User:Acroterion/Fire towers in Glacier

The historic structures of Glacier National Park comprise the major tourist destinations of Glacier National Park, as well as an extensive set of small structures designed in the National Park Service Rustic style. In many cases these structures were designed by the Branch of Plans and Designs of the National Park Service in the 1920s and 30s. Many of Glacier's buildings are individually included on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Park Service nominated examples of building types such as fire lookouts, tourist cabins, employee housing, patrol cabins and ranger stations as part of a series of thematic studies highlighting related functions and forms. While individual structures do not necessarily have sufficient significance to merit inclusion on the National Register, the groups, although individually listed, present a theme describing the history and nature of these buildings in the park.

The more famous Great Northern Railway Buildings in Glacier include Many Glacier Hotel, Lake McDonald Lodge, and the Glacier Park Lodge, as well as the backcountry Sperry Chalet, the Belton Chalet and the Two Medicine Store. These structures, while rustic in nature and detailing, follow the Great Northern Railway's preferred Swiss chalet style rather than the more naturalistic Park Service style.

The majority of the smaller structures feature log construction, typically saddle-notched. A smaller number of buildings use frame construction with rustic features such as exposed rafter tails, exposed bracing, and deep eaves.

Great Northern Railway Buildings
Some of the accommodations built by the Great Northern are now included in a consolidated National Historic Landmark listing. They include:
 * Belton Chalets
 * Granite Park Chalet
 * Many Glacier Hotel Historic District
 * Sperry Chalet
 * Two Medicine General Store

Additionally, two large hotels were also built by the Great Northern:
 * Lake McDonald Lodge, a National Historic Landmark
 * Glacier Park Lodge, not listed on the National Register, located just outside the park in East Glacier, Montana.

Fire lookouts
The fire lookouts in Glacier National Park are substantially similar in nature, featuring a two-story form with an upper-level windowed lookout room, usually topped by a pyramidal roof. Because the lookouts were located on unforested summits, they did not have to be built as towers.


 * Apgar Fire Lookout
 * Heaven's Peak Fire Lookout
 * Huckleberry Fire Lookout
 * Loneman Fire Lookout
 * Mount Brown Fire Lookout
 * Numa Ridge Fire Lookout
 * Scalplock Mountain Fire Lookout
 * Swiftcurrent Fire Lookout

The Heaven's Peak and Swiftcurrent lookouts are one-story structures. Heaven's Peak's flat roof is secured with cables to the surrounding rock wall. , while the Swiftcurrent lookout resembles the Swiss chalet construction of the nearby Many Glacier Hotel.

Patrol cabins and shelters
A standard park structure from the 1920s and 30s was the patrol cabin or snowshoe cabin, typically spaced eight to ten miles apart in the backcountry to provide overnight resting places for patrolling rangers a days' walk or ride apart. Such shelters typically took the form of a single room with a deep gabled porch to the front, providing sheltered storage for wood and gear. A woodstove and perhaps a small cellar for a food cache were also provided.


 * Bowman Lake Patrol Cabin
 * Coal Creek Patrol Cabin
 * Kootenai Creek Snowshoe Cabin
 * Lee Creek Snowshoe Cabin
 * Logan Creek Patrol Cabin
 * Lower Logging Lake Snowshoe Cabin and Boathouse
 * Lower Nyack Snowshoe Cabin
 * Lower Park Creek Patrol Cabin
 * Pass Creek Snowshoe Cabin
 * Quartz Lake Patrol Cabin
 * Slide Lake-Otatso Creek_Patrol Cabin and Woodshed
 * Sun Camp Fireguard Cabin
 * Upper Kintla Lake Patrol Cabin
 * Upper Logging Lake Snowshoe Cabin
 * Upper Nyack Snowshoe Cabin
 * Upper Park Creek Patrol Cabin

The Slide Lake-Otatso Creek patrol cabin differs with a delicately detailed framed design quite different from the standard log cabin design.



Ranger stations
Ranger stations represent a permanent administrative presence in the park, at least in season. A ranger station usually consists of an office, which may be combined with a residence, and frequently a woodshed, barn or other storage and utility buildings. Ranger stations are frequently accessible by road, though not necessarily by the public.

Given the size of the park, some ranger stations became subsidiary administrative centers with a considerable number of dependent structures. The East Glacier area, in particular, has an extensive inventory of different building types.


 * Belly River Ranger Station Historic District
 * Cut Bank Ranger Station Historic District
 * East Glacier Ranger Station Historic District
 * Headquarters Historic District
 * Kintla Lake Ranger Station
 * Kishenehn Ranger Station Historic District
 * Nyack Ranger Station Historic District
 * Polebridge Ranger Station Historic District
 * Sherburne Ranger Station Historic District
 * Skyland Camp-Bowman Lake Ranger Station
 * Swiftcurrent Ranger Station Historic District
 * Upper Lake McDonald Ranger Station Historic District

Some of these stations existed before the park and were taken over by the Park Service. Kintla Lake was built to support oil exploration in the park, while Skyland Camp-Bowman Lake was built as part of a boys' school.

Housing
Since the housing stock around a wilderness park is small, the Park Service provides housing for employees at the administrative centers. Such housing may vary from converted tourist cabins for seasonal staff to residences for permanent personnel.


 * Headquarters Historic District
 * St. Mary Utility Area Historic District

Visitor accommodations
Lodging for visitors varies from the grand Great Northern hotels for visitors arriving by railroad to the later automobile camps, developed in the 1940's, to basic tent campgrounds.


 * Rising Sun Auto Camp
 * Swiftcurrent Auto Camp Historic District
 * Roes Creek Campground Camptender's Cabin
 * Two Medicine Campground Camptender's Cabin