TETON VALLEY, IDAHO

"The annual meeting of the Cowbelles at Little Max's Café in Tetonia was getting ready to start. The ladies all sat at the long table...talking about who had died and who can still get on their knees to scrub the fairgrounds kitchen, who can yet stand on the folding chair to stomp the potatoes in the big aluminum pot for the Cattleman's Banquet."

Gretchen Notzold, Teton Valley writer

Background and Impacts

Excerpted from the Teton Valley Spirit of the Northwest project proposal:

"Our community has a population of about 5,500 not including second-home inhabitants. The Valley is about 20 miles long and seven miles wide, and includes three small cities: Tetonia at the north end, Driggs in the middle and Victor to the south.

Traditionally, it's been primarily a Mormon agricultural community, but is now becoming increasingly diverse as we struggle with one of the highest population growths in the state.

People from all over the U.S. and other countries move here because land values are still affordable, the environment is clean and it is seen as a safe place to raise kids. Tourism, both here and in Jackson Hole, Wyoming (35 miles to the east over Teton Pass), is another catalyst for growth.

Victor is becoming a bedroom community for Jackson, because workers can't afford to live there. The increased need for a low-cost labor force to work in Wyoming restaurants and hotels and at Grand Targhee Resort in Alta (accessed only through Driggs) is supplied by a growing Hispanic population estimated to be 11-15% of our Valley's population.

We are comprised of many different groups: business and real estate entrepreneurs, blue-collar and office workers, farm, timber and ranch workers, service sector employees, scientists, artisans, educators, performers and retired people. The various groups do not easily intermingle.

The (Spirit of the Northwest) anthology project, in letting people be heard and better understood, is intended to be a permanent bridge creating more awareness and respect for one another."

What isn't mentioned in this excerpt are the soaring Tetons themselves, which ring this valley to the east.

Project Team and Partners

Teton Arts Council, the local arts agency, was the Spirit of the Northwest project sponsor, with key partner organizations the Teton Regional Land Trust and the Teton County Historical Society.

Volunteers came from all three groups, with the largest participation from Teton Arts Council, itself an all-volunteer organization. The working six-member anthology production team handled all matters from scanning photos to layout, design and printing production.

Four volunteers served as the anthology editorial board over the course of the project: the Land Trust executive director, a Driggs retailer and writer, a former newspaper editor who recently sold her retail business and a pharmacist who serves on the school board and commutes for work to Rexburg. The project coordinator worked as a full-time teacher in Jackson, Wyoming.

"The process of creating this anthology is somewhat like building a web where each connection creates new connections."

Bonnie Krafchuk, Project Coordinator

Informal and important partnerships developed with the Teton Valley News and the Valley of the Tetons Library, helping to secure historical photographs and other archival materials.

Key Learnings

• The single most important element of success for this project was picking the anthology project, which excited everyone as a way to express the need to "save the place" of Teton Valley.
  
  
• Long time residents have great stories, but it was hard to get them written down, so the anthology could show the full context of life in the Valley.
  
  
• Immense personal and time commitment from both individuals and organizations was necessary to complete the project. Three years is a very long time to sustain such commitment.
  
  
• Personal commitments (outside this project) substantially changed over three years, and leadership floating among the group, responding to changing personal needs.

  "We didn't know how hard it would be before we started."

• The team kept the project "do-able", even when great ideas developed that would expand the scope or project impact. The team rigorously monitored both man-power and resources.
  
  
• Use of current technology: email, word processors, laser printers, digital scanners, Photo Shop, Quark Express, fax machines ­ made the project possible. Prefrontal lobes made it work.

Purpose

To publish a high quality, four-part anthology about Teton Basin (Spindrift: Stories of Teton Basin) representing many voices and points of view, edited by a three-member team. The publication is intended to be both history and a time capsule of the quick changes in the Valley, and to serve as a springboard for potential future publications.

The 240-page book includes work from 60 local contributors, and was published in December, 2000.

The four parts of the anthology:

"Walking the Land" (natural history)

"Hard Road to Travel (people history)

"Coming Home" (contemporary stories)

"After Our Bones Are Ashes" (a look at the future)

Teton Valley News and Powder Mountain Press will assist in marketing and promoting the anthology beyond the timelines of this project.

Project Outcomes

• Leveraged over 4,000 hours of in-kind time investment from volunteers.
  
  
• Several significant individual contributions ($3,000) and $931 of direct Arts Council funds increased the press run from 1,000 to 2,000 copies.
  
  
• Produced a high quality, four-part anthology as both history and time-capsule about the Teton Basin, representing many voices and points of view.
  
  
• Significantly deepened partnerships between the Teton Arts Council, the Historical Society and the Teton Regional Land Trust.
  
  
• Fueled new personal relationships between "old timers" and "newcomers" (the writers-interviewers).
  
  
• Shared commitment to telling the stories of the region among the project team and organizational partners.

Project Process

• Community application from local art agency, Teton Arts Council.
  
  
• Teton Arts Council brainstormed, engaged informal partnership with Historical Society and Teton Regional Land Trust.
  
  
• Two community meetings ­ discussed community values and identity with Idaho Commission on the Arts Community Development Director and began to try to understand "what is community identity?" and "what are our community values?."
  
  
• Flying M Ranch meeting.
  
  
• Four-person leadership group enjoined, representing Arts Council, Teton Valley Historical Association, Land Trust and bookstore.
  
  
• 20 key leaders representing different segments of the community
  interviewed.
  
  
• Brainstormed projects: decided to publish an anthology. Established goals.
  
  
• Drafted Project Application, including workplan for solicitation, writing, editing, design,
  celebration, marketing.
  
  
• Two writing workshops generated interest, inspired ideas and offered professional feedback.
  
  
• Formal and non-formal solicitation of writing.
  
  
• Review and editing.
  
  
• Identified the need for stories to be told (by
  non-writer residents). Recruited writers to do interviews to write stories of non-writers.

  "Bonnie called me and asked me to call Verl and ask him about the Indians. I met him at his house and commenced to pick the brain of this 83-year old native rancher...Since then I've become friends with Verl and his wife Elva. I help him record history. He 'witched' a well on my land."

  Josh Weltman, writer, Driggs

• Collection, editing, culling.
  
  
• Design and production.
  
  
• Marketing plan developed and coordinated.
  
  
• Leadership of this project moved between several people over the course of the project, based on personal availability and skill sets.

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The Spirit of the Northwest is a regional partnership project of the Idaho Commission on the Arts, the Oregon Arts Commission and the Washington State Arts Commission, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal Agency. It is made available on the Web as a courtesy by the Community Arts Network. Questions or comments regarding this project can be addressed to Bitsy Bidwell, Community Arts Development Manager, Washington State Arts Commission, P.O. Box 42675, Olympia, WA, 98504-2675, (360) 586-2421 or email bitsyb@arts.wa.gov.