Voice of the Glacier Park Foundation I Winter 2004 I Volume XVIII, No. 1 The Fires of 2003: An Anthology Also Inside: • Lake McDonald Lodge in the ‘40s • Wrangler Tales • Backing out of an Avalanche • On the Trail with David Paulus Smoke shrouds Glacier’s landscape. A foreboding wind brings a threat of annihilation to the Glacier Park we have known. (Mary Grace Galvin Photo) The Inside Trail Fall 2003 1 Glacier Park Fires of 2003 Six major fires burned more than 135,000 acres of forest in Glacier National Park in the summer of 2003. This is roughly 13% of Glacier’s total area (including bare rock, water, ice, and snow). The destruction could have been much worse. Lives might have been lost when the fires made sudden runs toward populated areas and Going- to-the-Sun Road. Fires came very Map courtesy of the Glacier Park website, close to burning Apgar, West Gla- cier, Park Headquarters, and irre- firefighting crews. Backfires and other withering heat. The Glacier Park placeable historic lodges. tactical maneuvers were conducted Foundation salutes these determined with great skill. Many hundreds of crews for preserving lives and minimiz- Such disasters were averted by the hard firefighters labored for weeks on end in ing damage to the Park. and skillful work of interagency Glacier Park Foundation Officers: P.O. Box 15641 John Hagen, President Minneapolis, MN 55415 Einar Hanson, First Vice President www.glacierparkfoundation.org Carol Dahle, Vice President - Member- The Inside Trail takes its ship Board of Directors: Mac Willemssen, Secretary name from the famous old Tessie Bundick Tessie Bundick, Historian trail which connected Gla- Laura Chihara Jim Lees, Treasurer cier Park Lodge with the Janet Eisner Cornish Rolf Larson, Inside Trail Editor Carol Repulski Dahle vanished chalets at Two Joyce Daugaard The Glacier Park Foundation was Medicine, Cut Bank, and St. Glen Elvig formed by Glacier Park employees Lee Flath and visitors who have a deep love Mary. The name thus em- David Gilbertson for this special place. The Founda- phasizes the publication’s John Hagen tion is commited both to the focus on the lore and history Einar Hanson importance of wilderness preserva- Paul Hoff tion and to the importance of places of Glacier National Park. Mark Hufstetler like Glacier as classrooms where We invite submission of people can experience wilderness Jeff Kuhn in intense meaningful ways, historical, scientific, or Linda Young Kuhn learning not only a love for the land, anecdotal articles, commen- Rolf Larson but also a respect that nurtures the Leroy Lott skills necessary to preserve that tary, poetry, or artwork for Greg Notess land. The Foundation has a special publication in future issues. Mac Willemssen interest in Glacier Park’s history, traditions and visitor facilities. 2 Fall 2003 The Inside Trail THE FIRES OF 2003: A Synopsis Grinnell Point brooding like Mt. Vesuvius above Many Glacier Hotel, enshrouded by the smoke of the Trapper Fire. (John Hagen Photo) 500-foot flames raging into the night racing uphill to Swiftcurrent Pass. towns. Helicopters and air tankers sky on the shores of Lake Next morning the Many Glacier dropped retardant and water to McDonald. Fire blazing on Valley was evacuated and hundreds buffer them from the backfires. Swiftcurrent Pass, endangering the of lodge employees were sent to East During early August, the fires smol- Many Glacier Valley. Diners aban- Glacier. dered. Then, on August 10, high doning half-eaten meals to evacuate winds blew up the Robert Fire again. Lake McDonald Lodge. Helicopters Meanwhile, the Robert Fire was Within a matter of hours, it ran up dropping incendiary “ping-pong threatening the west entrance to the the western shore of Lake McDonald, balls” to set off tactical backfires. Park. Robert started through human generating enormous flames. As These are some of the enduring activity southwest of Glacier Park on night fell, the McDonald Valley was images of Glacier Park’s 2003 fire July 23. It quickly spread into hastily evacuated again. The valley season. Glacier, burning over much of the Apgar Mountains. The McDonald remained full of smoke for weeks as the The fires began in the middle of July, Valley was evacuated. On July 28, fire continued to expand. with moisture levels in vegetation at 500 residents fled the town of West Meanwhile, more lightning strikes record lows. Lightning strikes on Glacier. touched off large fires along the July 16 touched off several fires Park’s south side. For nearly two which would grow to huge propor- Backfires were set outside West months, from mid-July to early tions. These included the Trapper Glacier and Apgar to interdict the September, there was no significant Creek fire in the upper McDonald fire. The enormous updraft of the rain. At last, on September 8, heavy Valley, the Wedge Creek Fire just Robert Fire sucked the backfires rains drew the most destructive fire outside Glacier in the North Fork, westward into the main conflagra- season in Glacier’s history toward a and the Wolf Gun Fire in the tion. This process created a burned- close. Livingston Range. out firebreak protecting the two The Trapper Creek Fire spread 500-foot flames raging into the night sky on the shores steadily over West Flattop Mountain, of Lake McDonald. Fire blazing on Swiftcurrent Pass, sending smoke over much of the endangering the Many Glacier Valley. Diners Park. On July 23, it exploded abandoning half-eaten meals to evacuate Lake dramatically, overrunning the Loop McDonald Lodge. on Going-to-the-Sun Road and then The Inside Trail Fall 2003 3 The Explosion of the Trapper Fire A Lookout’s View By Christine Baker There was no mistaking it when Trap- taking leave. Conditions were per decided to make its move. I was Back at the Swiftcurrent Fire Lookout heating up in Glacier. Temps were looking right at it when it did. That after a 10-year hiatus at Huckleberry high and fuel moistures were abys- wimpy white column suddenly grew Lookout was like heaven in 2001. mally low. I had this wild card tall, turned to brown, then black. Then Oh, I loved my time at Huckleberry— hunch that I might not be home it was wider ... and moving. I remem- the bears, the North Fork, the fire again for a long, long time. Nothing ber calling the Fire Cache and trying to challenges—but I almost felt like it I could put into words or even share sound calm, controlled — but feeling was retirement for me to be back at with my husband Bob, but I found that this was pretty darn outrageous Swifty. Let the North Fork lookouts myself boxing up double rations for and that they’d better get on the stick do all the heavy work—I’d just look my next pack trip. I didn’t really and DO something. “It’s crowning!” I out over all this beautiful, nonflam- know why – I just did it. As it remember saying, and it was … and mable scenery all summer and inter- turned out, those would prove to be moving fast. pret for visitors. the last four days off I would have Now, a crowning fire is a big concern— Wrong. 2003 would set me right. It for the rest of the summer. kind of like that magic number “7” on would prove to be one for the history When I arrived back at Swiftcurrent, the California earthquake scales. I kept books, and would show us all once Flattop Mountain was puffing here telling myself not to panic. After all, more just why those hard-bitten old and there, but the smokes just this was in the middle of Flattop park planners had decided back in weren’t that impressive. The light- Mountain—there’s just not as much 1936 to build a lookout atop—of all ning storm had planted its seeds, but that a fire can really hurt there. Granite places—Swiftcurrent Mountain. nothing much was showing yet. I Park was a concern, but the fire move- I drove home for lieu days that hot settled in, put a little extra care into ment was toward the northeast, and July weekend, all the while trying to my afternoon scans, and turned my Granite looked okay—at first. My real ignore the nagging feeling in the pit of attention to my revised lesson plans concern was Swiftcurrent Valley, and my stomach that I really shouldn’t be for Beowulf. making sure nothing remotely resem- bling a spark would ever touch an east 4 Fall 2003 The Inside Trail Station all night, should an evacua- side fir tree. What was happening on Michael Ober called on the radio and tion become necessary. Flattop was huge, but that fire had asked if that was my car parked there lots of bare rock and a couple of at the Loop. I told him where my Night fell, and finally I could see the glaciers here and there to cross before spare keys were hidden, thinking, fire appear through the smoke as a it could even touch the east side. “They can’t do anything—they’re just thousand points of flame and torch- Surely it couldn’t cross the Divide ...? booking trying to get visitors out of ing trees. It was like looking at the there. I wonder if we’re paid up on Milky Way from Babb on a clear I can remember using the word our insurance?” At this point I called evening. So humbling. The sheer “surreal” a lot in my journal that Bob on the cell and told him to get area of land that the fire had traveled afternoon.