Chipping away at farmlands, one green at a time
As tourists fill Jackson Hole, developers come to Idaho
- posted: 10 July 2007
- scrollnews@byui.edu
Victor, Idaho, lies on the Idaho-Wyoming border. It is a farming community that tallied about 800 residents in the 2000 census. It is now the home to five golf courses and over 24,918 acres being developed for summer homes.
“The catchphrase has become, ‘The billionaires are forcing the millionaires out of Jackson Hole,’” said Eric Wooley, human resources director for Teton Reserve, a new private golf resort in Victor. Those millionaires are now moving into Eastern Idaho.
“There are a lot of new people coming in because they think that the valley is beautiful, and then they change it,” said Sarah Drake, a sophomore from Victor. “Soon it won’t be a valley; it will be a city.”
Teton Reserve is just one of three golf courses currently being built in Victor, Idaho. One of the other courses in progress is Huntsman Springs, which is owned by John Huntsman.
Land developers are buying farmland starting at $30,000 per acre and selling it to out-of-state buyers looking for a summer home.
“Farmers are now starting to see the dollar sign in their farmlands,” Wooley said.
Victor and its neighboring town Driggs are in a popular area because of their proximity to outdoor activities. They are just 20 minutes away from Grand Targhee and Teton Village ski resorts and Pine Creek Pass, a popular mountain biking venue.
This year alone, developers have submitted plans for 298 subdivisions, which translates to over 8,678 homes that will be built over the next few years. Along with this development, however, comes opportunity for neighboring cities, including Rexburg.
“There is a huge labor shortage in every job market here [in Victor],” Wooley said. “As the development migrates over the mountain, there is a rising demand for labor from Rexburg and Idaho Falls.”
There are currently 56 BYU-Idaho students who work on the landscaping crew at Teton Reserve. The course even offers to drive these students from Rexburg to Victor in company vans every day. “As the development migrates over the mountain, there is a rising demand for labor from Rexburg and Idaho Falls.”
The resort also has BYU-I students working on the managerial team and interning in the marketing, construction management and accounting sectors.
“The BYU-Idaho connection is nice,” said Mike McCarthy, one of the primary owners of the course, originally from Seattle, Wash.
Teton Reserve is built on 480 acres of land and is building houses on the 384 lots around the course, ranging from $800,000 to $1.5 million per house. The course is now open on the weekends to members who have paid the $25,000 annual fee.
The course has several unique aspects to it. Hale Irwin, who won the U.S. Open three times, designed the course to be unlike any other in the nation. It is an 18-hole course that you can either play forwards or backwards.
Another unique aspect is that more than half of the proceeds of the golf course and resort go to non-profit education at Pepperdine University. “You’d have to look far and wide to find a real estate project that can say that,” McCarthy said.
The Kentucky bluegrass fairway turf was specifically developed by Purdue University, and the sand in the more than 80 sand traps is the same sand found at the world-renowned Pebble Beach. 
