New Britain herald., 1915-09-10
MONTANA HAS PARK
 LIKE SWITZERLAND
Wonderful Natural Scenery ln
 Glacier Reserve Rivals Alps


 Glacier National Park before this spring will visit it this summer It has been a National Park since 1910, but, in a period of utter pubic ln- difference to the glories of American scenery, it has passed almost ln- noticed. Now that America has suddenly become aware that she pos sesses the most superb accessloie scenery in the world, Gracler is des- ! tined to rapid recognition as the one real Switzerland of America. 1t IS i'll northwestern Montana, close to tn" Canadian border line.
 The park derives it's name from it's 60 glaciers; but there are more than l 90, all told, if one classes as glaciers many interesting snow patches of only a few acres each, which, neverthe- less, exhibit all the characteristics of l true glaciers Its scenery is striking ly Alpine yet it possesses individuality to high degree. In ruggedness and sheer grandeur it probably surpasses the Alps, while geologically it is | markededly different.
 It strongly differentiates also from other mountain scenery in America Ice-c1ad Rainier, mysterious Crater Lake, SpOuting Yellowstone, exquisite Yosemite, beautiful Sequoia-to each of these and to all other of our Ma tional parks Glacier offers highly individualized 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 wormlke twistings, which bear living glaciers in every hollow of their loftiest convolutions, and which break precipitatedy thousands of feet to lower mountain masses, which, in their turn, bear innumerable lakes of unbelievable calm, offspring of the glaciers above; these lakes, Tn their turn, giving birth to roaring rivers of icy water, leaping turbent- ly from level to level, carving in- numerable sculptured gorges of grandeur and indescriabIe beauty.
 Those parallel mountain masses form a central backbone for the Ma tional 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 titantic
 To really comprehend the person. ality of Glacier one must glance back for a moment into the geological past when the sea or great lakes rolled over what is now the northwest of this continent It was water that deposited the stratifed sediments which are now these rocks.
 Untold ages passed, and the sea or lake bottom, under the urge of
  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 to- gether and upward the rocky crust of the earth. For untold ages this crust held safe.
 Result of Titanic 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. It's 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 the burst and split continent over the other edge is called faulting by geolo- gists, and this particular fault is called the Lewis Overthrust. It is the Over- thrust which gives the peculiar char acter to this amazing country, that and the inconceivahly tumbled char acter of the vast rocky masses lying crumbling on it's edges.
 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 4,6OO 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 25O lakes in all. How it Was Discovered. l merely a sample of the neighborhood North of the park the Canadian noun 1 tains rapidly lose their scenic inter- 1 est. South and west there is little l of greater interest than the noun | tains commonly crossed in a trans continental journey. To the east lies | the plains. This region appears not to have been visited by white man be- fore 1853, when A. w. Tinkham, a government engineer exploring route for Pacific railroad, ascended | Nyack creek by mistake and re-