This beautiful valley was named after the nineteenth-century explorer and hunter David

Jackson. After he spent a winter in the area, his friends started to call it "Jackson's Hole."

The valley looks like a hole in the middle of the mountains that surround it. Over time, the name stuck.

Jackson Hole is about forty-eight kilometers long. The valley includes the town of
Jackson. About eight thousand people live there. The valley also includes the Grand Teton National Park and much of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
Jackson Hole is a popular holiday place. In the summer, people go there to ride horses, climb mountains, catch fish and take trips on the rivers and lakes.
Many visitors take a trip across the valley on the Snake River. The
Snake Indians once lived near this river. It turns from side to side, Bridger-Teton National like a snake on the move.
Some visitors bird-watch from sailboats. One of the birds they cansee is America's national symbol, the bald eagle. Other people go white-water rafting. Rubber rafts carry them along the fastest parts of the river. The water moves so fast, it becomes white with foam.

In the winter, people come to Jackson Hole to ski. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort provides some of the best downhill skiing and snowboarding in the world.
And there are other kinds of skiing. Some people skate ski; they speed across level snow. Others enjoy the slower speed of crosscountry skiing.
Some people go dog sledding in Jackson Hole. They get on a sled and are pulled by a team of dogs through the snow. This is one of the many ways to enjoy the extraordinary mountain views.
Some wealthy people have homes near the ski resort. Other people stay in the many hotels nearby. Some of these hotels arenew and very costly.
In fact, the average sale price of a single-family home in Jackson Hole is more than one million dollars.
Visitors to Jackson Hole have many shopping, dining and entertainment choices.
People can imagine they are in a town in the Old West. At the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, instead of chairs, they can sit on saddles as if riding a horse. On some nights there are dance lessons. People can learn the two-step, a kind of Western dance.
Or they can eat dinner and listen to live music at the Mangy Moose Saloon. There, a large dead moose hangs from the ceiling.
At the Silver Dollar Bar, a long table is covered with more than two thousand shiny silver dollars. If you look carefully, you see that the coins are all from the year nineteen twenty-one.

Visitors can also enjoy an evening at the Jackson Hole Playhouse. In the summer, actors perform musicals and other plays. This brightly painted old theater is one of the oldest wood buildings in town. It has been a popular entertainment place since the nineteen fifties.

Some of the stores in Jackson Hole sell unusual things, like furniture made of deer antlers. Antlers are the hard and bony points that grow on the heads of male deer. These stores sell chairs, lights and other objects made from antlers. They look more like pointy sculptures than furniture.
Many stores in Jackson Hole sell winter sports equipment and clothing. Some sell cowboy clothing. C.J. James owns the Jackson Hole Hat Company. Her Web site describes the cowboy as a "symbol of American independence and strength."
She will sell you a cowboy hat made to fit the exact size of your head. There are many shapes, colors and materials to choose from.