#throwbackthursday Going-to-the-Sun Chalet Complex

Going-to-the-Sun Chalet Complex, ca. 1926. Photograph by T.J. Hileman. At one time, the Going-to-the-Sun Chalets were a busy hub of activity inside Glacier National Park. Because of a lack of funding for major repairs after World War II, the Park Service made the difficult decision to completely demolish all of the buildings at Sun Camp. Even though photos are all that we have left, the architecture and style of these chalets can still be found at the chalets and hotels still remaining and in operation inside of Glacier National Park. #throwbackthursday

Merry Christmas!

In this image, guests arrive at the St. Mary Chalets. Before these chalets were dismantled in the early 40s, they were used for Winold Reiss's Art School, which drew students from all over the country. The site was also considered as a military arctic survival training facility. It was never a thriving part of the Great Northern Railway's line of chalets and hotels, which led to their early dismantling.

New Year's Eve Dinner Menu

We would love for you to join us as we ring in the New Year. Enjoy New Year's Eve at Logan's Bar and Grill. Our Chef Mike is preparing a savory menu, which you can preview below. We'll have music too! Craig Barton will be playing live from 9pm -1am in the bar. 

Salads

Baby Green Salad

Caesar Salad

Appetizers

Elk Carpaccio- Pan Seared Herb Crusted Elk Sirloin.  Thinly Sliced with an Apple Cider and Cherry Glaze $14

Artichokes French-   Egg Battered and Pan Fried Artichoke Hearts Served with a Sherry Wine and Lemon Sauce   $9

Braised Buffalo Pierogies- House Made Pierogies Filled with Braised Buffalo Accompanied by Pickled Cabbage, Bacon and Onions Topped with a Tangy Herb Sour Cream.  $12

Pork Belly and Scallop- Seared Scallop and Pork Belly Confit with a Lemon Thyme Beurre Blanc $11

Entrees

Pork Osso Bucco- Slow Roasted Pork Shank Braised in a Mushroom Shallot Sauce Served with Saffron Risotto and Citrus Gremolata.  $24

Gnocchi-  House Made Gnocchi with our Red Sauce Topped with Fresh Mozzarella $19

Lobster Tail- Broiled and Basted 9 Ounce Lobster Tail Served with Drawn Butter.  Goat Cheese and Bacon Potatoes Au Gratin and Grilled Asparagus.  $45

Quail- Sausage, Chestnut and Fig Stuffed Whole Quail with a Port Wine Sauce and Sautéed Kale.   $22

NY Strip Oscar- 12oz Grilled NY Strip with Asparagus, Crab, Béarnaise Sauce and Whipped Potato.  $28

Desserts

Huckleberry Cheesecake - $8

Chocolate Mousse Pyramid - $8

Raspberry Crème Brulee - $6

Chef Mike making fettuccine  

Logan's Christmas Dinner at Grouse Mountain Lodge December 25th

The chefs at Grouse Mountain Lodge invite you to join them for a special Christmas dinner menu to be served on December 25 from 5pm-9pm at Logan's Grill. All are welcome to join and leave the cooking to our chefs!

Reservations are recommended. 862.3000

Starters

Baked Sweet Peppers - $8

Baked banana peppers stuffed with fresh herbs, garlic, and a three cheese blend. Served with our house marinara

Artichokes French - $9

Egg battered and pan fried artichoke hearts with a sherry wine and lemon sauce

Homemade Sausage Platter - $13

Trio of house-made port sausages accompanied by individual sauces

Elk Carpaccio - $14

Pan seared, herb crusted elk sirloin thinly sliced with apple cider and cherry glaze

Soups and Salads

Mixed Baby Greens - $4

Basil Caesar - $5

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup - $7

With Chestnut Cream

Entrees

Prime Rib - $29

Slow roasted to perfection and hand carved. Served with horseradish sauce and au jus

Lobster Tail - $45

Broiled and basted 9 oz. lobster tail, served with drawn butter. Vanilla scented whipped potatoes and seasonal vegetable

Pork Tenderloin - $22

Stuffed with apple, walnut, gorgonzola, and sage stuffing

Roasted Half Chicken - $24

Lemon and herb roasted chicken with natural jus. Whipped potatoes and seasonal vegetables

Seafood Stuffed Rocky Mountain Trout - $26

Scallop, Shrimp, and crab stuffed trout over rice pilaf with a sherry butter sauce and seasonal vegetables

Fettuccine - $18

House-made fettuccine with roasted tomatoes, wild mushrooms, and arugula pesto cream sauce

Desserts

Egg Nog Crème Brulee - $7

Chocolate Pate - $8

Huckleberry Cheesecake - $8

Chef Mike making fettuccine    

Lake McDonald Lodge

Until the Going-to-the-Sun Road was constructed, visitors would first see Lake McDonald Lodge as they arrived on the forty-foot steam boat, the F.I. Whitney. Today, most visitors to Lake McDonald Lodge might wonder why the front entrance doesn't seem as grand as the back entrance and this is why. The lake side of the Lodge was designed as the front to of the building. Keep in mind, the materials used to build this grand lodge were brought in by boat or by horseback over a trail almost 100 years ago. #throwbackthursday 

The New Look and Feel of Grouse Mountain Lodge

Grouse Mountain Lodge opened its doors for business in 1984 and helped shape Whitefish into the resort town that it is today. In January of 2011 Glacier Park, Inc. saw potential in a now aging Lodge and began renovating the entire building after making the purchase. The final stages of the renovations are almost complete and we thought you might want to see what we've done!

One of our Loft Suites 

Lounge by our fireplace in the winter, enjoying a cup of
espresso while accessing our free wifi

Our Standard/Golf View Room

Remedies Day Spa

Double twin bedroom  - a part of the upstairs in the Loft Suite

Lounge section of our Corner Suite

 Relax at one of the new locations of Remedies Day Spa, right here at Grouse Mountain Lodge

Remedies Day Spa

Remedies Day Spa

Available at Remedies Day Spa

Available at Remedies Day Spa

Our new concierge desk

Checking in with Kevin

It's been a while since we checked in with Kevin over at Many Glacier Hotel, so we thought we would post some pictures that he has shared on his Facebook page. Looks like he is far from alone and enjoying his guests. Until we got to the ax picture . . . maybe he is starting to lose it a bit. We might have to ski  in sometime soon to check on him. Seriously though, it looks pretty serene over there. Cold, but serene. We are all jealous Kevin. 

  

Today's History Lesson

A group of Blackfeet Indians take in the newly constructed Many Glacier Hotel lacking its annex, in this image, which took two more years to complete. The photograph was taken in 1915 by Fred Kiser along the shore of Swiftcurrent Lake.

Driving a Part of History

By Seth Eagleton

In the summer of 2011 one of our guests on the Great Lodges of Glacier Tour was a man named Mr. Bill North.  It turns out Mr. North was a Tour Bus Operator for the Glacier Park Transport Company in 1961, which was later purchased by Glacier Park, Inc. Although I have never met Bill in person we were able to visit over the phone as I found out what it would have been like to be employed as a Jammer back in ’61. Bill’s experience “way back when” was intriguing. Just to be clear, the term Jammer was the nickname that was given to the tour bus operators because it was difficult to shift gears in the 4 speed non-synchronized manual transmissions of the Reds and referred to the terrible grinding as they shifted between gears.

Second floor of dormitory at Waterton.
We slept in sleeping bags we carried
with us on the bus.

  Each night was spent at one of the four hotels in a bunkhouse with the other Jammers who ended their tours for the day at the same location. It was just not feasible to have a married couple in the bunkhouses with a bunch of guys, so the company simply required the position to be filled by single guys.

My bus getting serviced.
East Glacier

                

Bill had worked as a teacher in California for about a year and a half, when he bumped into one of the administration staff members in the school lunch room. The man had previously worked as a Jammer in Glacier National Park and made the suggestion to Bill. He sent in his application but Bill got the impression that he was hired after only the short conversation he had over the phone with the Glacier Park Transport Company. He took a Greyhound bus from L.A. to Montana for a summer which he recalls as one of the most memorable of his life.

                In 2000, the Ford Motor Company spent two years refurbishing 33 of the Reds and a few of the differences that Bill noticed were the sizing of the wheels and tires being smaller on the newer versions. Also, the floors used to be made of wood instead of the modern steel floorboards. One other difference is that what is now the rear seat used to be an area used for storage.  

Baggage compartment on buses.
Now there's an additional seat on them -
with no leg room.

The buses now have an automatic transmission and modern suspension for a much smoother ride. Also interesting, is that the Jammers are no longer required to be single so there are many who are married and return year after year to operate the buses. Bill Trimble, a friend whom Bill North met that summer was the man responsible for Glacier Park, Inc. first considering the idea of hiring married Jammers.  

The single jammers didn’t want to stay single, so they usually only stayed on for a year or two. The new policy allows the Jammers to keep coming back and each year add to his (or her) knowledge of the Park and its history, so they are able to give much more informed tours with better stories and the like, according to Bill. The Jammers are responsible for the bus they are assigned to and typically have a special affection for it. Even after 50 years, Bill made sure to track down his bus #95, which is now operated by Mr. Jim O'mara.

Bill used to say, “If you want to survive, don’t ride #95!” I’m sure that was not exactly true, especially since he also mentioned that he was one of the few who was a careful enough driver to not grind the gears as he shifted. On the third day of his Bill’s tour in 2011, the tour operator shouted back and asked Bill if he wanted to take a turn behind the wheel, but Bill replied, “No thanks! I wouldn’t know how to drive an automatic.”

                Visiting with members of an older generation is one of the most rewarding experiences I know, and for sharing your experience with me, I am truly grateful. Thank you Bill, and don’t wait another 50 years before you visit Glacier National Park again, OK?

Follow this link to our Facebook album of several more photos from Bill’s Jammer experiences in 1961. 

Critter Count

Just from the office desk we see a surprising amount of wildlife, so we thought we should start keeping track. 

Whitetail Deer: Doe/Buck/Fawn
Snowshoe Rabbit
Pine Squirrel
Mallard Duck: Drake/Female
Someone's Tabby Cat lives under our utility shed. 
Crow
Magpie
Woodpecker
Red Tailed Hawk
Bald Eagle
Grey Jay
Ring-necked Pheasant - 11/30/2012
Canada Geese - 11/30/2012
Northern Flicker - 12/3/2012
Weasel - 12/19.2012

Employee Salute

Employee Salute

Mary Dickinson

Server for Logan’s Bar and Grill at Grouse Mountain Lodge

Employed for 22 years at Grouse Mountain Lodge

By Seth Eagleton

            I am jealous of Mary Dickinson. She enjoys her job more than anyone I have ever met. For the past 22 years she has worked as a server at Logan’s Bar and Grill at Grouse Mountain Lodge. It is rare to bump into someone that so obviously cares so much about the people around her. Mary is the exception. I think I heard her say “People are great” no less than 15 times in our short conversation. Many of the local folks that come in to eat make sure that they are seated in her area. A few seat themselves because they already know the area she is serving! “When people get up in the morning and come in for breakfast, they should feel better when they leave,” said Mary. With a mentality like that it is no wonder that people keep coming back. In fact, going out for breakfast at Grouse Mountain Lodge with Mary has become part of the experience of visiting Whitefish.

Positive comments come in all the time about Mary:

“I think I would drive the 4 hours just to have the salmon eggs benedict and I wish I could have brought Mary home with us. What a joy she was to have her wait on us both mornings. You guys are lucky she has worked there 22 years,“ said a recent guest via email.

“Mary made my day one morning when she served us. She is great!” said a guest via comment card.

Karen Baker, General Manager at Grouse Mountain Lodge, says that she receives at least one email/comment per week praising Mary.

Mary mentioned that when people go out to eat they should feel special, not just because of the great food but also because of how they are treated. “You get to host a party everyday!” says Mary.

One of her repeat customers is a gentleman that has been coming in with his sister on the days that Mary serves for the past 20 years.  Another local couple brings in their two children once a week and Mary remembers to take out their orange juice before she takes their order. Although she already knows their orders, she checks to make sure which type of latte for her and whether he wants toast that morning or not. “Those types of details make people feel special,“ says Mary. 

Grouse Mountain Lodge was purchased by Glacier Park, Inc. nearly two years ago and since then Mary has made sure to personally introduce her “locals” to any new members of the management team. She says that when they bump into each other at the store, at least they’ll recognize a face. That settles it; Mary wins the sweetheart-of-the-year award – hands down. For taking personal responsibility to make sure that everyone else feels so special and promoting the importance of community within Whitefish, we salute you!

2011/12 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour (Canada/USA)

The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour will be hosted by the Flathead Nordic Ski Patrol at the Flathead High School Auditorium this year. Tickets are available at Sportsman and Ski Haus in Kalispell and Whitefish, the White Room, Rocky Mountain Outfitter, and Runner Up Sports for $14 per person. There are two separate showings: one on Monday (11/12/12) and the other on Tuesday (11/13/12), both at 7:00pm. The event usually sells out, so don't wait to buy your tickets! Proceeds benefit the Flathead Nordic Ski Patrol. 

Glacier Park Lodge History

It’s easy to understand why the majestic setting of the Glacier Park Lodge has attracted many thousands of visitors over the past century. Did you know that the area Glacier Park Lodge is located was originally called Midvale and not East Glacier? Great Northern Railway purchased the land for $30 an acre, which was part of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Originally named the Glacier Park Hotel, it's location was not within Glacier National Park borders, but within the reserve.

Thanksgiving Feast at Grouse Mountain Lodge

Chef Mike Garcia is ready to prepare a proper Thanksgiving Feast at Grouse Mountain Lodge. Leave the cooking to us and enjoy the holiday the way it was meant to be enjoyed -- by eating great food and giving thanks.

Thanksgiving Menu available from 3-8pm, November 22, 2012.

Appetizers

• Deviled Eggs Three Ways - Traditional, BLT and Crab Fillings - $10
• Fried Brussels Sprouts Tossed with Apple Cider Reduction, Pistachios, Rosemary Salt and Sliced Green Apple - $11.50
• Shrimp Cocktail - $8.95
• Coconut Shrimp Beignet with Pepper Jelly - $12

Entrees

All entrees served with House Salad or Soup and Dessert. Turkey Dinner comes with a free refill plate.

• Turkey Dinner - Choice of White or Dark Meat, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Broccoli and Cauliflower Au Gratin Served with Fresh Cranberry Sauce - $27.95 adult; $14.95 Children (age 6-12); Free for Children Age 5 and Under
• Prime Rib Served with Au Jus & Horseradish Sauce, Broccoli and Cauliflower Au Gratin and Mashed Potatoes - $32.95
• Butternut Squash Lasagna - $24.95
• Mac & Cheese - Our Grouse Mountain Recipe With a 3-Cheese Cream Sauce and Bacon - $18.95

Dessert
Included with all entrees

• Pumpkin Pie
• Pecan Pie
• Chocolate Cake

Employee Salute - Kevin Adams

Employee Salute

Kevin Adams

By Seth Eagleton

 Winter Caretaker at Many Glacier Hotel.

Right about now, Kevin Adams is probably wondering what in the world he got himself into. As the new winter caretaker for Many Glacier Hotel, he will experience isolation and extreme weather found few places in the world. The only road which accesses the hotel closes for the season at the Glacier National Park entrance due to adverse weather conditions. Snow machines are prohibited inside Glacier National Park boundaries so his only way in or out is seven miles by snowshoe or cross country ski until the rangers re-open the gate and begin plowing the snow in late May. Until then he will be in charge of maintaining the facilities at Many Glacier Hotel during the winter months. 
I found it humorous that as prep for his new position Kevin purchased a copy of The Shining. In all seriousness he should have no shortage of duties to keep him busy over the coming months. One year a mountain goat wandered off a snowdrift onto the roof of the hotel and fell through the skylight. Yes, it snows that much! That goat still resides at the hotel, albeit mounted in a glass case. The harsh winters take a toll on the historic lodges of Glacier National Park so Kevin should have adequate chores to keep him from boredom.

                Prior to his career at GPI, he can tell you stories of traveling with Disney on Ice where he worked as the lighting and screen director, or the time that he rode in the “Hotter’n Hell 100” in Amarillo Texas with a 17-year-old Lance Armstrong. He likes to travel and has been all around the world. He is a people person and has made lots of friends across the globe.  He likes that he gets to see all of the “internationals,” as he calls them, on his home turf now that he has settled down here in Glacier National Park.

Kevin began his employment with Glacier Park, Inc. in the maintenance department of Lake McDonald Lodge in 2007. That’s where he shines. He became known as the “Guitar Guy” around Lake McDonald Lodge after picking up the instrument at the encouragement of Chef Josh Newman. He likes to jam with the other employees in the warm evenings of summer. He does what he can to encourage his fellow employees to not spend much time alone inside of their dorms but to take advantage of the opportunity to meet and get to know their co-workers from all over the world. Kevin grew up in Texas and says, “It’s hot in Texas. It’s not hot here. I moved here five years ago and have sweated maybe three or four times. I like that!”

We plan on sharing some of his pictures and posts from his experience this winter through our Facebook page and blog. His new job description is one that many of us are jealous of but would probably be leery to tackle.  Kevin, we hope to hear your exciting adventures during these winter months and for braving this challenge, we salute you!

Many Glacier Hotel and Mt. Wilbur

Abundant Wildlife

The abundance of wildlife around here is such a big part of life in GNP and the Flathead Valley that it's easy to overlook some of the things that are right in front of your face. I snapped a pic of this little doe right inside the western entrance to GNP a few days ago. Its attention was pretty focused on fattening up for winter and was far from frightened of my presence.

#throwbackthursday

#throwbackthursday

Glacier Park Lodge, then known as the Glacier Park Hotel, and its annex. The Lodge was built in 1913 and quickly proved to be nowhere near large enough for the amount of guests that were showing up to experience the grand architecture. In order to accommodate more guests, the annex was added on in 1914. 2013 marks the 100th birthday for Glacier Park Lodge – stay tuned for updates on all of the festivities for the celebration. #throwbackthursday

A few more photos of the fall color in Glacier National Park.