The year of park establishment, 1910 was a monumental year for fire in the western U.S. Glacier National Park has had a fire management operations office for over 70 years, and the first office was located in the fire cache building. The present-day Fire Management Office building was originally constructed during the late 1950’s as part of the “Mission 66” architectural scheme, and was built for employee housing. In 2002, it moved into this building from the Fire Cache building. The Fire Management Office is where the fire official’s offices are located and where fire-fighting strategy is planned. The Fire Management Office is purposely located adjacent to the fire cache and to the hose tower.

The summer of 1910 was one of the worst forest fire years in the history of the northwest, and of these fires Glacier received its share. There was no organized firefighting organization as we now know it, very little equipment, few trails and practically no roads. By the time the fall rains had set in, Glacier National Park had lost over 100,000 acres of forest land to a series of fires, the largest of which covered approximately 23,000 acres.

Fire Management Office 1929 August 16, a slash fire, burning on private logging operations between eight and ten miles outside the park boundary, near Columbia Falls, escaped from its bounds under high winds and low humidity conditions, and the famous Halfmoon Fire of 1929 was underway. It overran the logging crews of the Halfmoon Lumber Company and forest crews were sent to stop the fire. The park lost over 50,000 acres of fine forest, of which about 10,000 acres was a heavy stand of reproduction from previous burns. The entire fire burned, both inside and outside the park, approximately 103,000 acres at a total cost of over $300,000, $244,000 of which was expended by Glacier National Park.  

Credits and Sources:

Historic District Walking Tour Script,” National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/glac/learn/historyculture/upload/Final-History-Tour-Script-5_6_2011.pdf, Accessed on June 20, 2015.

Donald H. Robinson, Through the Years in Glacier National Park: an Administrative History,Glacier Natural History Association, Inc. In cooperation with the National Park Service, May 1960.