Greetings from Glacier National Park

In 1965, my Dad became the Engineer/Winter Caretaker at Many Glacier. He started working there in April and the rest of the family moved up in June after my sister graduated from High School in Great Falls. We lived there until November 1969.

In the summer there were all the college student employees at the hotel plus all the visitors so there were loads of people around. I like horses so became friends with the horse concessioner right off and took many rides around the valley and over passes to other valleys. I got to know many of the students that were there each summer, also the “jammer” bus drivers (the old red buses that go across Going-to-the-Sun) and quite a few of the visitors. I was 14 when we moved there so I didn’t work the first 2 summers but then I worked as a maid.

In the winter it was only us–Mom, Dad, my sister and my grandmother. They didn’t plow the 12 miles between us and the mailbox so we would go out once a week to get the mail. I learned how to snowshoe (snowshoes came with the cabin we lived in) and enjoyed digging tunnels through the snowdrifts and caves in different corners. One time I found the signs that our resident lynx had checked out my excavations. And I helped Dad shovel snow from the balconies at the hotel. With all these interesting things to do, I really didn’t want to study but I was in high school and I had to. It was high school by mail, of course, and I really did learn a lot. I can remember when I took earth science. The teacher sent a questionnaire–“What geologic features do you see from your front door?” Three glaciers, hanging valley, waterfall, glacier lake, etc. Then when the book talked about cirques, and had a picture of Iceberg Lake, I sent my teacher a picture of me on an iceberg in Iceberg Lake–it wasn’t that far from my house and I went up there 2 or 3 times each summer.

Anyway, I had quite an experience in Glacier. The last spring I met a guy (we just had our 45 anniversary) and we stay in touch with the park even though we live further away now. If you want to know more about my time there–musicals in the summer for example–let me know. I wrote a series for the Hungry Horse news when Glacier was celebrating its centennial in 2010.

Sincerely,
Linda Z. Hurlock