Rebuilding the Sperry Chalet: Part 2

The backcountry Sperry Chalet was constructed over several summers in the 1910s using timbers harvested within Glacier National Park. The stone was quarried from the talus slope just uphill of the chalet. Over two feet wide at the base and tapering to sixteen inches wide at the roof level, the masonry walls consist of two interwoven leaves of argillite, a fine-grained sedimentary stone consisting primarily of lithified muds. The masonry is purposefully laid in random ashlar coursing, and the massive exterior leaf stones project by varying degrees conveying a natural aesthetic and textural ruggedness. Around the perimeter, log knee braces are supported on projecting exterior stones that act as corbels. Smaller stones and thinner mortar joints on the walls’ exposed inside faces define a more uniform finish than the exterior. Opening heads are supported by unreinforced concrete lintels on the interior and arched rowlock stone coursing on the exterior (Figure 6). Only the fire-damaged masonry chimneys and perimeter walls remained after the historic building was lost to the Sprague Fire in 2017, as described in Part 1 (STRUCTURE, May 2021). [Note: Figure numbering continues from Part 1.]

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Rebuilding the Sperry Chalet: Part 1

On August 31, 2017, the Sprague Fire, roaring through Glacier National Park, reached the remote backcountry site of Sperry Chalet. It was one of two remaining chalets out of nine built by the Great Northern Railway Company in the 1910s within Glacier National Park’s high country. Despite preemptive mitigation efforts by park staff to protect the building, a spark from the nearby fire’s ember storm caught in one of the chalet’s eaves. The log-framed interior structure burned completely, leaving only the four stone masonry walls and the two interior stone chimneys still standing. Two accessory structures on the site were spared.

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The Great Northern Railway built the Many Glacier Hotel from 1914 to 1917. This iconic hotel, built in the style of a Swiss chalet, is perched on the edge of Swiftcurrent Lake overlooking the glaciated valleys and mountains of Glacier National Park’s less-traveled east side. The Many Glacier Hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1987. However, due to significant deficiencies in the knob-and-tube wiring, the plumbing and fire-suppression systems, and the gravity and lateral load-resisting structural systems, the structure was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places” in 1996. …