398 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



use than the Indians conld ever hope to accomplish. 

 Scenery there is in abundance, together with innumer- 

 able forms of wild life, and it was undoubtedly the 

 part of wisdom to open this most wonderful district 

 to the scenery loving citizens of the United States. But 

 to merely set aside an area and announce through a 

 small bulletin, 

 the total issue 

 of w h i c h 

 would not cir- 

 cularize the 

 residents of 

 St. Joe. hard- 

 ly constitutes 

 opening a 

 great scenic 

 area to a coun- 

 try of one 

 hundred mil- 

 lion popula- 

 tion; yet this is 

 practically all 

 that the Fed- 

 eral Govern- 

 ment has done 

 until a very 

 recent date. 

 That the peo- 

 ple of the 

 United States 

 are fairl\' well 

 informed 

 about the con- 

 ditions in Gla- 

 cier National 

 Park and that 

 they may trav- 

 el through it 

 in more or less 

 comfort, re- 

 c e i V i n g en 

 route cour- 

 teous attention 

 and that con- 

 s i d e r a t i o n 

 which is well 

 calculated to 

 sootlie the 

 temper of him 

 whose atten- 

 tion is inva- 

 riably concen- 

 trated on an empty stomach, is due almost entirely to the 

 efforts of Mr. Louis W. Hill and the Great Northern 

 Railroad. In turn, Air. Hill may thank such public- 

 spirited men as Air. Emerson Hough and Mr. George 

 Burt Grinnel for the real pioneering which resulted in 

 bringing this territory to public attention, for it was 

 largely Mr. Emerson's Hough's articles describing the 

 unsurpassed beauty of the hanging glaciers, sparkling 



WORTH MANY MILES OF TRAVELLING 



Tlie spectacular manner in which apparently isolated peaks raise their lofty crests to such great 

 altitudes that their reflections in the nearby lakes can only be secured from distant points, is 

 a characteristic of the formations in Glacier National Park. 



Streams and glorious lakes of this bit of transplanted 

 Switzerland, which first attracted the attention of nature 

 lovers throughout the country. 



Prior to the act whicli set the Park aside as such, 

 Mr. Hill had made many trips through the mountains 

 and no doubt used what influence the Interstate Com- 



m e r c e Com- 

 mission had 

 not amputated 

 to get the Park 

 created. This 

 was accom- 

 p 1 i s h e d in 

 1911, and de- 

 spite his repu- 

 tation as a 

 good business 

 man, Mr. Hill 

 immediately 

 began to 

 erect hotels, 

 chalets and 

 camps through- 

 out the Park 

 in the face of 

 the disastrous 

 experiences of 

 other conces- 

 sionaires who 

 had tried to 

 operate on a 

 paying basis 

 under Govern- 

 ment control 

 in the Nation- 

 al Parks. In 

 the meantime, 

 for the same 

 year, $15,000 

 only was ap- 

 propriated for 

 the adminis- 

 tration of this 

 Park, the area 

 of which is 

 1,531: square 

 miles. Since 

 that time it is 

 only fair to say 

 Congress has 

 appropriated in 

 all $320,000 up 

 to and including 1915, which sum, it should be 

 said, is less than one-quarter of the amount of 

 money that Mr. Hill has spent in the same time in the 

 same reservation. Perhaps it was the knowledge on the 

 part of those in authority that the railroad interest would 

 be forced to do this work in case the Government did 

 not. but in any case, the fact that there is a chain of 

 chalets crossing the Park, a large hotel at the eastern 



