The Trading Post at Valley View

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ISLAND PARK — Dennis Kennedy, a longtime Island Park resident, has sparked interest in local history by hosting an Island Park history trivia competition on his Facebook page.

In the first week of April 2010, Kennedy asked if anyone knew what type of business a woman named Gladys Jones operated. After getting no correct replies, he dropped a hint or two and in a few days time, revealed what he knew. Gladys operated a zoo and gift shop in the Valley View area.

The Island Park News did a little more research. We consulted Idaho’s Gateway to Yellowstone: The Island Park Story by Dean H. Green and James L. Allison. We contacted Jane Daniels, a former Island Park archivist, longtime local historian, Ashton Archives founder, and Idaho State Historical Society Esto Perpetua Award recepient.

Below please read the result. This is all open to correction and additions. All the property acquisitions should be confirmed in Fremont County records. Any volunteers? Please e-mail us with all new information and any photos you may have.

Justin and Georgia McGinn homesteaded the Valley View Ranch and ran it as a cattle ranch and a restaurant stop for hungry tourists. In 1934, Mr. McGinn killed his wife and then himself. Their son, Keith, was left with the responsibility of running the ranch and paying off his parent’s debts. He struggled to maintain the ranch and business, but was hurt by the great Depression and relinquished his holdings in 1937 to Ezra Hansen.

Keith then worked as a woodcutter on private contracts and also worked for the Forest Service. His wife worked at the Mack’s Inn Post Office. They moved to Oregon in 1950.

Then, the bank holding the paper on the ranch sold it to Howard and Lucy Young. They operated the business until 1943, offering the same services as their predecessors.

During this time, the Youngs witnessed the installation and demolition of the military installation established to train ski troops in 1941. Preston Young, Howard and Lucy’s son, is quoted in Dean Green and James Allison’s Island Park history book as saying: “My folks attempted to purchase the newly built facilities when hearing the project was to be halted. To their great disappointment and chagrin, the government refused their offer, for no apparent reason, and instead sent in a large tractor to demolish the newly installed buildings. Now wouldn’t that grab ya!”

The Youngs left Valley View in 1943 and there is a gap in knowledge about what happened at Valley View until 1953, when Sam and Gladys Jones came to Island Park. Gladys Jones’ was Bill Howell’s aunt.

In summer, the Joneses operated a zoo and a gift store on the property, the Trading Post, on Jones Drive, close to where Henry's Lake Station is located. It burned down around 1951, and was rebuilt a couple years later. Sam Jones died during this period.

This business was there before the store, laundry,and campground were built. It was the only building there for a long time. The building was converted into a cafe when Bill Howell started a truck stop on the location after purchasing it, with partners, in 1960.

Bill Howell and partners used the zoo building for a new restaurant. They built a little log building close to the restaurant for the the office for the truck stop. Bill Howell bought his partners out a couple years later, then built a new building for a truck stop in 1964.

They dragged the cafe to a location north of the truck stop and opened it again with Aunt Gladys running a gift shop, which was a gift shop until about 1968, the year Aunt Gladys moved to California.

In 1974 Bill Howell sold the property — known as the Valley View Truck Stop — to Tom and Pat Savage, the same year that Bill began construction on the new, store, laundromat, and R.V Park — now known as Valley View RV Park.

Bill Howell was one of Dennis Kennedy's brother-in-laws. Dennis worked at the truck stop from 1966 to 1972.

Open 24/7 in the 1970’s, the truck stop was a favorite place for West Yellowstone people to enjoy breakfast after they partied in the bars all night. That’s when the restaurant was on the ground level.

In 1991, Elizabeth Laden, a Henry’s Lake resident at the time, who later founded the Island Park News, worked as as part-time cook for Pat and Tom Savage, to help out when their main cook, René Justice, had surgery.

“Just about every customer was a regular,” she said. They were from Island Park, of course, but also from all over the U. S. Once a trucker finds god eats, he passes the info on to other truckers. They liked the pies, the soup, and the specials. I loved talking to the customers!”

In 1996, Greg Coriell purchased the Valley View Truck Stop and moved to Island Park with his son, Brian. He remodeled and re-opened the business as Henry's Lake Station. It was a great position for him because he loved fishing, and Henry’s Lake was nearby to enjoy. He made the business a friendly place where people could stop by and brag about their big fish and get some advice on how to catch a lunker. One winter, he hosted a “Guess When the Snow Will Melt Contest.” People guessed the date and time a huge snowpile at the station would finally disappear.

He sold the business to Wendell Winegear in 2005. Greg died in 2009.

Paul Katchatoruian, from Iran, and his wife, Sally Katchatourian, from South Dakota, and another couple, from Ucon, purchased the Valley View RV Park, and the next owners were a couple from Colorado, Frank and Julie Tree. Sally ended up having to take it over for a short time, and then sold it to Wendell Vinegar. That’s the short version, The business was in receivership and a Small Business Association loan made the finances complicated, but today it is doing well under Winegear’s management.

This is part of the online edition of Henry's Fork Country.

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