Fabian & Clendenin has a rich history. The firm had its beginning shortly after the end of World War I, when its two founders, Harold P. Fabian and Beverly S. Clendenin, joined in the practice of law in Salt Lake City. The two became friends during the war.
The Firm’s Role in the Creation of Grand Teton National Park:
The firm is proud of the crucial role it played in the decades long struggle to create Grand Teton National Park. In 1926 Horace Albright, the superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, convinced John D. Rockefeller to buy land to facilitate the creation of a new national park in the Teton Mountains and Jackson Hole area. The Rockefellers hired Fabian & Clendenin to help with the project. The matter was assigned to Harold Fabian because of his skill in real estate law, his knowledge of local politics and his interest in conservation. This assignment was to occupy Fabian for the next two and a half decades and would become his life’s work.
The Rockefellers’ involvement in the project was kept secret to forestall the inevitable escalation in land prices and the backlash of the locals against “outsiders” buying their land. With the help of his wife and secretary, Josephine, Fabian organized a Utah corporation called the Snake River Land Company which became the vehicle for land acquisition. Under Fabian’s direction, the company quietly spent over $1.5 million and assembled 25,000 acres of private land in the Snake River valley beneath the Grand Tetons.
At this point the Rockefellers revealed their involvement and offered to donate the land to the American people, but only if it became a national park. Local opposition was swift and furious. In the midst of the hue and cry, Wyoming’s congressional delegation organized a U.S. Senate investigation and held a public hearing on the Rockefellers’ secret land acquisition activities. Fabian organized and led the defense. Due to his skillful advocacy, the investigation fizzled and the hearings actually produced an increase in support for a new park.
Local opposition to the park did not die easily, however. The fight dragged on in Congress for another ten years before President Roosevelt used his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the Rockefeller land as part of the Jackson Hole National Monument. In 1950, Congress finally included the land in the Grand Teton National Park. As a reward for their services, the Rockefellers gave Harold and Josephine Fabian a cabin near Jenny Lake where they spent many summers, held law firm gatherings and entertained distinguished guests, including former Presidents Coolidge and Hoover and members of the Rockefeller family.
Today, visitors to the Grand Tetons enjoy a view of one of America’s most spectacular vistas unmarred by the ugly development that plagues so many of our national parks. This gift may not have been possible without the legal skills and wisdom of Harold Fabian. In a tribute to Fabian and others, and lest their contributions be forgotten, the Jackson Hole News commented on the occasion of the Park’s twenty-fifth anniversary:
They are old now, or dead, the actors in the park drama. Rockefeller, dead, Roosevelt, dead. Horace Albright in his eighties. Harold Fabian, no longer active, his memory almost gone. Josephine Fabian, wispy and frail, her voice faded to a hushed whisper, but still fighting the good fight. For her, even a quarter, even a half a century later, the people, the memories are still alive. But for the three and a half million who view this land each year, there is nothing. No memories. They don’t know this land was once a battleground.
We at Fabian & Clendenin have not forgotten the contributions of our founders. Even though the Fabian cabin reverted to the Park upon Josephine’s death, the firm continues to make annual outings to the cabin. In the Summer of 2000, we assisted the Park Service and other volunteers in a major restoration of the cabin, which may one day serve as an artists-in-residence community or a visitor’s center. The Fabian cabin remains an icon of Fabian & Clendenin’s continuing dedication to public service and the law.