Glacier View Dam Debate
- Date Range
- January 1, 1930 – January 1, 1943
- Title
- Glacier View Dam Debate
- What occurred
- In 1943, the Army Corps of Engineers in Montana proposed to build a 416 foot tall dam in Glacier National Park in the canyon between Glacier View Mountain and Huckleberry mountain. This is on the western border of the park and the state, and the fact that visitors rarely traveled there was one excuse for them to build. The intent of this dam was to make western Montana more industrialized, inspired by the city of Chicago in the 40's. The dam would have created a reservoir 25 miles long providing 977 billion gallons of usable water storage. This would attract industries like aluminum processing plants and airplane manufacturers, which is what the Army Corps of Engineers saw as technological and urban advancements. The park service, which was founded in 1916, strongly opposed, and they won this debate, making sure Hetch Hetchy would not be repeated.
- Location
- Glacier View Mountain, Glacier National Park, Montana
- Image Citation
- "Worth a Dam: Glacier View and the Preservation of Wild America", Bailey, S. B. , 2020
- Student name(s)
- Sofia Barth