Deirdre Shaw's History Blog - May 2010

May 10, 2010
I often remark to my colleagues that I usually find the best history “stuff” while I’m looking for something else and yesterday was not an exception. I came upon a photocopy of a 1910 Great Northern Railway publication containing “Advance Information Relative to Glacier National Park” addressed to the railroad’s “representatives.” The beginning paragraph declared that “just as soon as President Taft signs the Bill recently passed by Congress to establish Glacier National Park, Montana, we will have tributary to the line of the Great Northern Railway, a new national playground which, in time, will assume the importance of the Yellowstone or any other national park in this country. “ My first thought: “How cool is this?” My second thought: “Very cool.”

In just two single sided pages, Mr. S. J. Ellison, General Passenger Agent, presented a snapshot of a newly minted (almost) national park. Ellison first described the natural wonders of the area, including “60 living glaciers” and “250 mountain lakes”, but concentrated most of his text on travel and accommodation information.

Ellison directed visitors to Belton (now West Glacier) as the “best way to reach the park” and the place where, he noted, the “stage meets all trains”. Area accommodations included the “attractive hotel at Belton station adjoining the depot” (now Belton Chalet) and the Dow Hotel. The named “resorts” on Lake McDonald were the “Glacier Hotel” (on the site of present-day Lake McDonald Lodge), the “Park Hotel” at the head of the lake, and “Apgar House” at the lake’s outlet.  Daily rates ranged from $3.00 a day at the Glacier Hotel and Apgar’s to $2.00 a day at Frank Geduhn’s Park Hotel. Stage fair from Belton to the foot of the lake was 50 cents each way and, interestingly enough, 50 cents for each piece of baggage. Taking the “steamer” from Apgar to the head of the lake cost 75 cents.

Ellison continued with information on the availability of horses, guides, and camp outfits and lists possible destinations, including Avalanche Basin, Sperry Glacier, Granite Park, Iceberg Lake, Gunsight Pass and St. Mary Lake. East side visitors were directed to hotel accommodations in Browning, but were warned that there were “no hotel accommodations at Midvale (East Glacier) and no resorts except those named above.” Of course, one year later in the summer of 1911, the Great Northern and Louis Hill had placed teepee camps at Many Glacier, St. Mary and Two Medicine and construction was underway on what was to become Glacier’s historic hotel and chalet accommodation network. S. J. Ellison’s pamphlet provides us with a wonderful overview of what the park was at its very beginning. Cool, huh

 

My First Blog
May 5, 2010

“There’s an old saying about those who forget history. I don’t remember it, but it’s good.”
Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, March 10, 2008

I begin this blog amidst the archives of Glacier National Park, surrounded by photographs, maps, letters, and other paper documents—which are but a few of the physical traces that remain of the human history of this almost one hundred year-old park. I manage the museum and archives collection for the park—a collection that includes a variety of historical, archeological, biological, and archival objects. Although Glacier is without a permanent public exhibit of our collection, it is part of the NPS mission to preserve the artifacts, specimens, and records that document that the park’s natural and cultural resources and its history. I, without a doubt, have one of the best jobs in the park.

My intention in writing this blog is to share some of what I get to read, see, and contemplate on a daily basis here in the archives, particularly during the park’s centennial year. We all have history “on the brain” these days. I promise to leave the less exciting memos and mundane paperwork that pass through my hands out of this discussion. I will, however, try to share some of the more entertaining, surprising, and, perhaps, revelatory tidbits that I encounter here in the archives over the next several months as well as some of my favorite finds from years past.

You'll be hearing from me soon.