At the Foot of the Belton Hills - National Park Service

DRAWING GLAC 117 2116A
telephone lines, water systems, and buildings,
was issued on January 1, 1942 (Figure 20). As
the park administration moved to a wartime
footing that year, these plans were put on
hold, but when new construction gradually
resumed after World War II, park managers
proceeded more or less according to the plans
developed on the eve of the U.S. entry into the
war (Drawings GLAC 117 5311 and 5312).
The most important question in the revised
development plan was where to locate a new
administrative building. At one point (in
1935), when various options were on the table
concerning the location of the new bridge
and railroad underpass, the park service proposed
relocating the headquarters administrative
building to the Belton town site. This
alternative was rejected, however, in favor of
constructing a new administrative building in
the opposite corner of the headquarters area
from its present location so that it would once
again be the fi rst building encountered upon
entering the area. Although this reconfi guration
was basic to the new development plan,
the new administrative building would actually
be one of the last buildings constructed.
Thus, the new entrance road into the headquarters
area, together with the vacant building
site for the planned administrative building,
became the new anchor points for the
revised headquarters-area development plan.
The plan for an expanded utility area followed
from the location of the future administrative
building. From the rear of the administrative
building, a new maintenance yard would extend
on a north–south axis perpendicular to
the present maintenance yard, intersecting
Figure 19. This 1941
plan shows the new
Sun Road alignment
and the expansion
of the utility and
residential areas.
Figure 20. This detail
from the master
plan in 1942 shows
the entrance road,
administrative
building, and
expanded utility area.
Headquarters Area, Glacier National Park 19
DRAWING GLAC 117 2115-A