Jackson Hole, WY : “This is a place where billionaires act like it’s their playground”
I was picking up guests at the airport and ran into these midget twins who were actors turned real estate developers. They were happy to pose with me!
By Trace L Hentz
A Billionaire's Paradise and playground? Indeed.
Back in the summer of 1983, I worked at the HeartSix Dude Ranch in Moran, WY, with a direct view of the majestic Grand Teton Mountain Range from the ranch main lodge's front window. A shipmates convention took over the ranch that summer and I spent my birthday (9-9) with these Navy guys, driving them up to see Old Faithful. They bought me a bottle of whiskey. Sweet!
Earlier that summer I drove my parents to see the Rockefeller mansion (then a Jackson Lake Lodge) where one of the billionaires chose the exact view of the Teton mountain range for their picture window. I guess he had to be lowered by crane and yelled "RIGHT HERE!" (They built lots of stuff in the area.)
FYI: Few families shaped the national parks tradition more than the oligarch Rockefellers. John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874–1960), the only son of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller Sr., helped finance and donate land for parks including Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains, Yosemite, Shenandoah and Yellowstone. In Wyoming, he quietly assembled land to protect the Grand Teton landscape, later donating 32,000 acres that became part of the park’s 1950 expansion. His son, Laurance Rockefeller (1910–2004), carried the work forward, helping create Virgin Islands National Park, donating the family’s JY Ranch to Grand Teton, and contributing $1 million to launch the National Park Foundation, the Park Service’s official nonprofit partner, in 1967. One of the Rockefellers lived in the Jackson area until he died. Same with deceased billionaire (former VEEP) Dick Cheney.
VEEP 2026 : Vance and son hike scenic Forest Service trail in Jackson Hole
WyoFile photographed Vance hiking down the Old Pass Road on the Bridger-Teton National Forest near Wilson. It was an impromptu hike led by a Bridger-Teton ambassador, spokesperson C.J. Adams said.
The activists gathered in Teton Village to let the vice president know he wasn’t welcome at what they expected to be a high-dollar lunch at the Four Seasons. The hotel declined to comment, and it was not clear if any events were held there.
Last summer, Vance raised money for the Republican National Convention at a $100,000 lunch hosted by GOP megadonor Lynn Friess and JHMR investors Karen and Jay Kemmerer. Vance is the first vice president to also serve as the finance chair of the Republican National Committee.
Protestors didn’t mince words on signs they held at the turnoff to the village.
“JD Vance protects pedophiles,” one sign alleged on Wednesday. Another called him a fascist traitor. Jules Shelton, 26, said Vance seems more interested in data centers than public lands.
“This is a place where the billionaires like to act like it’s their playground,” the service worker said. “They’re remaking the American West and it’s deeply affecting communities.”
Jakob Crank, 41, told KHOL he wants to see less money in politics.
“Come back to Earth. Represent your people. A $200,000 — or whatever it is — lunch in secret is not representative of the masses of the people of Wyoming.”
His girlfriend, Kara DeCaneo, 49, added that elected officials who don’t support public lands shouldn’t fundraise in a place like Jackson that sits at the base of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.
“The audacity of them to come here primarily for funds while they’re defunding our parks is just atrocious,” the massage therapist and political activist said. DeCaneo said she used to work at the Four Seasons and “quit once they started getting all ‘Republican.’”
The demonstrators dispersed after a few hours. The vice president’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier in the month, House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly hosted an annual fundraiser in Jackson Hole with SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and other speakers.
More federal government officials, including the new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, are in town this week for the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium.👇
👇 sad news
Housing Director Norton resigns after decade addressing housing crisis
April Norton, the director of the Jackson/Teton County Affordable Housing Department, has resigned after more than a decade of leading the charge on addressing Jackson Hole’s housing crisis. On Friday, housing authorities were grappling with the departure. (They had a housing crisis when I lived there!)
“I’m sad,” Laura Bonich, a housing expert and the former chair of the Housing Supply Board, said. “She’s been a true advocate. She made sure that all the things that we were [doing] represented the best practices in affordable housing across the country.”
Norton is credited with securing hundreds of homes for community members who might not otherwise be able to afford one.
“People are often looking for a silver bullet to solve this crisis that we’re in, and there’s not one,” said Clare Stumpf, executive director of Shelter JH. “One of the things I really admire about April is her creativity and her willingness to consider all options.”
April Norton |
It’s unclear why, exactly, Norton is stepping away from the department. She did not respond to an interview request on Friday afternoon. A Teton County press release did not go into more details about why Norton was leaving, or what she might do next.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve this community I love so much for the past decade,” Norton wrote in the press release. She said she was grateful to the town, county and housing board members who had advised her.
Norton’s departure comes months after town and county officials rejected a massive housing proposal she had spent years working on.
In July, the Jackson Town Council and Teton County Board of Commissioners voted to part ways with Pennrose, the developer it had charged with building affordable housing at 90 Virginian Lane. Some elected officials soured on the project, dubbed the Virginian, after a multimillion-dollar misunderstanding over funding. Coupled with scrutiny over the affordability of condos at the project, elected officials terminated negotiations on a 6-4 vote.
“I certainly don’t regret my decision that day,” Commissioner Wes Gardner, who was one of the first to turn on Pennrose, said. “The deal had just gotten to the point where the relationship, frankly, had grown toxic, and the affordability mix had gone beyond the threshold for me.”
Bonich resigned from the Housing Supply Board just over two months before the July vote, citing frustration with how elected officials handled the Virginian project. On Friday, she said she believed town councilors and county commissioners could have been more supportive on the day they axed the Pennrose relationship.
“What’s happened in the last year or so, what some electeds had said publicly wasn’t as supportive as it could be,” Bonich said. “But now we’ve got a new election coming up and a new group, and they’ll all have a chance to find a new person and reimagine what they want for their goals for the affordable housing community.”
Norton had recommended that elected officials preserve the Pennrose deal to build housing at the Virginian. Gardner said it was one of the few times he and the housing director had disagreed.
“If I missed an opportunity that day to thank April for everything she’d done in service of the project, I regret that,” Gardner said. “My focus that day was less on making sure that April knew she had my support, than in making sure that I was being clear about explaining why this deal that April supported didn’t have my support.”
The Jackson/Teton County Affordable Housing Department was created in 2016 to oversee affordable housing development. Norton was the department’s first director. She helped oversee the building of 241 affordable and workforce homes across eight public-private partnerships, according to the county’s press release. That’s in addition to more than 100 workforce homes built at no cost to local government, through the town’s 2-for-1 bonus that she helped back.
Norton will leave near the end of the calendar year. The town and county are beginning a search for her successor.
“She will leave some big shoes to fill, absolutely” Commission Chair Mark Newcomb said. “She got the program off the ground, and, individually, is probably responsible for more housing, specifically for the Jackson community, than anyone else I can think of.”
SOURCE:
In my second time living in Jackson Hole (1995), I met rock singer Dale Rossington, whose husband was guitarist Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd. (He died recently.) They had a ranch house there.
Top 14 Celebrities That Live in Jackson Hole 2026 (VIA)
- Harrison Ford
- Sandra Bullock
- Kanye West
- Matthew McConaughey
- Natalie Portman
- Nikki Sixx
- Travis Rice
- Bradford Lund
DickLIZ Cheney- Julia Louis-Dreyfus
- Jimmy Chin
- Pippa Middleton
- Uma Thurman
- (Maybe) Brad Pitt
Other Celebs purchased homes in Jackson Hole include everyone from actor Harrison Ford, the late singer Robert Goulet, movie director Tyler Perry, and former (deceased) VEEP Dick Cheney, according to Jenkins. He also explained, that as popular as the area is, it is not that easy to actually buy property there.
Read More: https://www.nickiswift.com/335234/the-real-reason-these-a-list-celebs-are-moving-to-jackson-hole-wyoming/
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