Glacier National Park, Montana
(Bain News Service / Library of Congress)
‘Helen’, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, is photographed here operating the switchboard at Many Glacier Hotel, in Glacier National Park, Montana. Telephone operators of the time worked at hotels as well as exchanges.
During this period, park concessionaires often required their Blackfeet employees, including bus drivers and telephone operators, to dress in ‘traditional’ clothing to appeal to eastern tourists. The hotel, the largest inside the park, was built by the Great Northern Railroad between 1914 and 1915 as accommodation for tourists to the National Park. The area in which the hotel sits is described as the ‘Switzerland of North America' and the hotel is themed around a Swiss Chalet design.
‘Glacier National Park! Season June 15 to October 1. During the season of 1915 this tremendous mountain land may be enjoyed as never before. The accommodation and tours have been arranged to suit the most exacting tourist. A new mammoth mountain hotel, the “Many-Glacier”, has been erected on Lake McDermott in the Park’s heart – one of America’s most notable tourist hotels.’
Advert for Glacier National Park, The Glasgow Courier, Montana, May 14, 1915
