Given its prominence, it's not surprising that people tend to think that Grand Teton is the highest peak in Wyoming – it's not, that distinction belongs to Gannett Peak, a remote and visually undistinguished peak deep in the Wind River mountains. Since Grand Teton is so well-known, distinctive, and easy to get to, it's a much more popular target for climbing.

(What follows is entirely cribbed from the two sources listed at the end.)

Who first climbed Grand Teton? It turns out that there isn't a simple answer to that question. The first attempt that anybody bothered claiming occurred in 1872, when the Hayden Survey travelled up the Snake River to its headwaters, and N. P. Langford (quoted below) and James Stevenson left their companions behind and returned many hours later, saying they had summited Grand Teton.

They also reported a structure that has come to be known as "The Enclosure". Located on the summit of a side peak (13,280 ft.), it consists of "granite slabs ... placed on end, forming a breastwork about three feet high, enclosing a space six or seven feet in diameter; and while on the surrounding rocks there is not a particle of dust or sand, the bottom of the enclosure is covered with a bed of minute particles of granite not larger than the grains of common sand, that the elements have worn off from these vertical blocks until it is nearly a foot in depth. This attrition must have been going on for hundreds and, perhaps, thousands of years, and it is the opinion of Mr. Langford that centuries have elapsed since the granite slabs were placed in the position in which they were found." ^[1]

Not much more is known about the Enclosure now than when it was first found; it is presumed to be a vision quest site, though there are apparently no records of any of the tribes in the region using it. Whether any Indians ever climbed the 600 feet up from the saddle to the true peak is also unknown.

Interestingly enough, Langford's wording of this find casts doubt on their claim to have climbed to the highest point. The beginning of the bit quoted above is "The top of the Teton, and for 300 feet below, is composed entirely of blocks of granite, piled up promiscuously, and weighing from 20 to 500 pounds. On the apex these granite slabs have been placed on end..." but the Enclosure is not the top, not at all. Langford and Stevenson had no photographic equipment with them, so they had no real evidence that they ever proceeded beyond the Enclosure.

Despite that, Langford and Stevenson's claim was accepted for decades, until William Owen, a state employee, spent many summers trying and failing to reach the summit. In so doing, he became convinced that there was no way that Langford and Stevenson could have reached it either, not without more climbing equipment than they had with them. Eventually, he teamed up with Franklin Spaulding, and on another attempt in 1898 the two of them "began probing the band of cliffs blocking access to the summit several hundred feet above. Spalding found a narrow ledge dangling over a 3,000-foot precipice just wide enough for a person to wiggle and squeeze along on his stomach. The thin ledge led to a vertical chimney that took him above the cliffs. He could have walked on up to the top, but later said, "I did not wish to go ahead of my party, and so I climbed back down the chimney and hallooed to Owen to come.""^[2] Above the cliffs it was easy, and Owens and Spaulding reached the summit quickly. They found no evidence of a prior ascent: "Not a stone was turned over, no cairn or monument erected, nor could we find any bottle or can of any description containing the customary record of ascent".

Owens was a bit of a hothead, and immediately began denouncing Langford and Stevenson as liars to anyone who would listen. Stevenson had died in the intervening years, but Langford was in no mood to put up with Owens' charges.

Things got nasty quickly; lawyers got involved, affidavits were presented, the affidavits proved to be forgeries, damning documents were hidden, allegations of bribery tossed about. Spaulding, with perhaps a wee bit more pride and condescension than you might expect from an Episcopalian minister, wrote a plague-on-both-your-houses letter to Langford: "I think if you will permit me to say so, you are at fault, as is Mr. Owen, in exaggerating the difficulties of the ascent. If you did not reach the top when you started out to do so, you are a mighty poor mountain climber in my humble judgement; and I cannot understand why Mr. Owen failed so many times before he succeeded."^[2]

Eventually, Owen persuaded the Wyoming state legislature to pass a resolution declaring that his party was the first to climb the mountain, and in 1929, a bronze commemorative plaque so stating was bolted to the summit.

Sometime in 1977, it was stolen, and hasn't been seen since.

The Enclosure is atop the bump just to the right of the main peak of Grand Teton. (I think).

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