Glacier Park

Hello, I'm Nelson Olmstead. Today let's visit the place the Blackfoot Indians called the Backbone of the World. But now, click Groobers standing by with a word from Pacific Power. Welcome once again to Stories of Pacific Power Land, a presentation of Pacific Power and Light, the company that has been serving the electric needs of the region's homes, farms and industries

through more than half a century of progress and growth. Now let's join Nelson with today's chapter from Pacific Power Land. Two the Indians of the Blackfoot and the Flathead Tribes, the 1600 or more square miles straddling the Rocky Mountains in what is now in northwestern Montana, was a bountiful honey ground. The Blackfeet in particular were fierce in their desire to guard their

lands against the expanding frontier of the white men. One grizzled trapper said, eh, sure sure of them. There's a fortune in Beaver in their mountains, and there's plenty a black tree too. Mission one against the other, it ain't going to do you no good. Get them beaver, hide that if you lose your own hide

in the deer." But an area so rich in both resources and natural beauty was not likely to remain overlooked for long. In the years following 1850, adventuresome men, trappers, surveyors, and missionaries found their way into this well-guarded wilderness. And then in 1885, an influential and energetic Easterner was attracted to this remote corner of the West, he was George Berg Grinnell, editor of the National Art

Door magazine called, Forest and Stream. He told a friend one day, I have about decided to take a trip West this year. I've been publishing articles by a fellow named James Willard Shoots from Montana and he's got me so excited about that country. I can hardly wait to see it for myself. The historic meeting of