There is a new book out this summer called “DEATH IN GLACIER NATIONAL PARK” by Randi Minetor. It is a history of all the known deaths in Glacier since it became a park in 1910.
That is not as horrible a story as one might think. I knew a Red Bus Driver who did a “Death Tour” of the park one summer that was very popular.
This book lists everyone who has died in the Park for whatever reason. With some deaths there are stories because there was a lot of publicity that went along with the death or deaths.
Some have no stories to go with the deaths because the stories have been lost to history.
That is a good place to start.
Kelly Camp is an old set of cabins just across the Lake from Lake McDonald Lodge. There are some privately owned cabins there and some owned by the Park Service.
I have only been to Kelly Camp a couple of times and have had no desire to ever go back. It is one of those places that you just know that something bad happened there but you don’t know what.
Well, this new book had the answer.
On January 14, 1935 both Frank Kelly and Mrs. Frank Kelly died of pneumonia at Kelly Camp. Probably no one will ever know the particulars of those sad deaths but there is a reason for great sadness yet at Kelly Camp.
Since the Park Service started keeping records about deaths there have been 264 deaths in Glacier National Park. The first was Joe Prince who died of exposure in the Cut Bank Valley January 8, 1913.
For most deaths, it is water in drowning or exposure that is the number one cause of death.
I was on a drive along with a Red Bus Driver and his guests a couple of weeks ago. We had stopped at Sacred Dancing Cascade at Going-To-The-Sun Road when a couple came up to the driver and said they had dropped their water bottles on the rocks below the viewing stand and wondered if it would be all right to go down on the slippery rocks and retrieve them. An absolute NO was the answer and I felt that the driver had perhaps prevented one or two drowning in the fast and very cold waters of McDonald Creek.
One of the very worst things about working in Glacier National Park is that sooner or later you will lose a friend to an accident of some kind. Whether it is water or mountain climbing, accidents are waiting to happen to young people who absolutely fear nothing in Glacier National Park no matter how many times the Park Service, major concessioners and friends warn them about the dangers in what seems to be such an idyllic and pristine place.
I knew Michael Sloan very well. He was a souse chef at Lake McDonald Lodge for Glacier Park Incorporated. Mike was an artist and took his art and mingled it with his food preparation. He made the most wonderful ice sculptures you could ever imagine.
At the time of his death he was a souse chef at the Belton Chalet. On September 21, 2010 he was fishing at where McDonald Creek runs into Lake McDonald. He knew that Lake McDonald was what was called a “bath tub” lake and has a shallow rim, then breaks off to depths of 450 feet.
He was fishing alone. That broke an important rule. Never do anything alone in Glacier. When Mike did not show up for work, people started hunting for him and found his car at McDonald Creek. Then his fishing pole turned up the next day and eventually he was found held down by the current at 65 feet below the surface of the lake. What was so strange was that Mike knew where the drop offs were. One of his friends summed it up this way. “Something bizarre happened and no one knows what it was.
One of the worst mass deaths was December 30, 1969 when five local boys from the age of 18 to 22 decided to attempt a winter climb of Mount Cleveland. All five were killed in an avalanche on December 30, 1969 and their bodies were not recovered until the next spring.
Being mauled by a bear is not a good way to go. The Park Service has gotten its Bear Management Policy up and running so that it is not as easy to get mauled and eaten by a bear as it used to be.
The most important mauling and story of a bear eating a human was a hot night in August when Julie Helgeson was killed by a bear at Granite Park Campground and that same night ten miles away Michele Coons was killed by a bear at Trout Lake Campground. That tragic story has been immortalized in a book and movie called NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY.
Read the book and you will probably be surprised that not as many people as you might think have been killed on Going-To-The-Sun Road.
However, it becomes very apparent early on that too many people have died in Glacier in very terrible ways.
Follow the advice of rangers and heed all danger signs and above all, never hike or even walk alone.
Don’t climb mountains if you don’t know what you are doing and stay away from swift and cold waters no matter how good a swimmer you are!
