362 
FOREST AND STREAM 
March 22, 1913 
TOURISTS AT SPERRY GLACIER CAMP. 
Photograph copyright by Kiser Photo Co. for Great Northern Railway. 
noises untold, clash and clang of a thousand 
and one of the elements of the industrial world, 
and rareh' hearing anything but the voice of 
civilization, then to suddenly leave all this far, 
far behind as though to shut the eye and close 
the ears, awakening to find yourself in a fairy¬ 
land replete in the graces of the all-redeeming 
mother, nature. You will look upon the essence 
of reality, awe-inspired and baffled, and you 
will be called upon to draw comparisons of the 
scenes you left behind, and these, the very height 
of worldly e.xpression, the worth while things 
in life. 
It is a well recognized fact that the things 
most beautiful and complete we find the hardest 
to picture as we should and would like to, and 
so it is with this great national playground of 
the North. It is the acme of natural perfec¬ 
tion, containing such a multitude of beauties, 
so many untold wonders, such mightiness and 
solemnity that the soul pauses, subject to the 
unbroken silence that permeates the inspiring 
atmosphere and robs the tongue of its fondest 
wish. Many will know the feeling of the gifted 
poet, who, to some extent at least, can give 
word to the emotions stirring within him; but 
mere man, ungifted and wholly human, can but 
look and feel it all, storing away in his clear 
memory those pictures, never to be erased, but 
to be recalled with fond recollections. Hun¬ 
dreds upon hundreds of lakes, waterfalls with¬ 
out number, peaks rising here, there and every¬ 
where, one has but to move from place to place, 
always seeing something new and every bit of 
it of interest. Now, there is one big point I 
wish to bear upon. How often, indeed, 
have we visited a much talked of .place 
only to find it bare of the pictured attrac¬ 
tions, lacking, and sometimes inferior, with 
but one or two places within the radius of the 
spot truly worthy of the name. But the in¬ 
ferior overshadows the. worthy, and one will 
leave unsatisfied and more or less disgusted, the 
whole vacation spoiled. The person who would 
go to the Glacier National Park and come out 
disgusted is indeed of a most unusual and exact¬ 
ing nature, and one in a hundred—yes, one in a 
hundred, for with such an abundance to draw 
from, such a great territory to revel in to the 
heart’s content, so many glories to witness, surely 
one must be an exotic not to be appeased. And 
you will be satisfied; there is no doubt about 
it. If you have never before looked upon the 
eternal hills, snow-capped and fringed in haze 
of the purest luster, then let your initial glory 
find its expression on this remarkable spot where 
days come and days go, each a repetition of the 
one just passed by, but now changable indeed 
if you journey along, from place to place, ever 
greeted by some degree of newness, some seem¬ 
ingly incomprehensible display, some mightiness 
in which one may read the everlasting lesson! 
This is not a summer resort of the order you 
will find in the East, or even in the West, sur¬ 
rounding a treasured spot, a spot that acts as 
a magnet to the tourists, and which will be built 
up with a hundred and one places where the 
money may be weeded from the vacation spend¬ 
thrifts. No, indeed. You will find the best of 
accommodation here; you will find superior 
hotels and resting places all through the moun¬ 
tains, but never will you be assaulted by the 
sense that civilization has intruded upon this 
favored domain, for ,it lies before your eyes 
wholly the same as when the Creator left it 
at the end of his toil. You will have the seem¬ 
ing trifle of civilization needed for jmur bene¬ 
fit and enjoyment, and this man will w'elcome you 
with open arms, but aside from that nothing 
will intrude upon the mind to spoil the infinite 
picture as you will conceive of it, and as you 
will witness it in the bright hour of realization. 
You will get the fullness of your dreams, 
the same which cannot be said of other places 
you have heard about and which you conceive 
to be the empire of beauty and all the phases 
connected with it. In all the Rockies you will 
find no place quite so interesting as this national 
park; you have your Grand Canon to the south¬ 
ward. In its place it is without comparison, but 
the two are as different as night and day. Yes, 
vastly so. Two phases of nature’s wonder that 
baffles the sense of expression. If you doubt 
this, tell me where you have read a glorious and 
immortal piece of literature dealing with the 
beauties of either of these places, and I would 
be interested in reading them. Next to the Yel¬ 
lowstone National Park in size, truly this region 
is a credit to the Government in setting it aside 
for the benefit of its people. It fulfills its pur¬ 
pose, it gives mortal man a glimpse of the greater 
and the better as no other place on the face of 
North America can. One thousand four hundred 
acres of virgin territory, a multitude of moun¬ 
tains, glaciers, cascades, minor waterfalls, stately 
pines, the home of the giant grizzly bear, the 
black-tailed deer, the black bear, the big-horn 
sheep, watched over by the soaring eagle, at 
home in those cloud-wrapt clefts. And in those 
inimitable pools, picturing an endless panorama 
of colors, lie the waiting trout. Icy cold and 
clear to the smallest atom, the water in this 
region is the height of perfection as a home 
for these hardy, poetic fish, the taking of which 
forms such an attraction to many of us each 
year, when the season rolls around on its annual 
visit. Here you have the acme of fishing. This 
is the fly-fisher’s wonderland. Here you will 
find no “keep out’’ signs to smite your con¬ 
sciousness one right between the eyes, but will 
be able to roam at will and stop wherever night 
shall find you, to continue on in the morning 
and fish to your heart’s content. The Govern¬ 
ment combines the whole of the people. You 
are one of the people; you are of the fellows 
that thought this would be a good preserve for 
your benefit, and now that you are on it, you 
will take out your rights, and no one is going 
to lie in wait for you with a shotgun loaded 
with salt and pepper. Go to is the motto, and 
