Timeless Light
A Centennial Collection of Glacier National Park
Before it was a “Park”
Before it was a Park it was a place.
A place shaped by oceans, wind, rain and ice.
A place where plants and animals struggled to survive, adapted and thrived.
A sacred place to some; the Backbone of the World.
An obstacle to others; to Meriwether Lewis insurmountable,
to Stevens and the railroad to be surveyed and conquered.
It was a place to be exploited; to search for North Fork oil or minerals at Altyn.
And ultimately a place to be treasured, preserved, and shared with future generations.
The Art of Wilderness
Wilderness, such as Glacier National Park, is thankful to many for its ongoing preservation of its million acres of land. Arguably, much of the credit is due to the artists of the past and present. Beginning in the 1870s and 1880s painters and photographers regularly accompanied government sponsored surveying expeditions to the West, bringing back exciting images of Yellowstone, the Rocky Mountains, and Yosemite.
Artists took on the "call of the wild" in words, paint, and photography. Authors, such as George Bird Grinnell and Mary Reinhart spoke for this vast wildness and shared it with everyone they encountered. Painters, such as Charlie Russell, Winold Reiss, and John Fery illustrated the cultural and natural history that could be found under the "Big Sky". Photographers, such as TJ Hilemann captured striking views of the high alpine glaciers and intricate flora.
In the following decades a number of national parks were created, including Glacier National Park in Montana (1910). The National Park Service, established to coordinate the management of parklands, was created by an act of Congress in 1916. The national parks were controversial from the beginning, primarily because powerful commercial interests were opposed to removing land from potential exploitation. As a result the government moved slowly and cautiously in establishing these areas.
Without the Artists of Wilderness as it was being explored, we may not have as an intact ecosystem such as the "Crown of the Continent".
Future of our National Parks
Remaining Relevant
An occasion such as a centennial is not just a time to look back; it also affords the opportunity to ponder the future. What will Glacier National Park be in the next 100 years? The next thousand years? The next million years?
There will be changes that will come that will be outside the influence of mankind. Forrest fires, the disappearance of the glaciers, the extinction of grizzly bears or other mega-fauna, a shift from forests to grasslands or the eventual erosion of all mountains to the ocean. No matter what we do these changes when they come will be inevitable.
But there may be changes in which we will have a say. The limits of acceptable change. The decision to build more lodging or remove obsolete buildings, the desire to repair a road or to implement a new transportation plan, the use of technology to bring the Park to far away people in real time, expanding on the modern miracle of webcams. There may be technology that we can not even now conceive that will enhance the visitor’s experience.
There is a desire by some to preserve special places as they are; to take a snapshot as it is now and lock it in the safety deposit box of time. This is not possible. In truth special places have always been dynamic. To the extent that we accept the inevitable change and try to influence the discretionary change we will be honoring memory of those Park stewards who have gone before us.
Significant Themes
To ensure that the park remains meaningful and relevant to all peoples, Glacier National Park focuses outreach, interpretation, and education around 6 significant themes.
Glacier’s scenery dramatically illustrates an exceptionally long geologic history including many geological processes associated with mountain building and glaciation.
Glacier offers relatively accessible spectacular scenery and increasingly rare primitive wilderness experiences.
The enduring connection between the Blackfeet, Salish, and Kootenai peoples and the landscape and resources of the area is reflected through their history, traditions, language, and contemporary values.
Glacier is at the core of the ‘Crown of the Continent’ ecosystem, one of the most ecologically intact areas remaining in the temperate regions of the world.
Glacier’s cultural resources chronicle the history of human activities (prehistoric people, American Indians, early explorers, railroad development, and modern use and visitation) that show that people have long placed high value on the area’s natural features.
Waterton-Glacier is the world’s first international peace park.