GLACIER Circular of General Information 1936

ADMINISTRATION

The representative of the National Park Service in immediate charge of the park is the superintendent, E. T. Scoyen, Belton, Mont.

William H. Lindsay is United States commissioner for the park and holds court in all cases involving violations of park regulations.

NATURALIST SERVICE

A daily schedule of popular guided trips afield, all-day hikes, boat trips, camp-fire entertainments, and illustrated lectures is maintained at Many Glacier, Going-to-the-Sun, Roes Creek, Two Medicine, Lake McDonald, Sprague Creek, and Avalanche Auto Camp Grounds, the leading tourist centers. Naturalists who conduct local field trips and walks to nearby Hidden Lake and Clements Glacier are stationed at Logan Pass daily from 9 to 4.

Interesting trails with pertinent features, artistically labeled, are maintained at several centers.

A small museum dealing with popular local natural history subjects is maintained throughout July and August at Many Glacier Ranger Station. Cut-flower exhibits are installed at various hotels and chalets, and an exhibit of rock specimens is in the lobby of Many Glacier Hotel.

Requests from special parties desiring ranger naturalist assistance are given every consideration. All park visitors are urged to avail themselves of the services of the naturalists who are there to assist them in learning of the untold wonders that abound everywhere in the park. Acceptance of gratuities for this free service is strictly forbidden.

For complete information on naturalist schedules and types of service offered consult the free pamphlet, Ranger-Naturalist Service, Glacier National Park.

AUTOMOBILE CAMP GROUNDS

For the use of the motoring public a system of free automobile camp grounds has been developed on both sides of the park. On the east side, these camps are located at Two Medicine, Cutbank, Roes Creek, and Many Glacier. The west side camps are at Bowman Lake, Avalanche Creek, and Lake McDonald. Pure water, firewood, cook stoves, and sanitary facilities are available, but campers must bring their own equipment.

POST OFFICES

The United States post offices are located at Glacier Park, Mont., Belton, Mont., Polebridge, Mont., and (during summer season) Lake McDonald, Mont., at Lake McDonald Hotel, and Apgar, at the foot of Lake McDonald. Mail for park visitors should include in the address the name of the stopping place as well as the post office.

MISCELLANEOUS

Telegraph and express service is available at all points of concentration. Qualified nurses are in attendance at the hotels and both sides of the park, and there is a resident physician at Glacier Park Hotel.

THE PARK'S GEOLOGIC STORY

The mountains of Glacier National Park are made up of many layers of limestone and other rocks formed from sediments deposited under water. The rocks show ripple marks which were made by waves when the rock material was soft sand and mud. Raindrop impressions and sun cracks show that the mud from time to time was exposed to rains and the drying action of the air. These facts indicate that the area now known as "Glacier Park" was once covered by a shallow sea. At intervals muds were laid down which later became consolidated into rocks known as "shales" and "argillites." Limy or calcareous muds were changed into limestone. The geologist estimates that these depositions were made several hundred million years ago.

In the plains area east of the mountains are other lime and mud formations. These are younger and softer than the rocks which make up the mountains but were undoubtedly formed under much the same conditions. These contain much higher forms of life, such as fish and shells.

When originally laid down all these layers must have been nearly horizontal, just as they are deposited today in bodies of standing water all over the world. Then came a time when the sea slowly but permanently withdrew from the area by an uplift of the land, which since that time has been continuously above sea level. This uplift, one of the greatest in the history of the region, marks the beginning of a long period of stream erosion which has carved the mountains of Glacier National Park.

UPLIFT AND FAULTING

The geologist observes that the rock layers are no longer in the horizontal position in which they were laid down. There are folds in the rocks and many breaks or faults cutting across the layers. Furthermore, the oldest rocks in the region are found to be resting on the youngest rocks of the adjacent plains. One of the best examples of this is to be seen at Chief Mountain where the ancient limestone rests directly on the young shale below (fig. 1). The same relationship is visible in Cutbank, St. Mary, and Swiftcurrent Valleys. In these areas, however, the exact contact is not always so easy to locate principally because of the debris of weathered rocks that have buried them. What has happened? How did this peculiar relationship come about. The answers to these questions unravel one of the grandest stories in earth history. Forces deep in the earth slowly gathered energy until finally the stress became so great that the rocky crust began to move.

FIGURE 1.—Sketch showing structure of Chief Mountain. The ancient limestone above is not appreciably altered, but the lower part is broken up by many oblique thrust faults. The entire mountain is composed of ancient rocks and rests on shale of a very much younger age. After Bailey Willis.

The probable results of the movement in the crust of the earth are shown in the diagram (fig. 2). Section A represents a cross section of the Glacier Park region, as it most likely appeared, immediately following the long period of sedimentation. The rock strata are horizontal. Section B shows the same region after the rock layers have been slightly wrinkled due to the forces from the southwest. The pressure, although slightly relieved by the bending, still persisted and the folds were greatly enlarged as shown in section C. At this stage the folds reached their breaking limit, and when the pressure continued the strata broke in a number of places as indicated by dotted lines in the diagram. As a result of this fracturing, the rocks on the west side of the folds were pushed upward and over the rocks on the east, as shown in section D. The mountain rocks (represented by patterns of cross lines) were shoved over the rocks of the plains (represented in white), producing what is known as an "overthrust fault." It has been estimated that the rocks have moved a distance of at least 15 miles.

FIGURE 2.—The Lewis overthrust. Diagram illustrating how pressure from the northwest affected the rocks of the Glacier Park region.

As the rocks on the west were thrust northeastward and upward they made, in all probability, a greatly elevated region. They did not, however, at any time project into the air, as indicated in section D, because as soon as the rocky mass was uplifted, streams began to wear it away and to cut deep canyons in its upland portion. The rocks of the mountains, owing to their resistant character, are not worn away as rapidly as the plains formations with the result that great thicknesses of limestone and argillite tower above the plains. Where the older, more massive strata overlie the soft rocks the mountains are terminated by precipitous walls as shown in section E. This explains the absence of foothills that is so conspicuous a feature of this mountain front and one in which it differs from most other ranges.

On these abrupt and exposed slopes the streams have cut deep gorges through the hard mountain rocks exposing the actual trace of the fault as an irregular line zig-zagging from spur to valley. The visitor may observe this line as it skirts the base of Mad Wolf, White Calf, Divide, Curley Bear, Singleshot, Wynn, Appekunny, East Flattop, Chief, and numerous other mountains at the eastern edge of the range. It is also possible to recognize the fault line as it crosses the valleys. In St. Mary Valley it produces the Narrows, and in Swiftcurrent it forms the rock barrier over which the waters of Swiftcurrent Creek drop a short distance northeast of Many Glacier Hotel.

Canadian dogwood.

THE WORK OF STREAMS AND GLACIERS

While the region now known as "Glacier National Park" was being uplifted and faulted, the streams were continually at work. The sand and other abrasive material being swept along on the beds of the streams slowly wore away much of the rock. The uplift gave the streams new life and they consequently cut deep valleys into the mountain area. As time went on the streams cut farther and farther back into the mountain mass until they dissected it, leaving instead of an upland plateau a region of ridges and sharp peaks. This erosional process which has carved the mountains of Glacier Park has produced most of the mountains of the world.

Following the early erosional history of Glacier Park, described above, there came a period of much colder climate during which time heavy snows fell and large ice fields were formed throughout the mountain region. At the same time huge continental ice sheets formed in Canada and also in northern Europe. This period, during which glaciers, sometimes over a mile thick, covered many parts of the world including all of Canada and New England and much of North Central United States, is known as the "Ice Age." Such a tremendous covering of ice had an enduring and pronounced effect upon the relief of the country.

In Glacier National Park some of the ice still remains in the higher portions of the valleys and a study of these ice fields helps in interpreting the history of the park during the Ice Age. It is evident that ice did not cover the entire range, but that the higher peaks stood out above the ice, which probably never reached a thickness of over 3,000 feet in this region. The V-shaped valleys which had been produced by stream erosion were filled with glaciers which moved slowly down the valleys. The ice froze onto all loose rock material and carried it forward, using it as abrasive to gouge out the rock, the valley bottoms, and sides. Gradually the valleys were molded until they had acquired a smooth U-shaped character (fig. 3). There are excellent examples of this work of ice in the park, among which are Two Medicine, Cut Bank, St. Mary, Swiftcurrent, and Belly River Valleys.

FIGURE 3.—A, An irregular V-shaped valley produced by stream erosion; B, the same valley after it has been occupied by a glacier. Note the smooth topography and U-shaped form.

In addition to smoothing the valley down which they moved, the glaciers produced many rock basins called cirques. These are the result of ice plucking in the regions where the glaciers formed. Alternate freezing and thawing cause the rock to break and the resulting fragments are carried away by the moving ice mass. In the majority of cases the cirques have lakes on their floors. The park is dotted with these beautiful little lakes scattered throughout the high mountain country.

The valley lakes are usually larger than the cirque lakes and have a different origin. As the glaciers melted they deposited huge loads of sand, mud, and boulders in the valley bottoms called moraines. Debris of this nature has helped to hold in the waters of St. Mary, Lower Two Medicine, McDonald, Bowman, and numerous other lakes in the park.

FLORA AND FAUNA

Glacier National Park is exceptionally rich in many kinds of wildlife. Its rugged wilderness character, enhanced by numerous lakes and almost unlimited natural alpine gardens, combine to offer an unexcelled opportunity to enjoy and study nature.

Glacier is noted for its brilliant floral display which is most striking in early July. Above timber line hardy plants such as mosses and lichens, together with the delicately colored alpine flowers, are found. Lower on the mountains are heather, gentians, wild heliotrope, and stunted trees of alpine fir, white-barked pine, and alpine larch. The valleys on the east bear Engelmann spruce, alpine fir, lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, and limber pine.

The valleys of the west side are within an entirely different plant life zone, typified by dense climax forests. For the most part these forests consist of red cedar and hemlock, with intermediate forests of larch, fir, spruce, and white pine. There are also younger stands of larch and lodgepole pine. Some of the white pines in McDonald Valley have reached huge dimensions. The deficiency of wild flowers found there is in part made up by the presence of sphagnum bogs with a typical fauna and flora of their own.

On the east, at lower elevations, representatives of the Great Plains flora are found, such as the passion flower, carpet pink, shooting star, scarlet paintbrush, red and white geraniums, bronze agoseris, the gaillardia, wild hollyhock, asters, and many other composites. The bear grass is one of the most characteristic plants of Glacier.

Of equal interest is the abundant animal life, including both the larger and smaller forms.

Bighorn, mountain goats, moose, wapiti, grizzly and black bear, and western white-tailed and Rocky Mountain mule deer exist in as natural a condition as is possible in an area also utilized by man. Mountain caribou are occasional visitors to the park. Mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes are present, although the first has been reduced greatly from its original numbers. The beaver, marmot, otter, marten, cony, and a host of smaller mammals are interesting and important members of the fauna. Among the birds, those that attract the greatest interest are the osprey, water ouzel, ptarmigan, Clark nutcracker, thrushes, and sparrows.

Glacier National Park is exceptional in its ability to bring the visitor into close contact with the wildlife of the Northern Rockies.

IDEAL PLACE TO SEE AMERICAN INDIANS

With the exception of the Kootenais, few Indians ventured into the fastness of the park mountains before the coming of the white men. Yet so frequently did a large number of tribes use its trails for hunting and warfare, or camp in midsummer along its lakes and streams on the edge of the plains, that the park has an Indian story intertwined with its own that is unsurpassed in interest. Except for a few plateau Indians who had strong plains' characteristics because they once lived on the plains, all tribes were of that most interesting of Indian types, the plains Indian.

The earliest peoples inhabiting the northern Montana plains of which we have any record were apparently Snake Indians of Shoshonean stock. Later Nez Perces, Flatheads, and Kootenais pushed eastward through passes from the headwaters of the Columbia River system. Then came horses and firearms, and the whites themselves to set up an entirely different state of affairs in their hitherto relatively peaceful existence. First, a growing and expounding Siouan race, pressed forward also by an expanding irresistible Algonkian stock, occupied the high plains and pushed back its peoples behind the wall of mountains. These were the Crows from the south, the Assiniboins to the east. Lastly, armed with strategy and Hudson's Bay Co. firearms, and given speed and range with horses, the dauntless Blackfeet came forth from their forests to become the terror of the north. They grew strong on the abundance of food and game on the Great Plains, and pushed the Crows beyond the Yellowstone River, until met by the forces of white soldiers and the tide of civilization.

Today the Blackfeet on the reservation adjoining the park on the east remain a pitiful but picturesque remnant of their former pride and glory. They have laid aside their former intense hostility to the whites and have reconciled themselves to the fate of irrepressible civilization. Dressed in colorful native costume, a few families of braves greet the park visitor at Glacier Park Station and Hotel. Here they sing, dance, and tell stories of their former greatness. In these are reflected in a measure the dignity, the nobility, the haughtiness, and the savagery of one of the highest and most interesting of aboriginal American peoples.

REFERENCES

ALBRIGHT, HORACE M., and TAYLOR, FRANK J. Oh, Ranger! About the national parks.

BOWMAN, I. Forest Physiography. New York, 1911. Illustrated; maps.

EATON, WALTER PRITCHARD. Boy Scouts in Glacier Park. 1918. 336 pages.

______. Sky-line Camps. 1922. 268 pp., illustrated. A record of wanderings in the Northwestern Mountains from Glacier National Park to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.

ELROD, DR. MORTON J. Complete Guide to Glacier National Park. 1924. 208 pp.

FARIS, JOHN T. Roaming the Rockies. 1930. 333 pp., illustrated. Farrar & Rinehart, New York City, Glacier National Park on pp. 42 to 80.

HOLTZ, MATHILDE EDITH, and BEMIS, KATHERINE ISABEL. Glacier National Park, Its Trails and Treasures. 1917. 262 pp., illustrated.

JEFFERS, LE ROY. The Call of the Mountains. 1922. 282 pp., illustrated. Dodd, Mead & Co. Glacier National Park on pp. 35-39.

JOHNSON, C. Highways of Rocky Mountains. Mountains and Valleys in Montana, pp. 194-215. Illustrated.

KANE, J. F. Picturesque America. 1935. 256 pp., illustrated. Frederick Gumbrecht, Brooklyn, N. Y. Glacier National Park on pp. 147-169.

LAUT, AGNES C. The Blazed Trail of the Old Frontier. Robt. M. McBride & Co., New York. 1926.

______ Enchanted Trails of Glacier Park. Robt. M. McBride & Co., New York. 1926.

MARSHALL, L. Seeing America. Philadelphia, 1916. Illustrated. Map. Chapter XXIII, Among the American Alps, Glacier National Park, pp. 193-200.

MCCLINTOCK, W. The Old North Trail. 539 pp., illustrated, maps. Macmillan Co. 1910.

______. Old Indian Trails, Houghton Mifflin Co. 1923.

MILLS, ENOS A. Your National Parks. 532 pp., illustrated. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1917. Glacier National Park on pp. 148-160, 475-487.

RINEHART, MARY ROBERTS. Through Glacier Park. The Log of a Trip with Howard Eaton. 1916. 92 pp., illustrated.

______. My Country 'Tis of Thee.

ROLFE, MARY A. Our National Parks, Book Two. A supplementary reader on the national parks for fifth- and sixth-grade students. Benj. H. Sanborn & Co., Chicago. 1928. Glacier National Park on pp. 197-242.

SANDERS, H. F. Trails Through Western Woods. 1910. 310 pp., illustrated.

______. History of Montana, vol. 1, 1913. 847 pp. Glacier National Park on pp. 685-689.

______. The White Quiver. 344 pp., illustrated, Duffield & Co., New York. 1913.

SCHULTZE, JAMES WILLARD. Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park. 1916. 242 pp., illustrated.

STEELE, DAVID M. Going Abroad Overland. 1917. 198 pp., illustrated. Glacier National Park on pp. 92-101.

STIMSON, HENRY L. The Ascent of Chief Mountain. In Hunting in Many Lands, edited by Theodore Roosevelt and George B. Grinnell, 1895, pp. 220-237.

YARD, ROBERT STERLING. The Book of the National Parks. Scribner's, 1926, 444 pp., 74 illustrations, 14 maps and diagrams. Glacier National Park on pp. 251-283.