Gore and the Glaciers

G. GEORGE OSTROM / For the Hungry Horse News

Got to pondering Al Gore's expensive 1997 Montana vacation and recalled interesting details, but first … some related background.

Everyone knows about the big National Park northeast of the Flathead Valley. BUT! What everyone doesn't know is, that big National Park WAS NOT NAMED for the glaciers which are found there. It was named for multiple, giant ice glacier actions which carved its deep U shaped valleys, hanging gardens, and towering artes, eons ago. The current glaciers are dwindling hangovers from a much later "Little Ice Age" which according to most scientists declined around ten thousand years ago.

There are still people, including at least one newsman, who don't accept that explanation. AP reporter, Matthew Brown, recently did a negatively oriented story headlined, "Two More Glaciers Gone from Glacier National Park." Brown refers to them as "namesake icefields." Such wording is not blatantly false, but is deceptive. The article wasn't anti tourism, but chose to ignore obvious positive aspects of visiting "Our Park." Reminded me of "Chicken Little."

A well done background regarding the naming of Glacier Park written by veteran ranger, Keith Fellbaum, was printed in Sunday's Daily Inter Lake.

When Al Gore made his highly publicized trip to Glacier 13 years ago, his entourage focused on Many Glacier and after delivering a gloomy oration at the hotel, he made the beautiful but moderately tough hike up to Grinnell Glacier. Eager reporters including my daughter Wendy were told, "There will be no personal interviews." At the Glacier, Gore repeated his concern over the melting, and perhaps that magnificent setting inspired him to bring added emotion into his remarks there.

Alas for Wendy! One of many Secret Service men scrambling around on the rocks, accidentally bumped her arm causing her tape recorder to drop and break open. She was dismayed but thought it would still work. On the boat trip back down Lake Josephine, Gore was ensconced in the bow where he could assume a "Washington Crossing the Delaware" pose for "official" press photos, while local reporters were still forbidden to approach. In the passenger cabin, a frustrated Wendy was talking to Park Superintendent David Mihalic and Montana Senator Max Baucus when the topic of interviews somehow came up. She did a good enough selling job that Baucus talked to Gore's secretary who then talked to Gore, who at first seemed upset. That reaction caused Wendy to lose hope; but then, he suddenly put on a smile and his secretary came back to tell Wendy "You have two minutes."

Later in Kalispell, I was home from holding down our radio news desk, when a very distraught Wendy called from East Glacier. Said her recorder hadn't worked so all her time, efforts, and strategy to get a Vice Presidential interview were in vain. I'd never heard Wendy so upset. She'd been an enterprising KOFI reporter long enough to have scored many scoops … but this lost opportunity for a 'really big one" was terribly disappointing.

Luckily, earlier that day I had been sent and recorded a national TV network's audio track of Gore's speech at Many Glacier Hotel, so could tell Wendy to relax, stop for a nice sandwich at Izaak Walton Inn, and "We'll recreate an interview tomorrow morning."

That is exactly what we did and all northwest Montana learned from the Vice President's very own mouth … "the glaciers are melting."

G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist.