The plan 75 years in the making

Friday, May 07, 2004

By Planet User

The Snake River Associates' proposal to develop 510 acres of its ranch land near Teton Village has been closely scrutinized, with reports on every meeting, workshop and study making front page news in recent months.

And rightfully so. Critics argue the project has the potential to impact Jackson Hole as dramatically as any single development in the last 75 years. But in the big picture, that's as far back as one must go to understand the entire story of Snake River Associates, a partnership of the 15 grandchildren of Helen and Stanley B. Resor, who first purchased 400 acres of land along the Snake River in 1929.

A visit to the heart of the ranch is akin to stepping back in time. The main buildings of the ranch are located about a mile west of the village road, two miles south of the ski area. The Snake River Ranch (dirt) Road meanders past pastures with names like Schoolhouse, Johnson, and Ross. These names combined with the old buildings, including the scale house where steers are weighed, the icehouse and old barn, are a constant reminder of the past. The upper ranch extends on both sides of the village road, broken by four school sections, owned by the state, while the south ranch extends into Wilson on Fish Creek.

Before long, concepts like traffic studies, density bonuses and deed-restricted homes are inaudible, replaced with the intertwining branches of Resor genealogy, a chronology of ranching innovation and the ever-present profile of the Tetons that remains the same today as when Herbert Hoover was president.

Helen Resor writes first chapter

From modest beginnings at a mail-order toilet preparations' company, Helen Lansdowne probably did not anticipate becoming the most influential copywriter in the 1920s, the first woman of real prominence in advertising, and the inventor of a revolutionary style in the industry.

She started as bill auditor at Proctor and Collier, a Cincinnati advertising agency that functioned mainly as the house agency for Proctor and Gamble. There she met her eventual husband, Stanley B. Resor. They became a successful business team and were married a year after Resor became president of the company in 1917. Eventually, they went on to dominate the advertising world through another company, J. Walter Thompson.

"As a couple they realized women were making marketing decisions," said John Resor, Stanley and Helen's grandson and a current Jackson resident.

When Woodbury's Facial Soap came to JWT as a client, Helen wrote the ads, increasing their sales by 1,000 percent in eight years.

"The surprising thing is my grandmother ended up being vice president of the firm," said Bill Resor, John's brother. "But as soon as she got married, she never took a salary."

Her success prompted activism in other arenas. She organized a group who marched in the women's suffrage parade in New York in 1916; she brought to advertising eminent photographer Edward Steichen, whose work eventually changed the entire appearance of modern advertising. She commissioned historian Lewis Mumford to compile a list of 3,000 books to be purchased for the use of company employees. Between 1935 and 1940, she served as a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Helen Lansdowne Resor was elected into the Advertising Hall of Fame three years after her death in 1964.

"My grandmother was pretty amazing," John said.

Stanley B.: Patriarch, renaissance man, rancher

Although his wife was the creative energy behind J. Walter Thompson's ad campaigns, Stanley B. Resor was a pioneer.

Stanley B. was the first major agency leader with a college degree (Yale 1901). Though his first job was in his family's stove manufacturing business, he became president of the J. Walter Thompson Advertising firm. When he retired, JWT's billings were more than $370 million, with a staff of 6,225 employed in 55 offices in the United States and abroad. Under the couple's direction, JWT became the largest single integrated advertising agency in the world. A founder of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Stanley B. led JWT to No. 1 status by 1927. He worked there for almost 40 years.

In 1929 he began pursuing what would become a second lifelong career in Jackson Hole.

Stanley B.'s 12-year-old son, Stanley R. Resor, visited Jackson Hole in 1929 with his friends, the Huylers. Upon learning of the Huyler's intention to sell some land, the young Resor called his father on the East Coast. Based solely on his preteen son's recommendation, Stanley B. purchased 400 acres along the west bank of the Snake River, sight unseen, and the Snake River Ranch was born.

According to Bill, the family headed west shortly thereafter. Running a ranch had always been his grandfather's dream. Furthermore, Stanley B. wanted to expose his children to a culture outside the New York/East Coast lifestyle.

The Early Years

Following the pivotal phone call, the Resors visited Jackson the next summer, and every summer thereafter.

Bill explained that when his grandfather was purchasing his land in the 1930s, people either homesteaded and sold or homesteaded and bought more. "You could not make enough money on 160 acres alone," he said.

According to longtime valley rancher Cliff Hansen, 92, "[Stanley B.] was a very ethical man, and the land exchange was honest. … The depression affected a lot of people. They were glad to sell."

When his grandfather bought property, Bill said land was between $5 and $100 an acre, an affordable price for the president of a national advertising firm.

"I bought six additional ranches adjoining my original purchase; two more 14 miles below Wilson for a cow camp and rent two school sections – altogether some 5,100 acres," Stanley B. wrote.

"It was sort of like bread and jam," Helen Hauge, Stanley B.'s daughter, explains in a family video. "We needed hay for horses, et cetera, then we could have some cattle and then we needed more land … and then gradually the herd increased."

The working ranch then …

Stanley B. was not merely a success in his ranching pursuit, he was a downright overachiever. According to historian Michael Cassity, the ranch was exceptional in size as well as its commitment to using the most advanced ranching techniques to increase and improve production of hay and livestock.

With its own dairy barns, chicken and turkey coops, pigs, machine shops, cattle and horse operation, and sophisticated electrical generating facility, the ranch was truly self-contained.

"He was interested right off in making the place self-sustaining. He didn't want something that appeared to be a plaything or a hobby. He looked around and saw people had self-sustaining operations and he set out to make one himself," said Stanley R. Resor, father to John and Bill, in a family video.

"He was very interested in improvements. He was interested in the idea of taking a modest piece of land and making it better," Bill said. "My grandfather's purpose was always to put together a working cattle ranch and he succeeded."

Although his East Coast experiences did not involve cow-calf operations, Stanley B. hired people, learned quickly and used his business sense to create a successful operation. The family patriarch ran the Jackson ranch in the summers, presiding over JWT by mail from his cabin on the ranch.

Stanley B. had defined goals from the beginning. He wrote, "What was perfectly clear to me as soon as I got there – and I had not been there before – was that in spite of the fact that we were living out of tin cans and had to drive seven miles to get fresh milk, we could produce both on that very land." He cleared acres of "worthless willow land" that eventually produced one of the finest crops of hay in the area, according to Bob VanDeburg, son of longtime ranch manager Lloyd VanDeburg.

"When he decided he wanted to do something, he just kept at it and kept at it and kept at it," Helen Hauge said. "Very persistent."

This persistence was augmented by his wife's high taste in art and architecture, as the duo once again dominated their chosen industry, this time not with pens, but with the best available ranching buildings, equipment, facilities and production.

"The new barn at the Stanley Resor ranch is nearing completion. It is, beyond doubt, the most modern barn in Jackson Hole," Jackson Hole's Courier reported Oct. 8, 1931.

Historian Cassity noted the buildings exceeded functionality to become an impressive example of architectural modernity and distinction. By 1953 the ranch had become more than a working cattle operation.

"It was built to be a showcase of design, a place for contemplation and inspiration, and for intellectual exchange," Cassity wrote in the application submitted to classify the ranch in the National Register of Historic Places. "It represented a fathering place for artists of all kinds, including Grant Wood, Valentino Sarra, Peter Hurd, Peter Blume, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Sir Charles M. Rose, Ludwig Mies van der Rhoe, and other notable individuals including Hoover in his post-presidential years and George H. W. Bush [who visited as a teenager.]"

… and the working ranch now

In Stanley B.'s days, they had to produce one and a half tons of hay per animal each winter.

"I used to stack hay, it was hard work, but you felt satisfied to build a good stack. In the old days, it was loose hay … [it was] a challenge to make a neat stack," Stanley R. remembered. "But it was darn good exercise too."

According to Bill, the biggest change from then to now is how easily cattle can be transported, making modern ranch operations easier.

"My grandfather ran a cow-calf operation that was completely self-sufficient," Bill said. "We run an operation that hauls in steers on semi-trucks in May and out on semi-trucks in October. The access is so unbelievably good."

According to Bill, the challenge of economic and environmental long-term sustainability has not changed, but their methods and products have.

"Running the ranch as a cattle operation is a tool for maintaining and improving it," Bill said. "Our family objective is to maintain the ranch for the next generation."

Now, 15 cousins in three families – the Resors, the Hauges and the Laughlins – own the ranch. Under Bill's supervision, the ranch went to a steer operation 20 years ago, with 10 cowboys working the 3,900 steers that come through each summer. For the past five years, the ranch has been selling to Meyer Angus Natural Beef, based in Missoula, Mont., who primarily sells at whole foods markets across the country.

The future

Today, a tour of the Resor homestead reveals a sense of how operation of the ranch and land-use issues have changed over the years as well as the timeless nature of their business. The structures stand as they were built while the mountains maintain their regal presence. The distinctive smells of manure, melting snow and well-used leather are surely much the same as those Stanley B. inhaled as he presided over his land more than 70 years ago.

And no matter how the current legal wrangling over land development shakes out in the coming weeks, this will remain so.

"We're trying to keep the ranch in ranching," John said. "And try to make the land good for the family and good for the community."

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