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Many Glacier Hotel on Swiftcurrent Lake. Photo by Traveler100 –

Top 10 Facts about Glacier National Park

Glacier national park is an American national park located in northwestern Montana on the Canada United States border, adjacent to the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Colombia

The park includes parts of two mountain ranges and 130 lakes and more than different species of plants and hundreds of species of animals

This vast pristine ecosystem is the centrepiece of what has been referred to as the “Crown of the Continent Ecosystem,” a region of protected land encompassing 16,000 square miles.

The region that became Glacier National Park was first inhabited by Native Americans upon the arrival of European explorers. It was home to the Blackfeet in the east and the flathead in the western regions.

Under pressure, the Blackfeet ceded the mountainous parts of their treaty lands in 1895 to the federal government; it later became part of the park.

In 1897 the park was designated as a forest preserve.  Under the forest designation, mining was still allowed but was not commercially successful.

There’s more about Glacier National Park in the top 10 facts below.

1. Hotels and chalets were created by the northern railway

Many Glacier Hotel on Swiftcurrent Lake. Photo by Traveler100 –

The Great Northern Railway under the supervision of Louis Warren Hill built several hotels and chalets throughout the park. This was done in the 1910s to promote tourism.

These buildings were constructed and operated by a Great Northern subsidiary called the glacier park company. They were modelled on Swiss architecture as part of Hill’s plan to portray Glacier as “America’s Switzerland”.

Interestingly, Hill sponsored artists to come to the park, building tourist lodges that displayed their work. His hotels in the park never made a profit but they attracted thousands of visitors who came via the Great Northern. 

Vacationers commonly took pack trips on horseback between the lodges or utilized the seasonal stagecoach routes to gain access to the many glacier areas in the northeast.

2. There are a lot of different animals that are found in the park

Glacier National Park has almost all its original native plant and animal species.

 Large mammals such as grizzly bears moose and mountain goats, as well as rare or endangered species like wolverine and Canadian lynxes, inhabit the park.

Hundreds of species of birds, more than a dozen fish species, and a few reptiles and amphibian species have been documented. The park has numerous ecosystems ranging from prairie to tundra.  

3. Glacier National Park borders other parks

Saint Mary Lake and Wild Goose Island. Photo by Ken Thomas – Wikimedia

Glacier National Park borders Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. These two parks are known as the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park and were designated as the world’s first International Peace Park in 1932.

Both parks were designated by the United Nations as biosphere reserves in 1976, and in 1995 as world heritage sites.

In April 2017, the joint park received a provisional Gold Tier designation as Waterton Glacier International Dark Sky Park through the international dark sky association, the first Transboundary dark sky park.

4. A lot of explorers have visited the park over the years

In the many years that Glacier National Park has existed, there have been many explorers who have been fascinated by the glaciers. Some of them were Lewis and Clarke expedition in 1806.

They visited the park and as part of it, the explorations helped to shape the area that later became the park.

In 1885, George bird Grinnell hired the noted explorer James Willard Shultz to guide him on the hunting expedition. This was inspired by the scenery he worked the next two decades working to establish a national park.

These first explorers made the way for the next generation of explorers who made a change for the better in the park.

5. A lot of groups took up the initiative to make the park

Road construction along the Going-to-the-Sun Road with Going-to-the-Sun Mountain in the background, 1932. Photo by National Par Service – Wikimedia

The civilian conservation corps (CCC), a new deal relief agency for young men, played a major role between 1933 and 1942 in developing both Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

CCC projects included reforestation, campground development, trail construction, fire hazard reduction, and fire-fighting work.

With the increase in motor vehicle traffic through the park during the 1930s, there was a need for the construction of new concession facilities. These early auto camps are now also listed on the National Register.

6. The park receives more than a million visitors annually

At its highest peak, the park receives about a million visitors each year. This record has been broken year in and year out but since the pandemic happened the number has drastically declined.

7. A lot of money was used for the reconstruction of the park

A marmot above Hidden Lake. Photo by Tobias Kenze| –

Glacier National Park finished with a $13.803 million budget in 2016, with a planned budget of $13.777 million for 2017. In anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the park in 2010, a major reconstruction of the Going-to-the-Sun Road was completed.

The federal highway administration managed the reconstruction project in cooperation with the National Park Service. 

Some rehabilitation of major structures such as visitor centres and historic hotels, as well as improvements in wastewater treatment facilities and campgrounds, are expected to be completed by the anniversary date.

8. Some activities are prohibited in the park

In keeping with this mandate, hunting is illegal in the park, as are mining logging and the removal of natural or cultural resources.

Additionally, oil and gas exploration and extraction are not permitted. These restrictions, however, caused a lot of conflict with the adjoining Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

When they sold the land to the United States government, it was with the stipulation of being able to maintain their usage rights of the area, many of which (such as hunting) had come into conflict.

9. The park contains 700 lakes and two hundred waterfalls

The park contains over 700 lakes, but only 131 have been named as of 2016. Lake McDonald on the western side of the park is the longest at 10 miles (16 km), the largest in the area at 6,823 acres (27.61 km²⁰and the deepest at 464 feet (141 m).

Numerous smaller lakes, known as tarns, are located in cirques formed by glacial erosion. Some of these lakes, like Avalanche Lake and Crater Lake, are coloured an opaque turquoise by suspended glacial silt.

Subsequently, these also cause several streams to run milky white Two hundred waterfalls are scattered throughout the park. During drier times of the year, many of these are reduced to a trickle.

The largest falls include those in the two medicine regions, McDonald Falls in the McDonald Valley, and Swift Current Falls in the many glacier areas. It is easily observable and close to the Many Glacier Hotel.

10. Forest fires have been a great menace to the protected areas

Wildfires burned 13% of the park in 2003. Photo courtesy of National Park Service –

Forest fires were viewed for many decades as a threat to protected areas such as forests and parks. As a better understanding of fire ecology developed after the 1960s, forest fires were understood to be a natural part of the ecosystem.

The earlier policies of suppression resulted in the accumulation of dead and decaying trees and plants, which would normally have been reduced had fires been allowed to burn.

Many species of plants and animals need wildfires to help replenish the soil with nutrients and to open up areas that allow grasses and smaller plants to thrive.

Glacier National Park has a fire management plan which ensures that human-caused fires are generally suppressed. In the case of natural fires, the fire is monitored and suppression is dependent on the size and threat the fire may pose to human safety and structures.