Wyoming Backs Down from Selling its Grand Teton Land

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A coveted parcel of pristine state-owned land inside Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park is safe from being sold off to developers—for now, anyway.

On Thursday, December 7, Wyoming’s Board of Land Commissioners—a panel comprised of the governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, and superintendent of public instruction—unanimously decided to postpone a vote that could have sent the 640-acre tract to a public auction. Instead, officials said they would spend the next year negotiating with the federal government to either sell or swap the land.

The decision comes Wyoming lawmakers received widespread backlash their plan to auction the plot, called the “Kelly Parcel,” off to the highest bidder. Locals feared the land would be developed into luxury homes for the uber-wealthy.

“I think we just need more time to work on this,” Megan Degenfelder, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, told reporters after the decision. According to Wyofile, Degenfelder, a Republican, was the one who suggested postponing the official vote until the fall of 2024. In the interim, she implored the state create a working group to explore other options with the U.S. Department of the Interior, such as exchanging for land for a different plot with valuable mineral rights.

“I don’t think that the answer is a sweetheart deal to the federal government—our land and our people, our education, are worth more than that, and Wyoming is really who I want to protect,” she added.

The vote came after several months of heated comments from locals in the greater Jackson, Wyoming area. The Kelly Parcel is the last of four square-mile plots owned by Wyoming’s state land trust within Grand Teton National Park. The state negotiated with the National Park Service to sell the other three parcels—in 2011 it completed the sale of the Antelope Flats parcel to the NPS for $46 million.

But Wyoming and the NPS appeared to be at an impasse over the Kelly Parcel’s value. In 2022 it was appraised for $62 million, but state lawmakers believed they could get a far higher price in a public auction. The value of real estate around Jackson has skyrocketed, with uber-rich buyers from around the world snapping up ranches and luxury homes. The sale or leasing of state trust land helps pay for public schools, and the Wyoming constitution requires lawmakers to generate the most income possible off of the lands. Right now, the land only generates $2,845 a year from a grazing lease. Recently, state officials asked to set the minimum value at $80 million for a public auction.

The plan to auction the land off generated widespread anger. Wyoming held four public comment sessions in Jackson, and locals turned out by the hundreds to voice their displeasure. Op-ed stories appeared in The New York Times and other national publications, including Outside.

“We are really concerned about inappropriate development,” Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins said in a statement in November. “The National Park Service stands ready once again to work in collaboration and partnership, if we can figure out a way to be able to provide revenue for schools, to be able to prevent development and have this preserved as part of the park.”

State officials have not announced when they will resume talks with the federal government over the land. Degenfelder said Wyoming must “let the federal government know they cannot just roll over Wyoming” in the negotiations.

“They need to come to the table and negotiate so we can protect the Kelly Parcel for citizens across the entire country and the world while allowing us to fully develop our mineral resources,” she said.