Glacier National Park is part of a system of 43 parks and park reserves across Canada, and one of seven national parks in British Columbia. Established in 1886, the park encompasses , and includes a portion of the Selkirk Mountains which are part of the larger grouping of mountains, the Columbia Mountains. It also contains the Rogers Pass National Historic Site.
The park's history is closely tied to two primary Canadian transportation routes, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), completed in 1885, and the Trans-Canada Highway, completed in 1963. Rogers Pass in the centre of the park eluded explorers until 1881. The railway brought with it tourism, the establishment of Glacier National Park and the construction of a popular alpine hotel. The heavy winter snows and steep, avalanche-prone valleys of the park have been a major obstacle to transportation, necessitating much railway engineering and avalanche control measures.
The park contains high peaks, large, active glaciers, and one of Canada's largest cave systems. Its dense forests support populations of large mammals, birds, and alpine species. The region is noted for its heavy snowfall. The park has an extensive network of trails, three campgrounds, and four backcountry huts and cabins. Due to the major transportation routes that bisect it, Glacier National Park sees large numbers of visitors.
History
The Selkirk Mountains were first noted by Europeans when explorer David Thompson of the North West Company skirted around them on the Columbia River in 1811. He named them Nelson's Mountains, after Lord Horatio Nelson, but they were later renamed after an executive for the rival Hudson's Bay Company, Lord Thomas Douglas Selkirk.
Finding a pass through the Selkirks became a priority after construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway began. Completion of the railway was a condition of the Colony of British Columbia upon entering Canadian Confederation in 1867. In 1865, Canadian Pacific Surveyor Walter Moberly led an expedition up the Illecillewaet River (which he named, using the Okanangan word for "swift water"). Despite recently discovering Eagle Pass through the nearby Monashees, Moberly failed to find a pass through the Selkirks after getting sidetracked in the Tangier Creek drainage. His party refused to explore further due to the lateness of the season, and Moberly was forced to retreat.
Rogers Pass
An expedition led by Major Albert Bowman Rogers up the Illecillewaet discovered a viable pass in 1881. Rogers was awarded a five thousand dollar prize for locating a route through the mountains. In 1885, the CPR constructed a line through Rogers Pass and the following year trains were travelling west to the Pacific for the first time in Canada. The federal government and the CPR quickly realized the tourism potential of the mountainous, heavily glaciated area. Following a trip by Prime Minister John A. Macdonald and his wife Agnes through the Rockies on the newly completed Trancontinental Railroad, he returned to Ottawa inspired, and led the creation of Glacier and Yoho National Parks, both established on October 10, 1886. They were the second and third national parks in the country, after Banff, a year earlier.
Glacier House
The grade of the railway approaching Rogers Pass was too steep to allow for dining cars on the trains, so the CPR built a hotel west of the pass in 1886. This added to a collection of CPR-owned hotels across Canada, including Mount Stephen House in Yoho National Park, built in the same year and with the same floor plan. Glacier House, located near the terminus of the Illecillewaet Glacier (called the Great Glacier at the time), became a centre for tourism, mountaineering, glaciology, and photography in the Selkirks. The hotel was expanded in 1905 and 1911. It was considered one of western Canada's premier tourist destinations at the turn of the twentieth century.
The hotel attracted alpinists from around the world. Owing to its elevation, climbers could be in the high alpine within hours of leaving their room. In 1899, the CPR contracted the services of several Swiss guides to assist the less mountain-savvy tourists through the high country. Throughout the Glacier House period, many first ascents were made on peaks within the park. The hotel also attracted naturalists and scientists keen to study the mountain environment. Mary Vaux Walcott and her brothers, George and William Vaux, visited the area many times, and began the first scientific studies of the Illecillewaet Glacier.