The Murie Ranch in Grand Teton National Park is dubbed the birthplace of the modern conservation movement. For two decades, it was The Wilderness Society’s western headquarters.
Married couples Olaus and Margaret (Mardy) Murie and Adolph and Louise Murie, prominent conservationists and ecologists, settled here. Olaus and Adolph, both wildlife biologists, were half brothers; Mardy and Louise were half sisters who spent their childhood in Fairbanks, Alaska. Olaus and Mardy met there in 1921 when Mardy was home from college.
Olaus, a caribou expert, was transferred to Jackson Hole in 1927 to manage the National Elk Refuge; Mardy and their two children followed.
The Muries purchased what was the STS Dude Ranch in 1945, immediately removing fences, enabling wildlife to roam freely.