ABOVE: Hauling supplies in 1926 near Mt. Cannon – Courtesy GNP Archives
LEFT: On the Granite Park trail towing culverts in 1926 – Courtesy GNP Archives PREVIOUS PAGE: Joe Cosley - Courtesy GNP Archives
trol, or influence. The U.S. Congress had made Glacier a national park, but it did not provide funds for constructing facilities to accommodate visitors. The desire, the power, and the wherewithal to build the hotels, chalets, roads, and trails we still enjoy today came from Louis Warren Hill and the Great Northern Railway. Louis Hill was the son of the legendary Empire Builder James J. Hill, who built the Great Northern Railway. He succeeded his father as president of the railroad in 1907 and found his calling as the Godfather of Glacier. He used
his influence with Congress as heir to the Hill empire to help push through the bill that made Glacier a national park. When that goal was realized, he set out to bring to Glacier the comforts wealthy Easterners enjoyed in other national parks and recreational areas. Louis Hill envisioned Glacier’s alpine grandeur as America’s Swiss Alps. It was an intriguing comparison—and a practical one. It had the potential to draw wealthy tourists, who traditionally vacationed in Europe, to instead take his Great Northern trains to Glacier National Park. Between 1910 and 1913 he commissioned nine Swiss-