Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 251, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1915 — ALPS IN AMERICA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ALPS IN AMERICA

Glacier national park, like other “show” parts of America, benefited by the war during the summer of 1915 and was visited by many thousands of persons who before had scarcely heard of it. It has been a national park since 1910, but, in a period of utter public indifference to the glories of American scenery, it has passed almost unnoticed. Now thafrU America has suddenly become aware mat she possesses the most superb accessible scenery in the world. Glacier is destined to rapid recognition as the one real Switzerland of America. It is in northwestern Montana, close to the Canadian border line. The park derives its name from its 60 glaciers; but there are more than 90, all told, If one classes as glaciers many interesting snow patches of only a few acres each, which, nevertheless, exhibit all the characteristics of true glaciers. Its scenery is strikingly Alpine, yet it possesses individuality to a high degree. In ruggedness and sheer grandeur it probably surpasses the Alps, while geologically It is markedly different. It strongly differentiates also from other mountain scenery in America. Ice-clad Rainier, mysterious Crater lake, spouting Yellowstone, exquisite Yosemlte, beautiful Sequoia—to each of these and to all other of our national parks Glacier offers a highly Individual contrast. Region of Remarkable Beauty. To define Glacier National park, picture to yourself two approaching chains of vast tumbled, mountains which pass' the Continental divide back and forth between them in worm-

like twistings, which bear living glaciers in every hollow of their loftiest convolutions, and which break precipitately thousands of feet to lower mountain massep, which, in their turn, bear innumerable lakes of unbelievable cahn, offspring of the glaciers above; these lakes, in their turn, giving birth to roaring rivers of icy water, leaping turbulently from level to level, carving innumerable sculptured gorges of grandeur and indescribable beauty. These parallel mountain masses form a central backbone for the National park. Their western sides slope from the summit less precipitately. Their eastern sides break abruptly. It is on the east that their scenic quality becomes titanic. To really comprehend the personality of Glacier one must glance back for a moment into the geological past

when the sea or great Icfcee rolled over what is now the northwest of this continent. It was water that deposited the stratified sediments which are now these rocks. Untold ages passed, and the sea or lake bottom, under the urge of terrific forces hidden in the interior of the earth, lifted, emerged, and became land. Untold ages passed, and the land ' hardened into rocks. And all the time the forces kept pressing together and upward the rocky crust of the earth. For untold ages this crust held safe. Result of Tltantlc Upheaval. At last the pressure won. The rocks first yielded upward in long irregular wavelike folds. Gradually these folds grew in size. When the rocks could stand the strain no longer, great cracks appeared and one broken edge, the western, was thrust upward and over the other. The edge that was thrust over the other was thousands of feet thick. Its crumbling formed the mountains and the precipices. When it settled the western edge of this break overlapped the eastern edge ten or fifteen miles. This thrusting of one edge of tha burst and split continent over the other edge is called faulting by geologists and this particular fault is called the Lewis overthrust. Thus was formed, in the dim days before man, for the pleasure of the American people of today, the Glacier National park. Today the visitor finds this the most wonderful combination of mountain tops in America, bounded by vertical walls sometimes 4,000 feet in height diversified by many glistening glaciers

and by beautiful timbered slopes leading doWn by graceful curves to the bottom of deep valleys. Scores of lakes are unsurpassed in sheer beauty by any even of Italy and Switzerland. There are more than 250 lakes in all. Nor is this scenic wonderland mere-ly-.a sample of the neighborhood. North of the park the Canadian mountains rapidly lose their scenic interest. South and west there is little of greater interest than the mountains commonly crossed in a transcontinental Journey. To the east lie the plains. This region appears not to have been visited by white men before 1853, when A. W. Tinkham, a government engineer exploring a route for a Pacific railroad, ascended Nyack creek by mistake and retraced his steps, when he discovered the impracticability for railroad purposes of th# country he had penetrated.

TWO MEDICINE LAKE

LOOKING FROM SUMMIT OF CASTLE MOUNTAIN