Glacier National Park, which includes over one million acres of Rocky Mountain scenery, was designated as the country's 10th national park in 1910. The Great Northern Railway soon began building a series of hotels and chalets throughout the park. Early visitors typically arrived by train at East Glacier or West Glacier. They journeyed through the mountains each day on horseback and stayed at a different hotel or chalet at night. The completion of Going-to-the-Sun Road in the early 1930s made it much easier for visitors to experience the awesome scenery of the park itself and for motorists from the eastern and western United States to enter the park. Even today, the only other roads in the park are short access roads to hotels, visitor centers, campgrounds, and trails.
1. Locate Glacier National Park on Map 1. How would you describe its location? How might the location of the park and the lack of roads through the park have impacted early visitation?
2. How did most visitors experience Glacier National Park in the early 20th century?
3. Today the vast majority of visitors arrive by car. Almost all drive on Going-to-the-Sun Road, the only road crossing the park. What would be some of the advantages and disadvantages of having only one major road through such a large park?
4. Trace the route of Going-to-the-Sun Road on Map 2. Suggest some reasons why the route curves.
* The maps on this screen have a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a larger version of Map 1 and Map 2, but be aware that each file may take as much as 35 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.