Copyright (c) 2003-2011 by Malcolm R. Campbell. Some images copyright (c) 2003-2011 by JupiterImages Corporation. (For image reproduction information, go to www.clipart.com.) All Rights Reserved.
Many Glacier Hotel as shown in a 1939 Great Northern Railway booklet promoting Glacier National Park, Montana
"The Sun Singer" is set in a Glacier National Park in the Swiftcurrent Valley shown in this old painting. Robert Adams and his family stay at Many Glacier Hotel built by the Great Northern Railroad in 1915.
The lake shown here is Swiftcurrent. Robert hikes around this lake and crosses over the forested Glacial moraine (behind the flag pole) to Lake Josephine, and that is where his adventures begin.
The prominent mountain in the background is Mt. Gould, with the Garden Wall to the right. The swirl of rock just below Mt. Gould is the Angel Wing referenced in the book. The mountain on the far right of the painting is Grinnell Point.
Glacier National Park's 2010 centennial celebrations brought a record 2.2 million visitors to the park last year. In addition to the usual park activities, they had 130 special centennial activities to choose from.If you are planning to visit Glacier in 2011 and wish to stay in Many Glacier Hotel, make reservations early. A huge hotel restoration project will have half of the guest rooms and some public rooms out of commission. Expectations are that this situation will continue into 2012.
If you would like to explore the shining mountains of the Sun Singer's world, click here for more information about the historic hotels and park events and services. Click on the NPS logo below for additional Glacier Park details.
My article about the park's Swiftcurrent Valley appears in Vanilla Heart Publishing's "Nature's Gifts" anthology to be released March 15, 2010.My novel Garden of Heaven: an Odyssey also includes scenes at Many Glacier Hotel
"Give at least a month to this precious preserve. Time will not be taken from the sum of your life. Instead of shortening, it will indefinitely lengthen it and make you truly immortal”
--John Muir
“Be wise and listen,” said the Sun. “I am the only chief. Everything is mine. I made the earth, the mountains, prairies, rivers, and forests.”
--Blackfoot Legend in Blackfoot Lodge Tales by George Bird Grinnell
"Water, wind and ice shape and reshape the rocky spectrum of limestone, quartzite, diorite, and argillite that stretches from valley floor to mountain summit. The wonders of this rock unfold along every trail. East of the divide, thousands of hikers stop below the face of Going-to-the-Sun Mountain, Natósi-áitapo, where some say the creator of these mountains watches over his world from within the living stone."
Hotel road in the winter with the Angel Wing in the background. - NPS Photo, November 2010
Many Glacier Hotel as it looks in November. - NPS Photo, 2010.
The author while working as a bellman at Many Glacier Hotel in 1963 and 1964
Storm over Mt. Wilbur across Swiftcurrent Lake from the hotel. - M. R. Campbell Photo.
Chief Mountain, on the nearby road to Canada, is featured in The Sun Singer. In the alternate universe, it is named The Guardian. - M. R. Campbell Photo.
