Fast-forward 123 years… Glacier National Park is today an island of wilderness
surrounded by various levels of development. The grand lodges and chalets
have lots of competition for the tourists that arrive in ever-increasing numbers.
The golden age of railroads is long past, as most tourists now arrive by automobile
or plane rather than train. Still the trains rumble through, carrying every imaginable
type of cargo across this mountain vastness.
Railroads have always operated in a unique public/private capacity. Because
they required vast capital to construct, and because they provided great benefits to
the nation, they were heavily subsidized by the U. S. Government. During the
frontier days, these subsidies often came in the form of land grants that could
supply the railroads with the resources they needed for construction and that had
other values that could help offset the costs of construction. These subsidies
required that railroads also be regulated to counter the natural monopolistic tendencies of such an enterprise.
Nevertheless, the railroads amassed tremendous wealth and political power. During
the frontier times, railroads were constructed with little consideration of their environmental impacts, and their power was so great that it’s unlikely that anyone could
have successfully challenged them on those grounds, had they wanted to. Today,
railroads still remain powerful entities, but because they serve an important public
function, they are also held to public standards of environmental accountability.
This case study is an example of how a railroad, working with government and
public partners, discovered ways to uphold its environmental responsibilities by
making meaningful contributions to the recovery of the threatened grizzly bear.
However, it also describes how tenuous these partnerships can be, and how not all
problems are solved through collaboration.
Geographic Location
The northern-most railroad line in the continental USA is the “hi-line” section of the
Burlington Northern–Santa Fe railroad (BNSF, formerly the Great Northern Railroad).
It is a primary freight corridor running between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Seattle,
Washington. It also supports the Empire Builder Amtrak passenger line. This railroad
line bisects the Rocky Mountains and crosses the Continental Divide at Marias Pass
(elevation 1462 m). The portion spanning the Continental Divide and lying between
East Glacier and West Glacier, Montana, separates two large protected wilderness
areas: Glacier National Park to the north (4079 km
2
), and the Great Bear/Bob Marshall
Wilderness Complex to the south (6131 km
2
). From West Glacier, the railroad follows
the Middle Fork of the Flathead River southeasterly to its confluence with Bear Creek,
which it then follows northeasterly through the John Stevens Canyon to Marias Pass.
East of Marias Pass, the rail line drops down into the South Fork of the Two Medicine
River drainage to East Glacier, and crossing into the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
From the Bear Creek/Middle Fork confluence to just west of East Glacier, the railroad
is the southern boundary of Glacier National Park (Fig. 18.1).
294
J.S. Waller
surrounded by various levels of development. The grand lodges and chalets
have lots of competition for the tourists that arrive in ever-increasing numbers.
The golden age of railroads is long past, as most tourists now arrive by automobile
or plane rather than train. Still the trains rumble through, carrying every imaginable
type of cargo across this mountain vastness.
Railroads have always operated in a unique public/private capacity. Because
they required vast capital to construct, and because they provided great benefits to
the nation, they were heavily subsidized by the U. S. Government. During the
frontier days, these subsidies often came in the form of land grants that could
supply the railroads with the resources they needed for construction and that had
other values that could help offset the costs of construction. These subsidies
required that railroads also be regulated to counter the natural monopolistic tendencies of such an enterprise.
Nevertheless, the railroads amassed tremendous wealth and political power. During
the frontier times, railroads were constructed with little consideration of their environmental impacts, and their power was so great that it’s unlikely that anyone could
have successfully challenged them on those grounds, had they wanted to. Today,
railroads still remain powerful entities, but because they serve an important public
function, they are also held to public standards of environmental accountability.
This case study is an example of how a railroad, working with government and
public partners, discovered ways to uphold its environmental responsibilities by
making meaningful contributions to the recovery of the threatened grizzly bear.
However, it also describes how tenuous these partnerships can be, and how not all
problems are solved through collaboration.
Geographic Location
The northern-most railroad line in the continental USA is the “hi-line” section of the
Burlington Northern–Santa Fe railroad (BNSF, formerly the Great Northern Railroad).
It is a primary freight corridor running between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Seattle,
Washington. It also supports the Empire Builder Amtrak passenger line. This railroad
line bisects the Rocky Mountains and crosses the Continental Divide at Marias Pass
(elevation 1462 m). The portion spanning the Continental Divide and lying between
East Glacier and West Glacier, Montana, separates two large protected wilderness
areas: Glacier National Park to the north (4079 km
2
), and the Great Bear/Bob Marshall
Wilderness Complex to the south (6131 km
2
). From West Glacier, the railroad follows
the Middle Fork of the Flathead River southeasterly to its confluence with Bear Creek,
which it then follows northeasterly through the John Stevens Canyon to Marias Pass.
East of Marias Pass, the rail line drops down into the South Fork of the Two Medicine
River drainage to East Glacier, and crossing into the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
From the Bear Creek/Middle Fork confluence to just west of East Glacier, the railroad
is the southern boundary of Glacier National Park (Fig. 18.1).
294
J.S. Waller