The Crown of the Continent: Private Enterprise and Public Interest in the Early Development of Glacier National Park, 1910–17

Abstract

T he early development of Glacier National Park was inextricably tied to the interests of Louis W. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railway. Seeking to benefit from the new park's proximity to his company's rail lines, the powerful railroad chieftain invested heavily in Glacier's hotels, chalets, and tent camps, and in promoting the park, expecting in return that public monies would be expended on bridge, road, and trail improvements. The tenuous symbiotic relationship that resulted initially served park and railroad interests well, but the alliance began to fragment in 1916 as the newly created National Park Service under the leadership of Stephen Mather set about interpreting its mandate. When Congress established Glacier National Park in 1910, the secretary of the interior was faced with the challenge of administering some 915,000 acres that included over "60 glaciers, 250 lakes, immense forests of pine and cedar, innumerable streams and waterfalls, and mountain peaks, rising from 6,000to 10,000-feet high, together with any variety of fish and game known in that latitude" as "a pleasure ground" for the American people' A portion of Glacier had been carved out of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, and the immediate problem of patrolling the new park was solved by transferring several forest rangers to Glacier in May 1910. These included William A. Owings, Frank F. Liebig, and the flamboyant Joe Cosley, who sought to perpetuate his presence in Glacier by regularly carving his name in handy trees as well as helping himself to the protected wildlife of the park. 2 The new rangers were somewhat mystified by their new assignment. They had no laws or rules to enforce nor any immediate supervision until the arrival in August of Glacier's first superintendent, Major William R. Logan, from the nearby Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. 3 A consummate bureaucrat who enjoyed the support of influential political figures like Senator Thomas Carter of Montana, Logan had campaigned actively for the Glacier position, motivated not by an altruistic interest in conservation but rather by the career potential of the superintendency. 4 In administering the nascent park, Logan faced a series of immediate challenges, not the least of which was his nebulous mandate under the enabling legislations Although Glacier had precedents, notably nearby Yellowstone National Park, Interior Department officials were still struggling with the concept of a "park." This philosophical vacuum was exacerbated by the department's lack of an administrative network to deal with the routine of park management. Until 1915 most decisions were made by a harassed clerk, who attempted to implement whatever policies were promulgated by either the secretary or the president. 6 One such clerk, Clement Ucker, who often dealt with Glacier, admitted, "No particular official has the time at his disposal to give these various national parks the administrative attention and the planning of general policy which they demand." 7 Another impediment confronting Logan was geography. Separating east and west Glacier is a section of the Continental Divide. These sedimentary mountains formed an imposing obstacle to communication and travel between the two park segments, an obstacle not overcome until completion of the transmountain road (or as it became known, the Going-to-the-Sun Highway) in the 1930s. Logan knew park geography from earlier visits with renowned geologist Raphael Pumpelly in 1882 and 1883. The decision to establish administrative facilities on the west side of the park probably resulted from Logan's conclusion that visitors would come from communities to the south of Glacier, at least in the early years. Logan's first priority though, was dealing with the conflagrations that threatened to devastate several sections of the new park. For this, he called on fire-fighting personnel provided by the U.S. Forest Service. Using Forest Service personnel as fire fighters freed up the Glacier personnel to patrol the park—