yet they have their similarities. Ignore the mountains ringing Teton Valley for the moment—I know, they’re tough to ignore—and what you have is a valley as flat as, or even flatter than, a large share of the Iowa landscape. Endless fields of corn and soybeans stretch across the undulations of Boone County, Iowa; endless fields of potatoes, barley, and hay fill the flats of Teton County, Idaho.

Oh, along with a few other crops—quinoa, for instance. Maybe not endless fields of it just yet, but at least one thirtythree-acre plot off Darby Canyon Road. You can read about Wyatt Penfold’s grand experiment in this issue in the story titled “Queen Quinoa,” written by Judy Allen, a Darby-area resident with a bright-green thumb of her own.

This is, after all, the ag issue of Teton Valley Magazine. I’ve long been fascinated by the fact that Teton Valley is such an agrarian center, while across the Tetons in Jackson Hole the primary things raised are Hereford and Angus cattle. I’ve always assumed the lack of agriculture relates to Jackson’s somewhat harsher climate and rockier, more sterile soils; Teton Valley is blessed with fertile black soil, that’s for sure.

In this issue you’ll also read about some local farmers’ thoughts and strong opinions on the future of their industry in the valley; Full Circle Education’s valley-wide farm-toschool food program; some local farm boys who left their fields long enough in 1924 to summit the Grand Teton; a former farm near Squirrel, Idaho, that sprouted a golf course; and projects spearheaded by a couple of our nonprofits that also involve farmers.

Finally, a mea culpa on my part: The terrific photo of the howling coyote adorning the cover of last winter’s issue was taken by Mark Gocke. I failed to credit him on the Table of Contents page. Mark, who in his day job is a Jackson-based information and education specialist for Wyoming Game and Fish, is a talented and determined outdoor photographer. You can check out his work at markgockephotography.com.

The Spud Drive-In Theatre

Spine surgery can make a huge difference in your life, but it’s not something to rush into. Here at St. John’s Peak Spine Center, our patient education program ensures you and your family understand the process. And our team of experienced surgeons, nurses, and therapists works with our orthopedic program manager to give you the personalized care you deserve before, during, and after your stay. Call us to be introduced to a patient ambassador. Our goal is simple: to get you back to the things you love.

publisher

Nancy McCullough-McCoy nancy@powdermountainpress.com

editor in chief

Michael McCoy mac@powdermountainpress.com

art director

Sage Hibberd graphics@powdermountainpress.com

associate editor/social media

Kate Hull kate@powdermountainpress.com

marketing + sales representative

Nancy McCullough-McCoy nancy@powdermountainpress.com

marketing + sales assistant

Joan Mosher info@powdermountainpress.com

contributors

Molly Absolon

Lara Agnew

Judy Allen

Jeannette Boner

Lukas Boone

Camrin Dengel

Cody Downard

Joyce D. Edlefsen

Marinna Holmstead

Molly Loomis

Christina Shepherd McGuire

Liz Onufer

Summer 2017 Events

MAY 15-19

Teton Valley Bike Week

JUNE 10

Volunteer Trail Day 1

JUNE 16

GET Outside Series: Kids Hike - Sheep’s Bridge

JUNE 19

Tin Cup Pint Night at Grand Teton Brewery

JULY 8

Volunteer Trail Day 2

JULY 10

GET Outside Series: Botanist Hike

JULY 15

Tin Cup Challenge Celebration

JULY 21

GET Outside Series: Horse Trail Ride

AUGUST 5

Volunteer Trail Day 3

AUGUST 11

GET Outside Series: High Energy Exploration

SEPTEMBER 1-4

Wydaho Rendezvous

Teton Mountain Bike Festival

SEPTEMBER 8

GET Outside Series: Technology

SEPTEMBER 16

Horseshoe Challenge Trail Race

For more details go to TVTAP.org

Teton Valley trails.

Writer and photographer Joyce Driggs Edlefsen (Back When, page 28) lives in St. Anthony with her husband and cat. Retired after more than thirty years at the Rexburg Standard Journal as an editor, writer, and photographer, she freelances for magazines, newspapers, and online services. Joyce grew up in Teton Valley, where she picked huckleberries with Grandma Driggs, fished with her dad on the river, and hiked the Tetons with her mom. She volunteers at the Teton Valley Museum and writes a weekly history column for the Teton Valley News

After more than ten years in Teton Valley working in all capacities of the publishing industry, Jeannette Boner (Valley Voices, page 34) has turned her focus to her young and growing family and the life of a freelance writer. When she’s not writing and weaving together local stories, she can be found along the local trails and slopes with her kids, her dog, and her husband Brad.

A self-confirmed “chowderhead” with a western soul, Christina Shepherd McGuire (Teens & Tweens, page 64) shares her Tetonia home with a husband, two children, a dog, a cat, and seven chickens. Christina strives to balance the craziness of family life with moments of slow living and, as editor of Teton Family Magazine, inspires others to do the same. When she’s not in the garden or hanging out with local farmers—milking a goat or gaining inspiration for the next best read—you might find Christina deep in on some singletrack with a flat tire. Catch up with her at christinashepherdmcguire.com

Judy Allen (Growing Things, page 68) has been growing organic food in the Tetons for over three decades. She has developed and taught gardening programs for children and adults, and has written about gardening for national and regional publications. In 1999, she moved from a remote cabin in the Snake River Range to Teton Valley for a longer growing season. As owner of Darby Canyon Gardens, where she rents garden space to the public, Judy grows year-round in outdoor intensive beds and in a solar greenhouse.

Cody Downard (Field Notes, page 30, and Teens & Tweens, page 64) grew up outside Eureka, Kansas. The day after graduating from Kansas State University with a degree in Park and Natural Resource Management, he moved to the Rocky Mountains. It was while he was working as a ranger in Yellowstone that Cody’s love for nature inspired his photography, and his hobby became his career when he moved to Vail in 1999. A resident of Victor since 2013, Cody photographs nature, outdoor sports, weddings, and more. He enjoys mountain biking, Nordic skiing, fly fishing, paddle boarding, and hiking. In winters, he and his wife Colleen own Teton Pines Nordic Center in Jackson Hole.

PHOTO: KISA KOENIG, CHRISTINA

Morning

top to bottom

Midday

Stroll downtown Driggs with a freshly brewed Mocha Latte from Daydreams Espresso

Mountain bike the South Horseshoe trails in the Big Hole Range

Sit outside and tuck into a warm apple strudel at Pendl’s Bakery & Café

Start your day searching for one-of-a-kind finds at See N’ Save Thrift Store in Driggs

Gaze down on Teton Valley from a high-flying hot air balloon

Hit the South Fork with one of our many pro fly-fishing guides

Spoil a good walk (as Mark Twain would say) by golfing at one of our three public courses

Find your center aboard a stand-up paddleboard on the Teton River

Ride to the rhythm in an early-bird cycling class at Spin Cave

Visit Habitat in Driggs to pick up your “High Altitude Provisions”

* Visit our Dining section for more bodacious breakfast ideas

Fuel up for the day at Victor’s Sherwood’s Post, and munch a Bistro Burger with all the fixin’s

Learn about the local flora on a guided nature hike with Grand Targhee Resort’s naturalist

Explore the unique home décor offered at The Rusty Nail in Driggs

Show your stuff at the Fifth Street Skate Park by grabbing some big air or folfing nine holes

Hit the trails at Grand Targhee Resort by foot or on two wheels

Pack a lunch of Victor Valley Market’s fresh deli sandwiches, then head to the national parks

Cool off with a huckleberry shake from the Victor Emporium or a lime freeze at Corner Drug

Melt your worries and heal your worn body with a massage at Teton Springs’ Stillwaters Spa

Groove on a smoothie from Barrels & Bins

Community Market

Grab an appetizer or early dinner on the deck at Grand Targhee’s Trap Bar & Grill

* Turn to our Dining section for additional lunch ideas

Dine alfresco at Forage in Driggs, savoring Idaho-style hummus and seasonal fare

Pull up a lawn chair or spread a blanket at Thursday’s Music on Main in Victor

Watch the sun dip behind the Big Holes while chowing down at Victor’s West Side Yard

Share a special dinner with family or friends at Linn Canyon Ranch

Hoot and holler for the cowboys and cowgirls at the Friday evening Teton Valley Rodeo

Spice things up with a bowl of Gang Karee yellow curry and an order of sake at Teton Thai

Hang with the locals at the Royal Wolf, where “snow sagas and fish tales are told nightly”

Cozy up under the stars at the Spud Drive-In or opt for an indoor flick at Pierre’s Playhouse

Munch on some mahi fish tacos or pulled pork at Victor’s newly redesigned Big Hole BBQ Bite into some bibimbap and other alliterative tasty treats at Seoul Restaurant in Driggs

* Go to our Dining section for more dinner suggestions

top to bottom

Future Farming

No-Till Drill

This summer, Teton County farmers have the option to test out a new piece of equipment with conservation in mind: A no-till seed drill. Thanks to the efforts of the Teton Soil Conservation District (TSCD) and Friends of the Teton River (FTR) farmers can rent the drill at a low cost to test it out before deciding to invest in one of their own.

The project was the brainchild of Lynn Bagley, president of the TSCD, who approached Amy Verbeten, executive director of FTR, with his idea. The goal: keep working lands working, with water quality and soil health in mind.

Verbeten realized the drill fit within FTR’s mission of improving water quality, and decided to help raise the funds for it. The drill was delivered to Teton Valley last fall. “It was my goal to bring the [conservation and agricultural] communities back together again. In my mind, they have always been linked,” she says.

In conventional tillage, after harvest the land is plowed and disked, leaving a barren field ready for planting come spring. The winter snow piles up, and runoff can lead to erosion and sedimentation of our rivers and streams.

With the no-till drill, farmers can minimize tillage and leave stubble from the harvest, or plant a cover crop, while boosting productivity, using less fertilizer and less water, and building a healthier soil. “Farmers’ top priorities have to be costs and benefits. With the drill, they save on the fuel and labor, and the cost on the wear and tear of equipment,” says Verbeten. “It also offers a significant water quality benefit, thanks to the stubble or cover crops.”

One farmer tried out the drill last year before the snow started to fall; Verbeten and Bagley are anticipating that several area growers will take advantage of the new equipment this autumn. For more information and to find out about available incentives for landowners, call 208-345-2680, ext. 4 or visit tetonscd.weebly.com

Painting the Valley Art in the Basin

Chicago native Philbin de Got Schulz has painted murals throughout the country. Now her mark can be seen in Teton Valley, from inside the county courthouse and the Teton Geotourism Center, to the exterior of Barrels & Bins Community Market. Each of Philbin’s large murals tells a story about the present valley or showcases a piece of local history. Her favorite part of the largescale undertakings? “The opportunity to learn something new,” she says. “Each mural is about something and requires research.”

Get Your Spectacle Spectacles Here

The highly anticipated Great American Eclipse happens August 21 (check out our feature on page 52). But know this: To safely view the astronomical phenomenon, you’ll need special eyewear. According to NASA’s eye safety information, “Even when 99 percent of the sun’s surface (the photosphere) is obscured during the partial phases of a solar eclipse, the remaining crescent sun is still intense enough to cause a retinal burn.”

Cue Teton Totality Glasses. On a hike last summer, four friends—Ralph Mossman, Erika Goddard, Stephanie Sandell, and Stacy Bodis—realized that independently they’d come up with a similar idea: create souvenir eclipse glasses with Teton Valley-esque designs. So, they joined forces.

“I was on vacation [earlier] with Stephanie and Erika,” says Bodis, when the idea struck. “We thought, ‘Maybe we can pay for our next vacation!’ When we realized Ralph was going to do the same thing, we decided to work together.”

They collaborated on their design and sent the sketch to Casual Custom in Driggs to create. The finished product features a 1T license plate, native wildflowers, the Teton Mountain Range, and psychedelic eyeballs with rainbows. Now, at shops throughout the valley, like Barrels and Bins, Victor Emporium, Peaked Sports, and Guchiebird’s, you’ll find an extraterrestrial themed display with their Teton Totality creations selling for $6 a pair.

Dutch Oven Cook-Off

Cobblers, potatoes au gratin, short ribs, and even breads: Dutch oven cooking is a campfire tradition, from long-ago pioneer days to modern car camping getaways. The town of Tetonia invites Teton Valley fireside camp cooks to dust off their cast iron and show their stuff, at the Tetonia Dutch Oven CookOff on July 29. Judging begins at 5:30 p.m. at Ruby Carson Memorial Park, followed by a free dinner at 6 p.m. tetoniaidaho.org

Philanthropy

10 Years of Tin Cup

July 15 marks the tenth year of the Tin Cup Challenge. The campaign for giving, which includes a one-day fun run event, is organized by the Community Foundation of Teton Valley (CFTV). Over the past nine years, the event has raised $9.9 million for local nonprofits.

Before the Tin Cup was launched, the nearly thirty Teton Valley nonprofits were participating in Old Bill’s Fun Run, the celebrated event put on by the CFTV’s affiliate, the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. When Teton Valley realized it was big enough to support its own event, the Tin Cup was born.

The Tin Cup accepts donations from individuals to their favorite nonprofits during a giving period of May 19 through July 17. The money is then matched by philanthropists and businesses that are part of the Tin Cup Challenger Fund.

“In a community of 10,000 residents with two stoplights and an average wage of $13 an hour, somehow we pull off this miracle year after year,” says CFTV executive director Carrie Mowrey. “This is a colossal effort that takes thousands of people who are volunteering, donating, and putting in the leg work to better the community.”

Capping the event are a 10K run, a 5K walk and run, and a celebration of the spirit of philanthropy, with a free breakfast and nonprofit booths offering information and family fun. This year’s celebration is expected to be bigger than ever, as the CFTV enters its second decade in operation. cftetonvalley.org

Cycling

Road or Trail

Whether you’re a gravel grinder, a road warrior, or a seeker of singletrack, Teton Valley’s local bike shops can tell you where to find the best rides, or even lead the way. Habitat, located on Main Street in Driggs, organizes Wednesday night ladies’ rides and Tuesday night men’s rides, from June through October. Rides depart at 6:30 p.m. In Victor, Fitzgerald’s Bicycles—now with a second location in Jackson—hosts group rides on Thursdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays beginning at 9 a.m. More info: ridethetetons.com or facebook.com/ fitzgeraldsbicycles.

Little Free Library

For the past few months, sixteen Teton Valley builders and artists—Jim and Sue Berkenfield, Dan Powers, and Dave Hensel, to name a few—were busy crafting miniature libraries out of reclaimed wood, upcycled refrigerators, and other materials. On August 5, the libraries will be auctioned off to the highest bidder, with proceeds benefitting Valley of the Tetons Library.

“The libraries will be put up at the homes of the people who purchase them, or [the purchasers] can donate them back to be placed throughout Victor, Driggs, Tetonia, and Felt,” says Erika Earles, librarian at the Driggs branch.

“I am always surprised by how many kids don’t realize our libraries are free,” Earles adds. “The Little Free Libraries will hopefully help spread this message, while providing more access to books.”

Little Free Library is a national nonprofit working to inspire a love of reading, while building community and sparking creativity through the free neighborhood book exchanges. Little Free Library is working to make books more readily available in areas where they might be scarce. The premise is simple: If you spot a Little Free Library, you can grab a book and replace it with another.

For a glimpse of our local creations, stop by Teton Valley’s first Little Free Library, which popped up last summer on Howard Avenue. The whimsical creation belongs to the Peters family and features books for all ages. Look for more libraries on display at the Driggs City Center beginning in July littlefreelibrary.org

Going Greens

Backyard Garden in a Box

By next winter, Dave Ridill will have grown and harvested some 55,000 heads of lettuce. And he doesn’t have to travel any farther than his own backyard, thanks to his 320-square-foot hydroponic farm called Clawson Greens. The ski-patroller-turnedbackyard-farmer and his neighbors, Stewart and Deb Collins, started Clawson Greens to supply the valley with local, fresh greens even during the sub-zero winter temps.

“We asked ourselves, ‘How do we give back to the community while doing something we are passionate about?’” Ridill says. “It always came back to food.”

Ridill and the Collinses wanted to provide high-quality greens, no matter the weather, and cut down the carbon footprint of typical out-of-valley produce. “We live in such a harsh environment for growing,” Ridill says. “All of our food, unless it is grown here during our short growing season, can travel from over 1,500 miles.” The produce makes quite a few stops along the way—from the farm, to a warehouse, to a distributor—before finally being trucked or flown to its eastern Idaho destination.

Enter Freight Farms’ Leafy Green Machine, a turn-key ready hydroponic farming system enclosed in a refurbished shipping container. The forty-by-eight-by-nineand-a-half-foot freight farm holds two acres’ worth of produce in its modest interior. But the nuts and bolts are anything but modest. Hydroponic farming utilizes nutrient-rich water instead of soil. Seeds are germinated in peat pods, and soaked with water. After germination, they are moved to a different shelf where they continue to grow as seedlings. After a month, they are transported to vertical racks where the mineral water is distributed on a timed drip system. But on any given day, Clawson Greens uses only about ten gallons of water to hydrate nearly 8,000 plants. (The average American, by comparison, uses anywhere from eighty to one hundred gallons throughout a typical day by just flushing the toilet, taking a shower, and running a dishwasher, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.)

The brain of this high-tech farm is its programmable system that allows Ridill to set the temperature, watering schedule, light, and more. The results: an optimal environment for producing healthy greens like bib lettuce and Swiss chard. From germination to harvest-ready, the greens are on a predictable eight-week schedule. So far, Clawson Greens can be found in Driggs at the Royal Wolf and at the Chops Eats food-truck style diner, at Sherwood’s Post in Victor, and at Grand Targhee Resort’s Branding Iron Grill. clawsongreens.com

Healthcare Our Valley Needs

In January, Teton Valley Health Care (TVHC) released its Community Health Needs Assessment, in which residents ranked their top five healthcare needs. Topping the list: accessibility to affordable care, followed by mental health services, wellness programs, substance abuse treatment, and accident prevention. A similar assessment is done ever y three years.

The report also compares our hospital and healthcare services to those of the other forty-three counties in Idaho. Teton County has the second highest rate of uninsured residents and the highest rate of people unable to receive medical care due to cost. On the upside: TVHC was ranked ninth for longer survivability, based on the death rate prior to age 75, and outranked many other counties for low adult obesity and cancer rates.

“We learn from these findings and we work on ways to address the needs that fall under our mission as providers of healthcare,” says Keith Gnagey, TVHC’s chief executive officer. “We learned about the high percentage of uninsured in the valley; we responded with the Cache Clinic, a lo w-priced clinic [designed] to meet basic health care needs. We learned about the need for crisis and mental health facilities in the valley; we responded with the initial funding for the Community Resource Center.” (See “Valley Voices,” page 34, to learn about this center.)

TVHC will spend the next three years putting additional plans in motion to address the concerns. The results will be measured in the 2019 assessment. To read the full report and learn about next steps, visit tvhcare.org/community-outreach.

GEARUPAND GETOUT

All in a Day’s Work our neighbors

Going with the Flow

Targhee trail-builder helps bolster resort’s summer season

BY MOLLY ABSOLON PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARA AGNEW

ANDY WILLIAMS (ABOVE) OPERATING GRAND TARGHEE RESORT’S TRAIL-BUILDING MACHINE (OPPOSITE PAGE).

The trail banks around a corner, flowing into a grove of aspens before breaking out into a wildflower-filled meadow. My bike coasts effortlessly through the turns, gliding downhill. I find myself grinning. It feels as if I’m flying.

My grin is apropos, as the trail triggering it is called “Perma-Grin.” It’s one of my favorites at Grand Targhee Resort and, it turns out, also one of the trail designer’s favorites.

“It’s a toss-up between Perma-Grin and Action Jackson,” says Andy Williams, Grand Targhee’s special events and trails manager. “I like trails to be enjoyable to ride in both directions, and I like riding through the aspens.

“I try not to force my trails,” he adds. “Instead, I look for natural benches and clean lines. It’s all about flow. I have to connect the dots here and there to make things work, but it’s really just

“When I came to work at Targhee there were about five or six miles of singletrack for biking at the resort,” he says. “Basically, they were old horse trails in Rick’s Basin. Then Geordie [Gillette, Grand Targhee’s owner] said, ‘Okay, we’re going to start building trails.’”

Targhee hired Gravity Logic, the company that created Whistler-Blackcomb’s downhill trails, to provide guidance in the resort’s early efforts. Gravity Logic’s designers laid out about three miles of downhill trails that Williams put in place on the ground. Then he started coming up with his own ideas for cross-country trails.

“I began walking around to see where possibilities for new trails were,” he says. “I was pretty lucky. Geordie let me take the ball and run with it. He’s a mountain biker himself. Now mountain biking is a big part of our summer business. We’ve become a bike destination.”

For good reason. Grand Targhee

“I get beat up a lot riding the machine, thrown around and covered with dust. ... But I love my job.” –Andy Williams

about reading the terrain. I want trails that get people out there, experiencing the views, the flowers, and the incredible riding.”

Williams has been at Grand Targhee for eleven years. He’s the one behind the curtain at the resort’s music festivals, and at its winter free-ski competitions and snowmobile hill climb. He deals with the headaches of figuring out how to get spectators out to the race venue when winds close the chairlift, and he knows just how many porta-potties the Bluegrass Festival requires. He grooms for fat-bike races in the winter and flags the route for cross-country bike races in the summer.

But it’s the incredible mountain biking trails Williams has built at Targhee that have brought him fame, if not fortune.

boasts of sixty-one miles of trails for cross-country and downhill biking (as well as for hiking and horseback riding). There’s riding for everyone, from gentle beginner tracks perfect for kids or timid riders to gnarly, rocky descents best ridden with full padding and a facemask. Many of the trails bear Williams’ signature mark: flowy banked turns, rideable grades in both directions, and spectacular scenic settings.

“Geordie has been totally supportive of trail building,” Williams says. “It pulls a pretty good price tag, but the whole valley benefits from having these trails.”

Williams gets a lot of his inspiration just exploring Targhee’s Peaked Mountain and Fred’s Mountain on his bike. But he also likes to visit other mountain bike destinations, looking for ideas he

WESTERN

MOUNTAIN MODERN

can try back home to make the riding even more enjoyable. He figures he still has a couple of more years of trail building to do at Targhee. Some of his dreams have been approved and will go into production this summer; others remain on the drawing board. He has also farmed out Targhee’s equipment and his expertise to help the U.S. Forest Service improve the Mill Creek Trail, which links Teton Canyon with Targhee’s system.

Williams first got into mountainbike trail design while working at Vail, where he grew up. Earlier he had designed Vail Resort’s ski-race courses, and when the resort decided to sponsor a dual slalom mountain bike race, he transferred his skills from snow to dirt. The sport was evolving in those days, and people like Williams were figuring out the intricacies of course setting and trail design on the fly. He began working for USA Cycling in the summers, traveling across the country to set up and run dual slalom races, while continuing his work at Vail in the winter. Finally, after fifteen years, he burned out and moved with his wife to Boise.

But then the Targhee job opened. He applied, landed the gig, and the couple moved to Driggs in 2006.

THE PAYOFF FOR ALL OF WILLIAMS’ HARD WORK AND HIS EMPLOYER’S SUPPORT COMES IN THE FORM OF A NETWORK OF SOME OF THE FINEST MOUNTAIN BIKING TRAILS IN THE ROCKIES.

“For over a decade, Andy has been leading the way in the development of modern mountain bike trails in Teton Valley,” says Scott Fitzgerald, the founder and former owner of Fitzgerald’s Bicycles in Victor. “Andy has also been spearheading growth in the mountain bike culture locally through his worldclass events at Targhee and the personal time he’s spent serving on the board of local cycling nonprofits.”

Williams says trail building can be back-breaking work.

“I get beat up a lot riding the [trailbuilding] machine, getting thrown around and covered with dust,” he says. “Sometimes I’m so exhausted the last thing I want to do is grab my bike and go for a ride.

“But I love my job. What a grand place for an office.”

SUNGLASSES

Suncloud

Smith

Carhartt

Dansko • Temple Fork Fly Rods

Patagonia

Smith

Suncloud

KAVU • Temple Fork Fly Rods

Back When our neighbors

A Grand Pursuit

Local farmers made mountaineering history

BY JOYCE D. EDLEFSEN

More than tall grass and available land drew settlers to our valley. The beauty and grandeur of the Tetons helped make the hardships of Teton Basin more bearable.

Most settlers were satisfied with simply viewing the magnificent backdrop. But more than ninety years ago, a family of farmers summoned the bravado to do what few men had tried before them. In bib overalls and suspenders, using the most basic of equipment, they set off in the fall of 1924 to climb the Grand Teton.

The climb was like being on top of the world, according to John Dewey.

“It was a sight that I shall never forget.”

George A. Dewey and his sons Jesse C. Dewey, Joe W. Dewey, and John W. Dewey, all of Chapin, are listed on the climbing registry for reaching the summit of the Grand in September 1924.

“A clear, beautiful windless day,” was how John Dewey described the scene as he, his two brothers, and their father began their climb with family friend Nean Christensen. Dewey’s account is part of a family history shared with the Teton Valley Museum in Driggs.

“We rode our horses up Fox Creek Canyon, crossed over to the head of Teton Creek Canyon, and camped there for the night. Before daylight the next morning … we left on foot and crossed over to the head of Glacier Canyon at the foot of the three Teton peaks. We crossed a large glacier of snow and then climbed the larger peak, which was difficult to do. We ate lunch and had a drink out of the trickling stream of water about 600 feet from the summit,” wrote Dewey, who was twenty-one at

the time of the ascent.

“During the climb of the last 600 feet, we linked ourselves together with a rope for added safety. My brother Jesse took the lead. He was a good mountain climber. There are three places which, if one slipped, could mean certain death.

“The scenery at the top of the mountains … was more beautiful and fascinating than anything that I had ever before experienced. With a chisel and hammer, my brother Jesse chiseled all our initials in a large granite rock on the summit. I carried my Colt pistol with me and fired it off on top of the peak,” he wrote.

Records show Jesse Dewey had also climbed the Grand Teton a couple of months earlier. The Deweys were not the first individuals to summit the 13,775-foot-high peak, but they were the first Teton Valley residents brave enough and interested enough to meet the challenge.

The climb was like being on the top of the world, according to John Dewey. “It was a sight that I shall never forget.” As many have since noted, he said it was more difficult to come down off the mountain than to climb it, adding that it was sundown when they arrived at the base of the peak. A long day’s work, but an experience to be highly treasured.

The History of Teton Valley, by B.W. Driggs, notes the accomplishment, saying the Deweys carried a six-foot-tall pine flag pole to plant on the summit.

Perhaps the Deweys’ best documented climb took place a couple of years later, in 1926. They placed a huge metal banner atop the Grand in honor of the 1898 probable first ascent of the peak, made by William Owen, Frank Spalding, John Shive, and Frank Peterson, an uncle of the Deweys. The 1926 trek was at Owen’s request, as he was determined to cement and promote his place in climbing history. He had long disputed first ascent claims in 1872 by James Stevenson and Nathaniel P. Langford, members of the Hayden Survey

of the same year. The commemorative climb in 1926 was widely publicized, and Owen wrote flatteringly about the skills of the Deweys as mountaineers.

Family members today say their ancestors’ historic exploits are part of a proud heritage they keep alive by enjoying the mountains, both on the peaks and in the woods. Some have followed in their forebears’ climbing footholds, reaching the summit themselves. Barbara Hill, George Dewey’s granddaughter and Joe Dewey’s daughter, said her son, DelRay Hill, and his son, Dallas Hill, have made the climb. Barbara’s nephew, James Dewey, said his father, Jim Dewey, told him of the family’s bond to the mountains when James was a teenager. Repeating their feat was something Jim always wanted to do, and something he hoped for his son James, as well.

Joe Dewey’s obituary is among the family records at the Teton Valley Museum. It describes his role as a school board member and as a Teton County commissioner, with not a word about his early climbing achievements as a pioneer mountain climber.

No matter. No need. His name is chiseled in stone on the Grand Teton.

HATS OFF TO A SUCCESSFUL ASCENT OF THE 13,775-FOOT GRAND TETON.

Field Notes

Charisma on the Wing

Teton Basin’s mix of habitats vital to resident and migratory birds

BY MOLLY ABSOLON PHOTOGRAPHY BY CODY DOWNARD

Along the edge of the Teton River, a pair of trumpeter swans glide downstream. They move without visible effort, their long white necks arced in a graceful curve, no doubt oblivious to their connection to conservation in eastern Idaho.

In the early 1900s trumpeter swans were thought to be extinct. Large, slow moving, and brilliantly white, they were easy targets for hunters who sought their meat for food, their skin for women’s powder puffs, and their feathers for quills. Then, in 1932, sixty-nine of the birds were identified at Red Rock Lakes in southwest Montana. With President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s blessing, the land there was set aside to protect the birds and other wildlife, and a national campaign to conserve the trumpeter began. Now, thanks to continuing habitat-protection and -restoration efforts, the North American trumpeter swan population is stable.

Part of that effort is taking place in Teton Valley, one of Greater Yellowstone’s primary wintering grounds for trumpeter swans. Sandhill cranes, owls, hawks, shorebirds, waterfowl, eagles, and songbirds also use the valley, making this place important habitat for a broad range of species. That importance was codified in 2003 when an effort spearheaded by Teton Regional Land Trust (TRLT) succeeded in getting Teton Basin named an Important Bird Area.

Important Bird Areas (IBAs) are part of a global initiative by BirdLife International, Audubon, and local partners aimed at conserving areas around the world that are vital to birds. There are 1,930 state IBAs in the U.S., totaling more than sixty-seven million acres. The Teton Basin IBA encompasses 194,886 acres. (It spans the Idaho-Wyoming border, and at the Audubon IBA website you’ll find it listed only under the latter state.)

IBAs simply recognize an area’s im-

portance, and do not include any rules or regulations to protect the designation. What is done in an IBA depends on local land managers, residents, and land trusts and other conservationists.

“Some of the most productive lands in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are low-elevation private lands like we have here in Teton Valley,” says Rob Cavallaro. Regional biologist for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Cavallaro worked for TRLT when it applied for the IBA designation. “A lot of the protected lands around here are high elevation. There is a physical limit to their productivity. They are cold and snowy half the year. It’s the valleys surrounding the high country that support our wildlife populations.”

The valley’s mosaic of habitat types is vital to that support.

“There are 26,000 acres of wetlands in Teton Valley,” says Michael Whitfield. He was the executive director of TRLT for seventeen years and, with Cavallaro, one of those responsible for securing the IBA designation. “We also have spring-fed creeks that are warm and stay open all winter. We have edges— where aspens and shrubs grow—and cottonwoods along the creeks that are really important to songbirds and birds of prey.”

In addition, Cavallaro says, biologists now realize how vital agricultural lands are for many birds, including trumpeters, which “loaf” (that’s a technical term) in the stubble in winter to rest and conserve energy.

“People sometimes take this place for granted,” Whitfield says. “We get used to seeing trumpeter swans and cranes around. We don’t realize that’s not the case everywhere. We live in a pretty special place.”

Wintering trumpeter swans are just one of the reasons Teton Valley is special. Whitfield says in the spring you can watch long-billed curlews perform elaborate mating dances out in the barley-field stubble. In the fall, hundreds of sandhill cranes congregate in those

Plotting for the Future

Teton Valley hosts the largest population of pre-migration staging sandhill cranes in the Greater Yellowstone region. Sandhill cranes rely on the close alignment of cultivated grain and wetland roost sites found in Teton Valley to efficiently bulk up prior to migration. To secure cultivated grain foraging resources for sandhill cranes in the valley, Teton Regional Land Trust (TRLT) is working with local farmers and partners—including the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—to manage a portion of agricultural land for forage for the birds. Through compensating willing landowners in key foraging areas, TRLT is facilitating the existence of sandhill crane food plots, which consist of cultivated grain that is knocked down to stubble but not harvested. TRLT has facilitated an average of forty acres of grain food plots per year since the initiative started in 2014, and the plots have seen significant use by the cranes. The food plots are also utilized by a wide variety of other birds and wildlife, including trumpeter swans, northern pintails, sharp-tailed grouse, white-tailed deer, and many other species. In addition to the food plot initiative, TRLT is working to encourage grain producers to delay tilling of their grain stubble, as leftover grain provides ample foraging resources for wildlife until it is tilled. In fact, grain stubble that remains standing until the following spring will continue to provide significant forage resources for resident and migrating wildlife.

– Joselin Matkins, executive director

Teton Regional Land Trust

The Birth Center

> Exceptional care, comfort, and privacy

> Beautiful setting with views of the National Elk Refuge

> Well-appointed suites featuring abundant natural light

> In-room labor tubs for patient comfort

> Cesarean section rate far below national average

> Breast feeding rate well above the national average

> Support from certified lactation nurses in hospital and after returning home

> Prenatal care services

> Monthly groups for babies and families

FROM BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES (ABOVE) TO GREAT BLUE HERONS (RIGHT) TO MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS (PAGE 30), THE VALLEY TEEMS WITH BIRD LIFE.

same fields, in preparation for their annual migration to New Mexico. You can hear their prehistoric-sounding cries rattling from the farm fields in the early morning calm. A number of owl species live in the valley, including the largest of them all, the elusive great gray owl. Raptors hunt from the cottonwood tops and thousands of ducks stop over along the Teton River during their journeys north and south. In fact, Whitfield says, you’ll see and hear something going on in the bird world the year around if you pay attention.

“The Important Bird Area designation draws attention to what we have,” says Susan Patla, nongame biologist with Wyoming Game and Fish. Patla, who lives in Teton Valley, launched the local Christmas Bird Count project in 1994.

Attention can mean funding. Cavallaro says the IBA designation is a powerful leveraging tool for conservationists trying to secure money and support for habitat protection. We don’t have a lot of big game in Teton Valley, he says, but we do have birds—and birding is big business. Roughly 20 percent of Americans identify themselves as birders. Most birders are over fifty, well educated, and have money to spend on their hobby.

Those who watch birds are not the only contributors to bird conservation.

Hunters also provide a vital source of funding for wetland protection. In 1934, President Roosevelt signed the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act, which required all bird hunters to purchase a conservation stamp with their hunting license. Since then, roughly $800 million has gone into the fund, protecting more than 5.7 million acres of habitat.

But the dollars raised by the duck stamp program are spent exclusively on public lands. In Teton Valley, most of the important bird habitat is privately owned. To protect these places, conservationists must find ways to work with landowners.

“Funding conservation is often driven by charismatic species,” says Joselin Matkins, the current executive director of TRLT. “Waterbirds enable us to access funding. The land trust has protected 11,000 acres in Teton Valley, most of which is along the river corridor or in wetlands. We’ve worked with willing landowners in a non-regulatory framework to do that.”

So, charismatic birds attract dollars to fund conservation, and conservation helps ensure the birds have a haven to return to year after year. A win-win situation for the winged things and for the humans who enjoy their company.

Growing Things our neighbors Valley Voices

COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER FOUNDING BOARD MEMBERS SUSIE WORK (FAR LEFT) AND ANN LOYOLA, WITH CRC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MEGAN O’BRIEN AND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF TETON VALLEY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CARRIE MOWREY.

Community Resource Center

Helping clients navigate the potholed road of poverty

BY JEANNETTE BONER

It’s easy to take a big, sweeping look at our valley and overlook the intimate patchwork of people who work and live in this rugged landscape, facing challenges that are sometimes unique to life at 6,000 feet.

The newly established Community Resource Center of Teton Valley (CRC) cut the ribbon for their new office along Main Street in Driggs in late February 2016. The young nonprofit is working to connect many who are walking the very fine—and often invisible—line of poverty to services and support.

“We have a lot of kids who get free [or] reduced lunch,” says CRC Executive Director Megan O’Brien. “We have a lot of people who drive an hour to get to work, [or] who are unemployed. The weather is hard, housing is hard to come by. But I don’t think our actual poverty level feels any different than the national average, so that can make it seem like everyone in the valley is okay.

“Many people have a poor awareness of poverty,” she adds, and “some believe that if you can’t afford to live here, you should just move on.”

According to the 2015 Poverty Report produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, the national average poverty rate is 13.5 percent. Idaho comes in at 15.5 percent; Teton County, 18.3 percent.

Ann Loyola, director of marketing and public relations for Teton Valley Health Care, is a founding CRC board member. She has worked alongside hundreds of Teton Valley community members, from church group members to wilderness guides, to pave the way for this organization of compassion that seeks to understand the realities of poverty and the deep challenges facing those who live in it.

“We knew that many needs were not being met in Teton Valley,” says Loyola of the days before CRC put boots on the ground. It was after a 2012 needs assessment survey conducted by the Community Foundation of Teton Valley (CFTV) that Loyola started attending meetings called Filling the Gaps, which was a first step in assessing the support resources available here. Teton Valley Hospital committed $25,000 in seed money, while the CFTV granted another $10,000, to establish the CRC, open an office, and bring on O’Brien as their first staff person.

Loyola says the CRC board uses the program “Bridges Out of Poverty,” a proven road map for communities and organizations wishing to serve people in poverty.

“The Bridges Out of Poverty model shows us that resources are more than

• Sleek hideaway glass and screen doors

• Burn up to 30" logs for more ambiance

• Drawbridge grate and hinged glass door for easy maintenance

just financial, and that money doesn’t just solve everything,” O’Brien says. “I hope to impart the belief that people really want more control in their lives and they don’t want to live in poverty. These are not all sob stories, but stories of strength and about people looking to create a different life for themselves, even if it takes a long time.”

O’Brien says the challenges facing those needing government services and assistance are often much more complex than what first meets the eye. Imagine a traffic ticket throwing you into a financial tailspin, where you need to sacrifice food or shelter to pay the fine.

“One of the things about living in poverty is it’s challenging to think in terms of the future.”

–Megan O’Brien

This was the case for a client who, because of a ticket for a traffic violation, was unable to pay a doctor bill for their child. And it wasn’t just the medical bill, it was losing hours at work because the child was sick and needed to stay home. On top of those, there was the rent coming due, and the court dates to fight custody from an abusive partner. Thanks to the CRC, the ticket was paid, and the organization continued to work with this parent to navigate the complex maze of the court systems and child custody rights.

“One of the things about living in poverty is that it’s really challenging to think in terms of the future,” O’Brien says. “You find yourself just trying to get through the day, wondering, ‘What will I have for dinner or breakfast, where will I sleep tonight?’ It becomes too hard to think abstractly about life.”

Another CRC client drives over Teton Pass to Jackson Hole to work eighty hours a week at $5.50 an hour.

Interested in helping out?

The following is needed by the CRC:

• toilet paper

• paper towels

• soap, diapers

• shampoo

• laundry detergent

• Donated gas cards

• Volunteers for the food rescue program

• Donated cost of fees for bilingual interpreter training

Learn more at crctv.org

CRC is helping this individual reimagine life in a different job closer to home in Teton Valley. But it will take time, O’Brien says, because that $440 a week is feeding and sheltering a family.

O’Brien has about sixty clients she is working with at various levels of need, including people with disabilities trying to work through the court systems and individuals utilizing the newly implemented food rescue program. The latter, organized by a group of volunteers led by O’Brien, works with local businesses to “rescue” food that doesn’t sell, like day-old bread and fruits and vegetables a bit beyond their peak ripeness.

Additionally, CRC is working with the Hispanic Resource Center to provide training to bilingual clients. Through a court interpreter program, clients are trained and qualified for jobs that can start at $40 an hour.

“Imagine going from $7.25 an hour to $40 an hour,” O’Brien says.

Many clients get frustrated with the amount of paperwork involved, and with trying to comprehend what is available to them. For example, seniors and those with disabilities often feel overwhelmed by the steps they need to take to access services like medical disability support.

“It’s like herding cats, and I’ve gotten really good at Google research,” O’Brien says, laughing. “It’s easy to start the process for clients, but it can be challenging to keep the momentum going. We are always checking in with people, asking them to come in and talk about their obstacles. And we stay flexible to stay in touch with people.”

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Kimchi Jjigae

Seafood Soon Do Boo

Bulgogi

Galbi

Millennials Making a Difference

Teton High alumni take on the world

by Liz Onufer

At Teton High School (THS), the graduating class typically teeters somewhere around a hundred students. Many of these small town grads head out into a much larger world, to colleges where their names might not be known by faculty and competition for good opportunities can be much tougher than back home. But THS alumni are proving that it doesn’t take big money and a ton of resources to create a solid foundation for their lives ahead. Social entrepreneur, nuclear engineer, heliski operator, Air Force Pilot, EMT—these five young men and women are evidence of just what a sound foundation a small-town school can provide. (In italics are some of each individual’s thoughts about their experience at Teton High School.)

Todd Sherman, Class of 2001 Nuclear Engineer

Todd Sherman did not originally set out to be a nuclear engineer. His route to the profession was part curiosity and part persistence and hard work, and he recognizes the opportunities he had at THS provided a solid underpinning.

“I treasure my days at THS. Many people trash on the small town and small school experience, but I found it to be extremely advantageous.”

After graduation and a season working at Trail Creek Nursery, Todd served his LDS mission in Managua, Nicaragua. When he returned to the states in 2004, he headed to the University of Utah to pursue a degree in architecture. He completed the prerequisites but was not accepted into the competitive full bachelor’s program. Formulating a plan B, he looked at the College of Engineering.

In the midst of the difficulty and rigor of the engineering classes, Todd found his career path. He enjoyed the work so much, he decided to go on for a Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering. With the offer of a research assistantship, which included a full scholarship and living stipend, Todd began his way to the graduate degree.

At Teton High School (THS), the graduating class typically teeters somewhere around a hundred students. Many of these small town grads head out into a much larger world, to colleges where their names might not be known by faculty and competition for good opportunities can be much tougher than back home. But THS alumni are proving that it doesn’t take big money and a ton of resources to create a solid foundation for their lives ahead. Meet five recent graduates who are breaking the stereotypes of the small-town educated. Social entrepreneur, nuclear engineer, heli-ski operator, Air Force Pilot, EMT—these young men and women are evidence of just what a sound foundation a small-town school can provide.

“I wanted to learn more, and it was in graduate school that I truly learned to learn,” he says. “Now, I must emphasize that I am not academically gifted. It took me two times to pass the fundamentals of engineering test and two times to pass my Ph.D. qualifying exam.”

Today, Todd is completing his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering through Idaho State University. He works at the River Bend Station nuclear power plant near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as he completes his research project to finish the degree.

“THS can be a great starting place for students to begin to get involved in school as well as the community. Our schools are assets; invest in them.”

Alexandra Meiners, Class of 2003 Heli-Ski Owner/Operator

Alex Meiners’ journey from THS to Alaska’s heli-skiing world was a bit circuitous. A combination of events over the years, including a high-level internship, severe tonsillitis, and a tragic accident, led her out of the valley to New York City and back home again over the last decade.

In 2007, after graduating from Idaho State University, Alex secured an internship in New York City at the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar. After her internship, she moved on to work as an associate editor at True Romance Magazine and the quarterly True Experience Magazine.

“I always had a desire to be a writer, but it wasn’t until Neil Gleichman’s freshman World History and Lance Fuisting’s Newspaper class that I knew I wanted to be a journalist.”

But after a being diagnosed with chronic tonsillitis and spending a week in the hospital, Alex returned to Teton Valley to have a tonsillectomy and recover. It was during this time that she began helping her father, Theo Meiners, with his business, Alaska Rendezvous Guides and Alaska Rendezvous Lodge. Within her first week, Theo had made her a signer on the bank account and handed over the administrative duties. For three years, Alex worked alongside her dad to run the heli-skiing operation and guest lodge.

When Theo passed away unexpectedly in an accident in Anchorage in 2012, Alex found herself at the helm of the enterprise. The learning curve was steep from the moment she stepped into the business and has continued to be over the last few years.

Alaska Rendezvous Guides canceled the 2013 heli-skiing season after Theo’s death. In 2014, with Alex serving as the owner and operator, business resumed in full. Today, she carries on the legacy of her father and has been recognized for her leadership by the National Association of Professional Women, and profiled in Big Life Magazine as the industry’s only female owner and operator.

Victoria Cook Farmer, Class of 2003 Social Entrepreneur

When Victoria (Cook) Farmer wrote in the THS yearbook that her goal was to be a successful businesswoman, she figured she would find work with a large, established company. Her plans did not include creating and co-founding her own business. But she has done just that with The Doll Kind, a children’s company creating soft, huggable dolls that promote kindness.

“The people who I met and became friends with [at THS] are a vital part of who I am today. I had teachers that truly cared and were very accessible. Being a part of a small student body really helped me to feel significant. It wasn’t easy to get lost in the crowd.”

Victoria attended Idaho State University before volunteering to teach English in China. After returning to the states, she moved to Denver, where she met her husband, Tim. The couple started a family and have two young children, with a third on the way.

It was Victoria’s oldest who gave her the business idea, in a most unusual way. One day while Victoria was nursing her young son, her oldest child, Anistyn, two at the time, submerged herself in a bucket of white paint. Victoria had been painting the living room in preparation to sell their house and had been unable to secure the lid. Before whisking Anistyn to the bath, she snapped a photo and later posted it to social media. What followed was a media storm that both berated Victoria for her parenting skills and commiserated with her for her predicament. Reading some of the abusive comments made Victoria think about what kind of people her children might become, and how she could inspire more kindness in them.

“A good education doesn’t rest solely upon the teachers, or the school district, or even the student. It takes an entire community.”

This led to Victoria—along with fellow parent and friend Jackie Konczol—starting The Doll Kind. Each doll comes with a kindness kit, a set of heart tokens with phrases to inspire gratitude, love, and kindness. For every doll purchased, another doll is donated to a child less fortunate. So far, The Doll Kind’s work and mission have been recognized with the First Year’s Parentpreneur Grant and featured in Real Simple magazine’s holiday gift guide.

Sean Dronen, Class of 2007 Air Force Pilot

From THS track meets to pilot training in Texas to his Middle East deployment, Capt. Sean Dronen’s journey has been focused on serving his community and his country. In 2011, Sean graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with the rank of second lieutenant and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.

“Although my desire to join the Air Force and pursue a career in aviation stemmed primarily from my family roots, I owe everything to Teton High School in the preparation it offered me in pursuit of these goals.”

Upon graduating from the academy, Sean was invited to attend the Air Force Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas. After two intense years of training, he earned his Air Force pilot wings and was assigned to fly C-17 military transport aircraft out of McChord Air Force Base in Washington state. He left Texas with his wings and his future wife, Tracy. Today, the couple have two young children.

“The preparation and knowledge I gained from my insightful coaches [at THS] not only prepared me for whomever my next wrestling match was against, but also for the challenges and frustrations we’re all accustomed to facing on a daily basis.”

For the last four years, Sean has been flying the C-17 across the world. In 2014, he was deployed to the Middle East and was recognized for his service, with two Air Medals for sustained aerial achievement. Today, he serves as a flight instructor out of Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma, where he trains the newest C-17 pilots.

“I still worry that this high school, and particularly its teaching staff, are severely underappreciated for the incredible work they put in each year. Teton High School does an amazing job preparing any and all students that are willing to learn and accept the challenge.”

Edgar Chavez Class of 2012, EMT

Edgar Chavez’s desire to enter the medical field was born during Mr. Beard’s Anatomy class at THS. Since then, Edgar’s academic and professional decisions have been driven by his goal to be a doctor.

“THS solidified my interest in science. I was able to take work experience and see what it was like to be in a hospital.”

Edgar went on to graduate from Westminster College in Salt Lake City. While in college, he served as a translator at a free clinic for low-income families, volunteered at Primary Children’s Hospital, and taught kids about chemical experiments through the American Chemical Society. But it was his work with Dr. Bonnie Baxter and her research that Edgar defines as one of his greatest achievements.

“The research project was to simplify DNA extraction from salt crystals in hopes of one day implementing our protocol on a rover that would be sent to Mars,” he explains. The project was funded by NASA, and Edgar had the opportunity to present at two regional NASA conferences.

During his final semester at Westminster, Edgar earned his EMT certification and is currently working for Gold Cross Ambulance in Salt Lake City. He is taking classes for his Advanced EMT as he applies to medical schools and awaits acceptance letters for the fall semester.

“In order for THS to build strong academic foundations, it needs the help and support of the community—to provide the current academic opportunities and to create new ones that will broaden the possibilities for students and their futures.”

Teton High School has served as a springboard for thousands of graduates. Most often, their success stories are shared quietly in the aisles at Broulim’s or on the bleachers at homecoming. Alumni go on to earn prestigious degrees, serve missions, start families, build businesses, save lives, and protect our nation. THS and the success of its graduates are the result of a community that has come together—faculty, staff, parents, and students—to nurture small town kids and help them grow to become citizens who are making a difference.

by Molly Loomis

The in

Photography by Camrin Dengel

The Future of Ag in Teton Valley?

Thoughts and opinions in some local farmers’ own words

Dale Sharkey (wearing glasses) and Jed Restuccia flanked by (left to right) Dagan, Axel, and Roxanne Restuccia.

FIVE A.M. Jed Restuccia hits his alarm, stretches out of bed and begins the ritual of making coffee while the early rays of summer sun creep across the Teton Valley. It’s a ritual well rehearsed by Restuccia over the course of two decades as co-owner and operator of Cosmic Apple Gardens, Teton Valley’s longest running organic, bio-dynamic, Community Supported Agriculture farm.

FIVE THIRTY A.M., Todd Dustin hits his alarm, pulls on his knee-high rubber boots, puts on glasses to keep the bugs from his eyes, and makes his way to his four-wheeler. Thirteen different wheel lines, spread across twelve miles, await their daily repositioning. Dustin’s family has farmed the valley’s west side for five generations, and his second son Christopher hopes to continue the tradition. Today, Dustin Farms produces barley and hay for consumers as far away as Saudi Arabia, China, and Japan, and grows seed potatoes in cooperation with SunRain [see sidebar page 49].

SIX-THIRTY A.M. Restuccia sneaks from the house, his wife and Cosmic co-owner Dale Sharkey and their three young children still sleeping. He heads to his truck and drives a mile to their fifteen acres of farmland. Restuccia tends to the small menagerie of animals, then meets with the various work crews before they head to the market and additional workers and volunteers pour in.

NINE A.M. Satisfied his five hundred acres of hay, barley, and potatoes will be properly irrigated during the day, Dustin finally sits down at the breakfast table. Meanwhile, Sharkey ushers her brood out the door, ready for a morning of harvesting flowers and preparing lunch for Cosmic’s workers.

Different farmers; different routines; all in the same valley Resting at opposite ends of the spectrum, these two farms differ significantly in size, crops, and their approaches toward agriculture. But despite their differences, they face the similar challenges. From Mormon settlers in the late 1880s to commercial ag in the 1970s to organic CSAs in the 2000s, the face of farming in Teton Valley is ever changing, just as the seasons themselves. Here are some local farmers’ thoughts on what the next 140 years of agriculture in Teton Valley may bring:

Alyssa Tyas and other farm-share workers harvesting daikon radishes for share holders.

What are the most pressing issues facing the future of farming in Teton Valley?

JED RESTUCCIA (JR): Other than labor and the normal dayto-day headaches, loss of open space, land, and water.

DALE SHARKEY (DS): Labor. It’s part of the bigger picture of our country’s income disparity and being able to pay a living wage to farm workers. We want to pay our employees a living wage but because we’re competing against behemoth corporations, we can’t.

TODD DUSTIN (TD): Am I going to be able to stay in long enough without going under? With all the pressures, it’s a difficult thing. For the last ten years, our prices have been declining steadily. But our input costs like equipment, labor, the cost of living—everything goes up. The economics is hard. Farming is different than any other business.

Agriculture can be rife with hot button topics. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about farming held by the general public?

JR: Nobody can understand why [food] costs money, but no one wants to do the work or pay the higher cost of people doing hard labor. It’s all about cost, which drives the other things: subsidies, labor shortages.

CHRISTOPHER DUSTIN (CD), AGE 28:

Sometimes I feel like people think we’re out here dumping chemicals into the ground and trying to poison the earth. Really, we’re not. A lot of these things are minimal with residual effect. Years of testing went in. It’s not like we want to put more on because every unit decreases our amount of profit. We’re just doing what we need to do to get by; what the ground needs to produce the crop.

TD: You see somebody with one of those big combines driving down the road and think, ‘Gosh, they must be making a lot of money.’ That’s not the case. You can’t go out there and harvest that stuff with your hands. You’ve got to have something that will do it and tractors and machinery are very expensive.

Enrollment in BYU Idaho’s agronomy programs has almost doubled in the past twenty years, but the number of graduates taking over their family farms has declined from 50 percent to just 25 percent. What are the Restuccia and Dustin children’s plans for the future?

DAGAN RESTUCCIA, AGE 10;

Electrical Engineer. I like making stuff. I like going to tech club.

AXEL RESTUCCIA, AGE 8:

President of the United States. I want to protect endangered species. Peregrine falcons are my favorite. I’m not interested in working on the farm because you can’t protect endangered species.

ROXANNE RESTUCCIA, AGE 5: Cowboy! I’d rather play with the cats.

DS: We just want them to be happy. We lucked out finding what makes us happy. We want them to be able to experience the same thing. Whatever that’s going to be, although I would push for some farm-friendly legislation if we end up with a president.

CD: Farming is always something I’ve loved to do, but it’s hard for all of us to make a living. So, I went into something similar, horticulture. That’s my job at Huntsman Springs. Running the farm myself someday, that’s the million-dollar question. I can’t just take it from my father. It’s something I have to work toward, but there are a lot of barriers like not having enough land to support both families. Land isn’t cheap around here. If we could go buy a thousand acres back for what my great-great-great grandfather paid, then there’d be no question we’d expand. That’s really the question for us. My dad had four kids, so how do you make it fair? My way toward fairness was to find another job and, where I can, help out.

Genetic engineering of crops, then precision agriculture, were heralded as the fix to feeding the world. What’s the latest buzz on farming technology and is it something you’ll implement in the future?

DS: For our scale I think information sharing is the big one. You can have a problem, Google it, and there’s a person with a small farm in Vermont who’s figured out how to solve it.

CD: I think proper nutrient management at variable rates is the next big thing, because soil is different throughout the whole field. You’re going to save money because you’re not doing blanket coverage and you’re able to produce more. It’s something we’re going to have to get better at if we’re going to feed the world.

Since the 1950s, the Teton Valley Aquifer has declined dramatically, and flow ratio has declined by half since the 1940s. The Idaho Department of Water Resources will soon be requiring updated water management with gauges, lockable head gates, and a reassessment of rights to small creeks and tributaries. What are your thoughts on the future of Teton Valley’s water?

JR: We could conserve water big time here in the valley. We haven’t seen changes but have concerns based on what we’re hearing. If we lose water rights, we’re going to have to change what we do.

CD: Through irrigation we’ve been able to advance our technology quite a bit. The wheel lines and hand lines people used were only 60 percent efficient. Now the pivot and the irrigation systems going in are 90 percent efficient in moving water. I think the only thing we may be able to change is how efficiently we use that water.

According to the American Farmland Trust, 86 percent of fruits and vegetables are threatened by sprawl. It’s not simply the 15,000 acres of Idaho farmland that are annually lost to development, it’s the way water and soil quality and quantity are impacted. How does this play out in a place like Teton Valley?

TD: I think they’d have to do a lot of building before it would impact a lot of farm ground. Most people build near the streams or close to the forest, which is [another] issue, but you don’t see much building on the flat farm ground.

DS: It’s hard to see farmland paved for Walmarts. We need food, we don’t need more stuff.

Kelly Stoddard, vice president of operations at SunRain, walking through a field of potatoes. The company grows seed on 450 acres in Teton Valley, split between their own 1,660 acres of fields and four leased valley farms.

facility. The wooden boxes are filled with potatoes.

Below: SunRain grows 100 varieties of seed potatoes.

What are ways Teton Valley residents can support local farms of all sizes?

DS: Buying from your neighbor, buying local. Make farmland a priority if and only if you want to keep eating.

TD: Our biggest worries and concerns are input and what are we getting out. I don’t know what the community could do to help us, as far as that goes, but mainly understand that it’s not easy. Those beautiful green fields they ride their bikes by, we’re here to try and stay. Hopefully we can. Hopefully we don’t get priced out of the valley like we’ve seen in Jackson.

CD: I think sometimes there are a lot of people on the outside looking in and they don’t understand the full picture. And we as farmers, maybe, on the outside looking in might not understand their full picture either. But being open with each other and creating that dialogue … we can break down barriers, and become united. When I grew up everyone knew everyone and there wasn’t very much contention. I think that’s what everyone wants, to come together as a community. There’s no reason why we can’t, we just need to open up and be cordial with our communication.

Environmental Protection Agency scientists estimate that by 2050, water flow in Idaho may be 50 percent less than it is today. Combine this statistic with a measured decrease in snow and a temperature increase of up to two degrees. Does climate change and its impact on farming concern you?

JR: Of course, we’d be super happy if we had warmer temperatures here, but the violent storm cycles would seem to be what could hamper the way we farm. Who knows what will really happen with the precipitation?

DS: It could change the whole ecosystem, so we’d have to relearn how to do everything. And if it continues changing, can we keep up with the changes?

TD: I’m not so much concerned with a changing climate. I know that things go in patterns. In the past few years, we haven’t had much of a winter. But we had a pretty good winter this year.

SUNRAIN

So just what is a ‘seed farm’ like SunRain, and why are Teton Valley seed potatoes so coveted?

Unlike smaller, multi-crop farms like Cosmic Apple, or commercial farms that often mass produce a single crop, SunRain is one of three Teton Valley companies dealing exclusively in seed potatoes. Seed potatoes, aka ‘seed,’ are edible, but primarily used as starts for the larger potatoes sold in supermarkets and used in processed food like hash browns.

SunRain’s potato seed process begins in an Idaho Falls tissue culture lab. Step two occurs in greenhouses where the seeds are planted in soil steamed to ensure a disease-free medium. These mini tubers are then kept in cold storage, where the temperature, airflow, and humidity are monitored until it’s time for planting.

Meanwhile, when the snow is flying, SunRain staff is busy collaborating with chefs, retailers, processing plants, and even marketers to ensure SunRain is accurately anticipating food trends and that their hundred different varieties of seed potatoes will get into the hands of potato growers. Come spring, the potato tubers are planted on 250 acres of SunRain’s 1,660 owned acres and another 200 acres from four farmlands leased in Teton Valley. The basin’s high altitude, excellent water quality, and cool temperatures combine to make it hard for disease to spread and pests to survive, while seed potatoes thrive.

For the next two to three years, the number of potato tubers will multiply exponentially, explains SunRain’s Aron Derbridge. If you start with ten pounds of potatoes, the next year you’ll have a hundred pounds. Year two will produce a thousand pounds, and in year three you’ll have ten thousand pounds of potatoes.

Once mature, the seeds are sold to commercial potato growers across North American, and the tubers they produce eventually wind up on dinner plates throughout the world.

Right: Stoddard in SunRain’s storage

This page: Farm-share worker preparing daikon radishes for shareholders.

Opposite: Cabbages, tomatoes, and piggies raised at Cosmic Apple Farm.

Studies also anticipate an upward change in growing zone by mid-century. Are you concerned how that might impact seed potatoes, which thrive in our cool climate?

TD: I don’t think it would influence seed potatoes. Last year we had one of the hottest summers on record, but it still froze [early enough]. I don’t see that changing what we do. If it changed a zone I think it would be every place in Idaho but Teton Valley, because we’d still have the mountains around us and only so many hours of sunlight.

CD: I’m only twenty-eight years old, but I’ve seen the cycles my whole life. There have been times we were trick or treating in snow clothes or when we had rain on Christmas. Even if we did go up to Zone 4, that’s still less than Rexburg. With the mountains the way they are, the high altitude, and the number of growing days we have, we’re really kind of blessed in a sanctuary for low disease and insect potential. It’s not much of a concern.

What are your hopes and ideas for the future of farming in our valley?

TD: I hope it stays for a long time. I think it’s why people are coming here, it’s for the wide-open space. It’s not an easy way of life, but it’s a way of life.

JR: I think the future of farming for this valley is going to rely on value-added or specialty crops, because we’re going to run out of land.

DS: It comes back to, are we making choices that are healthy for us, the environment, and the community? If you’re not doing those things, it’s not a sustainable business.

**Quotes edited for clarity and length.

Totality in the Tetons

by Kate Hull

Illustration by Marinna Holmstead

Will the event draw astronomical crowds, eclipsing all previous visitor counts?

In 1991, a total solar eclipse passed over Hawaii and the southern tip of Mexico near Cabo San Lucas. Identical twin brothers Charles and Lewis Phelps plotted a family vacation to a destination where they could view the phenomenon. The awe-inspiring spectacle so struck the native Californians that they hatched a plan to replicate the experience. However, they would have to wait.

The only total solar eclipse of the twenty-first century to pass over the entirety of North America from coast to coast—entering at the mouth of the Columbia River and leaving through South Carolina—happens on August 21, 2017. The brothers wanted to be there.

“Chuck and I started looking into where we might go to observe the eclipse as early as 2000,” Lewis says. “We studied the entire eclipse path, looking for places near the totality line that would maximize our opportunity for how long the eclipse will be visible with the best conditions possible. We wanted a place with high probability for clear skies—Teton Valley is as good as it gets in that respect.”

The totality line indicates where the sun will be completely covered by the moon for the longest amount of time, and Teton Valley is located right on the route.

Charles and Lewis learned that smack dab in the middle of this prime viewing area is a ski resort nestled above Alta, Wyoming, whose summit towers at just under 10,000 feet above sea level. The vast expanse of eastern Idaho’s Teton Valley lies below, with open fields perfect for watching the moon’s shadow zip across the landscape at up to 1,500 miles per hour.

“The [best] way you can get that view is from an airplane, but that’s expensive,” says Lewis.

The next best? Bring two hundred of your closest friends to Grand Targhee

Resort to experience the Great American Eclipse. In 2005, the Phelps brothers mailed a proposal to Grand Targhee with an idea to host alums, along with their families, from their 1965 Pomona College class. Twelve years later, Charles and Lewis are anxiously awaiting their August reunion trip.

An Astronomical Opportunity

A total eclipse occurs when a new moon aligns between the sun and the earth. The moon’s umbra—the darkest part of its shadow—casts a blanket of nightfall on the earth. The only light visible is the sun’s corona, the plasma surrounding it. This is the singular moment where the sun’s ethereal gaseous shadow is visible from earth. The infrequency of solar eclipses is due to the earth and moon’s differing orbital angles; when the geometry aligns, the results are extraordinary.

“This ghostly shadow that dances around the sun gives off a remarkable halo of light,” says Samuel Singer, the founder and executive director of Wyoming Stargazing, a nonprofit in Jackson Hole that offers public and private stargazing opportunities throughout the year. “That is what people are traveling from around the world to see. We’ll see a dazzling glow up in the sky. The whole sky becomes dark, like twilight. We will go from mid-day brightness to twilight, in a matter of moments.”

On Monday, August 21, at 10:16 a.m., the partial eclipse will begin, leading to climatic totality beginning at 11:34 a.m. That will last for two minutes and eighteen seconds.

For such a short climatic moment, why all the fuss?

“It is like the Grand Canyon,” says Singer. “You can see pictures of it, but until you are standing on the edge looking in, you don’t really grasp how deep it is and how vast it is. I think it is the same thing with these eclipses. You can see all the pictures you want, but until you are right there watching it happen, you don’t really grasp what it is about.”

Boise

Ketchum Stanley Challis

THE PATH OF THE AUGUST 21, 2017, TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE ACROSS IDAHO. THE BLUE LINE AT THE CENTER OF THE PATH RUNS THROUGH TETON VALLEY.

Charles and Lewis are equally ardent, asserting that only by witnessing a total solar eclipse firsthand could you comprehend why the two of them planned so far in advance to get the best view. “When you see the eclipse, you will understand,” says Charles. “It is almost a religious moment. It is an extraordinary event, and unlike anything else I have ever experienced.”

That is, if the weather cooperates. But as Charles and Lewis learned during their research in 2000, the odds are in the observer’s favor.

“It is about 75 percent chance of clear weather that day if you look at historical records,” says Singer. “But I am less concerned about the weather and more concerned about the fire season.”

Rexburg Driggs Victor Idaho Falls

Valley residents on both sides of the Tetons will remember August 2016, when nearby wildfires brought a cloud of hazy smoke and a dark red sky. “If that happened, you would still see the sky get dark, but you wouldn’t see the corona,” Singer says. “That is my biggest fear in terms of the atmosphere not cooperating.”

But the region experienced above average precipitation in the winter of 2016–17. The National Interagency Fire Center reports that this could result in a much milder fire season than last summer’s. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Behind the Scenes

Not everyone has been planning for ten years, but Teton Valley is eagerly— and a little bit nervously—awaiting the event: busy with visitor number predictions, planning associated events, and preparing for the arrival of the Eclipse Chasers.

Eclipse Chasers, or Umbraphiles, as they are referred to in the astronomy community, are passionate travelers who cover the globe to witness astronomical events. Teton Valley will welcome them and thousands of more casual visitors from as close as Salt Lake City and as far away as Africa. For well over a year, the basin has been buzzing with

the excitement, and sometimes worry, of how to handle an estimated 50,000 people heading to the valley to view the eclipse.

What if it’s less?

What if it’s more?

Will we have enough resources?

To answer these questions, Teton Valley leaders started hosting weekly eclipse meetings with area residents involved in transportation, public works, food and beverage facilities, safety, and more, as well as regular “Eclipse & Chips” community gatherings at the Wildwood Room in Victor.

“This has been a great opportunity to jump on what could be an undesirable event [the quantity of people, that is] and learn how to make lemonade out of lemons,” says Alan Allred, the eclipse manager hired by the county to manage logistics. Not your run-of-themill event planner, Allred is approaching August 21 as if it were a natural disaster sure to take place.

“If no one does anything to prepare and this occurs, it could take us months to recover,” he says.

So, Allred is making it his mission to dot the “i’s” and cross the “t’s” in hopes of providing a great experience for residents and visitors, while thinking ahead to the valley’s future. “If we can capture these people, manage them

have an orderly exit, then the cities, the counties, the businesses, and the visitors will all benefit,” he says. “It is a win-win all the way around.”

Hosting thousands of extra folks is not a new occurrence for Victor, Driggs, and Tetonia. The summer months in Teton Valley swell with visitors, with peak periods like the 4th of July booking out all of the nearly 2,500 lodging options in the valley

Tourism has been a steadily climbing industry in Teton County, Idaho, which boasts two decades of an upward trend in lodging sales (the single best indicator of a tourism economy, according to the Teton Valley Almanac). In 2012, June through September generated just over $4 million in lodging revenue, nearly double the sales of the summer of 2004.

As for the eclipse, the early bird got the room. By January 2017, lodging in the valley was booked out for the weekend surrounding the Monday event. Those just planning their visits are now looking to find coveted rental opportunities from area homeowners or seeking out camping permits.

Jerry Cole is director of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Meade County, South Dakota. He has been helping to guide small towns along the eclipse

totality line over the past year—communities that have reached out to him, wondering how Sturgis, a town of fewer than 7,000 residents, manages to host an event that brings in an average of half a million attendees. And, can these towns do the same?

“The advice I have is: Prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Cole says.

Cole has watched Sturgis grow with the massive motorcycle event, noting that year after year it becomes more and more of a well-oiled machine. He says other events he’s been involved with, particularly the Sequim Lavender Festival in Washington state, felt more like what the eclipse might bring.

“The first year of the lavender festival, we were expecting 5,000 people, and we had about that,” he recalls. “The next year, we were expecting 8,500 and 30,000 showed up.”

There weren’t enough buses, bathroom facilities, or space for the people, he says. That year, he and his team learned a lesson in planning for the unexpected, advice he offers to communities awaiting the eclipse.

“You don’t want it to end up like Woodstock, where you have thousands of cars lining the ditches and ending up on the side of the road,” Cole says. “If you plan and you are in control, it will be a successful event.”

August 21, 2017

In the weeks leading up to the event, visit TetonValleyEclipse.com for information on viewing spots in the valley, as well as for all information pertinent to the weekend’s festivities.

The key to successful viewing of the eclipse is to find a spot where you have a far westward view and an unobstructed vantage point of the sky. The higher elevations will allow for a superior view, but be sure you are prepared physically and with the proper gear before wandering into the surrounding mountains. And don’t forget to obtain a pair of the eclipse glasses necessary for safe viewing. (Visit page 19 to read about four local friends who are selling custom Teton Totality glasses.)

“The more unobstructed your view, the better your experience,” says Singer, who will be hosting a private viewing event on top of Snow King Mountain in Jackson. He expects the national parks to be prime viewing spots, but advises travelers to prepare for crowds.

Susie Blair, the Driggs branch manager for Valley of the Tetons Library, has taken on the educational and informational component of preparing people for the eclipse. “We are hosting programs that inform the citizens and visitors of Teton Valley what to expect

THE GREAT AMERICAN ECLIPSE IS THE ONLY TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF THE TWENTYFIRST CENTURY TO PASS OVER NORTH AMERICA FROM COAST TO COAST. IT BEGINS AT THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER AND CONTINUES TO AND THROUGH SOUTH CAROLINA, THEN ONWARD OVER THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.

with the eclipse and how to experience it,” says Blair, “as well as educating people about what an eclipse is and how it affects us.”

Visit the library for author lectures and eclipse talks to learn more. The Driggs branch is one of three national libraries to be initiating the NASA education program, called NASA @ My L ibrary, through Colorado’s Space Science Institute.

One thing all eclipse enthusiasts can agree on: Enjoy the experience. Put away your iPhones and your telescopes, and savor the fleeting moment that so few will get to experience. The total solar eclipse is a rare opportunity to enjoy something that can’t quite be captured on film.

“It is just rare enough to be unique for a lot of people,” says Singer. Ready or not—and this reporter thinks Teton Valley is in fact ready—the eclipse is coming in late August, when this issue of the magazine will still be on the newsstands. So, find an open field with a northwest vantage point, grab your eclipse-viewing glasses, and get ready for a once-in-a-lifetime event.

That is, unless you’re an Eclipse Chaser planning on globetrotting to the southern tip of Africa in 2020.

LIFE MOVES

Out Below compass points

Roughs Around the Edges

Wilderness golf in eastern Idaho

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MICHAEL MCCOY

Just about anyone living in the greater Teton region who knows a putter from a pitching wedge can name the area’s resort golf courses: Teton Pines, Jackson Hole Golf & Tennis, and Shooting Star in Jackson Hole; and, in Teton Valley, the Headwaters Club and Huntsman Springs. Beautiful courses, all of them, but also sky-high greens fees (if they’re even open to the public). That’s why a lot of local golfers have special affinities for the more pocketbook friendly—but still civilized and nicely manicured—courses like the 18-hole Teton Reserve near Victor, the 18-hole Links at Teton Peaks west of Driggs, and the 9-hole (plus a pair of practice holes) Targhee Village just across the Idaho state line in Alta, Wyoming … not to mention nearby public courses in Star Valley, Wyoming, and in the Idaho Falls–Rexburg–Rigby–St. Anthony corridor of eastern Idaho.

No tee time? No problem. And no dress codes, no hurry.

Then there’s a third tier of golf courses, the truly rustic ones you’ll never read about in Golf Digest, like the three highlighted below. No tee time? No problem. And no dress codes, no par fives, no rush: 100-percent relaxed, these are terrific places for kids and neophytes to learn the basics of the game. At the same time, because they’re made up mostly or entirely of par-3 holes, they’re excellent places for golfers of any skill level to hone up on their short game.

The following three courses are quite isolated, even a bit hard to find. You could easily play all three in a day, or over a camping weekend—and, while you’re at it, discover some beautiful backroad slices of rural Idaho that you might otherwise never happen across.

September 7-10, 2017

SNOW KING CENTER

JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING

HEISE HOT SPRINGS

Best known for its healing hot waters and popular pizza pies, the Heise Hot Springs resort hugs the north bank of Tie Bend on the South Fork of the Snake River. It also boasts an executive golf course made up mostly of par 3s (par 29 for nine holes), with a greens fee of $11. Open since 1978, the course features fairways peppered with big old conifers and a backdrop of reddish cliffs evocative of the U.S. Southwest. The number-four listing on the Course Rules billboard may tell you a bit about the Heise clientele: “No spike heels or cowboy boots on greens.” Nearby getting wet options for pre- or post-golf enjoyment include a natural mineral hot spring that’s kept at around 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a freshwater warm pool maintained at about 92 degrees, and an 84-degree summer pool crowned with the kids’ favorite: a 350-foot waterslide. There’s also camping and zip-lining available within the resort. The northerly turn off the Swan Valley Highway (US 26) toward Heise is about midway between Swan Valley and Idaho Falls. From there, just follow the signs. heisehotsprings.net

WMore than 130 juried artists + designers showcase original creations in furniture, fashion, jewelry and home accessories from Cowboy to Contemporary.

OPPOSITE PAGE: THE BACKDROP OF SHEER CLIFFS AT HEISE HOT SPRINGS EVOKES IMAGES OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST.

ABOVE: DRIVE THE GREEN ON THIS SHORT PAR-3 HOLE AT ASPEN ACRES AND YOU CAN DOUBLE YOUR MONEY.

CEDAR PARK

The folks who run Cedar Park Golf Course, established in 1999, pride themselves on their pretty course that they consider “a little piece of heaven.” Cedar Park is all par-3s, so par for the course is 27. The shortest hole is 78 yards; the longest, 146 yards. Here you’ll also find a driving range and a super-fun 18-hole putting course that costs $4.50 to play ($3.50 for kids ten and under). According to the management, “this ultimate putting course [with] uphill and downhill shots to doglegs and monster 35 foot putts … will challenge every level of golfer.” The greens fee to play the main 9-hole course is $10—barely over a dollar per hole! The bucolic spot sits about five miles east of Rigby at 4429 East 234 North. cedarparkgolf.com

ASPEN ACRES

After Arthur Anderson and his wife Velma retired from farming in the early 1960s, they began wintering in California, where they took up golf. They enjoyed it so much that they decided to build their own course—why not?! At the controls of his 1948 Allis-Chalmers tractor, Arthur set out to carve the fairways of what would become the Aspen Acres Golf Course from a hundred-acre piece of the much larger Andersonfamily farmstead. Now, for $15 you can bang out eighteen holes on grass where

potato plants once flourished. With a century-old Swedish cattle barn at its center, Aspen Acres is an 18-hole executive course with twelve par-3 holes and six short par-4s, ranging from 216 to 323 yards. Tent and RV camping are available at an additional cost, but views of the distant Tetons and fields of barley rippling in the foreground are an added benefit of paying your greens fee. Last year, along with new management, came a name change: Yellowstone Golf Resort at Aspen Acres. The course is tucked amid rolling farmlands about eight miles southeast of Ashton, or two miles northwest of metropolitan Squirrel, on East 1100 North between 4100 East and 4300 East. yellowstonegolfresort.com

FURTHER ADVENTURES

A couple of other wilderness courses in the region—places where you actually could encounter a grizzly bear—include the nine-hole Timberline Golf (timberlinegolfresort.com) east of Ashton, just outside the Caribou-Targhee National Forest on the Cave Falls Road (which goes to the Bechler area of Yellowstone National Park); and the nine-hole course at Island Park Village Resort (islandparkvillageresort.com), a residential community situated near the north end of Island Park.

Dr. John Toenjes, D.D.S. Se habla espanol

Dr. Gabe Brizzee, D.D.S.

Dr. Drostan Orme, D.D.S.

Teens & Tweens

Farm-to-School Gets Real

Student-grown foods finding their way to local cafeteria trays

BY CHRISTINA SHEPHERD MCGUIRE PHOTOGRAPHY BY CODY DOWNARD

To begin, I admit to an ulterior motive. As manager of Tetonia Elementary’s garden program, my underlying goal is this: Lunch Reform. Don’t get me wrong, I love pizza and hamburgers (and so do my kids). But in the bigger picture, I see a world where children are linked to the food they eat through interaction with both the earth and their community. How great would it be to serve only locally grown food in the local cafeterias? Imagine—potatoes not long out of the ground, baked and with all the toppings, on the fall lunch menu. Or local, pasture-raised hamburger for a from-scratch meat-sauce spaghetti (any kid’s favorite). It doesn’t have to be fancy or gourmet. Just local. And we’re close …

Fortunately, I have some companionship in my farm-to-school efforts.

butterfly garden, and a composting system (for lunchroom and garden composting). Through a mix of science, art, and song, Sustick uses this outdoor classroom to teach the concept that “everything has its purpose” in the garden, while also relaying hard science facts. Students grow food from seed to plate and get to experience every aspect of gardening. Additionally, students visit area farms and engage in cooking tasks where they prepare veggies for an annual pizza party each fall.

For some children, this program helps foster a deeper understanding of the family business, while others simply discover that, just like the bees in the garden, they too have a place in this world.

To say “it takes a village” is an understatement. The relentless effort of the parents, administrators, and educators who run this roost is impressive.

“Food connects us with each other and with the land.” –Emily Sustick

Full Circle Education, founded in 2006, is a local farm-and-garden education organization. Their mission is to inspire healthy connections by teaching learners of all ages how to garden, farm, and holistically experience wild places.

I am one of those learners. After working closely with program coordinator and educator Emily Sustick, I’ve learned what it really takes to have a fruitful harvest, to develop a composting lunch program, and to engage children in a way that encourages them to take ownership in food.

“Food connects us with each other and with the land,” says Sustick, “and the agricultural roots in this community run deep. Garden-based education provides a tangible and meaningful connection between these fundamental aspects of our community.”

At Tetonia Elementary, we have four raised vegetable beds, a greenhouse, a

When we need a hand for spring garden cleanup, families show up, toddlers in tow, to celebrate the vernal rejuvenation of our fruitful program.

But it’s a community affair that isn’t always perfect. Overwatering the greenhouse? We’ve done it. Too much mulch on the butterfly garden? Yep, we’ve killed some plants. And weeds galore in the raised beds? It’s never ending. Yet all it takes to make it worthwhile is to hear one child say, “Pizza sauce is made from tomatoes? I didn’t think I liked tomatoes!”

Tetonia Elementary is not the only local school benefiting from a lesson in gardening. In 2006, Full Circle Education started their first year-round farm and garden program at the Teton Valley Community School in Victor. Now serving grades pre-K through 7th, their program includes ten raised vegetable beds, a greenhouse, fruit trees, twenty-

OPPOSITE PAGE: TETONIA

ELEMENTARY STUDENT KENDALL

JACOBY PICKS A PRIZED

TOMATO GROWN IN THE SCHOOL GREENHOUSE COMPANION GARDEN.

ABOVE: ALL THE PRODUCE GROWN AT TETONIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MAKES ITS WAY ONTO LUNCH TRAYS. HERE, SECOND GRADE STUDENTS

JENTRI WOOLSTENHULME AND AVERY DEBONE HARVEST GREENHOUSE

TOMATOES WHILE DAVIS DANIELS, SHEA MCGUIRE, CROSBY KELLY, AND FELLOW STUDENTS WASH AND CHOP THEM FOR PIZZA SAUCE.

one chickens, two alpacas, two barn cats, and a composting program. It’s quite the operation: Students learn to garden, cook, and participate in practical arts, like spinning and felting the alpaca fleece they shear each June.

Students and families also participate in animal chores, which are handled primarily by parents on the weekends and holidays. And while this is no slight task—feeding, collecting eggs, shoveling, thawing water during the winter months, and “mitigating” predators—the volunteer participation further connects families to their students’ learning.

Alyssa Collins, mother and volunteer, explains: “Animal care teaches responsibility and empathy. By my taking a part in it, it shows my kids that these [character traits] are important to me, as well.” She also says problem-solving is a big component of this responsibility, where the unexpected seems to come up regularly. Alyssa enjoys working together with her kids to overcome obstacles associated with the everchanging farming experience.

The Alta School Garden project was launched in 2014 as a school-wide community venture. This school, just across the state line in Wyoming, has five raised vegetable beds, fruit trees, a large greenhouse, and an outdoor instructional area. Teachers integrate the garden into many of the subjects they teach— math, science, art, even social studies. And they identify most with their prized spring salad greens that the students

FULL CIRCLE EDUCATION PROGRAM DIRECTOR EMILY SUSTICK TEACHES CHILDREN ABOUT THE AGRICULTURAL VALUES OUR VALLEY WAS FOUNDED ON.

plant, harvest, wash, bag, and sell to Alta community members (while also learning how to keep track of finances).

While these three schools would love to hoard Sustick for themselves, programming doesn’t stop there. Full Circle Education also provides classroom and farm-based educational programs to Victor Elementary School, Rendezvous Upper Elementary School, and several homeschool, afterschool, and summer-school clubs throughout the valley. In total, their outreach in 2016 was approximately 650 students.

So, with the help of many people and one very active organization, it looks like my wishes are starting to come true. This past year, Tetonia Elementary’s harvested bounty actually made its way onto cafeteria trays! And our farm-toschool lunch offered kids a totally “unpackaged” meal, where we served food from local farms and purveyors like Full Circle Farm, HD Dunn and Sons Angus Ranch, and 460Bread.

While not every plate is perfect yet, the wonderful cooperation of school districts and community leaders has put us one step closer to the values our valley was founded on. We are striving, once again, to become a community connected through food.

Growing Things

WYATT PENFOLD (CENTER) AND HIS FATHER, PARIS, AND BROTHER, NATHAN, INSPECT THE COLORS AND TEXTURES OF QUINOA SEED.

Queen Quinoa

BY JUDY ALLEN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAMRIN DENGEL

Is the ‘mother grain’ a viable crop for our valley?

During the summer of 2015, Penfold Farms was growing a healthy crop of weeds. At least that’s what everyone in the neighborhood thought when they passed a particular field on Darby Canyon Road. But the farm’s weedy acreage was actually the first season of a bold experiment initiated by Wyatt Penfold: the large-scale cultivation of quinoa. While a few area growers have dabbled in much smaller trials of the grain, that year Wyatt committed eleven acres to the endeavor, hoping to introduce to Teton Valley the first promising crop innovation in four decades.

Despite its recent appearance here, quinoa is an ancient food native to high elevations of the Andes, where it was domesticated nearly 5,000 years ago. The Incans called it chisoya mama, or the “mother grain.” Like the potato, it’s an important staple of indigenous cultures. Due to its complete protein profile and distinctive, nutty flavor, it has become popular in U.S. cuisine as a healthy alternative to rice and potatoes. And casual observers of Penfold Farm’s field were not far off—quinoa is a close relative of lambs quarters, a common weed. (Technically, quinoa isn’t a cereal grain, but a seed prepared and eaten like a grain.)

With surging demand in the domestic health food market, prices for quinoa have skyrocketed in the field and in the grocery store. Both yield and cash return make it an attractive crop to Wyatt, who explains that, because most of the quinoa available is grown in South America, there is a strong market for crops grown in the states. Plus, quinoa is uniquely suited to the high elevation and short growing season of Teton Valley.

“It doesn’t pollinate at temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and 28 degrees doesn’t touch it,” Wyatt says, adding that quinoa will withstand valley frosts even better than the commonly

cultivated barley.

A fourth-generation farmer on one of the most successful operations in the valley, Wyatt freely acknowledges the crop is highly experimental. Penfold Farms, which also includes Wyatt’s brother Nathan and their father Paris, has taken a risk to dedicate acreage to quinoa that otherwise would be in potatoes or barley, both reliable and productive.

As Paris says, through decades of research, the University of Idaho can tell a farmer exactly how to grow potatoes, but can supply no information on quinoa. Wyatt adds that the farm is investing tens of thousands of dollars per year in quinoa cultivation with no certainty of a viable or marketable crop. But, he says, “Options are limited here.”

On the plus side: In addition to a cash return that rivals that of potatoes, quinoa can be planted and harvested with equipment most farms already own, reducing capital costs.

While Wyatt is the only grower of quinoa in Teton Valley, he has partnered with mentor Jeremiah Clark in Soda Springs, who last year expanded his quinoa acreage to six hundred, including two hundred non-irrigated dryland acres. Both men are part of a loose coalition of ten southeast Idaho farmers who are writing the local book on quinoa cultivation and marketing.

Wyatt’s enthusiasm is palpable as he details his undertaking. In 2016, he expanded to thirty-three acres and is defining successful cultural practices. He is testing different planting patterns and irrigation schedules to facilitate the growth of a crop that harvests more readily. Since quinoa wilts at any herbicide application, a tractor pass or two is needed to keep weeds in check. And because the available seed is not yet standardized, the mature crop is highly variable: short to tall plants, with white to golden to maroon seed heads. In the harvested “rainbow quinoa,” Wyatt’s kids counted seven colors.

JENN HONNEY DAWES

JENN HONNEY DAWES

Associate Broker

307.413.1635

jenndawes@jhrea.com

Associate Broker 307.413.1635 jenndawes@jhrea.com

Teton Valley Top Producer Proven Team Approach

Teton Valley Top Producer Proven Team Approach

Community Foundation

Community Foundation

GRAHAMFAUPELMENDENHALL.COM

GRAHAMFAUPELMENDENHALL.COM

Challenger

Challenger

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Fifteen Year Resident

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This pristine 5263 sq. ft. home with a generous 3 bay garage has a perfect 2 stall horse setup with a small tack room and functional paddock space.

Situated on a 0.73-acre lot, in the sought after southeast corner of the resort, this 5,424-square-foot 5-bed/6-bath home features an open floor plan and innovative design touches, with a gourmet kitchen, a cozy dining area with a fireplace, and a generous main floor master suite complete with a private den.

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$1,795,000 15-2747

While a market for quinoa is nearly guaranteed, the harvested grain is not consumer ready. American customers demand a product that is uniform in size and color. In South America, these qualities are ensured by hand sorting. For palatability, growers need to remove most of the bitter saponin coating that covers every seed.

Hoping to capture the U.S. market, Jeremiah and Wyatt have collaborated to build a processing plant in Idaho Falls. The facility employs laser technology to sort by size and color and to remove weed seeds. A polisher buffs seed surfaces to remove the saponin. Last fall, most of Penfold Farms’ crop had been sold, shipped as far as Korea. Wyatt is also looking at local markets for selling packaged quinoa.

This is a pristine, turnkey horse property with an adorable 3 bedroom, 2 bath home, 3.4 acres of beautifully fenced and maintained paddocks, a spacious barn and 360-degree mountain views.

Private and quiet property situated at the end of the Cul de Sac in Targhee Village Subdivision, adjacent to Targhee Village Golf Course just south of Ski Hill Road in Alta, WY. This 3-bed/3-bath home includes a wraparound deck offering beautiful views of the Bighole Mountain Range.

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The Incas called quinoa chisoya mama, or “the mother grain.”

Another necessary development is a uniform seed stock. Wyatt and Jeremiah are hand-selecting seed in the field from desirable plants with short stature and large, big-seeded heads. The University of Idaho Tetonia Research and Extension Center is growing out their supply to produce weed-free seed that will facilitate easier harvesting and quicker processing.

By the summer of 2016, Wyatt’s quinoa stand looked uniform and dense. “Penfold Farms is optimistic,” Wyatt says. But, he adds, given all the variables, the verdict on quinoa is still seven to ten years out. “We have to be innovative; otherwise, family farms will go away.”

Every week, Wyatt says, at least one eastern Idaho farmer calls him. Runners, bikers, and hikers headed up Darby Canyon also notice the unique crop, and Wyatt views this attention as “a bridge to the community.” Teton Valley could be a prime spot for quinoa, “if it works,” he says, laughing.

Teton Thai

BY LUKAS BOONE

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARA AGNEW

Occupying a street-level space of the Colter Building in downtown Driggs, Teton Thai is a valley hot spot for lunch and dinner. And I do mean hot. Heat levels for entrées range from zero stars to a fiery five stars, aka “At Your Own Risk.” Curry dishes cannot be ordered at less than two stars, which translates to a pleasant zing on the palate and tongue.

We wandered in at 2 p.m. for a late lunch on a mid-March Thursday. I knew from previous visits that the place can be bustling, but at this time of day it was quiet enough that I could even make out the words of the mellow World music piping through speakers (the songs that were in English, anyway).

The roomy restaurant features big windows opening on Main Street and red-lacquered tabletops that contrast with a dark floor of poured concrete. The décor struck me as Far East meets Old West. Walls are covered in vertically applied slats of recycled barnwood, while embellishments include an antlered elk skull hanging above the entrance to the open kitchen.

To start, we ordered the steamed dumplings. Stuffed with minced chicken and shiitake mushrooms, they were nicely spiced and scrumptious.

For an entrée, my companion ordered the Yum Woon Sen Salad, consisting of glassy noodles with chopped chicken and shrimp. I went for the Gang Karee: coconut milk, yellow curry, chunks of potato and carrot, and chicken slices (options include beef, tofu, veggies, shrimp, and BBQ pork). It arrived with plenty of jasmine rice.

The bill, with tip, came to $42. Had we ordered wine, we could have chosen a red or white from one of three categories: “Cheap,” “Decent,” or “Good,” each priced accordingly

Teton Thai serves dinner daily and lunch Monday through Friday. More info: tetonthai.com.

“Teton hospitality at its finest for over 20 years”

Teton Thai

BY LUKAS BOONE

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARA AGNEW

Agave

310 North Main Street

Driggs, ID 83422

208-354-2003

Open Daily 11am–10pm

From the owners of El Abuelito in Jackson comes Agave, Teton Valley’s very own family Mexican restaurant! Serving fajitas, burritos, and all of your Mexican favorites cooked to perfection seven days a week, with lunch specials from 11am to 3pm daily. Bienvenidos amigos, mi casa es su casa!

Barrels & Bins

36 South Main Street

Driggs, ID 83422

208-354-2307

Open Daily 9am–7pm

Teton Valley’s source for all-natural and organic products including local and organic produce, meats, cheeses, and bulk food; 460 Bread baked fresh daily; beer and wine; nutritional supplements; health and beauty products; all natural pet foods; and much more! Juice & Smoothie Bar is open 9am to 2pm daily. Check in for the soup of the day, sandwiches, salads, as well as other various grab-and-go takeout options. [p. 37]

Broulim’s Food and Pharmacy

240 South Main Street

Driggs, ID 83422

208-354-2350

Open Mon–Sat 7am–11pm broulims.com/driggs

Order sandwiches to go made from your choice of Columbus meats and cheeses. Breakfast sandwiches and paninis made fresh daily. There’s a full menu at the Pack Saddle Grill with sandwiches, as well as hot baked or rotisserie chicken, take-and-bake pizza, and other meals to go. Check out our display of hand-cut specialty cheeses! Freshly prepared salads, our own Sushi Bar, and hot Asian food. Daily specials of smoked meats available. Inquire at the Deli for catering services.

Corner Drug

10 South Main Street

Driggs, ID 83422

208-354-2334

Open Mon–Sat 9am–6:30pm driggspharmacy.com

Located at the stoplight in historic downtown Driggs, the familyowned and -operated Corner Drug has been a local favorite for satisfying that ice cream craving for more than a hundred years. Try a fresh lime freeze or a huckleberry milkshake. Corner Drug also has your weekend essentials and a full-service pharmacy. Hunting and fishing licenses and tackle available. [p. 15]

Dining In Catering, Inc.

Bill Boney, Owner & Executive Chef 208-787-2667, toll-free 800-787-9178 diningincateringinc.com

Dining In Catering, Inc. is the region’s most experienced outdoor event catering company, receiving rave reviews for great food and service. Owner and executive chef Bill Boney and his staff have catered the biggest events, weddings, and corporate retreats to take place in Jackson Hole and Teton Valley. Dining In Catering also offers a banquet location in Teton Valley—Wildwood Room, the Gathering Place for Teton Valley’s best events since 2003! [p. 73]

Forage Bistro & Lounge

285 Little Avenue, Suite A Driggs, ID 83422 208-354-2858

Open Daily Mon–Fri 11am–9pm, Sat and Sun 10am–9pm forageandlounge.com

Forage Bistro & Lounge, specializing in seasonal regional cuisine with an emphasis on local ingredients, offers creative, chef-inspired lunch, brunch, and dinner seven days a week. Enjoy half-priced bottles of wine every Wednesday, as well as Happy Hour food-anddrink specials daily from 3pm to 6pm. Amazing burgers, house-made lasagna, BBQ rabbit, market fish, Wagyu brisket, homemade desserts, and more served from scratch. Our open kitchen with nothing to hide offers diners a unique experience in Teton Valley. Voted “Best Restaurant in Idaho” by Yelp and USA Today in 2016.

Grand Targhee Resort

Alta, WY 83414 800-TARGHEE (827-4433) grandtarghee.com

Mountainside dining with a menu designed around fresh local ingredients can be found at The Branding Iron Grill. Located at the base of Grand Targhee Resort, it’s the perfect stop after taking in the incredible views of the Tetons. Unwind at the Trap Bar and Grill after a day of activities in the high mountain air. Enjoy a pint of local beer and a plate of famous Wydaho Nachos while relaxing after your day’s adventures. You’ll always enjoy great food, great drinks, and great times! See you at the ’ghee. [BC]

Linn Canyon Ranch

1300 East 6000 South Victor, ID 83455

208-787-LINN (5466) linncanyonranch.com

Whether you are staying at Linn Canyon Ranch or just want to join us for dinner, the Sunset Dinner Ride is not to be missed! Friendly mountain horses will be waiting to take you for a leisurely guided ride through the foothills of the Tetons, winding through aspen groves and fields of wildflowers. After your ride, members of the Linn family will welcome you back to an elegant western evening at our historic lodge. Appetizers and music on the porch precede a gourmet dinner, after which we’ll gather around the bonfire to roast marshmallows and stargaze. [p. 12]

McDonald’s ®

1110 West Broadway @ Hwy 22

Jackson, WY 83001

307-733-7444

Open Daily 5am–12am or later mcwyoming.com/6435

Fast, Affordable, and On Your Way! Whether you’re driving over the pass on your way to Grand Teton National Park or commuting to your job on the “other side,” make McDonald’s® a part of your day. We’re serving your breakfast favorites like the classic Egg McMuffin®, Egg White Delight McMuffin®, and McCafe™ beverages featuring Lattes, Mochas, and Frappes. Premium Salads, Real Fruit Smoothies, and Fruit and Maple Oatmeal are delicious choices to support your healthy, active lifestyle. [p. 78]

Pendl’s Bakery & Café

40 Depot Street Driggs, ID 83422

(1 block northwest of the stoplight)

208-354-5623

Closed Mondays pendlspastries.com

Looking for a Latte and fresh Apple Strudel? Find them at Pendl’s, where Kitzbuehel Konditor Fred Pendl has passed his baking traditions on to daughter Martha. From Nussknackers to Florentiners, Old World Austrian pastries and confections continue. Delectable Strudels and fruit-filled Danish pastries baked in-house daily, with homemade muffins, quiches, and cranberry granola rounding out your morning. Relax in our beautiful backyard garden, savor a freshly roasted coffee or hand-crafted espresso drink, and start your day right at Pendl’s!

Seoul Restaurant

528 Valley Center Drive, Suite #4

Driggs, ID 83422

208-354-1234

Open Daily, except Monday, 11am–10pm seoulrestaurantdriggs.com

Come in and try Seoul Restaurant, where authentic Korean food will surely fulfill your appetite. We serve hot pot soups such as Kimchi Jjigae, and Soon Do Boo along with dumpling soup and Jombong soup. Not in the mood for soup? We also have hearty meat entrees such as Galbi, Bulgogi, Dolsot Bibimbap, Sushi, and much more! Located in north Driggs, Seoul Restaurant will definitely satisfy your appetite. We also offer takeout. [p. 37]

Sherwood’s Post

20 North Main Street

Victor, ID 83455

Open Daily 7am—3pm sherwoodspost.com

Sherwood’s Post is a new American fast and casual restaurant in the heart of Victor, Idaho’s Main Street. Why name it Sherwood’s Post? In a nod to the history of the town, we named it after the original postman, George Victor Sherwood. The restaurant is the home of the original Post Office. Chef Stephanie Sias is creating breakfast and lunch seven days a week featuring classics to new twists on old favorites. Order online and pick up for grab-and-go convenience. [p. 35]

Riverside Bar & Grill at South Fork Lodge

40 Conant Valley Loop Rd, Swan Valley, ID 83449

208-483-2112

naturalretreats.com/south-fork-lodgefishing-vacations-idaho

South Fork Lodge by Natural Retreats is an angler’s paradise, offering experienced guides, luxury accommodations, and some of the best flyfishing waters in the country. Our chef offers refined, regional cuisine in a comfortable setting. The full bar hosts a wide range of wines, local beers, and spirits. After a day on the river, enjoy a cocktail followed by an expertly prepared meal, all with the stunning backdrop of the South Fork—sure to inspire the sharing of tall tales and special times with friends. Dine inside the spectacular lodge or soak up the cool mountain air from the riverside patio—the perfect way to top off a day on the river enjoying dry fly fishing at its finest.

Taquitos Carlitos

57 South Main Street

Victor, ID 83455

208-787-8278

Open Daily 11am–10pm facebook.com/taquitoscarlitos

Victor’s new, fresh taqueria-style restaurant Taquitos Carlitos features authentic, fast, and good quality Mexican fare like tortas, enchiladas, burritos, gorditas, fajitas, quesadillas, and more, as well as your favorite snacks and candy. Now offering beer and wine. Perfect for a sit-down lunch or dinner, or for a meal on the go, Taquitos Carlitos is bringing delicious homemade Mexican food to downtown Victor.

Tatanka Tavern

18 North Main, 3rd Floor of the Colter Building, Suite 315 Driggs, ID 83422

208-980-7320

Open Daily 4pm–10pm tatankatavern.com

Tatanka Tavern offers wood-fired artisan pizza, salads, and the finest craft beers and wines. Our fire-kissed crust is the difference of artisan pizza making. Part lounge and part restaurant; bring in the family for a night out, or grab a seat at the bar and watch the game. Enjoy local favorites like Fungus Amongus and Piggy Smalls for dinner daily. [p. 26]

Teton Thai

18 North Main Street

Driggs, ID 83422

208-787-THAI (8424)

Lunch Mon–Fri 11:30am–2:30pm; Dinner Daily 4pm–9pm tetonthai.com

Voted “Best Restaurant, Teton Valley” in the Jackson Hole Weekly, Teton Thai offers something for everyone. Enjoy a variety of exotic dishes, from Crispy Duck Pad Gar Pow to Muslim-style Masaman curry, all made from our family’s recipes created in Bangkok. Sit at the kitchen counter and watch our chefs prepare your dish while you explore our eclectic beer and wine list. Dine in or take out. [p. 69]

dining guide

The Royal Wolf 63 Depot Street Driggs, ID 83422

208-354-8365

Open seven days a week; serving lunch and dinner 11am–late theroyalwolf.com

Since 1997, locals and visitors alike have enjoyed discovering this off-Main Street establishment offering a diverse menu of sandwiches, burgers, salads, appetizers, and entrées served in a casual, smoke-free, pub-style environment. Complementing our menu is a full bar serving all of your favorite beverages, including cocktails, wine, and a selection of regional microbrews on draft. Enjoy outdoor dining on our spacious deck during the summer. Daily food and beer specials, Wi-Fi, and billiards. Stop by to meet old friends and make new ones. Snow sagas and fish tales told nightly.

TJ’s Pizzeria

364 North Main Street

Driggs, ID 83422

208-354-8829

Open Daily 11am–10pm Sun–Thurs, 11am–11pm Fri–Sat

Don’t miss some of the best pizza, burgers, and Italian favorites in Teton Valley. TJ’s Pizzeria is serving up the former Skippy’s Chicken and Burgers full menu, as well as homemade classic Italian dishes like chicken piccata and lasagna as well as a wide variety of specialty pizzas. Grab a slice of the Papa G’s Works with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, and more, or try the Buffalo Chicken Pizza topped with Frank’s Buffalo Sauce, blue cheese, and chicken.

Victor Emporium

45 North Main Street

Victor, ID 83455

208-787-2221

Open seven days a week

Over one million served! For more than sixty-five years the Victor Emporium Old Fashioned Soda Fountain has served milk shakes, including the World Famous Huckleberry Shake. Gourmet coffee and espresso served daily. The Emporium is also a great place to pick up those unusual gifts. Where the locals meet before enjoying the great outdoors here in Teton Valley. [p. 27]

Victor Valley Market

5 South Main Street

Victor, ID 83455

208-787-2230

Open Daily 7am–9pm

Victor Valley Market is your local grocer and the place to get fresh seafood and choice meats in Teton Valley. Offering a unique selection of groceries, from organic and specialty items to your everyday needs, including a full selection of wine and beer. Our gourmet deli counter offers delicious house-made takeout dishes, along with sandwiches made with locally baked bread, fresh salads, housemade soups, and so much more! Victor Valley Market has all that you need to make a delicious meal, whether for eating in or picnicking out. [p. 10]

Fin and Feather Inn

9444 South Highway 31 Victor, ID 83422

208-787-1007

finandfeatherinn.com

The Fin and Feather Inn is a small bed and breakfast in Teton Valley situated along the Teton Scenic Byway. We combine luxury and country hospitality, making for a very relaxing and comfortable stay. Our three rooms feature Grand Teton views, spacious bedrooms, private bathrooms, dual-head showers, a deep soaking bathtub, HD/Direct TV, and free wireless Internet. Come stay at the Fin and Feather Inn and experience the wonderful adventures that Teton Valley has to offer, while staying at a quality bed and breakfast.

Grand Targhee Resort

Alta, WY

800-TARGHEE [827-4433] grandtarghee.com

After a day of hiking or mountain biking, it’s time to relax with the family in one of a variety of western-style slopeside accommodations. All lodging is located just steps away from an array of shopping, dining, and activities. For those who desire a more intimate family retreat, consider Grand Targhee Resort’s Vacation Rentals in Teton Valley, perfectly situated between Victor, Driggs, and the resort. Call 800-TARGHEE to book your stay. [BC]

Grand Targhee Resort

Property Management

18 N. Main #105

Driggs, ID 83422

307-353-2300, ext 1396 grandtarghee.com

With over 30 years of experience, our team provides 24-hour service, real estate advice, and strategic marketing for your vacation rental to maximize exposure. For those who desire a more intimate family retreat, consider a vacation rental in Teton Valley, perfectly situated in Victor, Driggs, and the resort. Call 800-TARGHEE to book your stay.

[p. 36]

lodging guide

Grand Valley Lodging

Property Management

PO Box 191, 158 N. First Street

Driggs, ID 83422

800-746-5518

mail@grandvalleylodging.com grandvalleylodging.com

Grand Valley Lodging is the premier property management company in Teton Valley, operating since 1992. We offer great rates on shortterm rentals that include vacation homes, cabins, and condominiums throughout the valley. We are also the largest long-term (six-monthsplus) property management company in the valley, and can help you optimize income and maintain your property. With our extremely experienced team in the housing rental business, we are happy to discuss the management of your valuable investment in Teton Valley. [p. 58]

Linn Canyon Ranch

1300 East 6000 South Victor, ID 83455

208-787-LINN [5466] linncanyonranch.com

Our lodging combines the best of luxurious accommodations with nature’s simple pleasures. Sleep peacefully in one of our luxury platform tents, or indulge yourself in creature comforts and rustic elegance in our artisan-built timberframe cabin. Our guests feel relaxed and inspired in our cozy mountain sanctuary. When you make your lodging reservation, we will also book your riding and dining activities at the ranch. We are also happy to help you reserve off-site adventures such as floating, fishing, hiking, and sightseeing. [p. 12]

South Fork Lodge by Natural Retreats

40 Conant Valley Loop Rd, Swan Valley, ID 83449

208-483-2112

www.naturalretreats.com/south-forklodge-fishing-vacations-idaho

South Fork Lodge is an angler’s paradise, offering experienced guides, luxury accommodations, and some of the best fly-fishing waters in the country. This spectacular lodge rests on the South Fork of Idaho’s Snake River in Swan Valley. South Fork Outfitter’s guides are experts on the South Fork and can help anglers at any level hone their skills and, hopefully, reel in a few trophies. You simply can’t leave without having the full fly-fishing experience, including a night at our float-in Riverside Camp.

Teton Springs Lodge & Spa by Natural Retreats

10 Warm Creek Lane

Victor, ID 83455

888-451-0156 or 208-787-7888 tetonspringslodge.com

US News & World Report’s #1 Hotel in Idaho, this Natural Retreats destination offers fifty-one elegant guest rooms and suites, as well as luxury log cabins. Nestled on the border of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, the year-round resort has the best of summer and winter activities available. The Stillwaters Spa & Salon offers a full range of services. Guests staying at the Lodge/Cabins have access to the private Resort & Club amenities including two Byron Nelson designed golf courses, outdoor heated pool, and fitness center. With access to a wide range of activities, this is the perfect destination for an unforgettable vacation.

Teton Valley Cabins

34 East Ski Hill Road

Driggs, ID 83422

208-354-8153 or 866-687-1522

stay@tetonvalleycabins.com tetonvalleycabins.com

Nestled amongst mature cottonwoods, Teton Valley Cabins welcomes you for your special getaway, vacation home base, or family or group reunion. Quaint charm, rustic cabins, and affordable rates await you at Teton Valley Cabins, just one mile from Driggs, with its restaurants and shops. Enjoy our picnic and activity grounds complete with an oversized Jacuzzi, or explore Teton Valley from here. We are centrally located, with Grand Targhee Resort just up the road, and other recreational opportunities within a few minutes’ drive. Various room types are available. Our rooms are equipped with microwave, fridge, satellite TV, and Wi-Fi. [p. 50]

Teton Valley Lodge

3733 Adams Road

Driggs, ID 83422

208-354-2386

flyfish@tetonvalleylodge.com tetonvalleylodge.com

During your stay at Teton Valley Lodge, you can expect to fly fish on a different stretch of river every day. With more than twentyfive different sections of river on three blue-ribbon fisheries in Idaho, years of discovery await even the most experienced of fly fishermen. Prolific dry fly hatches on the South Fork of the Snake, Teton River, and Henry’s Fork offer you many opportunities for large trout. Experience Teton Valley and the surrounding area with us—you will never forget it. [IBC]

Teton Valley Realty Management

253 South Main Street

Driggs, ID 83422

208-354-3431 mail@tvrmanagement.com vacationrentalstetonvalley.com

We hope you will allow us to find that perfect home or condominium to make your vacation a memorable and extra-special one. All of our homes are nicely furnished, meticulously maintained, and fully equipped to accommodate your group at a fraction of what you would pay for a few hotel rooms. All homes come complete with linens, kitchen necessities, cable or satellite TV service, soaps, and paper products; some have high-speed Internet service. Basically, you receive all the conveniences of home, away from home. [p. 8]

• Up to 5 guests.

• All tackle, gear, and lunch provided.

• Full and half day rates are available.

• Check our website for rates: www.tlapc.com.

• Every other Friday from June 16 through August 25.

•

•

•

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Calvary Chapel Teton Valley

53 Depot Street | Driggs, ID 83422 | 208-354-WORD [9673] ccteton.org

Visitors welcome. Our motto is to simply teach the Bible simply— and thus, our pattern of study is verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, right through the Bible. Sunday service starts at 10am and typically consists of worship, teaching, and fellowship. Dress is nice casual, and the service usually lasts about an hour. Children’s church and a nursery are provided. Wednesday Bible study starts at 7pm and lasts about an hour; dress is casual. One block north of the stoplight in Driggs, turn west on Depot Street (opposite Wallace Street and the gas station); the church will be on your right.

Church in the Tetons | Pastor Karlin Bilcher

Driggs City Center | Driggs, ID 83422 | 208-354-HOPE [4673] churchinthetetons.org / Find us on Facebook

We gather for worship in the Driggs City Center at 9:15am on Sunday mornings. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the first Sunday of the month. On months with five Sundays we go out as the hands and feet of Jesus to serve our neighbors however we may. We are a biblically grounded, Christ-centered, mission-focused, witnessing community that exists to serve Teton Valley and the world to the glory of God. We are often described as authentic, relational, genuine, and honest. Nursery is available for infants and toddlers two and under. Education is provided for kids three and over.

LDS Driggs Idaho Stake

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | Teton Valley Wards:

Driggs I Tom Hill 354-8211 1pm

Driggs II Wade Treasure 354-8806 11am

Driggs III Mitch Blake 354-2379 9am

Tetonia I Thomas Richins 456-2871 9am

Tetonia II Jim Douglass 456-2362 11am

Victor I Todd Dustin 787-2211 1pm

Victor II Val Kunz 787-2026 9am

Victor III Stan Marshall 787-3678 11am

St. Francis of the Tetons Episcopal Church

20 Alta School Road | Alta, WY 83414 | 208-353-8100 sftetons@silverstar.com | stfrancis.episcopalidaho.org

Join us for Sunday morning worship and Sunday School beginning at 10am. St. Francis of the Tetons Episcopal Church with the Rev. Deb Adams officiating welcomes worshippers of all walks of faith. In the shadow of the Tetons, this historic church offers an opportunity to experience God’s presence and join in fellowship, spiritual renewal, and service to others.

Teton Valley Bible Church

265 North 2nd East | Driggs, ID 83422 | 208-354-8523

tetonvalleybiblechurch.org

Teton Valley Bible Church welcomes everyone to join us on Sunday mornings at 10:30am. Adult and children’s Sunday school classes begin at 9am. AWANA meets Wednesday nights at 6:20pm for ages 3 years to 6th grade. Junior high ministry also meets Wednesday nights at 6:20pm. Go to tetonvalleybiblechurch.org for more information about our church. We are located on the corner of Howard and 2nd in Driggs. [p. 56]

Table Rock Christian School

1510 North Highway 33 | Driggs, ID 83422 | 208-354-9674 trcs.us

TRCS students say they truly enjoy learning and often find themselves a year or two ahead in key subjects after completing year-end standardized testing. We work to ensure that our students cultivate a joy for learning. We teach them how to think, not just what to think. We utilize a challenging “Traditional Christian Education” approach, utilizing timetested methods including the Bible, McGuffey Readers, and principles from Charlotte Mason and Spalding. Our small but solidly established school boasts a tutoring-like, peaceful, caring environment. If you have a K–6 student, we would enjoy receiving your inquiry.

Teton School District 401

District Office: 208-228-5923

tsd401.org

Teton School District 401 strives to provide a safe and exceptional learning environment, where career and college readiness are the academic cornerstones of a relevant and progressive education. Our daily student focus is having Respect, being Responsible, and Ready. [p. 33]

Teton High School

Grades 9–12 | 208-228-5924

tsd401.org

As a four-year high school, THS strives to recognize the uniqueness of the individual in preparing him or her for a lifetime of learning. THS provides a safe and academically focused learning environment, where students are challenged for career and college readiness.

Basin High School

Grades 9–12 | 208-228-5928

tsd401.org

Basin High School is an alternative option for students who meet the state criteria for enrollment. Students obtain credits through a state-approved independent-study format, with assistance from certified staff.

Teton Middle School

Grades 6–8 | 208-228-5925

tsd401.org

Teton Middle School is dedicated to providing a quality education through which students will grow in academic achievement, respect for themselves and others, self-discipline, integrity, honesty, and responsibility.

Teton Elementary Schools

Grades K–3 at Victor 208-228-5929 | Driggs 208-228-5927 | Tetonia 208-228-5930 | Rendezvous Upper Elementary grades 4–5 in Driggs 208-228-5926

tsd401.org

The mission of the elementary schools of Teton School District 401 is to be integral in the partnership between school, home, and community in nurturing and encouraging all children to become productive citizens and lifelong learners.

Will Work for Food!

THE LATE HEIDI HOCHSTRASSER WORKED AT COSMIC APPLE GARDENS TO EARN HER SUMMER FARM SHARE. PHOTOGR APH BY CAMRIN DENGEL

July 22 - 23