Qualla: Murie Ranch Historic District

Murie Ranch Historic District: Introduction

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit marlin harms, CC BY 2.0. The doors of the STS Lodge are too short. Buster Estes, who homesteaded here in 1925, built them to his own diminutive height. This quirk of architecture perfectly captures the character of the Murie Ranch Historic District, where nothing was designed for show. Nestled in Grand Teton National Park near the village of Moose, this modest collection of log cabins became the intellectual headquarters of the American wilderness movement. From these weathered structures, some of the most consequential conservation victories of the twentieth century were plotted and won.

Image: marlin harms | CC BY 2.0

Murie Ranch Historic District: A Family of Scientists

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit National Park Service inventory, Public domain. Olaus Murie arrived in Jackson Hole in 1927, already a respected field biologist with the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey. He had spent years tracking caribou across Alaska, pioneering an ecological approach that viewed animals not as isolated specimens but as threads in a compl...

Image: National Park Service inventory | Public domain

Murie Ranch Historic District: The Coyote Defender

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit National Park Service inventory, Public domain. From 1937 to 1940, Adolph Murie conducted research in Yellowstone that would prove equally revolutionary. At a time when the National Park Service actively encouraged killing coyotes, Adolph's studies demonstrated these predators were essential to ecosystem health. His report dir...

Image: National Park Service inventory | Public domain

Murie Ranch Historic District: Headquarters of the Wild

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jon Sullivan, PD Photo., Public domain. In 1945, Olaus left government service to become president of the Wilderness Society, moving his family to the STS Ranch property. The rustic cabins quickly became a gathering place for conservationists. The 1948 Wilderness Society Council met here. Supreme Court Justice William ...

Image: Jon Sullivan, PD Photo. | Public domain

Murie Ranch Historic District: The Arctic Victory

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit National Park Service inventory, Public domain. The most consequential expedition planned from this ranch launched in 1956. Olaus and Mardy traveled to the Sheenjek River on the south slope of Alaska's Brooks Range. Their documentation of this pristine wilderness proved instrumental in the eventual protection of the Arctic Nat...

Image: National Park Service inventory | Public domain

Murie Ranch Historic District: A Living Legacy

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0. The ranch was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Today, more than a dozen structures remain, including Olaus's painting studio built in 1947 and the Murie Residence with its views of Grand Teton. Most cabins date to 1925, from the original Estes homestead era. One o...

Image: Acroterion | CC BY-SA 4.0