While the hotel stickers shown yesterday were all rectangles, many of the chalet stickers were cut in distinctive patterns. Although it is unlikely that a tourist would visit all of the chalets on one trip, I’ve sorted these into roughly the order a tourist would see them if they were traveling east to west through the park.
Click any image to download a PDF of that sticker.
Two Medicine Lake is the first stop after leaving East Glacier and the Glacier Park Hotel. The lake is the source of the Two Medicine River, whose topography forms the background for the spectacular Two Medicine Bridge which was and still is crossed by the Empire Builder.
Cut Bank Creek forms the next valley north of the Two Medicine River. Consisting of a dining hall, a multiroom cabin, and two one-room cabins, the Cut Bank Chalets were popular among anglers. An architecture web page about the chalet’s says the Great Northern’s failure to advertise them led to their closure in 1938.
The St. Mary Chalets were among the first to be built in the park and were initially successful. In addition to food and lodging, they provided a boat launch for lake and access to Going to the Sun Chalets. When a highway relocation by-passed the St. Mary Chalets, overnight stays dropped off. Great Northern allowed Winold Reiss to use St. Mary for an art school, but that closed in 1937 and the chalets closed in 1938.
Located 100 feet above St. Mary Lake with a spectacular view of the mountains and accessed only by boat, Going to the Sun Chalets were initially very successful. However, construction of the Going to the Sun Highway, which went right by the chalets, killed the business, as people could see the same scenery from their car and then stay the night at low-cost motor courts outside the park. The chalets operated until World War II and were demolished after the war.
Sperry Chalet would have been the next logical stop in an east-to-west trip, but some might have gone out of their way to head north to Many Glacier followed by the Granite Park Chalets. Unlike the three previous ones, Granite Park still exists.
Sperry Chalet is located roughly midway between St. Mary Lake and Lake McDonald. The main building burned in 2017, but the stone framework survived and the building is being reconstructed.
Located not far from the West Glacier train station, Belton Chalets were not as successful as some of GN’s hotels, and the railroad sold them in 1946. They stood empty for 50 years, but in 1998 someone restored them and today they once again provide dining and lodging to summer tourists.