Symposium traces Glacier Park history

A two-day symposium in Kalispell will look at Glacier Park’s history over the past 100 years.

“History and Memory in Glacier National Park’s Centennial Year 2010” will be at Flathead Valley Community College April 23 and 24.

Glacier Superintendent Chas Cartwright will give welcoming remarks at 7:30 p.m. April 23.

All symposium events are free and open to the public and will take place in the Arts and Technology Building Room 139 on the FVCC campus.

The symposium is hosted by the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, the National Park Service and FVCC.

“National parks have long played an important role in the historical development of the Rocky Mountain West and in the emergence of our regional identity,” said William Farr, associate director of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West.

“This is headwaters country or, as the Blackfeet designated it, the ‘backbone of the world’ — a continental watershed of elevation from which descend big rivers and memorable experiences,” Farr said. “In 1910 Congress created a particular jewel from this crown of the continent — the distinctive Glacier National Park.”

Following Cartwright’s welcome, Ted Catton, University of Montana associate research professor, will present “Reservoir, Sanctuary, Relic, Ecosystem: Preserving Different Natures, 1910-2010.”

Catton is the author of numerous books, articles and reports on the national parks.

On April 24, symposium events begin at 9 a.m. and run until 5 p.m.:

n 9:15 a.m.: “Living and Working in a Man’s World: Women and Glacier National Park 1918-1988” by UM English associate professor and author Nancy Cook.

n 10 a.m.: “The Enigma of Two Guns White Calf: Glacier’s Icon” by Ray Djuff, journalist at the Calgary Herald, who has written six books about the national parks and is working on a biography of Two Guns White Calf, a member of the Blackfeet tribe.

n 11 a.m.: “How the Blackfeet Became the Guardians of Glacier” by Farr, professor and former chairman of the UM Department of History.

n 1:15 p.m.: “Glacier Park and Visions of the Big Sky” by author Dan Flores, UM’s A.B. Hammond chair in western history.

n 2:15 p.m.: “All in the Game: Homesteaders, Tourists and Class Conflict During the Early Years” by Shawn Bailey, UM doctoral student.

n 3:15 p.m.: “Blackfoot War Art at Glacier National Park” by author James Dempsey, an associate professor at the University of Alberta, Edmonton.

n 4 p.m.: “Historical Reflections of Glacier: A 40-Year Personal Journey” by Jack Potter, chief of the Division of Science and Resources Management at Glacier Park.

For more information, visit the Center for the Rocky Mountain West Web site at http://www.crmw.org, call 406-243-7700 or e-mailrocky@crmw.org.