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Building Going-to-the-Sun Road
Introduction
In 1921, workers began clearing a swath of trees in Glacier National Park that would eventually become one of the most celebrated roads in the nation. Initially, administrators gave it the bland functional name “Transmountain Highway.” The road did indeed bridge east and west Glacier, running over the rugged Continental Divide at Logan Pass, a low point of 6,464 feet between mountains that towered thousands of feet taller.
But the road was not merely functional. Landscape architects from the National Park Service and road engineers from the Bureau of Public Roads worked together to make a road that harmonized with the scenic beauty and natural environment of Glacier Park. While it took much more money and time than anticipated, the road – now called the “Going-to-the-Sun” Road (or Highway) – opened in 1933. The road became a model for approaches to roads in other National Parks and one of the premier scenic drives in the world.
When work first began on the road in 1921, automobiles were still very new. The first Model T Ford – the automobile that brought mass motorization to America – rolled off the assembly line in 1908, two years before the creation of Glacier National Park. Park administrators wanted to tap into the burgeoning appeal of auto-tourism. But they, and others, also feared that routing roads through national parks would ruin them. This concern was part of a broader tension about the mission of the National Park Service, which was charged with both protecting parks and making them accessible for the enjoyment of the public.
Through the history of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, we can see how people related to national parks, automobiles, roads and nature more broadly. This includes not only the public and the major planners of the road, but also the Blackfeet tribe who had used the area for millennia, locals that lived near the park, workers and contractors who built the road, and the tourists who used the road.
Map of Glacier Park from 1939, shortly after the Going-to-the-Sun road opened in 1933.
The road weaves through the park from the shores of Lake McDonald in the west to the shores of St. Mary’s Lake in the east, by way of Logan Pass. The Blackfeet Indian Reservation borders the park on the west side.
Hint: Click the title link above to view the map. Then click on the view 100% button to see a full screen version where you can zoom in and out.
Dedicating and Naming the Road
In 1921, as road surveyors began trudging through the park, whispers of a “trans-mountain highway” through Glacier spread through the public. By 1926, as road construction had progressed, papers were calling it “the most spectacular highway project in the entire west.” But years more dragged on before workers completed the road. In the meantime, budgets soared. Congress initially approved a budget in 1921 that was “not to exceed $100,000.” The final project, however, ended up costing over two million dollars.
The lengthy construction timeline and soaring budgets tested the public’s patience. But the growing lack of enthusiasm evaporated immediately when the highway formally opened at a dedication ceremony on July 15, 1933 at Logan Pass. After a “Firefighter’s Lunch,” the thousands gathered listened to Park Superintendent E. T. Scoyen read congratulatory messages from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Blackfeet Tribal Band and the Civilian Conservation Corps Chorus provided entertainment
The ceremony also served as a memorial for Stephen T. Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, who had died in 1930. Mather had been a tireless champion of parks and the transmountain road specifically. The Montana State Highway Commission placed a memorial plaque at the pass that proclaimed: “There will never come an end to the good he has done.”
Crowds gather before the dedication ceremony for the Going-to-the-Sun Highway.
The ceremony included educational events about Native Americans, which may have been what the tipis pictured here were erected for.
The celebration wrapped up with an address from Governor F. H. Cooney who gave an ode to the majesty of Glacier and also confirmed the official name for the new highway: the “Going-to-the-Sun Road.” The Park Service took the name from a majestic peak located just north of the highway at the head of the St. Mary’s valley. The exact origins of the mountain’s name are unclear. James Willard Schultz, an early white explorer in the region, claimed to have named the mountain, although Schultz said his naming was inspired by a Blackfeet friend of his. The name also has connotations and connections related to Blackfeet religious stories. According to Nimachia Howe of the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning, Montana, the Blackfeet name for the mountain is connected to the story of Sour Spirit, a powerful being from the Lodge of the Sun who visited and helped the Blackfeet. When he returned to his home, Sour Spirit left an impression of his face on the mountain. The Blackfeet name for the mountain was thus Matapi Otsuksis, meaning “the mountain with the face of Sour Spirit who has gone back to the sun.”
Going-to-the-Sun Mountain is just one significant piece of the area enclosed by Glacier National Park that was used by, and was sacred to, the Blackfeet. This region was once known as “the backbone of the world” to the Blackfeet. Blackfeet stories about Napi, the spirit who created the world and everything in it, include many features now within the park. For the National Park Service and many visitors to Glacier, the Going-to-the-Sun Road was an engineering feat that has provided abundant access to what was once a very remote landscape. However, the road and its name leaves questions about how the creation of the park and the naming of features cover up the long history of Native American use and religious attachment to this area.
View of the Going-to-the-Sun Mountain (left) with the Going-to-the-Sun Chalets situated off St. Mary Lake
Going-to-the-Sun Chalets and St. Mary Lake at Sun Point. Behind the chalets are Going-to-the-Sun Mountain (left) and Matahpi Peak (right), with a portion of Sexton Glacier visible. Going-to-the-Sun Mountain is found approximately five miles east of Logan Pass and has an elevation of 9,584 ft.
The Blackfeet and the Park
The Blackfeet (Pikani), whose reservation is located on the Blackfeet Reservation near Browning, Montana, are the southern branch of the broader Blackfoot Confederacy, which also includes two other bands living in southern Canada. The Blackfeet were nomadic people whose land stretched from southern Canada through most of Montana, all the way to Yellowstone. The Blackfeet lived on these lands, conducted ceremonies, hunted and gathered various plants and animals and, of course, followed the bison. Euro-American colonization of Blackfeet territory, however, brought war, disease and the near extinction of the bison. The federal government moved the Blackfeet onto smaller and smaller reservations in the second half of the nineteenth century. With smaller numbers, less territory, and fewer food sources, the Blackfeet barely survived.
It was in this context that the idea for Glacier National Park arose. George Bird Grinnell was an author and a government scientist, who became very interested in the mountainous landscape on the west side of the Blackfeet reservation beginning in 1885. Although Grinnell was guided by the Blackfeet people on trails the Blackfeet had made, he referred to the land as "absolutely virgin ground...with no sign of previous passage.”
By 1891, Grinnell’s love for the Blackfeet spurred him to suggest creating a national park in the area. While Grinnell was a friend of the Blackfeet, his pursuit of the creation of a park superseded any concerns for the Blackfeet. Grinnell and the federal government pushed the Blackfeet to sell 800,000 acres of the western part of their reservation.
The Blackfeet did not want to sell their land. They used their mountains for hunting, fishing, and ceremonies. Moreover, they were wary of deals with the U.S. government due to past treaty violations. But their people faced dire poverty. They asked for $3 million for the lands, but the federal government negotiated them down to $1.5 million. Tribal negotiators were able to include a provision allowing them to continue to use the lands as they had done before. That aspect of the negotiation was honored initially. But after Congress created Glacier National Park in 1910, government officials argued that the earlier agreement no longer held and that the park needed to be protected from hunting.
The Blackfeet had also hoped that the creation of Glacier Park would bring good jobs, such as construction work. However, the jobs they got were primarily as greeters and tourist entertainment. They set up tipis and danced in front of hotels. The park thus used Blackfeet history and culture to promote the park while simultaneously excluding the Blackfeet from their traditional use of their traditional lands. As of today, the Blackfeet are still not allowed to hunt in the park. However, Blackfeet are currently employed in the park, and they did have their first ceremony in the park in 2024.
Other Native American groups besides the Blackfeet had also used the park, particularly the Kootenai on the west side. They, too, were excluded from their traditional use of the park. These exclusions allowed non-Indian visitors to view the park as a “wilderness,” even though the area had a long history of human use. The park was, however, certainly remote. The Great Northern Railroad ran along the southern edge of the park. But travel within the park was still a major obstacle to tourism.
Blackfeet people in Glacier National Park in 1933.
View of five men, three women, and a toddler of the Blackfoot people in front of a tipi in a wooded area of Glacier National Park. Two men stand, while the rest of the group sits on the grass. The men are Richard Sanderville (also known as Chief Bull), Wades-in-the-Water, Wallace Night Gun, Harry Under Mouse, and George Bullchild. The women are Mrs. [Emma] Under Mouse, Annie Sanderville (also known as Many Spotted Horses), and Mary Big Road, the wife of Wallace Night Gun. The men wear headdresses, moccasins, and fringed and beaded leather shirts and pants. Mrs. Under Mouse wears a cloth dress, while the other two women wear leather dresses.
Exploring Glacier Before the Road
The need for transportation has played a major role in Glacier National Park’s history since before the park was even created. The Great Northern Railway was instrumental in promoting the legislation that created Glacier in 1910, as their near monopoly on transportation to and from the park would increase ridership. Subsequently, the Great Northern created most of the park’s hotels and invested in boats, trails, and roads. By 1917, the railroad had spent an astonishing $1.5 million on Glacier — more than double the federal government’s $635 thousand.
Glacier’s early roads were primitive by today’s standards. Most were simple dirt roads, which meant that inclement weather — both dry and wet spells — could slow or even stop travel altogether. They were also limited in their reach. Roads bridged the distances between the park’s entrance and major chalets and camps, but to see most of the park’s wonders, visitors had to ride on horseback into the wilderness. Most of Glacier was completely inaccessible by automobile, so visitors explored the park by foot or horse. This meant only the young and/or physically fit were able to make the most of Glacier.
Mary Roberts Rinehart holding a saddlehorse by the bridle at the base of a giant cedar
Mary Roberts Rinehart holding a saddlehorse by the bridle at the base of a giant cedar in the McDonald Valley.
Since few visitors brought automobiles into the park, mass transit between major sites was necessary. At first, there was one motor bus service between Many Glacier and Midvale - the former name of East Glacier Park -, with other popular routes serviced by stagecoach lines. As motorized vehicles grew in prominence, the park increased bus services. Another form of mass transit didn’t use the roads at all: boats operated on lakes and ferried passengers to shores that were unreachable by road.
Due to the roads’ poor quality and limited reach, park administrators expressed a desire to build a trans-mountain road as early as 1912. Such a road would improve travel efficiency and allow visitors to easily see the park’s highlights from the comfort of their automobile. A road through the park would also increase tourism, which in turn would generate more profits as Glacier lagged behind other national parks for its low automobile permit sales. It was clear the park needed a radical transportation overhaul.
"Although Glacier will always remain a trail park, the construction of this one highway to its inner wonders is meeting an obligation to the great mass of people who because of age, physical condition, or other reason would never have an opportunity to enjoy, close at hand, this marvelous mountain park." - Horace M. Albright, Director of the National Park Service (1929-1933)
Two old-style Glacier Park Transportation buses with passengers
In the early 20th century, both Glacier’s roads and the automobiles that drove them were exposed to the elements. This presented obvious challenges in rainy weather, but dry spells were also problems, making the dirt roads so dusty that driving was almost impossible. Even then, these dirt roads and open-air buses were perhaps preferable to strapping one’s luggage to the back of a horse, the other primary method of transportation in the park at the time.
Bringing Automobiles to the Parks
Between the time of the creation of the first national park, Yellowstone, in 1872 and the creation of Glacier Park in 1910, a revolutionary transportation had arrived on the streets of America: the automobile. At the turn of the century, the automobile was a plaything of the rich, who raced around cities and out into the countryside (when roads allowed). But as mass production drove down costs and better technology made automobiles more practical, a larger swath of Americans scooted behind the wheel. Rates climbed in the teens, so that by 1920, about 20% of families had a car. Then rates skyrocketed. By 1929, 60% of families had a car. Mass motorization had come to the United States.
Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, could hear the rising chorus of internal combustion engines. Mather was an automobile enthusiast himself. But more importantly, he was a businessman and salesman. His gifts in these areas were precisely why he had been chosen for the position of director of the National Park Service, which had been created in 1916 to provide better management to the nation’s growing stable of parks. Mather understood that good management required resources, which in turn required political support, which in turn required the support of communities near parks. How would he get communities on board with parks? By bringing in tourist dollars. And how would he bring in tourist dollars? By tapping into mass motorization. Trains and trails could only bring so many people. But cars – and good roads to drive them on – could bring the masses.
Mather wanted roads both between parks and within parks. He proposed a Park-to-Park highway that would connect parks together in a network. Some of these roads materialized, but a glaring gap in good auto roads stood out at Glacier Park. People could drive from Yellowstone to Glacier, but then could not continue on through Glacier to national parks in the Northwest. Moreover, much of Glacier Park was hard to access. A transmountain road would thus both provide better access in the park and help connect national parks together.
Rand McNally Official 1921 Auto Trails Map
The map shows the development of some early automobile roads, including the “Geysers to Glacier” road connecting Yellowstone Park to Glacier Park. But the road stops at the east side of Glacier Park and there is no way for an automobile tourist to continue on through the park or to the west side of the state.
Hint: Click the title link above to view the map. Then click on the view 100% button to see a full screen version where you can zoom in and out.
Designing the Road with the Environment in Mind
While Mather was a vigorous advocate for automobiles and roads in national parks, he was also conscious of the fact that laying roads through national parks could jeopardize their scenic or environmental integrity. Mather therefore promised to the public that the park service would not “gridiron” the national parks – that is, lay down a suite of inharmonic utilitarian roads in the parks.
It was not until the pencil hit the paper in the design of Glacier’s transmountain road, however, that the commitment to building harmonious roads in national parks was really tested. A transmountain highway in Glacier was going to be an engineering challenge. As a result, Mather initiated a new partnership with the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), which had deep road engineering expertise.
But Mather’s incorporation of professional highway builders did not mean he abandoned the park service’s expertise in landscape architecture. This was evident in one of the key route choices in planning the road: How to get up to Logan Pass from the west side of the park. One possibility was to zig zag up the Logan Creek valley all the way to the pass. Another possibility, suggested by landscape architect Thomas Vint, would instead follow a bend back far to the west, further up Macdonald Creek, before turning back east again and sidehilling along the steep Garden Wall to reach the pass. The latter route would be longer, more costly and more time consuming to build. But it would provide stunning views, and it would avoid constructing 15 switchbacks that would tear up the fragile landscape in the valley floor. Mather, and the lead engineer for the BPR, Frank Kittredge, chose Vint’s route.
Throughout the road planning and design process, the park service invested extensive time and research into surveying the land and choosing routes that would harmonize with Glacier’s landscape. The Going-to-the-Sun Road was thus an early example of what road builders would later call “context sensitive design” – design that considers more than just basic transportation needs, or how to get from point A to point B.
Transmountain Road, Glacier National Park, Sketch, Surveyed 1924
Bureau of Public Roads Engineer Frank A. Kittredge's proposed route for the Going-to-the-Sun Road in 1924. The route shows the plan for a longer road going up McDonald Creek before turning back east to travel along the Garden Wall to Logan Pass. An alternative plan would have routed the road in a series of switchbacks up Logan Creek to the pass.
Hint: Click the title link above to view the map. Then click on the view 100% button to see a full screen version where you can zoom in and out.
Funding the Road
Although major planning for the Going-to-the-Sun-Road took place in the 1920s, aspects of building and planning the road preceded this. The first two humble miles of what would become the road was built from the Belton train station into the park in 1911. Initial study and planning for the transmountain road began in 1917. But serious planning and work on the road had to await serious funding. Congress approved an initial investment in the road of $100,000 in 1921, and then upped the appropriation to $1,000,000 in 1924. Work on the road increased after this larger appropriation, but the Bureau of Public Roads quickly concluded that this appropriation would still only be enough to finish the western leg of the route up to Logan Pass. As a result, the Bureau initially focused all efforts on that portion, which it completed on October 20, 1928, only one year later than planned and $100,000 over budget. In 1925, the initial cost estimates to complete the eastern section of the road were over $700,000. Work began on that section in 1929, and the road opened on July 15th, 1933 at a final cost of more than $2,000,000.
Engineering and building the road was a monumental feat. Glacier Park was a remote location with a rugged landscape. Everything was a challenge: surveying routes, coordinating workers, provisioning materials and machinery, living and working in the backcountry, and building major structural features, like tunnels, all with a sensitive approach to the landscape in mind.
Contractors and Laborers
The hard labor began even before workers picked up saws and shovels. Initial surveying teams led by Frank Kittredge in the fall of 1924 often had to climb up to 3,000 vertical feet a day just to get to their work site. The result of these daily treks was an egregiously high turnover rate - up to 300 percent.
With the path of the road set by Kittredge's battered surveyors, bidding was opened for construction of the 12.4 mile stretch on the western side of the road. Due to the uniquely difficult nature of the road, the National Park Service and Bureau of Public Roads invited contractors to survey the route in early June of 1925. Using a base camp built by the park service at Trapper Creek, 35 contractors descended on Glacier to craft bids for the building of the Transmountain Highway. Provided a list of requirements for the proposed highway, the contractors made their bids based on their survey of the route. The contractors were then given a week to submit bids, with the lowest bid-submitted by D.A Williams and A.R. Douglas of Tacoma Washington, who were awarded the contract to build the western section of road.
Contractors en route to Logan Pass
View of contractors surveying the western side of the route of Logan pass during the bidding process in early June of 1925. The contractors were able to stay on horseback for most of their trip, avoiding the arduous climbs that the surveyors and workers had to undertake every day.
As construction of the Going to the Sun Road commenced in 1925, it was clear that the workers would have to camp in the park. Glacier National Park Contractors managed these camps, which housed roughly 20-60 workers each, for a total of 250-300 workers for the western side of the project. Camps needed to be established near major work sites and trails needed to be built to supply the camps. The routes to reach the camps often followed old hiking trails and were wholly inadequate for travel by motor vehicles. In some places, the supply routes followed the path of the road but were forced to detour around major blasting sites or impassable sections.
While the camps gave workers a decent standard of living, work conditions on the road remained tough. Poor access and environmental concerns meant that much of the work on the Going-to-the-Sun Road was done by hand. Workers often hung off the sides of cliffs so they could scrape out a bench for the road bed. In certain sections, rocks from road work above fell onto the heads of those working below, necessitating the wearing of surplus World War I helmets by workers. Tools and explosives packed in by horses were frequently carried by hand for the last leg to the work site, with workers descending ropes and ladders down sheer cliff faces with the heavy loads. Despite the dangers that they faced, only three workers died. A foreman, Charles Rudberg fell sixty feet and died while descending a rope on the western side of the project in 1926. In 1931, a laborer named Carl Rosenquist was struck and killed by a falling rock on the eastern side. The following year, Gus Swanson was caught in a rockslide, also on the eastern side, the stonemason was buried and killed. Dozens of others were injured by falling rocks or falls on the steep slopes, but safety precautions saved many lives, greatly reducing the human toll of the building of the Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Bears foraging around construction camp
The workers who resided at the camps were constantly reminded of the wildness of their surroundings. Bears were a constant feature of life in the camps. As workers were not allowed to kill the bears due to being in a national park, there were some creative solutions to prevent the bears from wreaking havoc. Camp cooks fed the bears as much leftover food as possible, hoping that they would be placated by the prospect of a meal. Some camps fortified their cook and store houses in ways that resembled the middle ages, studding walls and doors with nail points and building drawbridges to prevent bears from accessing storehouses. Ultimately, the bear problem was a symptom of working in the vast wilderness that is Glacier National Park, and an example of the unintended challenges that the contractors faced.
Animals, Machines and Materials
Along with human labor, the Going-to-the-Sun road project required the extensive use of animals and machines, both to bring in materials and equipment and to build the road itself.
Most materials and supplies for the construction and crews were transported to Belton by railroad and then hauled up the completed section of road. This required either being packed onto or dragged by horses up trails to the camps and construction sites. The Park Service contracted pack and saddle horses to move people and smaller loads. At one peak during construction six work camps and 60 pack horses were in daily use. For bigger objects, crews used teams of horses to drag “go-devils,” a type of sled used to drag heavy objects like culvert pipes, steel rails, water pipes, or gasoline drums over mountain trails.
Use of "go-devil" or travois for hauling culvert pipes
Use of “go-devil” or travois for hauling culvert pipes in 1926, hauling culvert pipes on a narrow trail that ascends 3000 ft to construction camps #5 and #6. These trips would often take the whole day.
As the road progressed, it was possible to use trucks to bring in more supplies. Three quarter ton, 2-1/2 ton and a 5-ton White Motor Company trucks hauled many supplies and Ford dump trucks delivered sand, cement, and powder from headquarters to various sites along the line. Crews also used small gas locomotives on temporary tracks to haul supplies.
Crushed rock and sand were fabricated on site. A sand screening and washing plant was built on Lake McDonald creek, about 1800 cubic yards of sand was produced during construction on the western section. The gravel used for surfacing was also produced on site. A highly efficient plant built in 1928 produced a total of 23,375 cubic yards of gravel over three seasons. Rock quarries made use of Aurora jaw crushers and Traylor gyrator crushers to create base materials for the road.
To build the road, workers began by clearing a rough path and blasting through or breaking up rock. Operators used a 3/4 yard Osgood steam shovel, as well two other steam and gas shovels, to clear snow, dirt, grubs, and rocks. Dealing with rock was a pervasive issue. Workers used large jack hammers powered by Sullivan and Ingersoll-Rand compressors to drill into and chip away at large rocks and cliff faces.
Sullivan Compressors used to furnish air for Denver Jackhammers
Sullivan compressors supplied air to the jackhammers that pounded their way through Glacier’s abundant rock.
They also used explosives. Overall, contractors used 158 tons of dynamite and many tons of black powder for rock excavation, clearing, and grubbing. Of these quantities, twelve and a half tons of powder and eighty boxes of dynamite were used in one shot. Workers filled larger “coyote” holes with 500 kegs of black powder, and smaller “gopher” holes with 80 boxes of dynamite.
The construction affected the environment in negative ways, including erosion, clearing of natural landscapes, and loss of wildlife habitats. While constructing the road in the mid 1920’s construction crews ran into sheer rock faces that had to be blasted with dynamite to continue the route, the rock was blasted for the purpose of constructing tunnels along Going-to-the-Sun Road. The blasting of rock would, sometimes, result in rock slides that damaged the landscape below the road.
However, workers also used construction methods designed to preserve the environment and enhance the scenery. They used dynamite sparingly and generally used smaller charges to reduce destruction of vegetation and scarring of the landscape. They repurposed stone fragments to build bridges and culverts, reducing waste and building infrastructure that blended into the landscape.
Tunnels from West to East
To preserve the picturesque landscape and avoid switchbacks, Going-to-the-Sun Road designers decided to use two tunnels. Because of this, the west side has one big switchback, the Loop, overlooking McDonald Creek Valley and Heaven’s Peak. Contractors D.A. Williams and A.R. Douglas of Tacoma, WA, sublet the west tunnel’s construction to H.W. Bennett and Phil Segolia. The tunnel's construction began on October 18, 1926, and finished in early 1927. Crews of 25 men worked double or triple shifts to complete the tunnel. They worked until -32-degree weather stopped them on December 15, 1926. They resumed work on April 1, 1927.
On the West Side, crews blew a hole through the cliffside using 6,000 pounds of dynamite to remove 3,729 cubic yards of rock. The tunnel was 192 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 18 feet tall, the same height as two grizzly bears standing on their hind legs. A two-mile-long tote road was built to move equipment around the tunnel during construction. During drilling, the crew used two water Leyners to protect the men’s lungs. Leyners was a type of rock drill that turned dangerous rock dust into mud by running water through the hollow drill bit.
The East Side Tunnel was contracted to Colombia Building Co. from Spokane, WA, who built it from 1931 to 1932. The tunnel is 408 feet long, 19.9 feet high at the center, and 22 feet wide. Men carried all materials to the tunnel site by hand, 300 feet across the hillside and 100 feet down a nearly vertical ladder. Some men reached the ladder, stared down into harrowing depths below, and promptly handed in their resignation. It would take a healthy man carrying 50 pounds of dynamite half an hour to complete the journey. The men removed 6,778 cubic yards of rock to complete the tunnel. The tote road can still be seen today on the side of Mount Piegan from the Logan Pass Visitor Center.
Beginning of West Side Tunnel at east portal
This photo shows the tunnel crew at the east entrance of the West Side Tunnel. It shows the equipment, ladders, air compressors, and jackhammers, used to make the tunnel. This photo was taken in October 1926.
Driving the Road
The rising class of motorists in the 1920s were entranced with the idea of being able to see nature through a windshield. They pushed for better roads to natural areas and better roads within natural areas, especially national parks. Glacier was no different. But these motorists did not see a contradiction in their pursuit of motorized access to remote and scenic areas. Like designers of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, they saw the automobile and nature as two forces that could coexist. They eagerly awaited use of the road, and even when it was only half completed in 1929, with the west side road going up to the Logan Pass, they zoomed into the park in record numbers.
There were other ways to experience the road besides driving in a personal vehicle, however. Tourists could also travel on touring buses. The most iconic of these were the red touring buses, Modely 706s, developed by the White Motor Company explicitly for the national parks. The buses had four operating curbside doors and four benches with leather straps to hold blankets because the buses were not heated. Additionally, they were constructed of sheet metal over wood with linoleum-covered interior floors. Glacier was the first of many parks to receive the 706s due to a 1936 contract between Glacier Transportation Company and White Motor Company following the construction of the Going-to-the-Sun Road.
The red buses have been a continuous feature of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, almost since its inception. Revenue from the buses has been used to refurbish the buses multiple times since their debut. As climate change has become an increasing issue, not least because it may negatively impact the park, the buses also provide another amenity: they encourage multiple groups of people who might have taken separate automobiles to take a single bus, which not only reduces congestion but also reduces overall emissions from driving on the road. The red buses thus fit with the Organic Act of 1916, which states that the mission of the National Parks Service is to provide "for the enjoyment of [national parks] in a way that leaves them unimpaired for future generations." Ultimately, the iconic red buses enhanced tourism and revenue while exemplifying sustainable practices aligned with the National Parks Service's mission to preserve natural beauty for future generations.
First tour buses over Logan Pass, colorized
One of the first “tour buses” to go over the Going-to-the-Sun Road in July 1933. One dedication speech mentions visitors to the park looking up at the massive snow walls formed along the highway by its construction process, which can be seen here.
Epilogue/Conclusion
While the Going-to-the-Sun Road officially opened in 1933, neither its construction nor its history ended there. By the time the road was opened, the earliest sections were no longer up to the standards of the park service’s roads. In the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal funded the reconstruction of sections built before 1925 and then funded the paving of the road with asphalt beginning in 1938. World War II interrupted the paving, but it was eventually completed in 1952.
After the road was opened, the Civilian Conservation Corps helped develop many of the park facilities along the route and private concessionaires developed tourist facilities. The highway became the defining travel route of the park, and its immense popularity was reflected in growing visitation numbers to Glacier, which rose from 4,000 in 1911 to 117,000 in 1934 and into the millions by the 1970s.
Work on the road was never truly done. Heavy snows block the road for much of the year, in some sections piling as high as 80 feet. The road’s planners knew this would be a problem. One of the upshots of the Garden Wall route was that it exposed the road to more sun, helping snow melt off earlier. Designers also minimized the use of guardrails to make snow plowing easier. It helped, but the opening of the road remains a major feat every year.
In addition to other standard road maintenance, there is also the desire to preserve the highway as a historic, cultural resource. Much of the original construction remains: the road itself, bridges, tunnels, culverts, retaining walls, and 40,000 feet of stone guardwalls. The route remains virtually the same, and as a result people can drive on nearly exactly the same road and see nearly exactly the same vistas as people did in the 1930s.
Glacier National Park, Going-to-the-Sun Highway
A section of Going-to-the-Sun Road photographed by Forest Service worker Kenneth Swan in 1966, showing how the road weaves through the natural landscape and how asphalt meets nature in Glacier Park.
Exhibit Authors:
University of Montana Director of the Public History Program, Leif Fredrickson, and Students: Maria Bay, Isabel Biggers, Brett Boothe, Will Fuehrer, Zeb Kalnbach, Rebecca Maine, Calvin McKay, Keely Proebstel, Tatyana Rohrer, Keaton Terrall
Sources
Emmett Berg, “The name layers on ‘Going to the Sun,’” Glacier Mountaineers, n.d., http://calendar.glaciermountaineers.com/articles/NameLayersOnGoingToTheSun/NameLayersOnGoingToTheSun.html, accessed December 19, 2024.
Jessica Wambach Brown, “Road Work,” American History, June 2021: 40-49.
C.W. Buchholtz, Man in Glacier (Glacier National History Association, 1976).
Donal Carbough, “Which Place, What Story? Cultural Discourses at the Border of the Blackfeet Reservation and Glacier National Park,” Great Plains Quarterly, Summer 2006, Vol. 26, No. 3: 167-184.
Ethan Carr, “Going-to-the-Sun Road National Historic Landmark Nomination,” (National Park Service, September 5, 1996).
Ethan Carr, Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture and the National Park Service (University of Nebraska Press, 1999).
Division of Indian Education, “Montana Indians Their History and Location,” (Montana Office of Public Instruction, 2015).
Jack L. Gordon, “Landmark in the Sky: The History and Preservation of Glacier’s Going-to-the-Sun Road” (Glacier National Park, 2004).
Andrew C. Harper, “Conceiving Nature: The Creation of Montana’s Glacier National Park.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 60, no. 2 (2010): 3–94.
Doug Hecox, “‘Going-to-the-Sun-Road: Construction and Restoration,” Public Roads, Summer 2020, https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/summer-2020/going-sun-road-construction-and-restoration.
Nimachia Howe, Retelling Trickster in Naapi’s Language (University Press of Colorado, 2019).
David Louter, “Wilderness on Display Shifting Ideals of Cars and National Parks” Journal of the West, Fall 2005, Vo. 44, No. 4: 29-38.
W.G. Peters, “Final Construction Report for Transmountain Highway, West Side Project #287, Glacier National Park, Route No. 1-B, 1-C,” U.S. Department of Agriculture Bureau of Public Roads District No. 1, 1928, https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/102575.
Mark David Spence, “Crown of the Continent, Backbone of the World: The American Wilderness Ideal and Blackfeet Exclusion from Glacier National Park,” Environmental History, Vol. 1, No. 3, July 1996: 29-49.
Sally Thompson, People Before the Park: The Kootenai and Blackfeet before Glacier National Park (Montana Historical Society Press, 2015).
Glacier National Park, “Construction Progress Report (1925) for Transmountain Highway, Glacier National Park, West Side Project, Construction, East Side Project, Re-location”
Glacier National Park. “Going-to-the-Sun Highway Dedication,” July 1933. https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/102579.
Glacier National Park Superintendent’s Annual Reports for Glacier Park: 1911, 1912, 197, 1920, 1925, 1930.
Great Falls Tribune, March 06, 1921.
National Park Service, “The Going-To-The-Sun Highway in Glacier National Park History and Progress” (U.S. Department of the Interior, 1932).
National Park Service, “1917 White Open Touring Buses” (National Parks Service, October 28, 2018), https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/historyculture/whitebus.htm.
National Park Service, “Going-to-the-Sun Road - An Engineering Feat” (National Park Service, n.d.).
Santa Ana Daily Evening Register, October 09, 1926.
Sarasota Herald, July 2, 1933.
Wolf Point Herald, February 3, 1921.
