W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A . C O M
71
Albright should have been able to take particular pride in his sur-
roundings, because he was acting director of the National Park Ser-
vice, a stunning position for someone then just 28 years old. Tall
and bespectacled, he was known as modest, patient, and tactful,
full of integrity and idealism—but relentless. A Scribner's maga-
zine profile later noted, "he never fails to get what he wants."
Albright kept toying with leaving government service to
start a business career, but in the year-plus since he and his
mentor, Stephen Mather, had founded the National Park
Service, they'd had too much to do. Although individual
national parks had been around for a while, Mather and
Albright were truly nationalizing them, centering a
system on the goal of helping Americans appreciate
incredible landscapes.
Horace Albright sat gloomily in front of the fire. It was tough to
be gloomy in this situation: He was in the Glacier Park Hotel (now called
the Glacier Park Lodge) in the summer of 1917, admiring the "indoor
campfire" in the stone fireplace amid the epic timbers of the lobby of that
grand hostelry, then just four years old. His train would arrive shortly.
THE
NEAR GRAZING
OF GLACIER
DEPARTMENT
HERITAGE
HERITAGE
HERITAGE
By JOHN CLAYTON
Horace Albright
CONTINUED
