Summer Staff Games 2011

Every summer in June the SML staff band together by department and form teams to enter into a week of competitive fun. A handful of events are hosted each day throughout the week ranging from a chess tournament to a running relay, and horseshoes to a volleyball tournament, just to name a few. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are awarded for each event and points are accumulated in conjunction with the medals. After a series of events on the final day, points are tallied and the highly sought prize, The Most Prestigous Trophy, is passed into the possession of the winning-est team during an outdoor cookout and closing ceremony.

All of the teams worked hard this year and it was a very close match throughout the week with many teams still handily in reach of first place by the final day of games. In the end, the enthusiasm and perseverance of the Cleaning Mutant Ninja Turtles paid off and they emerged victorious.

Congratulations to the Cleaning Mutant Ninja Turtles (housekeeping staff) for taking home The Most Prestigious Trophy in this year's SML Summer Staff Games! Hip Hip Hooray!

A big thanks to all who participated and made this year's games so much fun!

The volleyball tournament!

Mt. Moranasaurus getting the crowd riled up

The Phantoms of the Opera warming up for the Talent Show

An entertaining skit for the talent show

A couple of Cleaning Mutant Ninja Turtles

Some excited gold medalists

The victorious team touting their prize

Softball in GTNP

Signal Mountain Lodge is pleased to once again crown itself Park Champion of this years GTNP softball season. The SML "Whistle Pigs" are tickled to maintain our smack talking priveleges.

The Signal Mountain Lodge "Whistle Pigs" looking good, as always.

Joking aside, we've had an incredibly fun few months of friendly competition with our neighboring concessionaires' and National Park Service's employees. A big thank you to all of the teams who came out and played this season and added yet another item to the long list of reasons why working and living in GTNP is so much fun.

Softball has a long history in Grand Teton National Park. There is strong evidence that it was played as far back as 1983, and no evidence but quite a bit of speculation that it was played during the Hayden expedition and preceeding fur trapping era. Signal Mountain Lodge maintains a portion of a wall in our Employee Dining Room that is dedicated to softball seasons past. Along with photos of our now 4 years running Park Champion team is a framed article from a Jackson Hole News issue dated Wednesday, August 3, 1983. The hysterical article is titled "The hot team in Moran whips some local boys" and is simply about Billy's Angels (the name of the NPS team in 1983) beating up on Bill's Standard/Teton Towing team at what was then called Fromm Memorial Stadium, the ball field in Moran, WY we now creatively refer to as Moran Field. The field is notoriously primitive and the article gives a colorful description that holds true to this day:

"Assuming Mother Nature is a baseball fan, it's safe to say she never would have let this chunk of land come out from under the water if she knew it would become Fromm Memorial Stadium. The infield is loaded with sedimentary rock. Every hop of the ball is a bad hop, even if it happens to go straight. The outfield sinks lower than the infield, and it appeared that balls rolling into left field actually pick up speed. Sagebrush, gopher holes, camouflaged boulders, and whatnot make the outfield an adventuresome place. An outfielder sprinting for a line drive is not risking a sprained ankle. He is risking a broken arm and two crushed ribs."

The historic article displayed in SML's Employee Dining Room.

Although the story behind the title of Fromm Memorial Stadium is not entirely clear a picture in the article shows a sign hanging on the backstop that offers a little insight, it reads: "On the tragic night of Aug 12, 1982 through a hail of screaming baseballs, exploding bats & flying cleats. Pete Fromm almost made it to first base. This is the stuff that heroes are made of."

The field may no longer bear this heroes name but his legacy is carried on a few times a week all summer long on it.

A bench-full of heroes.

Thanks again to all who played!

Staff Olympics

Signal Mountain Lodge hosted it's fourth annual Staff Olympics during the last week of June this summer. The events lasted five days and ranged from sporty challenges such as the canoe relay to brain busters like the chess tournament. A few events were held each day and culminated in an outdoor BBQ that went on during the celebrated events of the volleyball tournament and the talent show on Friday in our staff housing area.

Signal Mountain Lodge staff was divided into 7 teams of grouped departments. Each team had an impressive showing for each event and the standings were close throughout the five days. In the end the front of the house restaurant staff grouped with the bar under the team name of "Button Up" were crowned as champions. They will have their team name engraved on SML's most highly regarded and pined for prize, The Most Prestigous Trophy, where it will live on in fame(or infamy).

The SML Staff Olympics are just another reason why working and living at Signal are so much fun, a big thank you goes to all who participated!

Staff Spotlight: Mark Schweizer, Float Guide Manager

Mark Schweizer is one of those very lucky people in the world who looks forward to work each day. Mark is the Float Guide Manager at Signal Mountain Lodge, he takes up to three float trips a day down beautiful stretches of the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park. Mark says his favorite part of each work day is“when I push off from the bank of the river and the current pulls us away.”


Mark hasn’t always lived out west, he grew up in the Chicago area of Illinois, but when he was 10 years old his folks took him on a trip to the Grand Canyon and he started dreaming of living on this side of the country among the mountains. After high school he moved to Flagstaff, AZ to attend school at Northern Arizona University. He graduated with a double major in History and Philosophy and quickly took an outside job at Sylvan Lake State Park in Colorado as a Park Ranger.


Not too long after making the move to Colorado, the opportunity arose to become a river guide in Glen Canyon Arizona, Mark couldn’t pass it up. While guiding in Glen Canyon he met a fellow who had worked in Grand Teton National Park and loved it and Mark became quite interested. At the end of the season he applied to a few lodges in Grand Teton and Signal was lucky enough to snatch him up.


Mark has now been taking Signal Mountain Lodge guests down the Snake River for 6 seasons and he still has a passion for it. Mark explains, “My favorite part of guiding is that the job I do is an activity I would do on my spare time, actually one of my favorite hobbies.” He says this season has been great so far, “The sun has come out and the wildflowers are spectacular. The wildlife has been good: moose, elk, pronghorn, eagles, and pelicans.” Taking a float trip with Mark is a treat. His knowledge goes well beyond the river and one is bound to get a brain-full of Grand Teton geology, biology, history and more.



Swans on the Snake River.