An authenic and richly illustrated account of Jackson Hole's earliest settlers and cast of Old West characters: Native Americans, mountain men, government explorers, miners, outlaws, cavalry, posses, squatters, game poachers, and eccentric frontier figures. The Hole's "bachelor settlers" are profiled and pictured, and the valley's infamous frontier episodes recounted. Exploitation of abundant wildlife played a crucial role in settlement. The tools of the early-day settlers were rifles, traps, and poison. The plow, sun bonnets, and the family cow followed much later; as did also, recognition for conservation. What became of John Carnes and John Holland, credited with being the valley's "first Settlers," after they proved up, sold their hjomesteads, and moved on, is a vital part of the story, too.

The magnificent valley of Jackson Hole at the base of the soaring Teton Range has long been a stage on which a remarkable series of events has been acted out. From the creation of the Tetons, to the first humans, to the Native American tribes to the journey of John Colber, who back in 1807 is said to have been the first white man to have found his way through the wildnerness and into Jackson Hole. A remarkable cast of characters including mountain men, trappers, former slaves, a Mormon boy, an inter-racial marriage, and others fill these pages of pioneers.

"Billionaire Wilderness offers an unprecedented look inside the world of the ultra-wealthy and their relationship to the natural world, showing how the ultra-rich use nature to resolve key predicaments in their lives. Justin Farrell immerses himself in Teton County, Wyoming--both the richest county in the United States and the county with the nation's highest level of income inequality--to investigate interconnected questions about money, nature, and community in the twenty-first century. Farrell draws on three years of in-depth interviews with "ordinary" millionaires and the world's wealthiest billionaires, four years of in-person observation in the community, and original quantitative data to provide comprehensive and unique analytical insight on the ultra-wealthy. He also interviewed low-income workers who could speak to their experiences as employees for and members of the community with these wealthy people. He finds that the wealthy leverage nature to climb even higher on the socioeconomic ladder, and they use their engagement with nature and rural people as a way of creating more virtuous and deserving versions of themselves. Billionaire Wilderness demonstrates that our contemporary understanding of the relationship between the ultra-wealthy and the environment is empirically shallow, and our reliance on reports of national economic trends distances us from the real experiences of these people and their local communities"--

A narrative on the history and natural beauty of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, based on the author's research and travels.