Bones of the Earth

I have been doing a large amount of historical research on Glacier National Park over the last month. At first I dragged my feet about this, knowing full well that I suck at history and I am very glad that the majority of report-writing experiences are behind me now. It's been at least ten years since I've done this kind of research.

I'm really shocked at what I've found.

On one hand, my eyes have been opened all over again to the beauty that is the park. There is truly nothing quite like it in the world, no matter how many comparisons naturalists and surveyors will draw to Switzerland and the Alps. The people who came through it, lived there, died there and worshiped there are all unique. I wish I'd known this stuff at the time because it would have pushed the experience of breathing in that crisp mountain air to an even sweeter level.


On the other hand, I'm absolutely appalled at some of the corruption and controversy that I am finding between the lines. History has always confused my straightforward scientific brain because history is open to revision and bias. And how! It was silly of me to be surprised that the perfect natural ecosystem of the park is subject to this human pettishness as well.

So now I have all this data and am not sure what to do with it. I've been (smartly) advised not to touch the sour political crap with a 10-foot pole. It still irritates me, however, more than 100 years later: the selfish, short-sighted, inhumane greed and megalomania. It's difficult to respect those that protected the area knowing that there is so much negativity buried - literally - beneath its roots.

I suppose I need to come up with a few more euphemisms about the power of nature or something like that, prevailing over all, blah blah blah.