Sun Road in '64 Flood

I was probably the last person up on Going-to-the-Sun Road above the Garden Wall Road Camp on Sunday evening, May 31, 1964. There was heavy rain, and wind, rock and snow slides were coming down on the road, and the road was starting to wash away in places. When I got home in Martin City, I called Glacier National Park headquarters and advised them of what I had seen and experienced.

The rest is history. Most of the Park’s heavy equipment was stranded up in the high country and not available to assist in rebuilding the necessary infrastructure at all the lower elevation facilities. Every road in the Park was washed out in multiple places, leaving people stranded.

One could not get to Park headquarters, St. Mary Ranger Station, Many Glacier, Two Medicine, Cut Bank Ranger Station or Waterton. Nor could you cross Marias Pass, as U.S. 2 was washed out in numerous places, as was Highway 89 and the railroad. Because of the extensive damage, there was a shortage of heavy equipment.

The next six weeks are going to be critical as we know that the snowpack is 60-plus percent of normal (150-plus percent in the Missions) and in some cases is increasing. If we get rain on top of the snowpack as we did on May 30 and 31 and June 1, 2 and 3, 1964, we could very well have a repeat of the Flood of 1964. At the time, they told us it was a 100-year flood.

Only 50 years have elapsed since that disaster. Hopefully, we have learned a few things, such as prepositioning backhoes and excavators at choke points where logs and debris can plug a culvert or bridge causing it to wash out; having sufficient equipment operators on call; identification of private resources outside the Park that can respond quickly with needed equipment and operators to anywhere in and around the Park; and the need to coordinate with road superintendents with the state and Flathead and Glacier counties to share resources.

Norman W. Johnson

Polson