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PrintCelebrating Longevity
Five local entities boast a collective 330 years in operation
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Over the course of the next year, several high-profile Jackson Hole businesses and organizations celebrate milestone anniversaries. With specialties ranging from ranching to climbing, and from classical music to Native American goods, these entities all have played their part in shaping the valley. They also hold important historical perspectives, as they have weathered many changes taking place in the community over the past decades.
Following are a few of the businesses celebrating big birthdays this year. They are not the only ones marking significant anniversaries in 2011—for instance, both Snow King Resort and Two Grey Hills have been in business for thirty-five years, the Wort Hotel has been operating for seventy years, and High Country Linen marks eighty years in business this year. But they are a handful of stalwarts representing valley longevity.
Boyer's Indian Arts and Crafts
John Boyer has watched a lot of businesses come and go in downtown Jackson. From the storefront of Boyer’s Indian Arts and Crafts, he has had a front-row view of a strip of Broadway that leads to the Town Square.
“Unfortunately, we’re losing some of that history from what we have here now,” says Boyer, who, along with his wife Bonnie, manages the store that his parents opened in the early 1960s.
History is important to Boyer, whose family roots can be traced back to some of the first settlers to arrive in the valley. Members of his family built the Wort Livery Stable and Corral, owned Signal Mountain Lodge, and eventually opened the Wort Hotel.
“It’s a history we’re really proud of,” Boyer says of his family legacy. “We were some of the forefathers of the valley. There was no ski area then. We were the main employer and gathering place for people in Jackson.”
