Vint's vision of Glacier a continuing legacy

It's August 1924. Three men sit on horseback, overlooking Glacier National Park's Garden Wall. One man is the trim and fit George Goodwin, a veteran civil engineer. The other is National Park Service director Stephen Mather. The third is Thomas Vint, a young and portly 29-year-old landscape architect, who had been with the Service for all of two years.

The men are exploring options for a new road across Glacier. A road at first is simply known as the Transmountain Highway, later to be named the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Goodwin has suggested a route up and over the Garden Wall that starts at Logan Creek and switches back over and over again up the face of the Continental Divide.

The greenhorn Vint will have none of that and says so to Mather.

Goodwin's route will "look like miners had been there," Vint protests.

Vint's vision is for a road that is in harmony with the landscape, not fighting through it. He envisions a route that will make just one long switchback and then run the length of the Wall, as if it were a natural ledge in the mountainside.

Mather gets mad at the ensuing conversation. Goes ahead on his steed to be alone, contemplating Vint's suggestion. Goodwin is none too happy either. Vint's route, while elegant, will also eat up a significant portion of a Congressional budgetary earmark for roads throughout the entire Park Service.

Mather, after talking with other Park Service officials, consents to Vint's route. The Going-to-the-Sun Road is born. And more than $2 million is spent to complete the road up and over Logan Pass, according to author Carol Guthrie, in her book "The Going-to-the-Sun Road."

Today, Vint's legacy lives on.

"I'm always running into drawings Vint did, of not just the Sun Road, but of other Park places," said Jack Gordon.

Gordon, Glacier's current landscape architect, is charged with upholding Vint's vision of the Sun Road. Vint's original drawings are part of Glacier's archives. As Glacier goes through reconstruction of the historic highway, he often finds himself consulting Vint's drawings of the road to stay true to the original design.

Much of what Vint envisioned and what was built survives today — remarkable architectural achievements like the Triple Arches, the Baring Creek Bridge, the Loop, to name a few.

"Here we are today, trying to save (the road)," Gordon said during a short ceremony held earlier this month to honor Vint and the road he designed as part of "Landscape Architecture Day" in Glacier. His family accepted a plaque from the Idaho-Montana Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects recognizing the road and Vint's service posthumously. Vint died in 1967.

While the Sun Road was his crowning achievement, Vint's reach extended far into other Park Service projects.

"He was the first to talk about master plans in national parks," said Bob Vint, Thomas's grandson.

He noted that Vint also knew that Park landscape architects had difficult tasks. That often what they were building, no matter how well done, would not be better than the landscape they disturbed.

Thomas Vint said landscape architects "must approach their problems with humility … their task is a delicate one."

He also had a sense of humor, Bob Vint recalled.

"What did the ram say when he fell off the cliff? I didn't see the ewe turn."

The Sun Road launched Thomas Vint's distinguished career with the Service.

"It became a huge opportunity for him to advance his career," Bob recalled. Vint oversaw the completion of the Sun Road, from 1925 to 1932. After the Park Service OK'd his vision, it was surveyed in the fall of 1924 and the contract was let that spring — an incredible achievement considering the surveyors hung by ropes and had only horses and their own two feet to get around on.

The road completely opened to traffic in 1933. Vint would continue his Park Service career, rising to the rank of Chief of the Branch of Plans and Designs until he retired in 1962. He oversaw many other projects in the Service as well, including a number of visitor centers. One notable center he designed is at Casa Grande National Park, his grandson recalled. Vint rejected the original design and did one of his own, much to the chagrin of the first architect.

Early in his career Vint was an intern for Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright's son, and his dual training allowed him to bridge two disciplines — architecture and landscapes.

His talents were recognized by fellowships in both the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects. During the Great Depression, he also created the Historic American Building Survey, which put architects to work across the country documenting historic structures throughout the U.S.

Bob also went on to follow in his grandfather's footsteps. He became an architect and has his own firm in Tucson, Ariz. He recently did a restoration project on a mission in that state.

When he requested the documents from the Library of Congress, an envelope landed on his desk with drawings from the 1930s — from the Historic American Building Survey. The cover letter has his grandfather's signature of approval.