Bio: Ranch guest in 1962, 64 & 65 with her parents.
Descriptor: Discovering Nature via Her White Grass Experience
Eileen’s Story: My parents, Hugh and Anne Rafferty, first went to White Grass as guests in 1960 or so. They traveled with John and Helen Pickens. They returned as many times without the kids, probably yearly for 4-5 years. We went for the first time as a family in 1962 and had two more visits in 1964 and last in 1965. My sister Sheila Rafferty Ahumada worked there the summer of 1965. I was a little kid then but I will never forget the moment I realized the magic of nature. The kids were taken on an overnight, by horseback up to a lake – maybe Jenny Lake?? At the base of the lake was a small hill that some of us took to climbing. At the top, in its majesty, was the Grand Teton. It was almost as if I could touch it, it seemed so close. I had never seen anything so beautiful – if my eye had been a camera. I will never forget – and will always go ’round a bend’ or ‘up a hill’ because you will never know what you will find. And, I am a Family Nurse Practitioner. One day, while seeing a college student, we were chatting what she did over the summer. She said she had worked at a dude ranch in Wyoming. I told her about White Grass and Moose…and she told me that White Grass had closed abruptly that summer with the death of Frank. Quite unprofessionally I cried. But, she got it. She worked at a neighboring ranch which hired many of the staff, abruptly let go. We were so happy to know that the beauty of White Grass has been preserved. About 15 years ago my sister Sheila, her husband, and our brother Put went back to Wyoming to visit the ranch. Sheila took a handful of dirt as a remembrance. I have attached some of those pictures also.
The Rafferty Family, left to right – Put, Eileen, Cathy, Hugh (father) and Anne (mother). 
Left to Right – Jack Pickens, Put Rafferty, Dan Pickens, Eileen Rafferty Mikielian, Cathy Rafferty Nichols & Sheila Rafferty Ahumada.