One-square-mile of land owned by the state of Wyoming was acquired for Grand Teton National Park on Monday/NPs

The sale of 640 acres within Grand Teton National Park from the state of Wyoming to the Interior Department was finalized Monday, ensuring permanent protection for the parcel that is key for migratory wildlife and erasing concerns that the property might have been sold for development.

The one-square-mile tract was state school trust land, land intended to generate revenue for Wyoming's Common School Permanent Fund. The purchase price — $100 million — will go into that fund. In return, the permanent conservation of the land maintains essential connectivity for wildlife in the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—one of the last remaining, nearly intact temperate ecosystems on the planet.

Grand Teton National Park anchors this unique landscape, connecting Yellowstone National Park with the Bridger-Teton and Caribou-Targhee national forests, including the Upper Green River Valley and the Wind River, Gros Ventre, and Wyoming Range mountains. The parcel is the starting point for the Path of the Pronghorn—the longest land migration in the lower 48 states—and is a critical link to mule deer migration corridors that stretch to public, private and tribal lands hundreds of miles away.   

“Today marks an incredible milestone, decades in the making, to permanently protect an essential wildlife migration corridor and treasured landscape within Grand Teton National Park,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. “This will benefit our public lands and Wyoming’s public school students for generations to come.”

In 2023, more than 10,000 people from across Wyoming and the United States participated in a public comment process related to the potential sale of the Kelly parcel, overwhelmingly supporting its conservation for wildlife, public enjoyment, and strengthening Wyoming’s economy. While the federal government provided $62.4 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund towards the purchase, the Grand Teton National Park Foundation raised $37.6 million to complete the deal.

"Thank you to the Grand Teton National Park Foundation for their extraordinary support in this huge conservation achievement,” Grand Teton Superintendent Chip Jenkins said. "We simply would not be here today without them and the thousands of people who raised their voice in support of conserving this important part of the park."

The closing on the Kelly parcel completes an effort that spanned decades to exchange, trade, or sell the state-owned school trust land within Grand Teton. A Wyoming constitutional mandate requires that school trust lands, created at statehood in 1890, must generate income for the common school trust. Since the late 1990s, Wyoming’s congressional delegation, governor, and state legislature have worked to resolve this inholding challenge.

The late U.S. Senator Craig Thomas, R-Wyoming, passed legislation in 2003 to authorize exchanges, sales, or trades that would compensate Wyoming for the Grand Teton school section inholdings. The second to last school section in the park, known as Antelope Flats, was purchased by the National Park Service in 2016 for $46 million, which was made possible by $23 million in philanthropic support raised by Grand Teton National Park Foundation and the National Park Foundation that matched $23 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

“We are so proud to have helped enable this incredible achievement for the American people, Grand Teton National Park, and the state of Wyoming,” Grand Teton National Park Foundation President Leslie Mattson said of the Kelly parcel's acquisition. “We are in awe of the incredible generosity of hundreds of people who stepped forward to protect this essential parcel while supporting public education in Wyoming.”