Prior to May 10, 1910, the 1 million acres that are now part of Glacier National Park were part of the Flathead Forest Reserve. Although the glacier-capped mountains and deep blue lakes were just as beautiful before President William Howard Taft signed the legislation creating Glacier as they were afterward, the designation of this area as a national park changed everything. Suddenly, the plot of land east of the North Fork of the Flathead River and south of the Canadian border was a nationally recognized destination.

Before this land became a National Park, there were limited accommodations in the area. The most notable was the Snyder Hotel, which opened on the shores of Lake McDonald in 1895 and was operated by George Snyder. Snyder managed the hotel for over a decade before the property was transferred to John and Olive Lewis of Columbia Falls. According to legend, the transfer happened after Snyder lost the property in a drunken card game. However, others, particularly historians Ray Djuff and Chris Morrison, have suggested that Snyder might have simply grown weary of the isolation of living along Lake McDonald and subsequently sold it for $1,500.

Justin Franz