Holm reaches end of road in park career

By JIM MANN/Daily Inter Lake

It was a year of challenges and accomplishments, culminating in a big decision for Glacier National Park Superintendent Mick Holm.

After 32 years with the National Park Service, Holm decided that 2007 would be his last. He worked the week before Christmas and packed up for retirement at age 58.

The decision to retire didn't develop overnight. Holm said he and his wife, Patti, started discussing it about a year ago. She retired as a teacher in the spring, but Holm still had to see a few things through.

For starters, the park was recovering from severe flood damage that came with a historic downpour of rain in the fall of 2006. Going-to-the-Sun Road had a series of crippling washouts, while the park's trail system and some facilities had been damaged by floodwaters.

Urgent repairs got under way in the spring and succeeded in preparing the park for the busy summer rush. Simultaneously, Holm was steering the park toward the launch of a long-term Sun Road reconstruction project.

The project has been planned for more than 10 years, and when Holm was hired as Glacier's superintendent five years ago, he says it was a major task on his agenda.

"It is now launched," Holm says with satisfaction.

The park signed on a major contractor out of Idaho to lead the work, and a companion program aimed at offsetting the inconveniences of traffic delays for visitors got under way. The centerpiece of that mitigation program was an enhanced transit system that was started with new shuttle buses and a new transit center at Apgar.

The transit system proved to be popular with visitors, allowing them to ride for free to regular stops along Sun Road.

The first phase of the Sun Road overhaul started in the summer between the West Tunnel and Haystack Creek. The work involves complete replacement of the road, along with rebuilding retaining walls, drainage structures and guardwalls.

Planning for the project involved a vast amount of public involvement, including input from a citizens task force. Funding for the work literally required an act of Congress. The work is expected to span the next eight or 10 years at a cost of $150 million to $170 million, according to recent estimates from the Federal Highway Administration.

The park reached a milestone in finally addressing the maintenance needs of a historic highway built more than 70 years ago.

And it was the end of the road for Holm.

"You look at some of the things you accomplished and some of the things that need to be done, and there is sort of a break point," Holm said, noting that his successor will need to continue the project and prepare for the park's centennial celebration in 2010.

"With these parks, it takes a couple of years for a superintendent to get their arms around some of the issues" as well as the people and organizations associated with a park, Holm said. "It doesn't happen overnight."

Holm should know.

A native of Conrad and a University of Montana graduate, Holm considered it a homecoming of sorts when he was hired as Glacier's superintendent in 2002.

He previously had been superintendent at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, deputy superintendent at Mammoth Cave National Park, park manager at Knife River Indian Village Historic Site and district interpreter at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation area. He started his career in 1975 at Montana's Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.

The week before Christmas was Holm's last at Glacier. But even after he had left the office, he was dutifully present for a meeting as a member of the Flathead Basin Commission.

Holm said he and his wife plan to spend their retirement years in the Flathead, and he plans to remain active in many areas that he has been interested in.

"I'm certainly not going to fade into the woodwork," he said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com