Museum display focuses on link between Glacier, railroad

A new display at Kalispell's Museum at Central School takes visitors on an elegant ride aboard the Great Northern Railway to Glacier National Park circa the early 1900s.

The museum invites the public to a free open house from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday to view the displays. Visitors can also meet John Chase who, along with Myron Chase, spent a lifetime putting the collection together.

Museum volunteers Betty Jo and Jesse Malone helped set up the 31 display boards on the first and second floors of the museum. The Malones encourage the public to meet John Chase in person on Saturday.

"He'll share his stories and his family's experiences as employees of the Great Northern," Betty Jo Malone said.

She pointed out some highlights of the display which begin as soon as visitors walk into the museum. A panoramic photo of East Glacier Park Lodge taken in 1915 hangs above the reception desk.

In the Glacier Room off the entrance, Great Northern Railway memorabilia include uniforms and several antique lanterns used by brakemen to illuminate days gone by. The Chases also preserved generations of railroad china.

"Some of these plates are 100 years old," Malone said. "Look how elegant it was."

A blue-and-white table setting along with a blazer recall the Amtrak service of the 1970s. Another panel details James Hill's rise to railroad fame as president of the Great Northern Railway and initiator of the Empire Builder in 1929.

Jesse Malone loaned his collection of vintage cameras carried by park tourists of the era as a sidelight. He pointed to an ancient box device used to print photographs from 8-by-10-inch negatives.

A huge, view camera used to create those negatives welcomes visitors into another series of panels. Dozens of photographs reveal the boat tours, dude ranches and the Miss Glacier Park pageant that entertained early park tourists.

Betty Jo Malone pointed to a series of pictures of the park "gear jammers" looking more like polo players than drivers with pants tucked into high-top, shiny boots.

"They were all young, good-looking guys, weren't they," she said with a laugh.

The displays point up an interesting relationship between the Blackfeet Indians, the park and the railroad. Tourism promoters recognized the draw of native culture and arranged for Indians to greet the trains.

"Here's an Indian woman drying meat right behind the lodge," she said.

Another photograph shows tribal members making movie idol Clarke Gable an honorary member of the tribe in the 1930s. Another photo series tells the story of John Clarke, a mute Indian sculptor who spoke only through his art.

"His 'Dueling Buffaloes' sculpture was purchased by the Rockefellers in the 1920s," Malone said.

A visitor didn't need a Rockefeller income to enjoy the park as promoted by a poster from 1912. Calling the park "the tremendous new vacation land," the poster lists hotel rooms from $1 to $5 a day.

For postage plus 4 cents, a prospective tourist could purchase a "splendid, descriptive booklet" from one H.A. Noble, general passenger agent.

It promised 1,500 square miles of mountains, glaciers, lakes, streams, forests and flowers as the exquisite end of a gracious ride on the Great Northern.

"That sold tickets on the railway," Jesse Malone said with a laugh. "That's what it was all about."

The "Glacier National Park and the Great Northern Railroad" display will hang through May in the Museum at Central School. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com