Lemonade had people on the run

There are stories that make the history books and those that don't.

Historic accounts of the dedication of Going-to-the-Sun Road on July 15, 1933, note that a "firefighter's lunch" of chili was served that day.

There's more to the story, though, and Whitefish resident Felicia Stimson, 98, shared the details.

Stimson's husband, Dave Stimson, was a Glacier National Park ranger who attended the dedication ceremony as part of a ranger brigade on horseback. He recalled that organizers mixed up large batches of lemonade in tin vats for the special occasion, but the citric acid in the lemonade reacted with the metal lining of the vats.

The result was a lot of upset stomachs.

"It gave everyone diarrhea," Stimson said with a laugh. "Dave said everyone was hiding in the bushes" to relieve themselves when outhouses became swamped with people.

Luckily, she said, her husband didn't partake of the refreshments. She didn't attend the dedication and, in fact, would marry Dave Stimson many decades later.

Stimson, one of Whitefish's oldest residents, is among those who received a personal invitation to the 75th anniversary celebration this afternoon at Lake McDonald Lodge.

She has fond memories of Sunday drives to Logan Pass in a Ford Model T, but things didn't always go off without a hitch.

"One time we had six flat tires along the way," she recalled, noting the rugged condition of the road in those early years. "We took the spare and cut it up and put patches on. We needed a new tire after that."

There were frequent encounters with bears along the scenic highway.

"Yes, we fed the bears," she confided.

In the early years it was common practice to toss out food to nearby bears. Stimson remembered one bear they named Gertrude.

"She was a real 'bummer,'" she said, explaining how the popular bruin "bummed" food from visitors.

Stimson also recalled a thunderstorm at Logan Pass in 1936 during which her brother, Clifford Holter, was struck by lightning and left unconscious. Dave Stimson was one of the rangers who rescued Holter and hauled him to the hospital.

"The lightning loosened his teeth, but otherwise he was OK," she said.

GLACIER PARK has been a lifelong gem for Stimson. These days, her daughter and son-in-law, Jay and Lisa Burrell of Coram, take her for Sunday drives on Sun Road that rival those of bygone days.

There's one big difference - the road is a lot smoother than it was when the first cars drove over it in 1933.

Stimson taught in the North Fork from 1930 to 1932, married Jack Burleigh in 1935, had her first child in 1938 (they had three children) and returned to teaching in the North Fork from 1938 to 1940.

She was teaching at LaSalle School in 1933 when Sun Road was opened.

Later she taught at Whitefish grade school and was a home economics and English teacher.

After her first husband died and after completing 33 years of teaching, she moved away from Whitefish for a while.

She moved back to Whitefish and married Stimson, a beau from her younger days. They spent seven years traveling and "gossiping about the years they were apart" before he died.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com