Scotts celebrate 50th anniversary next month
Circling the Square
By Ceci Clover, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
February 10, 2010
Former Jackson residents Patty and Jim Scott will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on March 13. Jim and Patty moved to Jackson in 1966 with their daughter Kandy, son Russell and nephew Clay. While in Jackson they added three more children to their family, daughter Sandy and sons Wesley and Chad. They were both actively involved in the Jackson community through the Teton Barrel Racing Association, the Cattle and Horse Association, Jaycees, Cowbelles, Jackson Hole Rodeo and First Baptist Church.
For many years, the Scotts operated a snowmobiling business with trips to Granite Hot Springs and were big game hunting outfitters. They opened Scott’s Horse Palace up Game Creek in 1974. Patty also began selling Avon in 1974. They left Jackson in the fall of 1985 for the warmer weather in Cottonwood, Ariz. where they have lived for the past 25 years. Their family has grown over the years with the addition of three daughters-in-law, a son-in-law and 14 grandchildren.
Jim and Patty would like to extend an open invitation to any old friends who may be in Arizona on March 13 to attend their 50th wedding anniversary party. For more information please e-mail their daughter, Kandy Scott Chappel at kandyc@hughes.net. You are also welcome to visit the Scotts’ Web site at www.jimandpattyscott.com.
At noon on Friday, the Senior Center will be having the February birthday celebration. Seniors who celebrate their birthdays in February receive their meals compliments of First Interstate Bank. On the menu is carrot, celery and cucumber salad, rancher’s meatloaf, mashed sweet potatoes, almond broccoli, wheat biscuits, chilled pears and cake. Please call 733-7300 by 10:30 a.m. Friday to make your reservation.
The Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum’s “Jackson Hole Stories: Voices of the Valley” continues on Thursday with true stories of fishing and the Snake River by John Simms and Tom Montgomery. Together, these two professional fly-fishing and river guides have nearly eight decades of guiding experience on the Snake River. The program begins at 7 p.m. in the Teton County Library’s Ordway Auditorium.
John Simms has had a varied and productive entrepreneurial career. In all of his pursuits, he has engaged the natural environment. During the summer of 1965, his first year in Jackson Hole, John began a raft float trip and fly-fishing guide business. He began working as an avalanche specialist and ski patrolman in 1967 at the Jackson Hole Ski Area. That fall, he worked as a fly-fishing guide for Jackson Lake Lodge. In 1970 he started Wildwater Float Trips, which later became Simms and Sands Wildwater. In the 1970s, John began developing unique tools that measured snow conditions, and Life-Link avalanche rescue gear. After John designed a line of fly-fishing oriented items, he and his wife, Barbara, began a company in 1980 to market these products internationally. After they sold the company two years later, it eventually became the Simms division of Life-Link.
Tom Montgomery started guiding anglers for Jack Dennis in 1978. He completed 32 years of guiding on the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park for Jack Dennis in 2009. John Simms was Tom’s mentor, and they worked as a team for several years. Tom also works for Paul Bruun on Snake River floats south of Jackson, and previously worked for Joe Bressler on the South Fork of the Snake in Idaho. His guiding pursuits often take him beyond Jackson Hole; to places such as Alaska, southern Patagonia, New Zealand, French Polynesia and Chile. As a professional photographer, Tom has chronicled the fishing experience for specialty outdoor magazines.
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Ceci Clover writes weekly on the doings and doers in and around Jackson Hole. Submissions may be sent to circlingthesquare@hotmail.com or call 307-733-8348.
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