From the Jackson Hole Historical Society website:
In 1912, the Andy Chambers homestead was the last land claim filed on Mormon Row. Chambers was granted title to his land in 1917 after building a log cabin and stable. He cultivated 20 acres of land and had laid out the logs for a 2-story, four-room home. Because this homestead was the last to be built in the community of Grovont (“Gros Ventre” was determined too hard to spell by the U.S. Postal Service) it is Mormon Row’s best preserved example of a working ranch. Only a portion of the original buildings remain on the other four homesteads that are still visible today.
Mormon Row is an excellent example of the linear villages established by the Mormons in the West. According to their church, villages were to be orderly and built from “permanent” materials such as stone and brick. In Jackson Hole there were several allowances made to these rules, as availability of materials and tools limited the type of construction that could be done. All original homestead cabins were simple logs with sod roofs and packed dirt floors. When the family could afford to construct a larger house, the old cabin was dismantled and the wood was used for a variety of other purposes. Some of it was used for fuel to heat the church and school, some became fencing and some was incorporated into the new house. Nothing was wasted.
