Migrating elephants amble into Jackson Hole

JACKSON HOLE—The stampede of visitors isn’t coming for the grizzly bears, baby bison or Teton Mountain views. 

They’re coming to walk among the elephants. Thirty-two life-size replicas that look surprisingly at home on the range, lumber through the sagebrush, trailing behind a smaller herd of impressive bronze bison.

The Great Elephant Migration has made a stop at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, just north of Jackson Hole, creating a buzz along its journey across the United States. Madison Webb Stanko, the museum’s chief marketing officer, has met visitors who have driven from New Mexico, Colorado and Utah to stroll among the herd at one of its only stops in the Rockies. As a result, the museum has seen a spike in attendance both in person and online, she said. 

“I think it’s the experience,” she said. “It’s the scale of it. You feel small standing in front of it. It does inspire wonder.”

Visitors are advised not to touch the nearby bronze bison statues — or get too close to any of the living and breathing wildlife often visible just up the road in Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. But they can hug, kiss and pet these elephants all they want. 

The public art installation started as 100 elephants on display in July 2024 in Newport, Rhode Island, and has since migrated through New York City’s Meatpacking District, Miami Beach, and Houston.  

Now, the herd has split, with 32 taking up refuge at the museum, four on display in Teton Village and the rest on view through June 16 at the Buffalo Spirit Hills Ranch on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northern Montana. On May 30, Blackfeet painter and ledger artist Terrance Guardipee led a blessing of the elephants in Jackson Hole at the museum’s sculpture garden, attracting a crowd of more than 300.

“Of all the animals, elephants seem to be one that people feel connected to,” Webb Stanko said, “and it’s an animal you’re not often able to connect to in Wyoming.”

The Asian elephants also bring a story of how to coexist with large mammals. 

“Each sculpture is a replica of a real wild elephant, known by name and personality to the Indigenous communities of the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu,” the exhibit explains. “Here elephants live alongside people in the densest concentrations on the planet.” 

The sculptures are made from an invasive weed called “Lantana camara” that’s overtaking India’s forests and displacing wildlife. They each take four to six months to create, and are for sale for $8,000 to $22,000 to raise money for conservation work that supports coexistence. 

Although people have been showing up at all hours to photograph and wander among the elephants, the museum has “elephant guardians” staffing the exhibit during museum hours to answer questions. 

The pachyderms will be packed up after the exhibit ends June 20, but enthusiasts will have one last chance to say goodbye. The museum is inviting the community to a farewell party from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., June 22, when people can decorate the trucks before the herd “migrates” to its final U.S. destination.

After overlooking the wild open spaces of the National Elk Refuge, Webb Stanko said, “they’re going to Beverly Hills from here.”