The Wort Hotel

The Wort Hotel was built in 1941, and was the dream of the late Charles Wort. Wort homesteaded in Jackson Hole in the 1890s and dreamed of building a luxury hotel. He became one of the premiere outfitters, and ran a successful livery stable and automobile garage. The enterprising Wort also purchased the Ole Warner Camp on Jackson Lake and remodeled it into an outfitting resort (today known as Signal Mountain Lodge). After family tragedy struck, Charles’ sons John and Jess took up the Wort mantle and built their father’s dream hotel. They personally quarried and laid the foundation stones, and established luxury accommodations in Jackson Hole.

Charles Wort arrived in Jackson Hole in 1893 to visit his brother Hamilton and his half-brother Stephen Leek. He liked the area so much, he filed for his own homestead patent nearby in South Park. He began the work to prove up on the land, and in 1899 returned to Nebraska to marry his childhood sweetheart Luella Perkins. They returned to the ranch in Jackson Hole, and had their first son John in 1900. They had two more sons; Jess in 1903 and Russell in 1911. Their original log cabin still stands on the corner of South Park Loop Road. The sons helped their father on the ranch and eventually with his guiding and outfitting business. 

Charles Wort purchased 4 lots in the newly platted Town of Jackson from Maggie Simpson and Grace Miller in 1915. He built a livery stable, but had dreams of eventually using the land to build a luxury hotel. The dude ranching business had only just started, and tourism was just a trickle and mostly traffic headed north into Yellowstone. Neighbors thought Wort should stick to his livery stable, and that Jackson Hole wasn’t meant for luxury accommodations. The livery stable business was successful, and the family had a steady stream of business. They purchased land nearby and opened the Wort Garage to repair and sell automobiles. These two businesses provided the funds to pursue their outfitting business. Charles Wort had become known as one of the premier guides in the area, and he was training his two oldest sons to participate and run the business. They acquired a concession permit to operate from Jenny Lake, and it quickly became one of the most popular tourist destinations in the valley. This popularity continues today. 

While the dude ranches flourished and experienced a golden age in the 1920s, the Wort family was experiencing a similar level of success. This allowed them to expanding their outfitting business into a full-fledged resort on the shore of Jackson Lake. They closed the stable and later garage in Jackson, and opened The Wort Lodge and Camp in 1932. Tragically, their youngest son Russell died suddenly from acute appendicitis shortly after the Camp opened. The family never quite recovered, and Charles experienced a long illness that took his life only a year later. His sons John and Jess decided to carry their father’s vision forward, and remodeled the Wort Lodge and Camp into the Wort Lodge Resort, one of the first pre-eminent resorts in Jackson Hole. In 1940 they sold it, and turned their sights to the property in the town of Jackson where the old livery stable stood. The Wort Lodge Resort is known today as the Signal Mountain Lodge.

In Jackson, they tore down the livery stable and began construction on a luxury hotel on the original 4 lots purchased in 1915. The brothers quarried the foundation stones themselves in the Gros Ventre. They put in as much, if not more, work than the carpenters, and hauled supplies themselves from as far away as Denver. Lorenzo “Ren” Grimmett was selected as the architect, and the distinctive Tudor style was part of the Wort brothers’ vision. A year later in the summer of 1941 the Wort Hotel opened to great success and celebration within the community. Jackson Hole was now an established tourist destination, and Charles Wort’s early vision for the area had come to fruition. Grimmitt worked closely with the Wort family, and designed and built a few of their residences in town. Shortly after the Hotel was completed and opened, World War II put a shortage on supplies and men. Most of the dude ranches in the valley shuttered due to the shortages, and the Wort brothers wondered if they’d survive. Thankfully being one of the few options for an overnight stay worked in their favor, and the Hotel remained busy and full during the war years.

In 1950, Lorenzo Grimmitt was back at the Wort designing the new Silver Dollar Bar addition to the building. The bar area was combined with the adjacent café area, which had been operated by Jack Moore. Moore had previously run Moore’s Café out of the nearby Cowboy Bar. When the Cowboy expanded into the café space, Moore moved to the newly opened Wort Hotel. Much like the Cowboy, the Wort quickly became the other local watering hole and offered gambling. The two properties became known as the premiere locations in town for tourists to elbow up to the bar next to the real-life cowboy residents. Gambling thrived at the Wort much as it had at the Cowboy Bar, and both were forced to adopt increased levels of secrecy with their illegal operations. Eventually in the 1950s the town’s worst-kept secret faded for good, and gambling slowly ceased.

The newly finished Wort Hotel also became home to several civic and community organizations to hold meetings and events. This practice continues today. The Wort brothers made sure the event spaces were available for free for the locals. When Hollywood came into town to film a series of movies in the 1950s, the new luxury hotel was the perfect spot to house famous actors like Alan Ladd. Though Ladd was later moved into the more private Dr. Huff house because fans kept knocking on his door at the Wort at all hours.

Finally in 1960 the Wort brothers were ready to retire, and they sold the hotel to a group of investors from Nebraska. The hotel was briefly renamed the Wort Motor Hotel. In August of 1980 the Wort suffered severe damage from a bad fire, thought to have started from a bird’s nest on a neon sign. The fire burned so hot and so fast, it destroyed the roof and the second floor caved into the first. The silver dollar bar was saved by a group of intrepid men when it was thought they might lose the entire building. The Wort vowed to rebuild and remain an integral part of the Jackson community, and the following June the repair work was completed. The silver dollar bartop was returned to the bar after being stored in the Jackson State Bank vault. The Wort reopened, having been rebuilt to the original appearance, with some light remodeling to expand guest rooms upstairs.

In the 21^st century Bill Baxter purchased the property and performed work for needed upgrades while maintaining the historic character of the hotel. The guestrooms were again upgraded, and the Silver Dollar Bar was expanded to include a dining room with the same style of walnut and burled woodwork seen throughout the hotel’s interior. The attention to detail and historic fabric earned the hotel a spot on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the “Best Historic Hotel in the US (under 75 rooms) by Historic Hotels of America.” The hotel was also given four stars by Forbes, and made a AAA Four-Diamond property. 

Cassity, Michael. John Wort Family Residence. Report prepared for the Teton County Historic Preservation Board, 2005.

"Wort Hotel," National Register of Historic Places. NPS, 1999.

"Wort Hotel," If Walls Could Talk Series. Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum. https://youtu.be/W5h3ubO1-Fo?si=ihuHcsVR6Vzh0-t6