Letter from a Glacier Family

There are many families who wrap their lives around the soaring peaks of Glacier National Park.

If they reside far away, the highlight of each year is their annual visit or visits. They anchor their philosophy in the beauty of the mountains, valleys, lakes, and streams.

These families form their deepest friendships in the alpine atmosphere, and their most meaningful and dearest days of recreation are spent in high places where the goats and grizzlies roam.

There is no way to know how many of these Glacier genealogy groups we have, but our lives somehow become entwined as the years go by.

I was reminded again this week of this wonderful social world by receiving a letter from Dick Schwab who lives in Davis, Calif. He got his introduction to Glacier the way so many did, getting a summer job in his youth.

Maybe the first time I met Dick was on a July 26 climb of Grinnell Point in 1987 during Glacier Mountaineer Week.

He recalls my telling him and Gordon Edwards about losing a pair of glasses up there, and Ivan O'Neil finding them a year later.

Dick mentions two of his sons drove boats at Many Glacier.

Now I can tell him my son Shannon was a boat captain up there with his son Mark, and Shan says they called him "Swabby."

Let me share parts of Dick's letter:

"Dear George, Joyce Clarke Turvey sent me a copy of your Trailwatcher of March 17. Your mention of Holterman's new book set me to phoning Glacier Natural History store to order copies of it and his "Let the Mountains Sing" for myself and for presents. . . ."

"Holterman is a mystery man to us. You'd think that during forty seasons we've come to Glacier we would have met the man so much tied in with the Park. Do you know him? Somebody who has written such a book as "Who Was Who in Glacier Land" must be pretty impressive. It would be interesting to get to meet and talk with him."

(George's answer - Yes, I know Holterman but not well. I consider him a research genius. He is a noted language scholar around the world. Someone should write a book about him and his life's work.)

"What occasioned this letter, though, was my tardy discovery of the existence of the sequel to your Glacier Secrets, which I immediately ordered and am enjoying very much. (Glacier's Secrets-Vol. 11)

"Of all the writings about Glacier, these two books of yours come the closest to characterizing the kind of happiness and spirit that shines through all the experiences we have had during these many years on Glacier trails and peaks. The involvement of our whole family (we have a Heidi too) and our best old-time friends over many years of high adventure in the midst of awesome beauty is very much like the experiences you have described in your books."

"Many of your photographs could serve perfectly as illustrations of the splendid scenes I describe in the memoirs I have written about our summers in the park. Quite often as I've looked at your photographs I've said to myself. 'We've been at that very spot and that is exactly the golden scenery we were seeing.' and a few times I have thought, 'Alas, I probably won't get to that spot this time around, but our children and grandchildren doubtless will."

(George's comment-Thanks Dick. These paragraphs on Glacier's Secrets are my favorite passages in your whole letter.)

"Your reference to the use of the high Apikuni Valley as a 'horse hospital' has vindicated my memory at last. Over the years I would mention the horse hospital when we hiked through it on the way to Natahki Lake, but my old-time friends had the effrontery to doubt me. I was sure I had heard it from Dee Wanser, Bill's colorful cowboy father, and thought I knew exactly the spot on the broken trail above the falls where the whole valley could be closed in for sick horses by the placement of a single rope. John Mauff hadn't heard of it, and he knew everything about the Park. I asked Bill Wanser if he could confirm the story, but he said he knew nothing about it. Thus for years I thought the myth-making machine in my brain had taken over, and then I saw what you wrote about the horse hospital in the first Glacier's Secrets and shouted, 'Eureka.' Can you tell me where Schultz wrote this?"

(George's answer-For many years the fans of James Willard Schultz had a national organization, where-in a yearly gathering of his unpublished material was presented for all of us to share; however the Schultz Society apparently died a few years back when the founder became sick. Someplace I have those old records but they may never be found. My friend Dale Haarr was also a member and perhaps he has a better filing system than I.)

"Further P.S. Heidi gave me Robert Zavadil's grand panorama of the Swiftcurrent and Josephine Valleys for last Father's Day. It is taken from what our geologist son, Mark, calls one of the family Vortex Spots on the top of the Sacred Mt. Altyn. What kind of name is Zavadil?"

(George's answer-Bob is doing a whole series of beautiful digital panoramas from various peaks in Glacier. He has a web site and much of his work is for sale in the Park. Zavadil is the only friend I have who was nearly frozen stiff while measuring the Greenland Ice Cap. I'd tell you where the name Zavadil comes from but I don't know how to spell Checkozlavakia.)