“Since we can’t export the scenery, we’ll have to import the tourists,”
William Van Horne, President, Canadian Pacific

• May 11, 1910 ~ President William Howard Taft signs a bill creating Glacier National Park

• From 1910 to 1914 Louis Hill and the Great Northern Railway commissioned construction of nine chalet groups, Glacier Park Hotel, Many Glacier Hotel and Prince of Wales Hotel

• 1912 to 1914 ~ William and James Brewster set up a saddle horse, stagecoach and motor vehicle concession to operate between tent/teepee camps. (Modern day Brewster Tours, Inc. is a sister company of Glacier Park, Inc. Refer to the About Viad section for additional information.)

• June 15, 1913 Glacier Park Hotel opens (now known as Glacier Park Lodge & Resort)

• 1914 ~ Great Northern Railway establishes the Glacier Park Hotel Company to manage their Glacier National Park operations

• 1914 ~ Roe Emery founded Glacier Park Transportation Company with the financial backing of the White Motor Company to be the motorized tour concessioner in Glacier

• June 14, 1914 Lewis Glacier Hotel opens (now known as Lake McDonald Lodge)

• July 4, 1915 ~ Many Glacier Hotel opens

• 1927 ~ Howard Hays takes over the Glacier Park Transportation Company

• July 25, 1927 ~ Prince of Wales Hotel opens

• 1929 ~ Great Northern Railway introduces the Empire Builder

• 1933 ~ Going-To-The-Sun Highway officially opens (Highway term changes to Road in the 1950’s)

• 1932 ~ John Lewis sells Lewis Glacier Hotel to Great Northern Railway, who in turn, sells the hotel and surrounding acres to the National Park Service in return for a 20 year lease on the facilities

• 1934 ~ Glacier Park Hotel Company opens Swiftcurrent Auto Cabins (now known as Swiftcurrent Motor Inn)

• 1940 ~ Glacier Park Hotel Company opens East Glacier Auto Cabins at Roes Creek (now known as Rising Sun Motor Inn)

• Post World War II ~ Glacier Park Hotel Company is renamed Glacier Park Company

• 1955 Howard Hays sells his fleet of Red Buses to Glacier Park Company

• 1956 ~ Village Inn at Apgar opens

• 1957 Great Northern Railway turns over management of Glacier Park Company to Donald T. Knutson who ran a construction company and owned hotels in Minnesota and North Dakota.

• December 1960 ~ Don Hummel, his brother, Gail and Don Ford pay $1.4 million for Glacier Park Company and assume operation under the name Glacier Park Inc.

• February 1981 ~ Hummel sells Glacier Park Inc. to Greyhound Food Management of Phoenix, AZ.

• 1981to Present ~ Glacier Park, Inc. operate as its parent company evolves:

1930 - The Greyhound Corporation; 1971 - Greyhound Corporation moves to Phoenix from Chicago; 1990 - Greyhound Corporation renamed Greyhound Dial Corp; 1991 - Greyhound Dial Corp renamed The Dial Corp; Feb.1996 - Dial Corp separates into two independent companies: The Dial Corporation and Viad Corp; 1996 to present Viad Corp is GPI’s parent company