The best summer of my life - Working in Glacier National Park

by Rick Seward
(Ord, Nebraska)

In December of 1968, I was a student at the University of Montana at Missoula. I read in the student newspaper that someone from Glacier National Park would be accepting applications for summer employment and conducting interviews at the school a few days later. I decided to apply and went in for an interview and by January of 1969, I was hired a seasonal Ranger-Naturalist for the coming summer.

I remember that when I arrived at West Glacier by bus (I had no car at the time), I must have been a real site. I had all of my possessions in a fully loaded backpack with my brand new flat brimmed hat tied onto the top of the pack and I walked the distance from the front entrance of the park to the park headquarters to check in.

I was assigned to work at St. Mary, which was on the east side of the park. Without a car, that was a problem until I found a ride to St. Mary with someone else headed that way.

The summer went way too fast and I loved every minute of it, as I did the typical naturalist duties of conducting nature hikes over Siyeh pass, Otokomi Lake and Granite Park Chalet. Other duties included campfire talks at Rising Sun campground, tour boats on St. Mary lake and of course the visitor center duties.

There were so many wonderful memories of that summer that it is hard to have a favorite one...

But I do have good memories of hiking out to Granite Park Chalet. In those days, in the summer, the Chalet had a full staff of young people like myself employed as waiters and waitresses at the Chalet. At night when everything was closed down, I can remember that we would climb on the roof of the Chalet and talk and laugh and sing and just watch Heavens Peak and the Valley in the moonlight.

It was truly a great way for a young person to spend his summer and get paid for it too!

I would not trade that summer of my life for all the money in the world and I still have very vivid memories of that time.

~ Rick Seward