Overview

Jackson Hole Town Square is a real-time traffic webcam of a downtown intersection in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that went viral after drawing thousands of viewers on YouTube in early September 2016.

Background

On September 2nd, 2014, Jackson Hole resident Bob Strobel launched the YouTube channel See Jackson Hole in an effort to promote tourism and local businesses. On July 20, 2016, Strobel created over a dozen of livestream videos featuring real-time footage of the town's scenic areas, captured via real-time traffic webcams installed at various locations around Jackson Hole. On September 4th, one of the livestream videos showing a busy intersection nearby Jackson Hole Town Square (shown below), suddenly began drawing hundreds of concurrent viewers on YouTube.

It is unclear as to what exactly prompted the massive exposure of a seemingly ordinary traffic webcam feed from a small town of 10,000 residents in Wyoming, several hypothesis have been put forth as to how the livestream went viral:

• The video went viral as a result of the Reddit Effect after a link to the YouTube video posted on /r/videos was featured on the front page of Reddit.

• The video went viral because of YouTube's recently updated video recommendation algorithm that gives priority to live-stream videos over pre-recorded videos in recommendations.

• The video went viral after an anonymous user on 4chan posted a link to the video and pledged to travel to Jackson Hole to do something in front of the traffic cam.

Developments

By September 5th, the livestream video of Jackson Hole Town Square had become a site of pilgrimage for thousands of curious voyeurs and viral media enthusiasts on YouTube, with many viewers devising and playing interactive games within the video page's messaging platform. At its peak, the video even reached the frontpage of YouTube.

Vehicle Sighting

With thousands of concurrent viewers tuned into the livestream video on YouTube, various forms of vehicle-spotting and pedestrian-watching emerged as popular activities in the chatroom; many became obsessed with certain types of vehicles, most notably red trucks, buses and horse carriages, while others became fixated with identifying and shaming jaywalkers at the intersection.

On-Camera Visits

As the viral popularity of the Jackson Hole Town Square livestream approached its 48th hour mark, some town residents who became aware of the phenomenon reportedly paid a visit to the intersection, including two women who showed up on camera and dabbed as per request, as well as a vandal who tried to obstruct the camera's view with a sign that reads “RED TRUCK IS LIFE.”

Search Interest

External References