The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1921-02-11
MOST WONDERFUL
OF HIGHWAYS
VIII Connect Roosevelt Highway
Through the Glacier National
Park from Glacier to
Bolton.
WORK TO CONSUME 5 YRS,
Complete Outline Of Proposed Park
Highway Discloses 4 Scenia Route
With Which None on Entire
Continent Can Compare.

-
That the Government has under con
temptation the construction of an au-
tomobile highway across Glascier park
IS an announcement of the department
OF the interior at Washington, which
will be Of great interest to transconti-
mental tourists and in particular to the
promoters of overland touring in Mon
tana and auto tourists of the state,
The government plan contemplates a
five year period to complete the road,
1t has been, and is now, necessary
for tourists to ship their cars thru the
park over the Great Northern railway
etWeen Bolton on the west and Glacier
Park station on the east. The pro-
posed route of the new road to traverse
the park, as announced by the depart
ment Of the interior, will open to auto
tourists with easy, safe grades, the
most magnificent scenery in America.
This will mean much to tourists of the
Roosevelt Highway for to date this
link is the only incomplete stretch of
the great new international highway.
Fine state highways lead to the east
and west entrances Of the park. The
east entrance is the Great Northern
main line. From this point a road has
been built into the park for a short
distance to st. Mary's. The auto road
does not, however, penetrate any of
the mountain barriers. The Roosevelt
highway on the east leads from Glas-
gov and points east. An excellent road
runs from the west to Bolton and
Lake Mcdonald.
Easy Grades.
Road engineers who have laid out
the route announce that nowhere in
the park will the mountain grades
exceed s per cent. which is an easv and
comfortable climbing for a l~,resent-dav
automobile. The plans call for a dirt
road, well graded and 20 feet wide,
with easy curves and rustic bridges.
The department OF the interior and
the forest service both are famed for
the magnificent roads they have built
IN Montana. At several points in the
state these government bureaus. in
order to make access to the forest re-
serves easier and TO expedite fire fight
ers in reaching the innermost recesses
Of the forests, have aided the counties
and the state highway commission in
putting roads through some of the
o dlftlcult mountain passes of the
state. All these roads constructed
with the aid Of the federal bureaus
nave been proven excellent and safe
highways. Grades are made EASY and
the roads so drained and laid out that
but httle upkoep work is required from
season to season.
The finest and most difficult piece
OF road so constructed is that along the
hootonal river between Troy and Lib
by IN the northwestern corner of the
state, now part of the Theodore Roose-
welt international Highway. The
road is cut out of the solid
rock on a bench in the face of a cliff
4oo feet above the river for a distance
OF several miles. This road opened to
the public the ~facinating wonders of
hootcnai falls. where a mammoth BODY
ct water tumbles and cascades over a
series Of precipices.
The federal government also built
the "hill' section of the Anaconda
lmllpSburG road, and this one of the
Ineat pieces Of mountain highway in
n country. The grades are EASY and
me scenery unsurpassed.
Ore Of the LONGEST and most impos-
ing pieces Of work done by the federal
government in its road building acti-
vltieS in Montana is the mountain sec
ton Of the Big Holc-Bitter Root road,
which passes the Nez Perez battlefield
0 Wisdom. Here the government
built 25 miles of excellent road over
the pass between the headwaters of
the Big Hole and Bitter Root rivers.
inns pass is one of the Park-to-Park
roads and brings the tourist over a
comfortable drive to inspiring scenery.
Following is the department of the
announcement regarding the
status of the proposed road in Gla-
cier national park:
Estimates Submitted.
Estimates have been submitted to
congress by the national park service
Of the department of the interior for
construction of a transmountain
road crossing the continental divide
ana conflicting the east and west
sides of Glacier national park. Today
no road crosses through the park.
and motorists visiting either the east
OF west side are forced to ship their
,ors over the railroad or detour far
to the south TO cross the mountain
rangc. For this reason motor travel
to Glacier park has not kept pace with
mat Of others of the major national
The construction of the transmoun-
am road will remedy this condition
motor travel to Glacier will in
.reaSe enormously. 1t will complete
he one missing link in the great circle
our afforded by the national park-to-
oark highway, 1t will offer to motor
.ourlsts probably the most spectacular
highly scenic road in America.
The Specifications.
The project as submitted to con-
PRESS calls for a graded dirt road to
ne Width of 20 feet, including side
!rainage bitches, a road width of II
.eet with maximum grades of s per
'ent, easy curves and rustic log
bridges. If traffic and other condi-
IONS warrant the road could be hard
throughout it's entire length
Titnout additional excavation work.
ne total length of the highway will {