Idaho’s Teton County shares more than just its name, majestic mountain peaks, and an extension educator with its Wyoming neighbor. The two Teton counties share the challenge of accommodating a new wave of settlers who are fulfilling a modern call of Manifest Destiny.
The key difference between the two counties is the availability of private land for development. Building sites on the Wyoming side are as rare as empty ski runs in January. Most of the limited homesites available are priced far beyond the budgets of workers in the predominately service-oriented economy.

Above: Driggs and Victor, Idaho, are becoming a haven for service industry workers who cannot afford housing in Jackson, Wyoming. Similar sprawl is changing the nature of small agricultural communities throughout Idaho. Photo by Mel Coulter.

In contrast, prospectors for small acreages or homesites find a mother lode west of the Teton mountains, in a fertile valley that stretches eight miles from Victor, Idaho, to Driggs. New homes—made of logs or rough-hewn lumber—spring from agricultural land like new potatoes. Economic necessity is prompting more people to live in Idaho and make daily pilgrimages to Jackson where jobs are plentiful. A recent traffic study indicates an average of 1,200 round trips daily, on a road that serpentines over an 8,431-foot summit and plunges dramatically down a 10 percent grade into Jackson Hole. It’s not a journey for the faint of heart, especially in the winter.

Jay Hanson, recently retired as an extension educator who served both Teton counties under a unique agreement, has watched with more than passing interest the transformation of Victor and Driggs. An economy dominated by agriculture and government employment is surrendering to a commuter, “bedroom” environment. Questions about raising cattle and planting pastures are giving way to queries about ornamental trees and shrubs flourishing in new housing developments.

An “input/output” study by the University of Wyoming showed that agriculture—especially cattle and seed potatoes—remains the primary revenue source for Idaho’s Teton County. But the firm grasp it once held has been slipping since the mid-1990s when tourism/recreation began to increase. Hanson expects the day when wages from service jobs in Wyoming will
rival that of farmers and ranchers.

“We were not interested in being head-knocking groups. We very much wanted an open forum in which we could discuss issues… It’s been the most exciting community involvement project that I’ve ever been involved in.”

Hanson arrived in Idaho’s Teton Valley in the mid-1970s when populations were shrinking and young people looked elsewhere to forge their professional lives. There were only two formal subdivisions, one of which had no houses. All of that began to change in the 1980s, slowly at first, but much more dramatically in the decade that followed. Today, there are more than 100 subdivisions, land values have skyrocketed, and title companies struggle to keep pace.
Manufactured homes, planted on a two and one-half acre plot, commonly carry a price tag of $150,000, or more. Comparable homes in Idaho Falls, approximately 70 miles to the southwest, sell for a third less. Housing sites in the Teton Valley are somewhat indiscriminate—they might occupy rocky land that is suitable for no better use; or, just as common, subdivisions consume prime agricultural land, forever altering its complexion and productivity.

More than the landscape has changed, though. The entire social environment is radically different, Hanson explains. Schools have expanded. Ethnic diversity has brought a need for bilingual education. The population has become younger. Demands on law enforcement have increased. The sense of “community” and commitment to social activities are fading. Neighbors no longer know neighbors because their waking hours are spent commuting or working outside the valley.

Photo below right: Jay Hanson.

It has been a challenging transition, one that county and community leaders have struggled to address. So important are the issues and their implications that a Teton summit was organized this year. On a cold, snowy day in January, when skiers flocked to Jackson, 150 concerned citizens from both counties met all day in Victor for what ultimately became the Teton Area Advisory Forum. Hanson joined insurance agent and farmer Steve Hoopes and Dick Staiger, a businessman from Alta, Wyo., in forming the executive committee that guided discussions.

The continuing purpose of the group is to stimulate the exchange of information and ideas that lead to “vision-based” decisions. Its stated mission is to “foster understanding and to project and enhance the present and future social, environmental, and economic integrity of the region.”

Several issues critical to both Teton counties immediately surfaced during the January discussion: housing, transportation, “smart” (planned) growth, access to public lands, education, and the environment. By the end of the initial assembly, committees were formed to address the first four concerns.

Hanson says he has never seen such spirit of cooperation on such a large and comprehensive scale. The avalanche of enthusiasm drew the attention of the National Association of Counties, which requested a representative from the forum to participate on one of its national committees. The Center for Regional and Neighborhood Action, a consulting group from Denver, provided basic direction and helped guide local committees in their formative stages.
“We were not interested in being head-knocking groups. We very much wanted an open forum in which we could discuss issues… It’s been the most exciting community involvement project that I’ve ever been involved in,” Hanson says. In fact, he continues to serve on the executive board despite retiring in May from the extension position he held for more than 26 years.

If it is any consolation to community leaders in far eastern Idaho, they are not alone in their attempt to cope with sudden growth and the conversion of agricultural land into housing developments. Burgeoning populations and the corresponding need for elbowroom is changing the rural landscape near many major cities in Idaho, especially the Boise and Coeur d’Alene-Post Falls areas. Even isolated regions such as Valley County in central Idaho face major social and economic transitions as access to natural resources become scarcer.
The University of Idaho’s College of Agriculture has played a pivotal role in helping communities in transition since it was created a century ago. The Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology provides the research tools that enable regions to cope with change.

“The ag economics department has been a tremendous help, such as helping with the input/output study. It shows how changes in one (economic) area affect another area. They are the gurus of fiscal economics,” Hanson proclaims.

Indeed, research and economic development plans go beyond helping regions cope. They provide a framework for shaping the future.
 

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