Imagine slipping out your door with your fly rod to access two private miles of the blue-ribbon Snake River complete with a walking, biking and cross-country ski trail along the river. Or heading into a canyon on a hiking trail in Grand Teton National Park less than 10 minutes after leaving your home. Or riding the famous tram at the number one ski area in the U.S., according to Forbes, only 5 minutes from home.

John Dodge is so well-planned, most homes are impossible to see from the Moose-Wilson Road. Driving into your neighborhood feels more like driving into a cottonwood grove along the Snake River. You’ll enjoy intensive privacy and a sense of refreshing rurality despite being only 15 minutes from the town of Jackson and around the corner from the Aspens with its shopping and commercial center.

And the lots are large enough to ensure your views of the Teton Range, the Snake River, protected pasturelands, the Sleeping Indian (Sheep Mountain) and/or Rendezvous Mountain always remain the same.

You’ll be thrilled with this subdivision that gives you a country retreat in the heart of a caring and colorful mountain community.

History of John Dodge subdivision

The John Dodge subdivision gets its name from a man who homesteaded more than 800 acres in 1902 and christened it the “Wilderness Acres.” Dodge’s family actually paid the eccentric man to stay out West after he suffered a nervous breakdown while attending Harvard.

In Jackson Hole, he earned a colorful reputation for acts as varied as bathing outside using a bucket of well water in wintry conditions and paying local kids to hunt squirrels to feed his adopted coyote pups.

Dodge’s nephew, Hunter Scott, inherited the land in the 1960s. Scott, a California advertising executive, left Fresno every year to spend August living in an old trailer on Wilderness Ranch with his wife.

Other potential heirs clamored for the property, so it wasn’t until 1977 that Hunter had a clear title. Soon after, developer Bland Hoke convinced him to start giving up the land despite Scott not even wanting to broach the subject.

When Hoke finally got his foot in the door, Scott finally admitted it was “stupid” to have so much land and started selling it off in roughly 36-acre portions — he would never sell more acreage at once.

Hoke had been selling condos in the Aspens, and realized that people wanted more land. And he recognized such open space just around the corner.

With the first acreage, Hoke parceled it into 6-acre lots to appeal to those who wanted the location of the Aspens with a good chunk of land.

Through 1994, development continued in rolling 36-acre subdivisions known as John Dodge I through John Dodge VII, while other developers built up Homestead I and Homestead II subdivisions nextdoor.

Hoke and Scott never had anything more than a verbal agreement that Hoke would be the man Scott sold to whenever he was willing to part with more of his precious land along the Snake River.

The subdivisions became the first large-lot neighborhood intended for the elite on the West bank of the Snake River.

As such, developers used planning tools like prohibition of fencing to encourage the sense of vast open space the neighborhood is now known for. They also used “building envelopes” to make sure homes and other structures remained in one segment of a lot to keep maximal privacy and views for all lot owners.

Homeowners are each given a highly desirable riverfront easement access license to exclusively use the dike system along two miles of the river’s banks for walking, cross-country skiing and fishing.

Contact JH Property group now for more info on John Dodge properties.