Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 75 T HERE ARE MANY SUPERLATIVES that have been used to describe Glacier National Park, which is why it has earned the moniker, "The Crown Jewel of the National Park Sys- tem." Sure, all of our national parks are special places, other- wise they would not have been designated as such in the first place, but even among those already special places, our own Glacier holds an endeared rank. With its glacier-carved peaks and valleys and spectacular lakes, it really does deserve this appellation. However, at the end of the nineteenth century, the lands that now make up our Glacier National Park looked to be headed in a very different direction. Resource extraction, specifically mining, timber, and to a lesser extent in the nineteenth century, oil, were major drivers in the development of our Western states, Montana included. Left behind in the wake of many of the larger min- ing operations from that period is an environmental disaster involving tailings, acid mine waste, abandoned shafts and rusting equipment. The romanticism of our "quaint" mining ghost towns are merely the more harmless relics of this peri- od of unbridled lust after shiny metals. It may surprise many, as it did me, that there are actually abandoned mines and oil wells located within Glacier. The three decades prior to Glacier officially gaining national park status saw a frenzy of mining activity, complete with its own "ghost" town as it became a hub of a mining and oil boom. That's not quite the image of unspoiled wilderness that is conjured up by the term "national park." At that time, Montana was still in the grips of "min- ing fever," set off by the discovery of gold in Grass- hopper Creek (Bannack) in 1862 and reinforced over the following years by successive finds elsewhere. As one mining district played out, miners were eager to find the next big "strike." The imaginations of these miners, and the rumors that ran ram- pant through mining camps of new opportunities, only served to feed the visions of "sugar plums" of great wealth that danced in their heads. article and photos by DOUG STEVENS IN THE END, THESE MOUNTAINS DODGED A BULLET AND WE ARE ALL BETTER OFF WITH THE UNDEVELOPED, PRISTINE WILDERNESS OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK.

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