Planning for a bigger, better visitor center

Earlier this year, the Glacier National Park Conservancy rounded up a host of business interests and in the course of about a month completely remodeled Glacier National Park’s new visitor center in Apgar.

That work is just the beginning of things to come, GNPC and Glacier National Park leaders said last week during a ceremony recognizing businesses and individuals — both Park staff and private workers — that helped with the initial remodel.

“We call it phase one,” GNPC co-chairman Mo Stein said. “We think there’s a big idea out there.”

Stein, an architect, said GNPC’s future plans are to partner further with the Park to make a world-class visitor center at the former shuttle station near the west entrance. That’s a stark contrast to just a few years ago, when previous Park leaders said they didn’t want a large visitor center because the Park Service couldn’t afford to maintain one.

But a visitor center on the west side of the Park has always been sorely lacking in the public’s eyes. The former visitor center was located in a former residence in Apgar Village for decades. The space was cramped, and parking was sparse. This spring, under Park superintendent Jeff Mow, the decision was made to move the visitor center into a larger open space at the Apgar Transit Center.

The $4.2 million transit center was built in 2006 and occupied in the summer of 2007. It initially served people taking the Park’s free shuttle service, but the building’s open space was never fully utilized until this summer.

The center has room for expansion, and that’s what will likely happen in the coming years, Stein noted. He was hesitant to provide a timeline, but the goal is certainly to improve the center further.

“I think we could move really fast, but these things take time to prepare,” he said.

Mow said the partnership to remodel the transit center was just the first in more to projects to come. Despite tight Park Service budgets, Glacier Park is on board, he said.

“We’re known as can-do people,” Mow said. “We will make things happen.”