Page 32 - Flathead Beacon // 7.8.15

TRANSACTIONS 33 BUSINESS IS PERSONAL 34 Business
Diamond Out of the Rough
Ted and Mara Chase open the Summit Mountain Lodge cabins and steakhouse for first full summer season
TBY CLARE MENZEL OF THE BEACON
he archway above the driveway reads “Summit Station.” The road doesn’t exactly lead to the historic train station, at least
not anymore.
After serving as the Great Northern
Railroad’s bustling Marion Pass depot from 1906 to 1985, the station began to fall apart and the railroad disconnected it from the line. After going through two owners – one of whom built several cab- ins on the property and ran into trouble for operating an unlicensed fly-fishing outfit – the complex sat abandoned on the 32-acre lot next to Glacier National Park for six years.
“We got it from the bank in ruins,” says Ted Chase, who bought the station build- ing, cabins, and land near East Glacier with his wife, Mara, in the winter of 2013.
The years of neglect showed. Ted believes people passing through were in the habit of hopping off, kicking down the door, and spending a few nights there partying. There were enormous piles of trash and beer bottles scattered around the property. The place was stripped of its copper, and almost everything was stolen — only some large kitchen appli- ances and a heavy pool table remained.
After three years of work, the station is entirely restored. It now houses a kitchen and restaurant, a common room area for cabin guests, and a private-events space, where Ted and Mara host small weddings, family reunions, corporate retreats, and other intimate gatherings.
Though almost everything from the building’s bones to its woodwork was reno- vated, black-and-white photographs in the lodge from its heyday show a building that
Ted and Mara Chase, owners of the Summit Mountain Lodge near East Glacier. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
seems to have hardly changed.
This is a testament to the Chases,
who shouldered all the work with only the help of Garrison Taylor, Ted’s friend since childhood, and a small seasonal
and Mara settled into the smallest cabin, fixing it up as they lived in it. By the start
staff that helps with day-to-day opera- tions. The priority during renovations was to protect the iconic structure and Swiss-chalet-inspired design.
During their first year at Summit, Ted
1
of their first summer season, the statio
building was still too damaged for guest use, but a few of the cabins were in good
n
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