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User:Acroterion/Fire towers in Glacier

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Multiple Resource Submission for Historically and Architecturally Significant Resources in Glacier National Park, Montana
Gunsight Pass Shelter
Architectural styleNPS-Rustic style
MPSGlacier National Park MRS
NRHP reference No.64000427[1]

The historic structures of Glacier National Park comprise the major tourist destinations of Glacier National Park, as well as an extensive set of small structures designed in the National Park Service Rustic style. In many cases these structures were designed by the Branch of Plans and Designs of the National Park Service in the 1920s and 30s. Many of Glacier's buildings are individually included on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Park Service nominated examples of building types such as fire lookouts, tourist cabins, employee housing, patrol cabins and ranger stations as part of a series of thematic studies highlighting related functions and forms. While individual structures do not necessarily have sufficient significance to merit inclusion on the National Register, the groups, although individually listed, present a theme describing the history and nature of these buildings in the park.

The more famous Great Northern Railway Buildings in Glacier include Many Glacier Hotel, Lake McDonald Lodge, and the Glacier Park Lodge, as well as the backcountry Sperry Chalet, the Belton Chalet and the Two Medicine Store. These structures, while rustic in nature and detailing, follow the Great Northern Railway's preferred Swiss chalet style rather than the more naturalistic Park Service style.

The majority of the smaller structures feature log construction, typically saddle-notched. A smaller number of buildings use frame construction with rustic features such as exposed rafter tails, exposed bracing, and deep eaves.

Great Northern Railway Buildings

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Some of the accommodations built by the Great Northern are now included in a consolidated National Historic Landmark listing. They include:

Additionally, two large hotels were also built by the Great Northern:

Fire lookouts

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Mount Brown Fire Lookout

The fire lookouts in Glacier National Park are substantially similar in nature, featuring a two-story form with an upper-level windowed lookout room, usually topped by a pyramidal roof. Because the lookouts were located on unforested summits, they did not have to be built as towers.[2]

The Heaven's Peak and Swiftcurrent lookouts are one-story structures. Heaven's Peak's flat roof is secured with cables to the surrounding rock wall.[3], while the Swiftcurrent lookout resembles the Swiss chalet construction of the nearby Many Glacier Hotel.[4]

Patrol cabins and shelters

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Lower Nyack Lake Snowshoe Cabin

A standard park structure from the 1920s and 30s was the patrol cabin or snowshoe cabin, typically spaced eight to ten miles apart in the backcountry to provide overnight resting places for patrolling rangers a days' walk or ride apart. Such shelters typically took the form of a single room with a deep gabled porch to the front, providing sheltered storage for wood and gear. A woodstove and perhaps a small cellar for a food cache were also provided.[5]

Slide Lake-Otatso Creek Patrol Cabin

The Slide Lake-Otatso Creek patrol cabin differs with a delicately detailed framed design quite different from the standard log cabin design.[6]

Upper Lake McDonald Ranger Station

Ranger stations

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Ranger stations represent a permanent administrative presence in the park, at least in season. A ranger station usually consists of an office, which may be combined with a residence, and frequently a woodshed, barn or other storage and utility buildings. Ranger stations are frequently accessible by road, though not necessarily by the public.

Given the size of the park, some ranger stations became subsidiary administrative centers with a considerable number of dependent structures. The East Glacier area, in particular, has an extensive inventory of different building types.[7]

East Glacier gas and oil house

Some of these stations existed before the park and were taken over by the Park Service. Kintla Lake was built to support oil exploration in the park[8], while Skyland Camp-Bowman Lake was built as part of a boys' school.[9]

Housing

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Headquarters housing

Since the housing stock around a wilderness park is small, the Park Service provides housing for employees at the administrative centers. Such housing may vary from converted tourist cabins for seasonal staff to residences for permanent personnel.

Visitor accommodations

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Rising Sun cabin

Lodging for visitors varies from the grand Great Northern hotels for visitors arriving by railroad to the later automobile camps, developed in the 1940's, to basic tent campgrounds.

Roes Creek Camptender's Cabin

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Historical Research Associates. "Multiple Resource Submission for Historically and Architecturally Significant Resources in Glacier National Park, Montana" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
  2. ^ "Mount Brown Fire Lookout". List of Classified Structures. National Park Service. 2008-11-14.
  3. ^ "Heaven's Peak Fire Lookout". List of Classified Structures. National Park Service. 2008-11-14.
  4. ^ "Swiftcurrent Fire Lookout". List of Classified Structures. National Park Service. 2008-11-14.
  5. ^ "Coal Creek Patrol Cabin". List of Classified Structures. National Park Service. 2008-11-19.
  6. ^ "Slide Lake-Otatso Creek Patrol Cabin". List of Classified Structures. National Park Service. 2008-11-14.
  7. ^ "East Glacier Ranger Station Residence/Office". List of Classified Structures. National Park Service. 2008-11-09.
  8. ^ "Kintla Lake Ranger Station". List of Classified Structures. National Park Service. 2008-11-13.
  9. ^ "Skyland Camp Bowman Lake Ranger Station". List of Classified Structures. National Park Service. 2008-11-13.
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