Grinnell's Glacier
Diettert GA. 1990. Grinnell's Glacier. University of Montana
The history of the creation of Glacier National Park has been flawed by myth and misconception, in part due to the self-effacing personality of George Bird Grinnell. A more accurate picture can be uncovered by using Grinnell's file of approximately 31,000 personal letters, his diaries and journals, the weekly sporting journal Forest and Stream and other primary materials. Grinnell, the editor of Forest and Stream, first heard of the St. Mary's Lake region in 1885 and went there to hunt. Fascinated by the rugged, unexplored country, he returned many times, abandoning hunting to explore the area, mapping and naming many geographic features and informing his readers of the beauty of the place in the pages of his magazine. During earlier visits to the West, Grinnell witnessed the wholesale destruction of game animals and changes in Native American culture, stimulating interests that led him to become one of America's first conservationists and a leading Indian ethnologist. He founded the Audubon Society in 1886 and, with Theodore Roosevelt, organized the Boone and Crockett Club in 1887. From 1882 until the passage of the Lacey Act in 1894, he led a crusade to protect Yellowstone National Park from private exploitation. In 1891, Grinnell first envisioned the preservation of the St. Mary's Lake region as a national park but discoveries of copper, silver and oil delayed his plans. In the meantime, he served on a commission that led to the purchase of the area from the Blackfeet Indians yet protected the tribe's interests. When the prospecting excitement subsided, he used his influence with important Montanans, members of the Boone and Crockett Club and the pages of Forest and Stream to secure the introduction of legislation to create the national park. Continued persuasion and pressure from him resulted in the ultimate passage of the bill. Although Louis Hill and the Great Northern Railroad have been given credit for the creation of Glacier National Park, no evidence supports this view. Grinnell, because of his humility, has not received recognition as the Father of Glacier National Park.