Past Lake McDonald employees look to reconnect

It’s been a half century since they carried luggage, cooked, scrubbed pots and pans, changed sheets and waited tables surrounded by the beauty of Glacier National Park’s Lake McDonald Lodge.

These former lodge employees who toiled through the summers from the mid-1960s to early 1970s are gathering for a unique reunion in Whitefish Sept. 9-12 to reminisce and share stories about their time on the job in Glacier Park.

“We bonded with shared experiences on the trail, on mountaintops, at work,” said George Byers, who met his wife, Nancy, at Lake McDonald while they worked in the lodge from 1965 to 1968.

About 75 former employees and spouses are expected in Whitefish from all parts of the United States and beyond. Some will travel by train, reminiscent of their main source of transportation to arrive at Lake McDonald for their summer jobs.

Felicia Lauten of San Antonio worked as a baker’s helper in 1969 and remembers “riding the train by myself from Spokane, Washington, to West Glacier. Someone picked me up, and off we went to Lake McDonald.”

Many others took the train from St. Paul, Minnesota, since employees were not allowed to have cars for the summer.

A committee of six former employees is spearheading the September reunion. Last November, they traveled to Phoenix from California, Colorado, Mississippi and Texas to lay the groundwork for the three-day event.

“Not a day goes by without remembering that place,” said Byers, who decided to help with the reunion planning because “I felt that if [working at Glacier] was that important to me and Nancy, it was the same for many others.”

Committee member Mary Casey, who worked in the kitchen in 1966 and at the lobby information desk in 1967, agrees.

“I was thrilled to hear about a possible reunion and wanted to make sure it happened,” she said.

Helping the reunion committee is Xanterra Parks and Resorts the concessions management company for Glacier Park.

“Xanterra stepped up immediately, seeming to know what this reunion meant to us,” Byers said.

“They were very helpful in agreeing right away to a tour of the [lodge] grounds, kitchen and dorms,” Byers said.

Included in the tour, of course, is the historic Lake McDonald Lodge. Built by John Lewis and opened in 1914, it was known originally as the Lewis Glacier Hotel. The lodge name was changed in 1957 when the Great Northern Railway acquired the hotel. It was designated a national historic landmark in 1987.

Other tour highlights will include the familiar historic buildings where the employees worked, socialized and stayed.

Male employees stayed at Snyder Hall, which was built in 1911 for dances and gatherings.

“It was loud, packed at times, and you could just about hear conversations from every room,” said reunion committee member TJ Tjernlund, who lived in Snyder Hall for two of his four summers at Lake McDonald.

“It was more picturesque than comfortable,” recalls Jim Griffith after three summers in Snyder Hall. “We fellows tended not to make beds and store clothes properly. For free time between shifts, a better bet was to hang out at the recreation hall, which had a piano and juke box, take a short hike, or, later in the summer, lie out on the beach.”

In 2013, Snyder Hall was converted to public hostel-style lodging with shared facilities.

The original Snyder Hotel, built in 1895, was the first hotel on the site where the current lodge is located.

Female employees over age 21 were housed at Cobb House, which originally was called Cobb Cottage. It was built in 1918 by Lewis as a family home.

“Cobb Cottage was the crème de la crème place to live,” said committee member Kathey Dunias Wiley, who worked as a motel maid in 1967 and as a dining room waitress from 1968 to 1971.

Because of the location of Cobb Cottage, “everybody coming from a powwow or any other activity on the beach would gather on our porch,” she said.

The structure was renovated in 2013 into four public units with a common room.

Under-aged female employees stayed at Garden Court, built in 1927.

“I loved that little place,” Lauten recalled. [It had] “rooms with four bunk beds and shower curtains for bathroom doors. Didn’t seem to bother any of us!”

The former employees, who called themselves “Emps,” will also enjoy a private cruise during the reunion aboard the historic boat DeSmet, built in 1930.

According to Byers, Xanterra “has been understanding of our budget constraints and has made it easy by offering sandwiches and finger food for the cruise.”

Memories abound when it comes to the 70-passenger wooden DeSmet.

“Getting out into the middle of the lake was a good way to put your life into perspective,” said Griffith, who worked as a houseman during his first summer in the park and a bellman the following two summers. “You could see how small our lodge abode really was in relation to the surrounding mountains. Tensions seemed to diminish at a distance.”

Tjernlund, of Phoenix, was one of the youngest employees when he washed dishes in the coffee shop at age 16. On the day that he arrived at Lake McDonald in 1966, he learned that an employee moonlight cruise [on the DeSmet] was scheduled for that night.

Gary Shaye, who worked as a kitchen storekeeper in 1967 and was the coffee shop manager the following summer, has a lasting memory of the cruises. “From the DeSmet we could get closer to those cabins on the opposite side of the lake,” Shaye remembered. The cabins were built before Glacier National Park was established. “Whenever I think of a special place, I imagine having one of those cabins across from Lake McDonald Lodge.”

“Emps” of the ’60s and ’70s will have plenty of time in September to pursue one of their favorite activities: hiking.

When they worked at Lake McDonald Lodge, their one day off per week was generally spent on one of Glacier National Park’s many hiking trails. Their experiences were varied.

Tjernlund remembers carrying a fellow hiker for miles because “she didn’t break in her boots and had blisters the size of half dollars!”

Casey recalls being with a fellow hiker “out in the middle of nowhere. I remember the little plastic cup you could use to catch water from the streams. I don’t think we ever had a bottle or canteen.”

As others recall their hiking adventures where they encountered bears, rugged terrain or inclement weather, they realize, “how poorly prepared we were for such hikes: no sun protection, no water bottle, no rain protection but just a cotton sweatshirt for warmth, no first-aid kit except an Ace bandage and a few Band-aids,” said Griffith, a retired professor of forestry at a university in Brazil.

“We did carry a detailed map of the park,” he added.

Besides a map, hikers carried a bag lunch they picked up in the lodge kitchen in the morning and enjoyed later in the day.

“Never before or since has ham and cheese tasted so good,” said Griffith. “And you might get to watch mountain goats or sheep on a distant slope as you munched on a cookie.”

Getting to the trailheads and back to Lake McDonald was a tricky endeavor since college students were not allowed to have motor vehicles. So, the employees made signs that said “Glacier Park Employee,” stood on the side of the road and hoped for the best. Most of the time, they were given a ride by tourists, who had been informed that employees might be hitchhiking and that picking them up was safe and permissible.

“One couple drove us all the way to the Prince of Wales Hotel,” Casey said. “We spent the night in a jammer bus.”

Sometimes catching a ride was not so easy. Byers remembers, “One morning we had to go down on our knees on Going-to-the-Sun Road before someone finally picked us up.”

“I’ve been asked by a lot of people why I am going back to Glacier Park again since I have been back three or four times since working there,” said Shaye. “It’s an easy question to answer. Having the privilege of working at Lake McD changes your life forever and becomes part of your DNA, part of your soul and who you are.”

The reunion will kick off with a meet and greet at the Hampton Inn in Whitefish on Sept. 9 and conclude with a banquet at Grouse Mountain Lodge on Sept. 11. Guest speaker will be Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow.

Sandy Chillstrom is the chairwoman for the Lake McDonald Lodge employee reunion; she can be reached via email at chillstrom@sbcglobal.net.