By: Cassandra Sunell
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| John F. Stevens, Explorer of Marias Pass |
It may not seem like the connection between the Panama Canal
and Glacier National Park would overlap or play a large role, however, the same
ingenuity that would be used to create a passageway through the country of
Panama was the same used to build a railway through one of the most challenging
passes over the Continental Divide—eventually becoming the gateway to Glacier
National Park. John Frank Stevens, an
explorer and engineer, was both the chief engineer for one of the Seven
Wonders, the Panama Canal and also discovered the passageway through one of the
most notably difficult routes through the Rocky Mountains, Marias Pass.
Nearly a century since the completion of the canal and after
my ancestors worked for the Panama Canal building the foundation for my family’s
homestead in Panama City, I now work marketing the fruits of John Steven’s work
as a social media and marketing coordinator for Glacier Park Inc. I have lived nearly my entire life in the
Flathead Valley, but not until my recent Red Bus Tour did I find out that John
Stevens was both the engineer for the Great Northern Railway and the Panama
Canal
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| Enjoying the views of Glacier Park |
John Stevens was born in Maine in 1853, and after he
finished schooling he spent 15 years working his way from City Engineer’s
Office, to surveying and building railroads, and gaining experience as a
self-taught engineer. Stevens became a
principal assistant engineer for the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway
in 1886 and was then hired on by James J. Hill as a locating engineer for the Great
Northern Railway, and was placed in charge of the Rocky Mountain reconnaissance
in 1889 where he discovered Marias Pass.
The history of discovering Marias Pass had stretched over decades
before Mr. Stevens would be able to find this unsearchable passageway across
the Continental Divide. After the territory
of Washington was created, a railway survey crew was sent to explore the
Northern zone, connecting the headwaters of the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. A team led by Major Isaac Stevens to find the
best route to the Pacific through the mountains in 1853, ended one year later after
funds for the project were discontinued and Marias Pass would be placed on hold
for the next thirty years. That would be
until John Frank Stevens would almost single-handedly discover the elusive
Marias Pass in the winter of 1889.
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Stevens set out to the summit with a team of mules,
snow-shoes, and a local Flathead Native Indian guide. In the midst of the exploration, Stevens was
forced to abandon the mules and eventually his local guide in camps in order to
proceed to the summit. On December 11,
1889, Stevens made a reconnaissance through Marias Pass. This night Stevens was forced to tramp
through the deep snow all night in order to survive the 40-degree below
temperature.
In the first annual report to Great Northern stockholders in
the summer of 1890, Hill announced that “An extremely favorable pass over the
main range of the Rocky Mountains has been found for this line, permitting a
maximum grade, on the eastern approach, of 52.8 feet per mile, no tunnel being
necessary. In 1891, completion of the
Great Northern Railway allowed for people to settle near Marias Pass, and on
January 6th 1893, the Transcontinental line laid its final spike
finally connecting to the Pacific Ocean.
In 1910, President William Taft signed the bill creating Glacier
National Park and two years later in 1912, construction began on hotels and
chalets in and around Glacier Park, connecting travelers by way of train into
the heart of Glacier Park.
During this time, Stevens would be appointed by President
Theodore Roosevelt as the chief engineer for the Panama Canal from 1905-1907,
where he would argue for the necessity of a dam system with locks to raise and
lower ships from one ocean to the other, he aided in the rebuilding of the
canal’s worker infrastructure better facilitating the ease of recruitment of
workers from the U.S., and the rebuilding of the Panama Railway. Stevens’ experience with Great Northern
Railway, prepared him for the rebuilding and upgrading of the new Panama
Railroad that would serve primarily as a massive earth-moving project, but to
also transport workers, supplies, equipment, and commercial freight and
passengers to and from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Stevens resigned in 1907 when work changed
primarily to canal and lock construction.
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| Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal |
John Stevens’ resourcefulness linked the world by way of the
Panama Canal, allowing for the ease in transportation and travel by connecting
the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, avoiding the long and arduous trip around the
southern tip of South America. Also, he linked
the northern-most parallel of North American continent by creating a passageway
through the dangerous Rocky Mountains, which would also serve as the channel
that would unite tourists to the “Crown of the Continent” – Glacier National
Park. Millions of people around the world have benefited or been affected from these great engineering feats, and as tribute to his works, when crossing the Continental Divide by the Northern Railway, a traveler will now pass by the bronze statue of John F. Stevens at the very location he discovered Marias Pass.
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| Commemorative bronze statue of John Stevens at Marias Pass |
