The University of Montana Sawtooth Mountain on the Rocky Mountain Front Issue 2 - December 2012 Morton J. Elrod: Glacier Park Naturalist Morton Elrod Photographing Chaney Glacier, Glacier National Park, 1911, Photographer Unknown, Archives & Special Collections, Mansfield Library, The University of Montana—Missoula. Dispatches is a publication of The University of Montana’s Crown of the Continent Initiative and is an adjunct to the University of Montana’s Crown of the Continent E Magazine. It is issued periodically throughout the calendar year. For information contact
[email protected] Morton J. Elrod: THE Naturalist Editor’s note: This excerpt comes from a major piece on which “are but remnants of the larger ice masses Morton J. Elrod that George Dennison1 is writing on one which in former ages extended far into or over of Montana’s most eminent naturalist-educators. the valley on the east and down the stream and river valleys on the western slopes.” 6 ears before he accepted the offer of a summer position in Glacier Na- e constructed a set of notes con- tional Park, Morton J. Elrod had long cerning the “First Map of Glacier since succumbed to the allure of this National Park,” identifying the 2 Y“Priceless Pleasure Ground For All.” “For him various places with and those who seeks rest,” he rhapsodized, “for him who Hwithout names. The map either did not name or loves nature, for him who is weary of urban life identify the vast majority of places—as examples and its monotony, for him who can read sermons of unnamed places, Pumpelly Glacier, Lake El- in stones, Glacier Park speaks God’s own mes- len Wilson, Oberlin Mountain, Crosby Lake and sage.” Even earlier, prior to the enactment of Ridge, Lincoln Mountain, Mount Henkel, Mount the statute creating the Park, he made scientific Altyn, Josephine Lake, Ptarmigan Lake, Helm excursions into the area in 1906, 1909, and 1910, Lake, Elizabeth Lake, Kipp Mountain, Swift arguing for designation as a national park as Current Mountain, Sue Lake, Washboard Falls, 3 the only way to preserve it.