Park Cabins for VIPs : These Mountain Retreats Accept Only Lofty Guests

CHEYENNE, Wyo. —  The Brinkerhoff Cabin would make an ideal tourist attraction--it is located in the middle of Grand Teton National Park and has a panoramic view of the Teton Range and Jackson Lake.

But you won’t find it listed in any travel brochure. It is off limits to all but presidents and dignitaries, who retreat there to unwind and think.

The rustic, four-bedroom cabin, nestled among pines on a hill, is one of five such retreats managed by the National Park Service. Located 30 miles north of Jackson in northwestern Wyoming, it sheltered former President Jimmy Carter for a week in 1978 and Richard M. Nixon overnight when he was President in 1971.

Watt Slept There

Other luminaries who have spent a night or two there include former CIA Director Stansfield Turner, former Interior Secretary James Watt and Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.), President Reagan’s 1984 campaign chairman. Congressmen and White House staff members also have stayed there.

For nearly 30 years it has been a “VIP retreat,” according to Grand Teton National Park Supt. Jack Stark.

The Brinkerhoff Cabin is not for everyone. The Park Service has standards: Guests must be presidents or White House staff members, congressmen or staff members, Supreme Court justices or circuit court judges, Interior secretary, or other high officeholders.

George Berklacy, a Park Service spokesman in Washington, recalled that one time CBS reporters challenged the strict criteria for guests, only to discover that Walter Cronkite had been a guest at Brinkerhoff Cabin during the Nixon years.

Guests Charged

Guests pay for their stays. The Park Service charges the principal guest $60 a night, plus $6.50 per additional guest, not to exceed $85.

“What you see is what you get. We don’t provide maid service,” Berklacy said.

The Park Service also has guest retreats in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, the Virgin Islands, Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland and Cape Hatteras in North Carolina.

Berklacy says Brinkerhoff is “by far the nicest” of the five retreats, mainly because of the setting, 50 yards from Jackson Lake. Because of the fierce winters in western Wyoming, the cabin is open only from April to October.

Room for 14

The house, which sleeps up to 14 persons, has wooden floors, Indian-style throw rugs, wood furniture and a large fireplace made of ancient stones from the Wind River Mountain Range in central Wyoming.

The Zachary Brinkerhoff family, a prominent Wyoming oil family, built the home in 1947 on the concrete foundation of another cabin that had collapsed under the weight of a heavy snowfall, Berklacy said.

When the Brinkerhoffs moved from Casper to Denver in 1955, the National Park Service purchased the site as part of its program to acquire private property in Grand Teton National Park.

Camp Hoover in Shenandoah National Park was the first retreat, given to the state of Virginia by then-President Herbert Hoover with the stipulation that it be used by presidents and other dignitaries. Virginia turned it over to the National Park Service to manage.

Mondale Used It

“Vice President (Walter F.) Mondale used it frequently,” Berklacy said.

The home at Catoctin Mountain is adjacent to the presidential retreat at Camp David and houses presidential guests, he said.

Grand Teton National Park officials provide guests at the Brinkerhoff Cabin with advice on what to see in the scenic park, Stark said. The park features fishing, numerous hiking and horseback riding trails and easy access to Yellowstone National Park.

Stark said the National Park Service does not provide security, although some guests bring their own. When Carter stayed at the Brinkerhoff house, security officials took up watch from Jackson Lake.

“Believe me, we know when the presidents come,” Stark said.