C-Falls will be Xanterra's 'base of operations'
Columbia Falls will be the base of operations for Xanterra Parks & Resorts new division, with 30 to 40 people working in administrative offices established in one of the former Pamida store buildings.
That was the message delivered at a packed Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce meeting on Dec. 14. Many of those in attendance work in the tourist industry.
“We were extremely excited to learn we won the concession contract for Glacier National Park,” said Jim McCaleb, vice president for Xanterra’s Parks North division. “Then we were a bit nervous after looking at the transition.”
Xanterra’s concession contract went into effect Jan. 15, but the company still needs to establish offices, a warehouse, laundry facilities and a storage building for the historic Red Buses in time for this year’s busy tourist season.
McCaleb said Xanterra is closing on the Pamida real estate contract and moving ahead on getting offices set up for its administrative staff “so they won’t be so nomadic, moving from coffee house to coffee house.”
The name of Xanterra’s local division will be Glacier Park Lodges, according to general manager Marc Ducharme. He said nearly all 11 members of the local leadership team have been chosen, and some booking has already begun.
Addressing any confusion visitors may have between Glacier Park Lodges and Glacier Park Inc., the former concessioner which still owns major lodging facilities in East Glacier, St. Mary and Whitefish, is a “work in progress,” Ducharme said, but so far the two companies have worked well together.
“We have lots of close friends at GPI,” he said, “and what benefits them clearly benefits us — and everyone else here.”
Guest service as Xanterra’s highest priority, McCaleb said.
“Most people will only visit Glacier Park once in their lives, and they’ve saved for it for a long time,” he said. “So this is a very important responsibility.”
Partnering with the National Park Service and local groups like the Glacier National Park Conservancy and the Glacier Institute is Xanterra’s second priority, and McCaleb cited award-winning partnerships Xanterra has had in other national parks.
“It’s a win-win formula for everyone,” he said. “Guests are better off with these partnerships.”
Developing good community relationships is Xanterra’s third priority, McCaleb said, a point well supported by Glacier National Park’s new superintendent, Jeff Mow.
Mow credited local communities and businesses for making Glacier Park such a draw for tourists. He noted that national parks he worked for in Alaska were relatively new and didn’t have the generational depth in nearby communities that he found here.
It was in Alaska that he learned about the importance of national park staff becoming active members of their local communities, Mow said.. While there, he joined a local fire department, served several terms as mayor in a small town and was president of a local Rotary Club.
As for his new job, Mow noted that information has been coming to him “like a fire hose” over the past 4 1/2 months, and the partial shutdown by the federal government fell right in the middle of it all.
“We’re still trying to find our way through that,” he said.
Mow pointed out that the Park has not yet received official numbers after a budget deal was reached in Washington, D.C., in December, so the health of the Park’s budget was still unclear.
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138-year history
Xanterra Parks & Resorts can trace its history back to the Fred Harvey Co., which opened railroad eating houses in 1875 that later grew into Harvey House, the first restaurant chain in the U.S.
With the decline of passenger trains, Fred Harvey Co. adjusted to the automobile age with its popular staff of waitresses. Judy Garland starred in the 1946 movie “The Harvey Girls.”
The death of the founder’s grandson in 1965 initiated a chain of mergers and acquisitions with Chicago-based JMB Realty, Hawaiian landholder Amfac and national park concessioner TW Recreational Services, culminating in a new company, Xanterra, in 2002
Billionaire oil man and entertainment mogul Phillip Anschutz acquired Xanterra from private owners in 2008.
The Denver-based businessman has stakes in oil businesses, railroads, professional sports teams, resorts and entertainment venues across the U.S.
According to Xanterra’s Parks North vice president, Jim McCaleb, Anschutz is personally interested in healthy outdoor activities. Under Anschutz, Xanterra acquired Windstar Cruises in 2011; Austin-Lehman Adventures, a Billings-based guided tour company, in 2013; and VBT Worldwide Bicycling & Walking Vacations, of Bristol, Vt., also in 2013.