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FLATHEADBEACON.COM 150 YEARS OF MONTANA NOVEMBER 5, 2014 19
MONTANA’S ICONIC NATIONAL PARKS
TWO OF THE NATION’S FIRST NATIONAL PARKS, YELLOWSTONE AND GLACIER, HELPED SHAPE A NEW AMERICAN IDEAL FOR PRESERVING CERTAIN PRICELESS PLACES
BY DILLON TABISH
The U.S., it’s fair to say, was ahead of its time in 1872 when Congress passed an unprecedented order setting aside a tract of land near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River in the territories of Montana and Wyoming as a “public park or pleasuring-ground for the ben- efit and enjoyment of the people.”
The founding of Yellowstone Na- tional Park, which became official March 1, 1872, set a new global stan- dard for preserving and protecting the environment. It is widely considered the first national park in the world and sparked a widespread conscientious- ness about conserving pristine places, although the topic remained controver- sial. Many surrounding communities were leery of creating off-limits lands and many business leaders decried the parks as “a great blow to the prosperity” of nearby towns, according to an edito- rial by the Helena Gazette in 1872, op- posing the creation of Yellowstone.
But in the following years, influen- tial iconoclasts like Teddy Roosevelt
Visitors travel in the Many Glacier area, circa 1915. COURTESY OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK
eventual creation of the National Park Service in 1916.
But all the same, convincing the residents of Glacier’s value remained tricky.
In the months following Glacier’s creation, residents on the east side of the North Fork Flathead River signed a petition asking that the area be exclud- ed from the park, claiming there was at least 50,000 acres of agricultural land and valuable timber “with no particu- lar scenic value,” according to a publica- tion created by the U.S. Forest Service detailing the history of the area.
The residents remained steadfast in their opposition, stating in a letter, “it is more important to furnish homes to a land-hungry people than to lock the land up as a rich man’s playground which no one will use.”
The residents claimed the national park would not attract any visitors due to its remote location and harsh weath- er.
One-hundred years later, while re- maining an important ecosystem left largely intact, Glacier National Park is one of the 10 most visited national parks in America, with over 2.2 million annual visitors. This year has already surpassed the all-time yearly record for attendance with 2.23 million people. Yellowstone National Park, which an- nually attracts over 3 million people, is the fourth most visited in the U.S.
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championed the parks movement, and additional sites and monuments were authorized, including Glacier National Park in 1910.
It may seem hard to imagine today, but the creation of Glacier Park was far from popular among all the residents in Northwest Montana.
The Kalispell Chamber of Com- merce went on record opposing the park’s creation, citing the potential damage to the vital timber industry and future oil exploration in the region.
Yet the national park retained a pow- erful supporter that carried a significant amount of influence and helped secure
its passage. The Great Northern railway helped promote legislation creating Gla- cier Park. The president of the railroad, James J. Hill, was largely looking out for his best interests; his grand vision was to make the area the “Playground of the Northwest,” which would lead to visitors via rail. Hill’s influence in D.C. helped fuel Glacier’s passage, and when the park was created the railroad became the ma- jor concessionaire and developer of visi- tors’ facilities in the area.
Glacier arrived with a wave of other national parks that now make up over 450 natural, historical and cultural sites in the U.S. They also led to the
KISSED BY FIRE
WILDFIRE AND MONTANA HAVE BEEN INTERTWINED FOR CENTURIES
BY JUSTIN FRANZ
Wildfire played a role on the Mon- tana landscape long before President Abraham Lincoln agreed to make it a territory 150 years ago.
In 1804, William Clark noted the first recorded western wildfire near Fort Mandan, North Dakota, writing that it looked “tremendous” as it raced across the landscape. Lewis and Clark saw more blazes as they traveled west into what would eventually become Montana. And while wildfires were a rare spectacle to the newcomers from the east, anyone who has called the Treasure State home for a few years can tell you that fire is just part of life here.
But some seasons are more memo- rable than others, including the Big
Burn of 1910, when more than 3 mil- lion acres of Montana and Idaho were torched, destroying towns and killing 85 people.
While nowhere near as large as 1910’s Big Burn, the Yellowstone Na- tional Park fires of 1988 gained world- wide attention when 36 percent, or about 793,000 acres, of the park burned in just one season. The 1988 fire sea- sons was, up until that point, the most expensive wildfire season in American history, with more than $120 million spent to control the blazes.
Fire has also shaped Glacier Na- tional Park, particularly in 2003 when 136,000 acres, more than 13 percent of the park, burned in July, August and September.
“The 2003 summer is the pinnacle,” said fire ecologist Dennis Divoky. “2003 was the biggest.”
That summer the National Park Ser- vice responded to 26 different wildfires, six of which were larger than 10,000 acres. At different times, the fires forced the evacuation of West Glacier and the Many Glacier and Lake McDonald val-
Burned timber in Lolo National Forest, circa 1910. COURTESY U. S. FOREST SERVICE REGION ONE ARCHIVES
leys. No one was hurt but there were certainly close calls. On one night, as fire threatened the Granite Park Cha- let, a group of hikers hunkered down but three women decided to escape.
“That evening, we thought we had three fatalities in the park,” Divoky said. “I mean there was no way they could’ve survived.”
No one was ever reported missing and the next day all of the vehicles at The Loop were gone, meaning the three hikers most likely made it out alive.
More than a decade later the scars of that fire season can still be seen inside the park, a clear reminder of this state’s long history with fire.
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