Tyler McKellar and Professor Don Norton, English
Teton Valley is located in Eastern Idaho, bordering Wyoming. Dominating the valley landscape is the Grand Teton mountain range. Blackfeet, Shoshone, and other Indian tribes frequented the area in their search for food. Fur trappers and mountain men followed, using the Teton basin as the location of their annual rendezvous. Mormon settlers began arriving in the 1880’s.
The valley offered a place for ranchers to raise cattle and sheep; dairymen to produce milk and cheese; and farmers to grow crops. The towns of Driggs, Victor, Tetonia, and their respective “suburbs” experienced steady growth until the mid-1900s, when a combination of economic changes and limitations brought about by the geographical isolation of the valley made it hard for people to remain in the area and provide for their families. The population dwindled for about 20 years; then with the advent of the Grand Targhee ski resort and other tourist/recreation opportunities in the valley, it began increasing again. Though still a Mecca of farming and ranching, Teton Valley is now also a small tourist hub – drawing people from all over the world.
I was born in Driggs, Idaho in 1974. I lived there all but about one full year of my life before I served a mission for the LDS church. Upon returning from missionary service, I began reading all I could about the history of Teton Valley. I quickly realized that there were very few recorded oral histories of Teton Valley residents. So, armed with a tape recorder and a few pages of questions, I set about interviewing elderly people who had been born and raised in Teton Valley. In all, I recorded 21 people, ranging in age from 55 to 97.
My intent was to capture the memories of this passing generation. It seemed that Teton Valley was changing again – moving on from its humble, hearty roots of origin. Once this elderly generation passed on, little would be left to remember what the valley was like between about 1910 and 1960.
My questions were simple. What was school like? What games did you play with your siblings? How did your parents discipline you? What did you learn in church? What did you do to earn money? How did Teton Valley compare to other areas in Idaho and Wyoming? What school activities were you involved in? Who were your mentors and leaders? How did World Wars I and II affect you? What challenges did you face living and raising a family in Teton Valley? What does the future hold for Teton Valley?
These simple questions opened the flood gates of memory for these people. The stories I heard left me either teary-eyed, laughing, or slack-jawed. I heard and recorded the story of a woman who worked with her father in the coal mine when she was only 14; a boy who froze to his horse while riding to school; a group of friends hunting a bear with a sharpened stick and a rifle; a family whose entire house and possessions, including the dog, had to be fumigated against small pox; a man who worked as a farm hand for dollar-a- day wages; a man who caught a bank robber; a boy who learned the gospel of Jesus Christ in the coal room of the old church; a boy who, at the age of three, was run over by a threshing machine, permanently damaging his legs; a girl who longed for the weekly school dances, complete with live orchestra and Sunday dress; a boy who, via transistor radio, heard the news of Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight over the Atlantic; a young housewife who baked four loaves of bread a day for an entire summer to feed her husband and his visiting cousins; a girl who helped make soap out of the fat of slaughtered pigs; a boy who walked home from Rexburg, Idaho, too homesick to attend college; and a housewife who braved the winter in an old train depot house with only half a roof.
Once recorded, I sought the advice of oral history specialist Don Norton of the English Department. He was very excited about what I had done and gave me pointers on how to go about transcribing and editing the interviews. Throughout the process I went back to him periodically with some transcribed pieces that he helped edit. This process turned out to be more tedious and time consuming than I imagined – but certainly worth it. To date, eight of the twenty one interviews have been transcribed and edited. The next step is to finish the rest and prepare them for publication.
I plan on presenting the finished body of work to the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, the Idaho Historical Society, the Teton Valley Historical Society, and the Valley of the Tetons Library in Victory, Idaho. If possible, I would also like to interview even more people and create an even more complete record of the valley, but that will have to wait for a while. The project also has the possibility of turning into a published, marketable book.
This project has turned out to be more enjoyable and satisfying than I imagined. My grandparents all passed away before I was old enough to remember them, so this has helped me grow closer to their generation, and grow closer to the valley that I love. I am very grateful to Don Norton and the Office of Research and Creative Activities – whose enthusiasm, expert advice and grant money have made this project possible. I don’t know where the money comes from to provide ORCA grants – but it is money well spent. I used the ORCA grant money to purchase a cassette transcription machine, headphones, and to cover the costs of printing and editing the interviews.