All of Glacier National Park is spectacular, frankly, but as you reach Logan Pass and consider the historic architecture on the east side of the park, often the landscape itself overpowers the man-made environment, be it the modernist visitor center at Logan Pass, above to the left of center of the image, or the Many Glacier Hotel on the north end of the park, below. The manmade is insignificant compared to the grandeur of the mountains.

The reverse is true at East Glacier, where the mammoth Glacier Park Lodge competes with the surrounding environment.  The massive log hotel was the brainchild of Louis Hill, the president of the Great Northern Railway, who wished for a building that could mirror the earlier 1905 Forestry Hall for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition.  Hill had the vision but architect Samuel L. Bartlett of St. Paul, Minnesota, carried the vision into an architectural plan.

The lodge is impressive however you consider it and it served as a trend setter for the image that Hill wished to give visitors to his newly designated national park.

The huge main lobby, grounded in imported Douglas firs from the Pacific Northwest, brings the loftiness of the park to the interior of the hotel.

The lodge proved popular with train travelers and additions came as early as 1914-1915, with further expansions due to the demand from automobile travelers on U.S. 2.

But the long landscaped walkway from the Glacier Park Lodge to the Great Northern passenger station, also themed in Rustic style, let everyone know who was in charge–the railroad, whose influence created the national park and then built the facilities that defined the look of the park for the next 100 years.

And the trains continue to arrive throughout the summer, bringing tourists to this iconic mountain National Historic Landmark.