University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1990 Grinnell's Glacier Gerald Allen Diettert The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Diettert, Gerald Allen, "Grinnell's Glacier" (1990). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 2485. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/2485 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mike and Maureen MANSFIELD LIBRARY Copying allowed as provided under provisions of the Fair Use Section of the U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW, 1976. Any copying for commercial purposes or financial gain may be undertaken only with the author's written consent. MontanaUniversity of GRINNELL'S GLACIER Gerald A. Diettert B.A., University of Montana, 1984 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts University of Montana 1990 Approved by: Chairman, Board of Examiners ean. Graduate School Cl.-us*s. 24. Date /J UMI Number: EP36191 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT DtsMrtaiion Pyfciiahing UMI EP36191 Published by ProQuest LLC (2012). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ii Diettert, Gerald A., M.A., 1990 History Grinnell's Glacier (181 pp.) Director: H. Duane Hampton 4.V\i The history of the creation of Glacier National Park has been flawed by myth and misconception, in part due to the self-effacing personality of George Bird Grinnell. A more accurate picture can be uncovered by using Grinnell's file of approximately 31,000 personal letters, his diaries and journals, the weekly sporting journal Forest and Stream and other primary materials. Grinnell, the editor of Forest and Stream, first heard of the St. Mary's Lake region in 1885 and went there to hunt. Fascinated by the rugged, unexplored country, he returned many times, abandoning hunting to explore the area, mapping and naming many geographic features and informing his readers of the beauty of the place in the pages of his magazine. During earlier visits to the West, Grinnell witnessed the wholesale destruction of game animals and changes in Native American culture, stimulating interests that led him to become one of America's first conservationists and a leading Indian ethnologist. He founded the Audubon Society in 1886 and, with Theodore Roosevelt, organized the Boone and Crockett Club in 1887. From 1882 until the passage of the Lacey Act in 1894, he led a crusade to protect Yellowstone National Park from private exploitation. In 1891, Grinnell first envisioned the preservation of the St. Mary's Lake region as a national park but discoveries of copper, silver and oil delayed his plans. In the meantime, he served on a commission that led to the purchase of the area from the Blackfeet Indians yet protected the tribe's interests. When the prospecting excitement subsided, he used his influence with important Montanans, members of the Boone and Crockett Club and the pages of Forest and Stream to secure the introduction of legislation to create the national park. Continued persuasion and pressure from him resulted in the ultimate passage of the bill. Although Louis Hill and the Great Northern Railroad have been given credit for the creation of Glacier National Park, no evidence supports this view. Grinnell, because of his humility, has not received recognition as the Father of Glacier National Park. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS I. The Last Visit 1 II. The Out-of-Doors Life 7 III. "To the Walled-In Lakes," 1885 28 IV. "Hunting a Glacier." 1887 54 V. The Concept, 1891 72 VI. First Step, The Ceded Strip, 1895 93 VII. "The Crown of the Continent" 112 VIII. Pushing a Bill, Uphill 130 IX. The Descent 152 Bibliography 174 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CAS Connecticut Audubon Society F&S Forest and Stream Magazine FEM Francois E. Matthes GBG George Bird Grinnell GHG George H. Gould GNRR Great Northern Railroad Collection JBM J. B. "Jack" Monroe LHN Luther H. "Lute" North R Microfilm Reel Number SWM Southwest Museum THC Thomas H. Carter V To my Mother and Father for giving me an interest in history. To my Wife for encouraging my curiosity, To my Professor for teaching me the ways. yi "The steps which led to the establishment of the Glacier National Park have already been forgotten by most people. That, after all, is not important. The great thing is that this beautiful region has been saved for the public..." George Bird Grinnell, 1914 1 GRINNELL'S GLACIER I The Last Visit George Bird Grinnell and his wife. Elizabeth, arrived at Many Glacier Hotel on July 11, 1926, "unheralded and unannounced." Also unrecognized, they were "given a noisy room by the boys acting as room clerks." 2 Morton J. Elrod, a professor of Biology at the University of Montana who spent his summers employed as the Glacier National Park Naturalist, discovered Grinnell in the lobby the following morning. The two men talked together until late in the evening. Grinnell learned of Elrod*s little museum of labeled flowers and "a lot of named rocks," supplemented by photographs that illustrated Park geology. Elrod found that the visitor was anxious to travel to "his glacier" once more, having last ridden there with his wife three years before. Though Grinnell feared his age of seventy-six would prevent him from making the climb, he accepted Elrod's offer to accompany him. 3 1 2 The next day. July 13. Grinnell rode up under "his mountain" alone the north side of Lake Josephine and observed that the glacier was melting very fast. "All these glaciers are receding rapidly and after a time will disappear." he predicted. When Grinnell returned to the hotel. Elrod. who had been at East Glacier to meet a party of geologists from Princeton University, proposed that they go to the glacier the next day. In typical self-effacement. Grinnell wondered in his diary. "Much talk about going there in my company. Why?" 4 A small party volunteered to accompany the two men. Elizabeth felt ill as she often did when accompanying her husband in the mountains and did not make the trip. They started for the glacier at about eleven o'clock the next day and traveled the first six or seven miles on horseback. The first part of the ride passed through the woods to Grinnell Lake, then crossed a ford on the old Kootenay Indian trail at the head of Lake Josephine. Prom there, a series of steep switchbacks, constructed before by copper prospectors, led up the great red cliffs of the east face of Grinnell Mountain. On a rocky shelf, a new trail turned off to the west. After about a half mile of level open travel, the party reached a small rushing stream, its cold water cascading down from several snowbanks above as it leaped down the cliffs to turquoise Grinnell Lake far below. A narrow trail due to protruding rock ledges made the remaining two miles impassable for horses and had to be 3 completed on foot. ® The party stopped for lunch beside a small stream In a tiny valley bordered by the last grove of stunted Sub-Alpine Fir. Across the stream, the rubble of the lateral moraine rose abruptly on the north side of the glacier. Refreshed, they climbed over the moraine and up onto the ice of the glacier, the surface "covered with slush and running water." Elrod asked Hans Riess, a Swiss guide who had dust conducted a party of twenty over the glacier, to accompany them and he roped them together, "all except Elrod." As they wandered over the ice, Qrinnell noted great changes in the glacier since he had first visited it in 1887, thirty-nine years before. Then ice had extended over 100 feet higher to the top of the northern lateral moraine and against the face of the mountain to the top of the Garden Wall, while below it reached almost to the edge of the ledge where, on the ice, Orinnell had killed a huge ram sheep. Even the ice caves where he and Elizabeth had been photographed three years before had disappeared. ^ Their exploration completed, the party climbed down the moraine to the trail. "Leg weary," Grinnell fell twice. "Everyone was sympathetic about my progress..." He felt stronger after a rest of half an hour and some coffee, mounted his horse and "trotted all the way back," reaching the hotel about nine in the evening. ? Earlier, while standing on "his glacier," looking east over the valley of the Swift Current, he could see Appekunny 4 Mountain standing out behind the bulk of Mt. Henkle, and Allen Mountain guarding the other valley flank to the south. To his right stood massive Mt. Gould and its shoulder, Mt. Monroe. On his left, Mt. Wilbur and Grinnell, "my mountain," filled his view.