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ABOVE A boat launches on St. Mary Lake with visitors aboard, Going-to-the-Sun Chalet in background circa 1920-1930.
For some of Glacier’s visitors, Gran- ite Park was the furthest west they ven- tured. When Glacier was o cially des- ignated a park in 1910 and the railroad began building up its infrastructure, it was forced to focus its investments on the east side of the park because much of the west side had already been developed. Tourists had already
been venturing to the Lake McDonald area for years and George Snyder con- structed the rst hotel there in 1895 (it was later replaced by the Lake McDon- ald Lodge in 1914).
After spending the night at Granite Park and consuming another hearty breakfast, visitors would return to Many Glacier. On the fth day of their tour, they would take a 6-mile horse- back ride to Cracker Lake. Although this pristine lake surrounded by an amphitheater of mountains looks untouched by man it was actually the site of a mine, pieces of which would
have still been evident in 1916. The Cracker Lake Mine was established after copper ore was discovered below Mt. Siyeh in 1898 and a town site was established at nearby Cracker Flats. During its peak in the early 1900s, more than 600 people lived and worked there and the town of Altyn had a store, a post o ce, hotel, several saloons and even a newspaper. Even today, hikers can nd leftover machinery from the mine at Cracker Lake.
Mining operations like the one found at Cracker Lake was one of the rea- sons naturalist and writer George Bird Grinnell was so adamant about creat- ing a national park in Northwest Mon- tana. For years, prospectors and peo- ple looking to make a quick buck had rushed to the area that would become Glacier Park to look for minerals and timber. That came to an end when the park was created in 1910.
The nal part of the seven-day jour- ney across Glacier Park took visitors from Many Glacier over Piegan Pass to the Going-to-the-Sun Chalets. Today Sun Point isn’t much more than a wide spot along the Sun Road, but back in 1916 it was one of the busiest places in the park.
“The Going-to-the-Sun Chalets were the crossroads of Glacier Park and most saddle trips ended up there,” Dju said. “You could come in from Lake McDonald, Granite Park, Many Gla- cier or Two Medicine. It was one of the busiest sites in the park and there were people constantly coming and going.”
The Going-to-the-Sun Chalets, or
LEFT Horseback party in front of Sperry Chalet circa 1919.
Sun Camp, as it was called by some locals, had a large dining room, laun- dry building and two guest dorms that could host upwards of 200 people a night. Because the Sun Road had not yet been constructed, the only way to get to and from the chalets from the entrance at St. Mary was by boat.
Despite its popularity, Sun Camp only existed for 30 years before it was deemed obsolete with the construction of Going-to-the-Sun Road, which took 11 years to build and was completed in 1933. With people now able to cross the park by auto in just a day, the need for chalets spaced a day’s hike or horse- back ride apart was unnecessary. The park changed drastically as more and more people arrived by car and many of the chalets were torn down follow- ing the Great Depression and World War II. What was left after that down- sizing makes up much of the park’s core infrastructure today.
Despite the many ways the park has changed in the last century, the reason visitors ock here remains unchanged — an opportunity to visit America’s greatest spaces.
It was a fact not lost on one of the many visitors to Glacier Park in 1916.
“I have traveled a great deal,” Rine- hart wrote a century ago in Through Glacier Park. “The Alps have never held this lure for me. Perhaps it is because these great mountains are my own, in my own country. Cities call – I have heard them. But there is no voice in all the world so insistent to me as the wordless call of the Rockies. I shall go back. Those who go once always hope to go back. The lure of the great free spaces is in their blood.”
jfranz@ atheadbeacon.com
Glacier Park 1916 v. 2016
VISITATION
1916: 12,839 2016: 1,516,986
(THROUGH JULY)
COST OF SEASON PASS
1916: $2 2016: $45
COST OF SHORT-TERM PASS
1916: 50 cents 2016: $30 for seven days
NIGHTLY FEE AT
MANY GLACIER HOTEL
1916: $4 2016: $185-$300
($5 IF YOU WANTED A BATH)
SPEED LIMIT
1916: 15 MPH 2016: 25 to 45 MPH
AUGUST 17, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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