Promised Parks
a promised Park
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may park
Image by Maggie Moore.
The Mays, Wayne and Selma, were an agricultural family. Wayne’s side of the family dates back to the Mormon Row days.
From Jackson Hole News & Guide:
Wayne was born in 1916 on a ranch on Mormon Row to James Henry and Madden Maria Wood May. His grandfather and parents homesteaded the ranch near Kelly. . . [I}n the early 1960s the ranch on Mormon Row was sold to Grand Teton National Park, and the family moved to town and purchased the acreage in East Jackson from George Lamb. Wayne put up hay, irrigated and took care of horses. . . [I]n 1982 he became acquainted with Selma Sanford. Selma was born in Jackson Hole in 1910 to Rudolph and Alta Coffin Harold. . . [T]hey married in October 1982 . . . [T]his was probably the happiest time of his life. He finally had a family of his own. He gained three daughters: Marge Budge, Hazel Staley and Charlene Bressler. He also gained the son he always wanted, Rudy Sanford. He thought the world of Rudy and his wife, Sharon, and their two sons. Wayne and Selma did everything together: They fished, picked berries, did a lot of sightseeing around the valley and even took a few trips.
“He's the May behind East Jackson's May Park” by Connie Owen, Jan 13, 2021
Image by Maggie Moore
Wayne and Selma had a 10-acre lot in east Jackson. Even back in 1990, when this story took place, Jackson was facing rapidly increasing housing demand. The Mays were initially approached about selling a portion of their land for Hansen-Rancher connection. The Mays said no. Then the Town of Jackson, led by then-town councilor Mike Lance, asked if they would sell the whole property to the town. The Mays saw the future with increasing density in East Jackson. They said yes to Mike Lance and agreed to sell their property for a ⅓ of the price to the Town of Jackson to be used as a park for their neighbors and the community. At the time, the land was valued at $1.2 million.
The Mays requests were two-fold, that they be able to live and work the property until their deaths, and that the park maintain the historical character of the property and its agricultural heritage.
The Parks and Recreation Department in the Town of Jackson has endeavored to build a master plan for May Park. The 2004 Master Plan was approved without a dog park. In 2011, the Town Council denied a May Park design with a dog park. Rudy Sanford, the son of Selma and step-son of Wayne May stood up during public comment and made the following impassioned statement:
So when I look and think about mom and wayne and the open space, us as a family set back and said, “if that’s what you want to do, let the city have it and they’ll treat it right.” And now I’m thinking as i set back there, I am the dumbest person in Jackson because they could have sold that, we could have chopped it up, and they could have got a million bucks out of each house or whatever. And they’re dead, and who would have got the money . . . and I’d be a millionaire and wouldn’t be here talking.
So I guess I feel that it would be a slap in the face to these people [Wayne and Selma] to start chopping it up and put this thing here and that thing here.
We was trying to help some people, I was trying to help some people. I am just asking you to think of two people and what they gave you and how they earned their money . . .
Rudy Sanford, Public Comment, Town Council Meeting April 2011.
When the issue was presented in 2014, Rudy Sanford made the follow statement on camera during public comment:
A few years back we went through all of this, right Steve?
And we had a thorough discussion, and it come out in the paper, "Dogs Wont Romp In Town Park, Town Says."
I am basically asking you to keep honoring that [statement]. I'm not against a dog park, I know what Mom and Wayne wanted out of that park property . . .