In real estate, you meet a lot of wonderful people. Every so often, you meet a family whose story is woven into the history of the American West itself. Recently, our team at Teton Real Estate Group had the honor of working with the Froidevaux family, descendants of one of Wyoming’s most remarkable pioneer families: the Loves.

Working with the Froidevaux Family

“When we started working with the Froidevaux family, we quickly realized this wasn’t an ordinary transaction,” says Ann Goodell of Teton Real Estate Group. “The property they owned in Teton Valley, a log cabin on 32 acres, was very special to them. So many memories were made spending their summers there. They built the log cabin with love and family in mind and took exceptional care of the land. It was very important to the family that the new owners were part of the community and that they loved the land as much as they did.

“It’s one thing to watch a family’s story on PBS. It’s another to hear it firsthand from the people who carry it forward. Their connection to this corner of the Rockies runs deep, from a one-room schoolhouse near Lander to a lifetime spent mapping the rocks of Jackson Hole.

“What struck us most was how much the family’s values echo what we love about Teton Valley: a deep respect for the land, an appreciation for hard work, and a belief that a place is only as good as the community that lives there. Helping them write the next chapter of their family’s Western story was a genuine privilege.”

If the Love name doesn’t ring a bell yet, it will by the end of this post. Their family has been featured in a Ken Burns documentary, a celebrated John McPhee book, and a memoir of homestead life that historians still praise today.

A Love Story Ken Burns Couldn’t Resist

In 1905, a Wellesley College graduate named Ethel Waxham traveled west by train and stagecoach to teach school on a remote Wyoming ranch near Lander. There she met John Love, a Scottish-born sheep rancher who proposed again and again before she finally said yes. They married in 1910 and built a life on Muskrat Creek, near the dry heart of the state.

Their story is so compelling that Ken Burns’ PBS series The West gave it a central place in its final episode, “Ghost Dance”. Historians reviewing the series noted that the film spends more time on John and Ethel than on any other story in the eight-part series. Actors read their letters aloud over vintage photographs of the wide, unforgiving landscape where he raised sheep and she taught school.

It wasn’t a fairy tale. The Loves faced blizzards, drought, fires, floods, and a near-fatal bout of Spanish influenza. That’s what makes it so powerful: it’s the real West, hope and hardship side by side.

The Ranch Kid Who Read the Mountains

John and Ethel’s son, J. David Love, grew up on that isolated ranch with no local school. He later joked that there wasn’t much to look at out there except rocks, landscape, and the back end of a cow. Those rocks won. He earned two geology degrees from the University of Wyoming and a Ph.D. from Yale, then spent his career with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Dave Love became known as the preeminent geologist of the Rocky Mountains. He was the guide and central figure in John McPhee’s 1986 book Rising from the Plains, bouncing along Wyoming back roads in a Bronco and explaining the land as he went. McPhee’s book also highlights Love’s work in Jackson Hole, a place he found holds one of the most complete and complex geologic records in North America.

He cared about people as much as rocks. In 1992, Dave and his wife Jane, also a geologist, donated an acre of land in Jackson to build 15 units of affordable housing. In a valley where housing is always part of the conversation, that kind of generosity still resonates. Dave passed away in 2002 at age 89.

Where the Froidevaux Name Comes In

The family story didn’t stop with McPhee or Ken Burns. Dave’s daughter, Frances Love Froidevaux, spent years helping bring her grandmother’s and father’s own words to readers. Frances (1942–2011) was a teacher who founded the first foreign language program in the Bartlesville, Oklahoma schools.

Together with Barbara Love, she edited Life on Muskrat Creek: A Homestead Family in Wyoming, published by Lehigh University Press in 2020. The book weaves Ethel’s vivid writing with David’s memories of growing up on the ranch, giving two generations’ view of homestead life between 1910 and 1925.

Dayton Duncan, co-writer of The West, called the Loves’ story one of the most memorable in the history of the West. If you love Teton-country history, put this one on your nightstand.

Every Property Has a Story

The Love family’s history reminds us that land in this part of the world is never just land. It’s where people take chances, raise families, and leave something behind for the next generation. That’s true whether you’re buying your first cabin in Teton Valley or passing a family property down to your grandkids.

Want to dig into the story yourself? Start here:

• Watch “Ghost Dance,” Episode 8 of Ken Burns’ The West on PBS
• Read Life on Muskrat Creek, edited by Frances Love Froidevaux and Barbara Love
• Pick up John McPhee’s Rising from the Plains

Thank you to the Froidevaux family for trusting us with your next chapter. If you have a story you’re ready to start (or continue) in Teton Valley, the Teton Real Estate Group at Coldwell Banker Mountain Properties would love to help. Reach out anytime; we’d love to hear yours.