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.

Olaus and Mardy played host to influential conservationists and environmental advocates on their front porch. Environmental leaders convened there to draft the 1964 Wilderness Act, led by the Muries, who also spearheaded preservation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Olaus, the Wilderness Society Director, helped create the Jackson Hole National Monument in 1943, now comprising about 70% of park land, and Mardy received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 from President Bill Clinton for her life’s work in conservation, among other major awards.

Olaus passed away in 1963 and Mardy continued her work from the ranch, shaping the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, protecting 56.4 million acres and tens of millions more that formed national parks and wildlife refuges. She died in 2003.

In 1990, the Murie Residence was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, followed by the Murie Ranch in 1998. In 1997, the Murie Center became a nonprofit. The properties were named a National Historic Landmark in 2006, and in 2015, the Murie Ranch joined the Teton Science Schools campus.

TSS hosts free conversations and performances on the Murie porch.

For a complete summer schedule, visit: https://www.tetonscience.org/front-porch/

Free docent tours are also offered daily June-September at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Visit our bookstores for a copy of Two in the Far North, by Mardy Murie to learn more.