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Vacations For All is a
vintage brochure all about the wonders of Glacier National Park in the Montana
Rockies. It is undated, but judging from the logos and text, this item is
from 1931 to 1933. It folds out into a beautiful color cartoon-style map
drawing of the park, its inhabitants and its visitors.
WARNING:
These are large .jpg files and may take a while to download
(especially if you're on a dial-up connection). Click on the
thumbnailed picture to view the page of your choice. Below each page is a
brief description.
VACATIONS FOR ALL
 
"The Land of Shining Mountains"
In their simple, poetic eloquence, the Indians called it
"The Land of Shining Mountains"; scientists seeking traces
of the earliest known forms of life know it as the region
of the country least changed by the hands of man; to visitors
who measure time in weeks of pleasure rather than the eons of
science, it is Glacier National Park, a vacation land of
awe-inspiring beauty.
Glacier National Park takes its name from the sixty miniature
glaciers that move slowly down the sides of towering peaks -
miniature, that is to say, in contrast to the enormous
ice-rivers of the Arctic. High along the Continental Divide
they make their tortuous progress, feeding at last into a
myriad of silvery streams and limpid lakes. The largest one,
named Blackfoot, covers an area of five square miles on the
north slope of Mt. Jackson.
Crammed into 1,750 square miles you find more spectacular
beauty and natural wonders than it would seem possible for
a limited space to hold: the most fantastic, rugged,
majestic peaks of the entire Rocky Mountain range;
numberless varieties of wild flowers contrasting their
seasonal beauty with the everlasting snow-caps that loom
above; hundreds of brooks, rushing rivers, lacy cascades,
plunging waterfalls, heavily wooded valleys and colorful
canyons; lakes as blue as a June sky.
This garden of the gods begins in Northwestern Montana
and extends into Alberta. It was set aside by the
United States and Canadian governments as an international
playground for you and a permanent sanctuary for wild
game.
On the Canadian side it is known as Waterton Lakes Park,
and the two sections are linked together by highway,
mountain trails and launch routes into an area that is
distinctive as the truly great scenic paradise of
North America.
To enable the citizens of both countries to enjoy this
outdoor treasure-trove, the two governments cooperated
in providing roads, trails and public camping grounds.
The Great Northern Railway, which alone serves this
area, through its subsidiaries provide great hotels
where roads, trails and launch routes converge, and a
chain of Swiss chalets at convenient intervals in the
interior. Transportation wihtin the park is according
to your individual likes, with the Glacier Park
Transport Company and the Park Saddle Horse Company
ready to serve you. Other recreations such as golf
and tennis, fishing, camera hunting and just plain
loafing await your arrival. The Land of Shining
Mountains is beckoning.
HIGHWAYS
Glacier Park's principal highway starts at the
Glacier Park Hotel and skirts the eastern slopes of
the mountains, sometimes within the borders of the
Park and again passing through the Blackfeet Indian
Reservation. Its general course is northerly until
it crosses the international boundary, then it turns
west to the Prince of Wales Hotel on Waterton Lake.
The first branch highway that you encounter leads
into the Two Medicine Valley, the second passes into
the Cut Bank Valley, the third leads to the chalets
on St. Mary Lake, the fourth, leaving the main
highway at Babb, runs west up the Swiftcurrent
Valley to the Many Glacier Hotel. Comfortable
auto-busses connect the various hotel and chalet
centers on the east side of the Parks with the
Glacier Park Hotel.
On the west side of the Park a highway runs from
Belton, the western entrance, to the Lake
McDonald Hotel. This road, which eventually will
cross the mountains to connect with the eastern
highway, has been completed to the top of Logan
Pass on the Continental Divide. Automobile
service connects the Lake McDonald Hotel with the
western entrance and there, also, daily side-trips
are made to the top of Logan Pass.
LAUNCH ROUTES
On Lake McDonald, the visitor can vary the ride
between the Lake McDonald Hotel and Belton by
taking the launch between the hotel and Apgar,
at the foot of the lake, and then covering the
remaining three miles by car.
Similarly on St. Mary Lake, launch service
connects the St. Mary Chalets, reached by the
Blackfeet Highway, with the Going-To-The-Sun
Chalets near the upper end of the lake, and on
Waterton Lake, the launch "International" links
the Prince of Wales Hotel, with Goathaunt Camp
at the southern end of the lake. These launches
not only provide essential transportation, but
afford the most delightful sightseeing trips.
The popularity of this method of viewing the
mountains has resulted in two other launch routes,
one on Two Medicine Lake and the other a two-lake
cruise on Swiftcurrent and Josephine Lakes in
the Many Glacier Region. Row boats are also
available.
TRAILS
The supreme enjoyment of Glacier and Waterton Lakes
Parks, however, is found along the trails. This is
at once apparent when you study the map. The rugged
nature of these mountains has kept them inviolate,
so far as highways are concerned, and the inner
recesses of this vast alpine playground will always
belong to the hiker and trail rider.
Trails radiate in all directions from the hotel and
chalet centers. Some lead to nearby mountain lakes
or high vantage points where far-flung panoramas of
mountains, lakes and forests unfold. Some cling to
the steep mountain walls and climb through the
high passes, others head far into the wilderness to
seldom explored sections.
Horses and guides are available at nearly all of the
hotels and chalets, and there are many standard
trips from which to choose. These range from short
half-day side-trips to the longer inter-chalet and
hotel rides which can be extended into comprehensive
tours.
For the hiker, these trails are equally alluring.
The distances between centers, ranging from seven
to eighteen miles, make it easily possible to
hike from hotel to chalet in one day.
CAMPING
The camper, too, will find an ideal outing in the
Land of Shining Mountains. He leaves the tourist
centers far behind and with saddle and pack horse
heads over into little known valleys, camps by
wilderness lakes and fishes in mountain streams.
He lives close to nature and learns the art of
"roughing it".
At all of the hotels and at Going-To-The-Sun
Chalets, complete equipment for these camping
tours is available, whether you wish to spend a
week or a whole summer.
FISHING
Next to the beauty of its mountain setting the
International Playground is best known for the
excellence of its trout fishing. The government
maintains a fish hatchery at Glacier Park from
which all the larger lakes and some of the more
adaptable streams are stocked each year. The
native Blackspotted or Cutthroat trout, Eastern
Brook or Rainbow are taken in nearly all of
the lakes and streams.
The usual method of fishing is with fly casting
rod and artificial fly, either dry or wet as your
fancy dictates. No license is necessary within
the Park boundaries and the daily limit is ten
fish of seven inches or over. Tackle may be
rented at the hotels and chalets.
GOLF
The golfing art of keeping the eye on the ball
receives a severe test at Glacier Park Hotel and
the Prince of Wales Hotel. From every hole on
these sporty nine-hole courses there are
magnificent views, providing a combination of
real sport and sightseeing not to be found
elsewhere. The Glacier Park links offer a real
test with water hazards, well kept grass greens
guarded by sand traps and an infinite variety
of shots. It is regulation in length, 3,250
yards, with par 36. This course will eventually
be extended to eighteen holes - at present you
can play the first nine at Glacier Park Hotel,
and the second nine at the Prince of Wales
Hotel. The course at the Prince of Wales
Hotel is located on the high, rolling slopes
of Mt. Crandell and also affords extremely
interesting possibilities both in play and
scenic views.
CAMERA CRAFT
To camera hunters, the fearlessness of the wild
life is one of Glacier Park's greatest charms.
The amateur photographer has no difficulty in
adding one or two wild life pictures to his
collection and the expert hikes the high trails
to "shoot" the shy Mountain goat, the marmot,
or the timid Mountain sheep.
With its magnificent scenery, many outdoor
activities, wide variety of the flora and
fauna and the visible story in the rocks,
this great playground is a veritable
paradise for the artist or the photographer.
BLACKFEET INDIANS
The Blackfeet Indians who inhabit the plains
just east of the Rockies are quite as
interesting as the unusual physical features
and natural beauty of the park. These Indians
are a primitive people, one of the last western
tribes to come into contact with the white
race. Friendly associations with thousands
of white visitors during the past decade has
not greatly changed their manner of living.
Among the older Indians, who pitch their tepees
in the vicinity of the Glacier Park Hotels
during the summer, the memory of great buffalo
hunts, inter-tribal strife, fur-trading and
horse stealing are still alive. Stories of the
old days, ceremonial songs and dances, feature
the Indian pow-wows at which the Glacier Park
visitors are always welcome.
 
NATURE STUDY
For the nature lover, the infinite variety and
gorgeous beauty of Nature's displays in Glacier
and Waterton Lakes Parks are a continual source
of wonder and delight. Whether his hobby is
geology, botany or biology, or a combination of
all three, the naturalist can follow his studies
under ideal conditions.
GEOLOGY
This mountainous area has been termed the region
of the country least changed by the hands of man,
but nature has dealt with it in spectacular
style. The most ancient of marine formations are
displayed on the mountain tops, fossils of the
earliest forms of life, ripples in the sandstone
formations prove that this was the bed of a shallow
prehistoric sea. The rocks are brilliantly colored,
the colors telling the conditions under which they
were deposited, and you see very ancient ones
crumpled and broken on top of others of a more
recent period.
Glacier National Park contains one of the greatest
geological phenomena of the world, scientifically
known as the "Lewis Overthrust Fault", which
carried nearly 30,000 feet of ancient rocks up
and eastward 30 to 60 miles. Thus they rest on
beds which scientists say are millions of years
younger than themselves.
In the glacial period snow accumulated and froze
into glaciers many miles long and from 1,000 to
3,000 feet in thickness. They dug out the valleys
and left the steep, bare slopes. Finally they
began to melt and today their survivors cling to
the higher peaks while the valleys are occupied
by lakes and streams.
FLORA
From the lowest valleys to the snow-touched edges
of the glaciers, the flowering of one set of
plants after another spreads clouds of color over
the meadows and open glades. The forests vary
from deep and somber stands of closely set trunks
of evergreens, the groves of delicate aspen
scattered over the open places and sturdy black
cottonwoods along the streams to the dwarfed
monarchs of the clouds, whose life on the high
crags is a continual battle against the elements.
The shrubs and undergrowth of the forested and
open areas include many useful, ornamental and
interesting species and even the ferns and mosses
grow in profusion throughout the three climatic
zones of the Rockies, adding their touch to the
beauty.
FAUNA
While the bison, which once roamed throughout the
lower valleys and over the plains to the east, are
now extinct, the area contains a wide variety and
great numbers of larger game animals. Many of the
smaller species are so numerous and so fearless that
they are a great attraction to visitors. Among the
larger animals are Mountain goats, Bighorn sheep,
moose, elk, deer and bear, while the species of
smaller mammals are too numerous to mention.
Under careful protection most of them are increasing
in number and have become so tame that they can be
studies without much difficulty.
HOTELS AND CHALETS
At strategic points, in perfect harmony with the
beauty of their settings, modern hotels and chalets
serve not only as centers from which the parks may
be explored, but as focal points for an attractive
social life. The four hotels in this chain are all
of rustic construction and harmonize beautifully with
their scenic settings. The hotels are modern in all
of their appointments.
The first of these hotels is the Glacier Park Hotel
at the eastern entrance; the second is the Many Glacier
Hotel on Swiftcurrent Lake in the heart of the parks;
the third is the Prince of Wales Hotel overlooking
Waterton Lake; and fourth is the Lake McDonald Hotel.
At other points of interest, chalet groups have been
built. The Going-To-The-Sun Chalets, located near
the upper end of St. Mary Lake, are the largest and
most important of these groups which include the
Two Medicine Chalets, Cut Bank Chalets, St. Mary
Chalets, Granite Peak Chalets, Sperry Chalets and
Belton Chalets.
In still other scenic places are the camps. One of
these is on Red Eagle Lake, famous for its fishing,
and the others, Fifty Mountain, Goathaunt and
Crossley Lake Camps, provide overnight comforts for
trail riders and hikers in the North Country of
Glacier National Park.
This is "The Land of Shining Mountains", with its
comfortable hotels and chalets, its highways and
its trails, its glaciers and its lakes and its
unlimited opportunities for recreation. It calls
to you because it belongs to you.
Color Graphic Map of Glacier National Park
Note: The above graphic is
HUGE (527k) and may download slowly.
It's not the clearest scan in the
world, but the best my scanner can do.
 
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