Finders Keepers

You would need a very long pole to fly all the flags of nations that once claimed the Tetons. Although France "owned" most of the northern Rocky Mountains until the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the Jackson Hole area was outside its boundaries. Spain had a claim on the region, although there's little evidence that Spanish explorers reached the Tetons. Czarist Russia also made a vague claim to the Rockies, extending from its ownership of the Alaska Territory. In the early 1800s, English and Canadian leaders argued with the American government over ownership of the Pacific Northwest, including the Tetons. The mountains and valley didn't come under exclusive American control until a treaty with the British in 1846.