As the final flag-stop station for Amtrak’s Empire Builder passenger train, situated along the remote southern border of Glacier National Park, the historic Izaak Walton Inn at Essex is a magical destination that droves of visitors (who handily outnumber the unincorporated community’s year-round population of 50) have described as “priceless.” And while the 100-acre property was listed for sale last month with an asking price of $17.95 million, the Inn’s proprietor says the true value of the wilderness outpost lies in its historic charm.
“Preserving the historic integrity of the Izaak Walton Inn is part of the deal, and anyone who takes over this property is going to have to be good stewards,” Brian Kelly, whose family purchased the Izaak Walton Inn in 2006, said.
The Kelly family also owns Eddie’s Café in Apgar Village and the Halfway Hotel in Essex, and Brian Kelly said the decision to list the Izaak Walton Inn for sale was a personal one as he enters the next phase of his life.
“I’m getting to a point in my life where it’s time to spend more time with my family,” Kelly said. “We purchased the Izaak 16 years ago and we’ve steadily been making improvements while remaining good stewards. We’ve grown from 37 rooms to 72 rooms, but we’ve expanded in a way that doesn’t compromise the historical integrity. We’re proud of it.”
The Inn and its idyllic 100-acre property is booked for a slate of events and weddings this summer that remain unchanged, and the hotel is currently accepting reservations for 2023, Kelly said.
“This place isn’t going to turn into an amusement park, we’re not shutting down or changing about the business model,” he said.
In addition to Kelly’s business holdings in West Glacier, the family owns a home on a 0.13-acre lot in Apgar Village. The home was listed for sale in February at an asking price of $7 million. The home, which was built in 1976, is currently used as a vacation rental, while additional housing on the lot accommodates employees.
Located 30 miles east of West Glacier, the Izaak Walton Inn remains one of the few hotels open year-round near Glacier National Park, making it a popular destination in the winter as well as during the summer months. Located halfway between West Glacier and East Glacier Park, the Izaak Walton has even earned a nickname over the years: “the inn between.”
Unlike the east and west sides of the park — which can be overwhelmed with visitors during the busy summer months — Essex is almost always a quiet oasis, with most of the wintertime traffic generated by skiers.
The inn was named for Sir Izaak Walton, a 17th-century sportsman who authored a number of books on fly fishing. But it was Great Northern Railway owner James J. Hill whose decision to punch the iconic rail line over Marias Pass and along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River that prompted a need for lodging accommodations in Essex.
According to local lore, in the 1930s, Glacier National Park was considering building a new road that would enter near Essex and head up the Park Creek drainage. Thinking that Essex might become a hotbed of tourism, the railroad decided to build a large lodge that could handle additional railroaders in the winter and visitors in the summer. In early 1939, the railroad signed an agreement with the Addison Miller Company to build a hotel and lunchroom on Great Northern property alongside the rail yard in Essex. It took 12 carpenters three months to complete the inn, which featured 29 rooms across two and a half floors, 10 bathrooms, a lobby, dining room, and kitchen with a two-ton stove. The inn was designed by Thomas McMahon in the Tudor revival style similar to other Great Northern structures around Glacier Park that were intended to evoke the mountains of Europe. In the early years, when the railroad played a major role in promoting the park, it often heralded Glacier as the “American Alps.”
The Izaak Walton Inn opened for business on Nov. 16, 1939.
The plans for a new entrance into the park never materialized, however, and the Izaak Walton often operated in the red. In 1957, the Addison Miller Company sold the Izaak Walton to Ed Wellman for $5,000. The inn changed hands three more times until the 1980s, when it was purchased by Larry and Lynda Veilleux.
In 2006, the Veilleux family sold the inn to Kelly, an ironworker and blacksmith from Chicago. Kelly said he was “tired of the rat race” and looking for something different when he and his family moved to Essex to run the Izaak Walton. Kelly says his background as a blacksmith has come in handy over the years of running a remote inn. There’s no cell service in Essex, and the nearest hardware and grocery store is a 45-minute drive — on a good day.
“You’ve got to be capable of solving problems and being independent,” Kelly told the Beacon in 2019.