Chief Mountain House: Historic Guest Cabin Near Glacier National Park

A propos

Les informations suivantes sont disponibles pour Chief Mountain House: Historic Guest Cabin Near Glacier National Park:

This just-remodeled and restored historic guest cabin is available for rent near Glacier National Park. Check out Chief Mountain House on VRBO today.

The History of Chief Mountain House In the early part of the twentieth century, can you imagine yourself as a “dude” from back East, traveling by the Great Northern Railway to Glacier National Park in Montana? There were few roads and even fewer amenities at that time, but wild adventures awaited you. In the 1910s - 1920s, you would have gotten off of the train in Montvale -- present day East Glacier Park -- and met a cowboy from the Bar X 6 ranch who was the summer help for the Park Saddle Horse Company - the largest Saddle Horse company in the world at that time. This was before the Going-to-the-Sun Road existed, and there were few automobiles to traverse what rock and dirt roads and paths were available. Your cowboy would have looked you over and selected a horse appropriate for you to ride, and off you’d go, into Glacier National Park, where travel was largely by horseback. The Great Northern Railway built a chalet system in Glacier National Park that were mostly about a day’s ride apart. From East Glacier Park, you would probably have started towards the Two Medicine Chalets. Arriving there, you would have found a tent or cabin with fine linens, warm food, and possibly even a hot shower! After a first night spent recovering from your long train trip and horseback ride, you would saddle up and ride towards other chalet encampments. The nearby Cutbank Creek Chalets were known for their fabulous fishing. The Sun Camp was famous for views of St. Mary Lake. Each chalet system was unique, and you would spend a fabulous 7, 10, 14 days or longer exploring this chalet network via horseback. Chief Mountain House, the cabin you are staying in, is a part of the chalet history. The Going to the Sun Road was finished in 1933 and it opened up Glacier National Park to a whole new way of visiting some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the world. The automobile could now venture into the depths of the park and that type of travel made it possible for “dudes” to see more of the park, faster, and in greater comfort. This change, of course, also meant great change for the Park Saddle Horse Company. Glacier National Park was created by Congress in 1910. There were various outfitters who took tourists into the park from different access points around the million acre park. These outfitters operated independently with widely different rules, fees, and expertise; likewise, tourists’ experience varied widely according to which outfitter they used. James Hill, the head of the Great Northern Railway, and a great friend of the Park, decided that his train riders deserved a better and more standardized experience than they were getting. So he contacted his local attorney in Kalispell, Wilbur Noffsinger, and instructed him to form an entity that should buy out all the outfitters, bring them into one company, and standardize all the outfitting in the park. That entity was the Park Saddle Horse Company. It was located at Babb Flats, which is just north of the bridge over the St. Mary river. Wilbur died unexpectedly in 1924 and his son, George, took over the management of the company, which was operating under the -X6 brand. Although there were still many tourists who wanted the experience in the park of a horseback trip, that business was steadily declining. Earlier in the decade, to accommodate all the horses needed to supply the chalet trade, Noffsinger disassembled his buildings at Babb Flats, rebuilt them at Duck Lake, and moved his outfit up to where Chief Mountain House now stands. George needed more grazing than he had for his two and three thousand horses, and the Duck Lake area provided 20,000 acres of native grass lands to feed all those horses. When business declined and all those horses were not needed, a new gig was needed. A dude ranch seemed to fit the bill. About 1938 this cabin was built to partially accommodate the customers who flocked to this area to enjoy the experience of cowboying on the Rocky Mountain Front and in Glacier National Park. The cabin was called The Chief Mountain House because of the beautiful view of Chief Mountain from the north facing windows. Many visitors refer to the Chief Mountain House as the Gingerbread House due to its “parkitechture” style, which closely resembles the nearby Many Glacier Hotel in the Swiftcurrent Valley, and the other chalets and lodging built by the Great Northern Railway from about 1910-1915. Some of the Chief Mountain House carpenters may have been some of those who worked on the Many Glacier Hotel. At any rate, the Chief Mountain House style is unique to the Duck Lake area. It has stood all tests of time and weather to continue to provide a Montana experience for countless visitors for 80 years now. The barn-like structure visible out of the Chief Mountain House’s north facing windows was the original granary for the Bar X 6 ranch. If you look across the road you will see another building looking surprisingly like the granary. It is the granary’s twin and used to sit right next to it on the ranch, but was later moved to become a private home with views of Chief Mountain and Duck Lake. The granary across from Chief Mountain House later housed tack for horses and came to be called the Tack Barn. The building behind the Chief Mountain House, to the southwest, is the original bunkhouse for the Bar X 6 cowboys. Today, it has been converted to a workshop for the constant repairs needed on the remnants of the Bar X 6. The Bar X 6 was once 20,000 acres -- much of which was leased -- is now down to about 100 acres, but most of the original buildings of the Park Saddle Horse Company still exist on the 100 acres. We hope you enjoy your stay as much as we enjoy sharing our piece of paradise with you. Welcome!

Adresse

Chief Mountain House: Historic Guest Cabin Near Glacier National Park est à l'adresse suivante:

89 W Shore Duck Rd

59411

Carte

Consultez la carte pour voir où vous pouvez trouver un Chief Mountain House: Historic Guest Cabin Near Glacier National Park.

Hotel guide