Our History

Flagg Ranch is located in an area long assumed to have been a favorite fishing and hunting campsite for Native American Tribes in the summer months. It is also believed to have been a favorite camping area for a number of trappers and traders who passed along the Snake River between 1807 and 1840. In addition to the site being used by many bands of Native Americans, trappers and traders, it was also used by prospectors, government explorers and hunters, simply because it was a large flat area, providing good forage for stock, an abundance of fish and game, and a pleasant surrounding for camping.

The United States Cavalry made the first permanent occupation of the area. Yellowstone National Park was established as the nation's first park in 1872 under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior. While Congress was willing to create the Park, it was unwilling to appropriate funds for its protection and operation. After years of struggling, the Secretary of Interior in 1886 invited the military to provide park supervision and protection.

Military superintendent Captain George Anderson, who served from February 1891 to June 1897, expressed concern over the neglected southern boundary in his first annual report. The Captain noted that "as settlements are rapidly springing up near Jackson's and Henry's lakes, these regions are becoming the famed resorts of hunters and hunting parties, a permanent station somewhere near the junction of Lewis and Snake Rivers will become a necessity."

The site chosen by Anderson along Polecat Creek is now the western boundary of Flagg Ranch. It is interesting to note, however, that Anderson mistakenly thought the site to be within the boundaries of Yellowstone. In fact, it was two miles south of the actual park boundary.

The Snake River Military Station operated until jurisdiction over the Yellowstone Forest Preserve was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service, probably about 1905-06. The weary Yellowstone-Jackson travelers would stop at this Snake River Military Station to rest and eat.

The station was readily identifiable by the flags flying over it so when Edward S. Sheffield founded the resort in the years between 1910 and 1916 he named it Flagg Ranch. By this time the U.S. Forest Service had been created and had jurisdiction over the area. When Sheffield tried to homestead the site they gave him a lease instead.

During the construction of the second dam at Jackson Lake, activity at Flagg Ranch grew as materials and supplies were freighted through the area. Sheffield had also dug out the Hot Springs on Polecat Creek and made them into a useable bathing and swimming spot.

During the winters, it was not unusual for trappers and men traveling on snowshoes or skis to stop overnight. The Sheffield's were great people and fine entertainers. On Saturday nights, neighbors and guests danced in their living room to the music of phonograph records.

After Ed Sheffield's death in 1927, his widow, Lillie, sold Flagg Ranch. By then it was a well-established dude ranch facility with "splendid accommodations for the tourist or vacationer by the day or longer, with a setting as inviting for recreational and wildlife sports as any in the country. It [was] splendidly equipped with a large main lodge of log construction and cabins and tent houses."

Many of the log buildings remaining at Flagg Ranch show the architecture and living conditions that the soldiers and early operators of Flagg Ranch worked in. Flagg Ranch is now the oldest, continually operating resort in upper Jackson Hole.