Story Behind Original AMK Ranch Homestead Topic of UW Harlow Talk July 18

What really happened between two business partners on the original homestead that now houses the famed AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park is the topic of the weekly Harlow Summer Seminar Series at the renovated University of Wyoming-National Park Service (UW-NPS) Research Station. The research station is located in the park.

Author Maura Jane Farrelly will present “Compliments of Hamilton and Sargent, or What Really Happened at the Historic AMK Ranch.” The event begins at 5:30 p.m. with a barbecue, followed by a 6:30 p.m. seminar. The events are free and open to the public, although a $10 donation is suggested.

Farrelly, an associate professor and chair of the American Studies Program at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., will read excerpts -- including a passage on the AMK Ranch -- from her latest book, “Compliments of Hamilton and Sargent: A Story of Mystery and Tragedy on the Gilded Age Frontier.”

“Most visitors to the UW-NPS Research Station at the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park think they know the story of Hamilton and Sargent,” Farrelly says.

John Dudley Sargent was the original owner of the homestead on which the research station now sits. Robert Ray Hamilton was his business partner. Both men came from historically famous families whose prominence dated back to before America’s founding. Together, they built a lodge on Sargent’s homestead, which they planned on marketing to well-heeled hunters they knew back home in New York and New England.

Their plan went awry, however, in the summer of 1890, when Sargent -- who was known throughout Jackson Hole for his violent temper -- killed Hamilton. He killed his wife a few years later before marrying an eccentric violinist named Edith.

“Or, so the story goes,” Farrelly says. “As with most things, the story is more complicated than people have understood.”

In her talk, she will share stories about some of her discoveries -- but not all of them -- and will discuss the research challenges she faced for her most recent book and the obligations she felt she had to assume to write the book respectfully and well.

Farrelly worked as a reporter in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York. Some of her research for “Compliments of Hamilton and Sargent: A Story of Mystery and Tragedy on the Gilded Age Frontier” was conducted at UW’s American Heritage Center.

About the University of Wyoming-National Park Service Research Station

The research station, a cooperative effort between UW and the NPS for the past 71 years, provides a base for university faculty members and government scientists from around the world to conduct research in the diverse aquatic and terrestrial environments of Grand Teton National Park and the greater Yellowstone area. The research station is located on the AMK Ranch historic district on a peninsula extending into Jackson Lake near Leeks Marina.

About the Harlow Summer Seminar Series

Formerly called the AMK Ranch Talk Series, the Harlow program is named after retired UW Department of Zoology and Physiology Professor Hank Harlow, who helped make the UW-NPS Research Station a significant center for research and community outreach. Harlow began the popular weekly public seminars during the summer months. This summer’s weekly programs are from June 20-Aug. 8.

Further details of the evening events are available at www.uwnps.org, where those interested can join a mailing list.