How the deaths of two park employees changed bear management for good

Bears and humans have crossed paths in Glacier National Park since it first opened in 1910 — and long before that. In the park’s early days, it wasn’t unusual for these behemoth mammals to walk right up to visitor vehicles chugging along Going-to-the-Sun Road. Vintage photos depict bears sometimes half crawling over cars or peeking into windows, while drivers offered up bits of food or stood a few yards off, firing away on their cameras. The visitors got the wildlife encounters they came for and the bears were treated to an easy lunch.