A New Generation!

Our connection to Ashton happened many generations before we were fortunate enough to make it our family home. Teri’s great grandfather emigrated with his wife and five children from Germany to Nebraska where her grandfather Carl Lenz was born. Hearing tales of the nutrient-rich Idaho soil he moved his family north and homesteaded along the Fall River in Squirrel.

 

Carl Jr. “Carlie” married Myrtle Anderson from Marysville. They had two young daughters and lived on the family property while Carlie raised prize-winning Herefords. Myrtle died unexpectedly and Carlie remarried Evva Lee who had two young children of her own. When the Lenz children aged out of the one-room school house in Squirrel, Carlie and Evva moved “into town” so their children could attend school in Ashton. Their family home was located just a mile to the north of the Jolley Campground.

 

Teri’s mother, Nadeene Lenz met a handsome young man named Tom Anderson who was visiting his mother’s family who grew up a few miles away in Ora. Even though Tom and Nadeene never made their home in Idaho they always returned with their children each summer to fish along the Fall River, visit family and friends, feed the fish at Warm Springs, and sample the world-famous milkshakes from The City Drug.

 

Mackey is an avid fly-fisherman and Ashton river country has long been Mackey and Teri’s spiritual home. On one important fishing trip with our two daughters, Bella and Sophie, we noticed the for sale sign at the Jessen RV park. Wondering if this might be the opportunity to give our girls a different kind of upbringing, we decided to take the leap and move our family into the shadow of the Tetons.