History & Culture Menor's Ferry and the Chapel
of the Transfiguration
Location
Turn off the Teton Park Road 0.5-mile north of Moose. The
Menor's Ferry Trail, less than 0.5-mile long, affords a look
at homesteading and pioneer life in Jackson Hole. Visit Bill
Menor's cabin and country store. Ride a replica of the ferry
that crossed the Snake River at the turn of the century (dependent
on water levels). The altar window of the Chapel of the Transfiguration
frames the tallest Teton peaks. Please be respectful, the
chapel is a house of worship.
Menor's Ferry
Menor's Ferry once belonged to William D. Menor who came to
Jackson Hole in 1894, taking up a homestead beside the Snake
River. Here he constructed a ferryboat that became a vital
crossing for the early settlers of Jackson Hole Valley.
Jackson Hole was isolated
by its surrounding mountains and had such a harsh climate
that it was one of the last areas of the lower 48 states to
be settled. Homesteaders came here, mainly from Idaho, beginning
in the late 1880s. Most early settlement in the valley took
place in the south, or on a few scattered areas with fertile
soil on the east side of the Snake River. Menor was alone
on the west side of the Snake for more than ten years.
Riversare often
important transportation corridors. However, the Snake River
was a natural barrier that divided the valley. In dry months
the river could be forded safely in several locations, but
during periods of high water even the most reliable fords
were impassable. After 1894, Menor’s Ferry became the main
crossing in the central part of Jackson Hole. Residents crossed
on the ferry to hunt, gather berries and mushrooms, and cut
timber at the foot of the mountains.
Bill Menorbuilt
the original ferryboat and cableworks. Today’s ferry and cableworks
are replicas. The ferry is a simple platform set on two pontoons.
The cable system across the river keeps the ferry from going
downstream, while allowing it to move sideways. By turning
the pilot wheel, the rope attaching the boat to the cable
is tightened and points the pontoons toward the opposite bank.
The pressure of the current against the pontoons pushes the
ferryboat across the river in the direction the pontoons point.
This type of ferry existed in ancient times and was used elsewhere
in the United States.
Menor charged 50c for a
wagon and team and 25c for a rider and horse. Pedestrians
rode free if a wagon was crossing. When the water was too
low for the ferry, Menor suspended a platform from the cable
and three to four passengers could ride a primitive cablecar
across the river. In later years, Menor and his neighbors
built a bridge for winter use, dismantling it each spring.
Menor sold out to Maude
Noble in 1918. She doubled the fares, hoping to earn a living
from the growing number of tourists in the valley. Noble charged
$1 for automobiles with local license plates, or $2 for out-of-state
plates. In 1927, a steel truss bridge was built just south
of the ferry, making it obsolete. Maude Noble sold the property
to the Snake River Land Company in 1929.
Bill Menor and his neighbors
homesteaded here thinking of the local natural resources as
commodities for survival, but many of them grew to treasure
the beauty and uniqueness of Jackson Hole. In 35 short years,
from Bill Menor’s arrival until the establishment of the original
park in 1929, this land passed from homestead to national
treasure.