Wyoming

Wyoming History: 1927 Kelly Flood Killed 6, Washed Out 75 Buildings

Published

7 months ago

June 1, 2025

Wyoming History: 1927 Kelly Flood Killed 6, Washed Out 75 Buildings

For years growing up in sight to the Grand Tetons to the west and Gros Ventre Range to her east, Dawn Kent kept her eye out on the landscape along the Gros Ventre River in Kelly, Wyoming, for a post office safe.

It washed away 98 years ago in the Kelly Flood, and her grandfather, Raymond C. Kent, was postmaster for the small Wyoming community at the time.

“There were two safes that were lost in the flood,” she said. “One at the Kneedy home and one at the post office. The Kneedy safe was found about 30 years ago, about 2 miles downstream in the river bottom.

“But the post office one was never found, although I was always told there really wasn’t much in it that mattered.”

It’s been a century since the rumble of collapsing boulders, dirt and shale created an estimated 50 million cubic yards of debris that formed a natural dam on the Gros Ventre River in Teton County on June 23, 1925.

Two years later, heavy rains and snowmelt collaborated to breach the barrier and unleash a flood, leaving behind memories and landscape scars.

Kent, 71, believes her family may be the sole remnant with blood links in Kelly to the pioneers who were around when the dam let loose and washed out about 75 buildings and killed six people May 18, 1927. That includes homes, outbuildings and much of the town.

“Gros Ventre River Flood Takes Huge Toll in Life and Property,” the Jackson’s Hole Courier newspaper headline reported Thursday, May 19, 1927. “Death and destruction came down the Gros Ventre River yesterday morning in a great wall of water that snuffed out at least six lives, wiped the town of Kelly off the map and swept away several hundred head of livestock.”

Kent said to understand the flood, one has to go back to the natural dam formed when a large part of the north side of Sheep Mountain in the Gros Ventre Range slid down into the valley below blocking the river.

Her grandmother, Anne Kent lived in Kelly in 1925, helping run the local store and post office with her husband, Raymond.

In 1940, Anne wrote an account of both the slide and the flood that her granddaughter keeps filed in a book.

The Episcopal Church in Kelly was one of three buildings that survived the flood. (Courtesy Wyoming State Archives)
Anne Kent and her husband, Raymond, ran the store and post office in Kelly at the time of the flood. She wrote about the event in 1940 and her granddaughter, Dawn Kent, still has the original document. (Courtesy Dawn Kent)
The location of the town of Kelly, Wyoming, prior to the 1927 flood. (Courtesy Wyoming State Archives)
The scar on Sheep Mountain in the Gros Ventre Ranch on the east side of Jackson Hole still shows the scope of slide in May 1927. (Courtesy Google Earth)
A Google Earth view of the current location of Kelly, Wyoming, and Lower Slide Lake, which was created in the 1925 by a slide of rock, shale, and debris off Sheep Mountain. (Courtesy Google Earth)

Written Remembrance

“There was a big landslide just four miles east of the settlement. That slide was an enormous thing, hundreds of tons of earth break off from the north hillside, filling the canyon for one-half mile, making a dam just that thick and 200-feet high,” Anne Kent wrote. “It shut off the river and backup up the water, taking about 12 or 15 days in making a lake seven miles long.”

Anne Kent wrote that “miraculously,” no one was caught in the slight and that only shortly before the slide, cowboys had put the last of their range cattle through the canyon.

“The last two riders were so close to the edge of that moving mass they were covered with dust,” she penned.

Jackson’s Hole Courier reported Thursday, June 25, 1927, that the Gill Huff ranch was almost totally inundated and that Huff lost a “fine new $10,000 home underwater.”

It also reported the Card ranches were lost and another rancher, Ed Russell, was also threatened.

The slide followed a similar event in 1909 that first created the original “Slide Lake,” which thereafter would be “Upper Slide Lake” while the new lake was dubbed “Lower Slide Lake.”

The newspaper reported that prior to the slide there had been a “number of light earth tremors” felt in the Jackson Hole region.

A visit by Wyoming State Engineer Frank Emerson in July 1925 found that things had settled down and the river was flowing through the center of the 180-foot-high dam. The lake behind the dam was about 5 feet from the top of the fill.

He estimated that water levels would eventually decrease below the fill to about 25 feet. The natural dam was holding, and people should not be afraid to enter Yellowstone National Park from the southern entrance.

“A person would probably be safer in any traveled region of the Jackson Hole region today than he would be upon the streets of any of our large cities,” Emerson wrote.

Floating Hayrack

However, in May 1927, with melting snows and rains feeding the lake, a ranger noticed an old hayrack that had been floating on the lake for two years suddenly floating down the river.

He realized the dam was weakening and water was topping it. He rode to Kelly to warn people to get out.

Dawn Kent said her father, who was 14 at the time, was in school. Her grandfather ran to the school and told all the students to go home.

Her grandfather instructed her dad to go home and let the horses out, but not to take any time collecting tack and just to head to high ground.

Her mother, who lived on a ranch north of town, was 7 years old at the time and witnessed the wall of water descend when the dam broke. Kent’s grandmother in her account of the flood wrote that the Gros Ventre River had become muddy and swollen.

“Sometime in the forenoon, the dam gave way and by 11:30 the town of Kelly was washed away,” Anne Kent recorded. “The residents had realized that a large amount of water was coming and most of them left for high ground.

“One family of three was caught and drowned, also three others who lived on the river below the town.”

Kent’s grandmother estimated that 75 buildings were washed away along with all the possessions and materials inside them, including bedsteads, kitchen ranges, ice boxes and two safes.

“A marriage certificate, Mr. Kent’s and mine, was afterwards found covered with mud,” Anne Kent wrote. “Several pieces of thin cut glass, a wedding gift to one couple, was later found with not a nick or a scratch.”

Flood waters went all the way to Wilson and ranch land, cattle and buildings along the river between Kelly and the junction of the Gros Ventre and Snake rivers were destroyed.

The destruction was estimated to be 3 miles as its widest point.

The Star Valley Independent newspaper in Afton, Wyoming reported on the loss of lives and property in Kelly, Wyoming in its may 20, 1927 edition. Although the headline proclaims seven deaths, only six people died in the flood. (Newspapers.com)
Jackson’s Hole Courier newspaper carried the Sheep Mountain slide on its front page in the June 25, 1925, edition. (Courtesy Newspapers.com)
Jackson’s Hole Courier had the story of the Kelly flood the next day on its front page. (Courtesy Newspapers.com)

Casualties

In Kelly, the Kneedy family — Henry Milt Kneedy, his wife, and adopted son, Joe — died as did a pioneer schoolteacher, Maud Smith, and her sister, May Lovejoy.

Rancher Clint Stevens tried to ride a hayrack through the surging waters and drowned.

Many in the estimated 50-member community narrowly escaped death. The Jackson’s Hole Courier reported that Charles Rhinehart pulled himself to safety through a grove of aspen, that a Mrs. Almy and an unidentified man pulled themselves out of the surging water just below Kelly, and Chester Simpson lost his car in the flood as he was trying to start it.

“Henry Francis (carried) him to safety behind his saddle,” the newspaper reported May 19, 1927.

Only the Episcopal Church, its parsonage and the school were left standing in Kelly. Overall, an estimated 40 families in the region were displaced.

Dawn Kent said her grandparents moved the store and the post office to the church building. And the store continued to be operated by her family until 1971 when the building burned.

As a girl working at the family store in the 1960s, she said people would ask about the flood, and the family became adept at repeating the story for tourists and others.

One story from the flood is that a woman when she evacuated town right before the flood to higher ground took her wind-up victrola player and one record. The record was the “Wreck of Old ’97.”

“And so, they sat up there on the bench and listened to the ‘Wreck of Old ’97,’” Kent said.

In the years following the flood, debris that had sunk in the mud would surface.

Kent said as a girl she saw rusted cars along the river she assumes were from the flood. Old bottles, tin cans and other rusted debris once buried and sticking out of the ground in the river region were always suspected as remnants from the disaster.

A Safe

In 1999, fisherman Ernie Wampler Sr. saw a piece of metal poking out of the riverbank while fishing in late November.

Upon investigation, it turned out to be a safe. The safe was dug out and taken to the Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum for a public opening.

“Artifacts from inside the safe include a silver pocket watch, a pair of eyeglasses, a glass jar, many coins and tokens dating from 1920 and earlier, leather pouches, purses and wallets, wads of paper embedded in mud and other items,” the Jackson Hole News reported Dec. 8, 1999.

It was determined to have belonged to the Kneedy family.

Each year, Kent said Kelly residents gather in May to remember the flood and share photos and interesting articles. They just wrapped up their annual meeting earlier this month.

On June 7, Kent said that as part of National Trails Day, a commemoration of the 1925 slide is planned by the Friends of the Bridger-Teton nonprofit. The group is planning work at the Gros Ventre Slide Geological Area to rehab trails and pull invasive species plants from 9 a.m. to noon. A special commemoration of the slide with speakers is planned.

Kent said the slide and flood are important to remember for history’s sake as well as how it changed the landscape of the area and impacted so many lives.

Shaking continues in the region from time to time and other minor slides have happened over the years.

But Ken said she continues to watch for the piece of history that can be traced back to the post office her grandfather oversaw.

“I’ve always had my eyes open, hoping that someday I might find that other safe,” Kent said. “But of course I never have … but it still could happen. Everyone was surprised when Ernie found the other one.”

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.

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Wyoming

Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Gary Fralick retires after nearly four decades of service

Published

7 hours ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Gary Fralick retires after nearly four decades of service

JACKSON, Wyo. — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department recently announced that, after nearly 40 years of service, South Jackson Wildlife Biologist Gary Fralick is retiring.

A release from the game and fish department states that Fralick began his career in 1986 as a biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, after serving in the Air Force and earning a degree in wildlife biology from the University of Montana.

Before working with the game and fish department, Fralick held a number of biologist positions with the U.S. Forest Service, Montana Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and the Bureau of Land Management.

He started with the game and fish department as a biologist aide in the Green River region, and would later become a project biologist in Cheyenne. In 1990, Fralick moved to Buffalo to serve as the district’s wildlife biologist. Three years later, in 1993, he moved into his long-term position as the South Jackson wildlife biologist.

“My career has been filled with adventure, accomplishments, goodwill, and above all, an invincible curiosity,” Fralick said. “It has been an immense pleasure and privilege being an integral part of this agency and serving the people of Wyoming, and one that I continually marvel at to this day.”

In his role as the South Jackson wildlife biologist, Fralick was instrumental in research and management of wildlife in the district. He was highly regarded for his management of the Wyoming Range Mule Deer Herd, one of North America’s most iconic mule deer herds. The release notes that he played a vital role in developing the Wyoming Range Mule Deer Initiative, and he started the largest research project ever conducted on mule deer in Wyoming.

He also spearheaded unprecedented mountain goat research in the Snake River Range, as well as moose research in the Hoback River Basin.

“Having worked with Gary for over 30 years, I can truly attest that he captures the essence of a field biologist,” said Brad Hovinga, Game and Fish wildlife supervisor in the Jackson Region. “Gary dedicated himself to knowing the habitat, the wildlife, and the people in his biologist district, and has an incredible grasp on wildlife management issues in the Wyoming Range. Those who worked with Gary are better managers because of his willingness to share his knowledge.”

Additionally, Fralick made extensive efforts in public outreach, most notably through the Greys River check station, which he operated every fall since 1993. At the check station, Fralick collected an impressive dataset, resulting in a historical photo record chronicling three decades of hunter-harvested mule deer antler characteristics from the Wyoming Range Herd.

Another significant highlight from Fralick’s career was his involvement on a committee of wildlife biologists from 1989-1990, which documented the history and current status of private ownership of native and exotic wildlife across each state and province in North America. The committee’s findings would lead the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to make a landmark decision in 1990, which prohibited the private ownership of big and trophy game animals in Wyoming, as well as the importation of exotic or nonnative wildlife into the state. This precedent remains in effect today.

Fralick also received numerous job honors, including the Wildlife Society’s Wildlife Professional of the Year recognition as Game and Fish’s Wildlife Division Employee of the Year in 2015.

“Gary’s dedication to rigorous data collection and his innovative, hands-on approach to public engagement made him a trusted expert and an invaluable asset to the department and the public,” said Cheyenne Stewart, Game and Fish wildlife management coordinator in the Jackson Region. “He leaves a lasting legacy, giving the department a strong foundation to carry his work forward.”

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Wyoming

Budget hearings day 15: UW curriculum takes center stage

Published

19 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Budget hearings day 15: UW curriculum takes center stage

Lawmakers grilled University of Wyoming (UW) leaders about environmental and gender studies course offerings in Cheyenne on Friday.

The Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) is in the midst of hammering out the draft budget bill that the full Legislature will amend and approve during the upcoming budget session in February. The biennial budget will decide how much each state agency, including UW, receives for the next two years.

UW officials already testified before the committee in December, requesting additional funds for coal research, athletics and other projects. They were “called back” for further questions Friday.

Representatives John Bear (R-Gillette), Ken Pendergraft (R-Sheridan) and Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland), all members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, launched immediately into a discussion of UW’s course offerings.

“It’s just come to my attention there’s quite a bit of stuff out there that may be in conflict with what the people of Wyoming think the university would be training our young people towards,” Bear said, before turning over to Pendergraft.

The Sheridan rep proceeded to list several elective courses offered through UW’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.

“I thought perhaps I would seek an undergraduate minor in sustainability,” Pendergraft said. “And if I were to do so … I would have my choice of the following: ‘Social Justice in the 21st Century,’ ‘Environmental ethics,’ ‘Global Justice,’ ‘Environmental Justice,’ ‘Environmental Sociology,’ ‘Food, Health and Justice,’ ‘Diversity and Justice in Natural Resources,’ or perhaps my favorite: ‘Ecofeminism.’ After I got through with that, I would be treated to such other courses as ‘Global Climate Governance’ and ‘Diversity and Justice in Natural Resources.’”

“I’m just wondering why these courses aren’t offered in Gillette,” he said.

Haub School Associate Dean Temple Stoellinger said at least one of those courses had already been canceled — “Diversity and Justice in Natural Resources,” which Pendergraft listed twice in his comment. She added students seeking a degree through the Haub School often pursue a concurrent major in another college.

“The remainder of the courses [you listed] are actually not Haub School courses,” Stoellinger said. “Those are courses that we just give students the option to take to fulfill the elective components of the minor.”

Bear responded.

“Unfortunately, what you’ve just described is something that is metastasizing, it sounds like, across the university,” he said. “So, President [Ed] Seidel, if you could just help me understand, is this really a direction that the university should be going?”

Seidel pointed to the Haub School’s efforts to support Wyoming tourism and other industries as evidence that it seeks to serve the state.

“I believe that the Haub School is a very strong component of the university, and I believe it is also responding to the times,” Seidel said. “But they’re always looking to improve their curriculum and to figure out how to best serve the state, and I believe they do a good job of that.”

Bear returned to one of the courses Pendergraft had listed.

“How is ecofeminism helpful for a student who wants to stay in Wyoming and work in Wyoming?” he asked Seidel.

“I do not have an answer to that question,” the university president replied.

Stoellinger shared that the Haub School is largely funded by private donors, with about 20% or less of its funding, about $1.4 million, coming from the state.

Haroldson took aim at separate course offerings. Rather than listing specific courses, the Wheatland rep pointed to gender studies in general, saying his constituents “have kids that go to the university and then get degrees that don’t work” and “don’t have validity.”

Jeff Victor

The Laramie Reporter

University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel delivers the state of the university address Sept. 17 in the student union.

“It’s hard to defend you guys when we see these things come up, because these are the things that we’ve been fighting over the last couple of years,” Haroldson said. “[We’ve been] saying this isn’t the direction that our publicly funded land-grant college should be pursuing, in my opinion and in the opinion of the people that have elected me, or a majority of them.”

He questioned how a graduate could make a career in Wyoming with a gender studies degree and asked Seidel why these courses were still being offered.

Seidel said the university was committed to keeping young people in Wyoming and that he viewed that mission as his primary job.

“And then we’ve also been restructuring programs,” he said. “Last year, the gender studies program was restructured. It’s no longer offered as a minor. There were not very many students in it at the time, and that was one of the reasons why … It’s been part of the reform of the curriculum to re-look at: What does the state need and how do we best serve the state?”

UW canceled its gender studies bachelor’s degree track in 2025, citing low enrollment as the trigger. Gender studies courses are still offered and students may apply them toward an American Studies degree.

Seidel said the webpage where Haroldson found the gender studies degree listed might need to be updated. Haroldson said the state “sends enough money” to UW that having an out-of-date webpage was “absolutely unacceptable.”

“I would recommend and challenge you, when I make this search on Monday, I don’t find it,” Haroldson said.

Interim Provost Anne Alexander clarified later in the hearing that the degree was still listed because, even though it’s been canceled, it is still being “taught out.” That means students who were already enrolled in the program when UW decided to ax it are being allowed to wrap up their degree.

“Once they are done, those will also no longer show up,” Alexander said. “But I’ve been chatting with my team on my phone, listening intently, and they are going to ensure that the program does not show up on the website as an option by Monday.”

In addition to the questions about course offerings, lawmakers also asked UW about its plans for an independent third-party financial audit of the work conducted at the High Bay Research Facility, the funding that passes through UW to Wyoming Public Media and how university leaders approach picking contractors for large construction projects, like the parking garage between Ivinson and Grand Avenues.

Mike Smith, the university’s lobbyist, told the committee UW prioritizes Wyoming contractors when possible.

“But there are those situations, and maybe the parking garage was one of them, where as the architects and builders are looking at: How do we set the criteria for that balance between using as many of those dollars here with Wyoming contractors, versus ensuring that the state gets its bang for the buck with the highest quality and lowest price,” Smith said. “Sometimes those things are balanced out.”

The JAC will begin work on the budget bill next week, deciding what funding to endorse or reject for every agency in the state government. The budget session starts Feb. 9.

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Wyoming

A former potential TikTok buyer is now running for Wyoming’s House seat

Published

1 day ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

A former potential TikTok buyer is now running for Wyoming’s House seat

Wyoming businessman Reid Rasner formally launched a bid for Congress this week. It’s his second bid for public office.

Rasner, a fourth-generation Wyoming native and Omnivest Financial CEO, previously wanted to buy TikTok when it was up for sale and to bring the headquarters to the Mountain West.

“I’m a Wyoming businessman. I’m not a career politician,” Rasner said in an interview with the Deseret News. “Why I’m running is because Washington wastes money, drives up costs for families and businesses, and Wyoming truly deserves representation that knows how to cut waste and grow an economy.”

Rasner is set to face off against Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray in the Republican primary.

Current Rep. Harriet Hageman announced she run for the Senate with hopes of replacing Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who is retiring.

President Donald Trump gave Hageman his “Complete and Total Endorsement,” something Rasner is also looking to earn, calling himself a “100% Trump Conservative Republican.”

Asked how he feels competing against someone already holding a statewide position like Gray, Rasner said the race isn’t about “politics or personality,” but rather about results. He highlighted his long history of being a successful businessman based out of Wyoming, beginning when he bought his first company at 18 years old.

Rasner put forward a hefty bid to buy TikTok when it was up for sale, as it was required by U.S. law for ByteDance to divest from the popular social media app. After months of delay, and Trump extending the deadline several times, Rasner said he knew the chances of being the app’s owner were dwindling.

“When we realized that TikTok was unwilling to sell the algorithm, we knew that we just couldn’t make a deal, because that’s what the bulk of our bid was … preserving the algorithm for American sovereignty,” he said.

With that tech opportunity for Wyoming gone, Rasner said he hopes to be elected to Congress as the state’s lone member of the House to bring a different kind of economic change to the state.

“Wyoming needs a do-er, not another politician, and someone that knows how to run and operate businesses and budgets and can actually get this done and make life more affordable for Wyoming, and deregulate industries, bringing in really good businesses and business opportunities in Wyoming, like TikTok, like our nuclear opportunities that we have recently lost in Wyoming,” he said. “I want to create a fourth legacy industry in the state revolving around finance and technology and I think this is so important to stabilize our economy.”

Rasner put $1 million of his own money toward his campaign, and now, he said, outside donations are coming in.

It’s his second political campaign, after previously challenging Sen. John Barrasso in the 2024 Republican primary. He said this time around, he’s hired FP1 Strategies and a “solid team.” He has a campaign that is “fully funded” and he is going to continue to fundraise, Rasner said.

Rasner shared that if elected he’d be enthusiastic about being on the energy, agriculture and finance committees in the House. They are some of the strongest committees for Wyoming, he said.

“I’m running to take Wyoming business sense to Washington, D.C., and make Wyoming affordable again, and make Wyoming wealthy,” he said. “It’s so important that we get business leadership and someone who knows what they’re doing outside of politics in the real world to deliver that message in Washington.”

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