Video
Plowing the Going-to-the-Sun Road: 1930s-1940s
Descriptive Transcript
PLOWING THE GTSR – 1930s-1940s – DESCRIPTIVE TRANSCRIPT
Title card: Plowing the Going-to-the-Sun Road 1930s-1940s
Title card: Plowing the park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road has been a monumental task since the road first opened to Logan Pass on the west side in 1929. After the completion of the road on the east side in 1932, plowing became even more labor-intensive.
Title card: Road-clearing equipment over the years has included steam and gas-powered shovels, hand shovels, bulldozers, rotary snowplows, and dynamite.
Title card: These clips, circa 1930s-40s, show rotary plows and an Osgood gas-powered shovel---along with old-fashioned hand shoveling!
Black-and-white footage of a machine blowing a large plume of snow into the air as it moves. The setting is a snowy mountain road. A park ranger stands off to the side watching the machine.
Front view of the rotary snowplow, which has a large cab for the driver and a plow front with three rows of spinning rotary blades that cut into the snow. A chute at the top of the plow blows snow up and out.
Two men with hand tools work alongside a large mechanical shovel to cut through a massive snow drift. A person runs after a snowplow on a flat road lined with snow-laden pine trees.
Title card: These clips from the 1945 NPS film “Man vs. Snow” show plows and dozers clearing snow and avalanche debris, as well as plowing at Logan Pass.
A man standing on pile of snow next to a creek scrambles out of the way as a large snowplow pushes snow over the bank into the water.
A bulldozer moves snow strewn with broken logs and debris, sending it tumbling into the creek.
A bulldozer-plow operator guides the machine back and forth through deep snow below the base of a mountain.
Title card: The road has to be re-located each year to ensure that the dozer operator making the ‘first cut’ is close to the inside wall. Today, methods for locating the road involve electronic survey instruments.
On a steep mountain slope covered in deep snow, a man with a hand shovel digs about 50 meters ahead of a plow. The plow cuts into the drift and sends chunks of snow tumbling down the slope into a massive basin below. Two men follow behind the plow to inspect.
Title card: These clips show the alpine section of the road open as a one-way road – a practice the park discontinued in the 1960s.
1940s-era cars wind around a bend in a narrow road cut out of a massive snowdrift, towering at least 60 feet high. A yellow sign on the road reads, “One Way Traffic.”
A car stops next to the drift wall and the passenger opens the door and points up at the snow.
Cars and a small crane with a man riding on the outside make their way down the one-way road.
Three women walk the road, touching the walls of the snow drift on either side. A car passes them and they wave.
Title card: Serious accidents have occurred during spring plowing. In May 1953, an avalanche buried four people, killing two of them. The practice of rushing to open the road as early as possible would eventually be replaced by a safety-first approach.
Title card: Operations have changed, but the monumental task of opening this mountain road each year remains!
Description
This selection of clips from the 1930s-1940s show park staff working to clear snow from the Going-to-the-Sun Road - a monumental task that continues to this day.
Duration
4 minutes, 14 seconds
Credit
NPS Video
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