ON THIS DAY 5 11 2023

This Day in History: May 11

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Glacier National Park

national park, Montana, United States




Glacier National Park, scenic wilderness area in the northern Rocky Mountains in northwestern Montana, U.S., adjoining the Canadian border and Canada’s Waterton Lakes National Park. The two parks together comprise Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, dedicated in 1932. Glacier National Park straddles the Continental Divide, the great ridge of the Rocky Mountains marking the boundary between westward (to the Pacific Ocean) and eastward (to Hudson Bay and the Mississippi River) drainage systems. It was classified as a UNESCO International Biosphere Reserve in 1976, and the international peace park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995.



Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park, established in 1910, encompasses 1,583 square miles (4,101 square km), a third of which is above the timberline. It is bordered to the west and southwest by the Flathead River and Flathead National Forest, to the southeast by Lewis and Clark National Forest, and to the east by the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Salish and later Blackfoot Indians once inhabited the area now contained within the park. Although new settlers, pushing ever westward with the railroad in the 1800s and early 1900s, were primarily interested in making a living from the land, appreciation also grew for its natural beauty. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, tourist facilities began to be established. The Great Northern Railway (whose rail line ran along the southern border of the park) built numerous hotels and small lodges (called chalets) throughout the park, most of which were accessible only by hiking or horseback; only a handful of them are still in use.

Mountains, lakes, and valleys show the effects of the some 50 glaciers that continue to sculpt the region. Waterfalls drop from hanging valleys, and the Garden Wall provides a stunning example of an arête (a narrow ridge left by glacial erosion on both sides). Cirques (amphitheatre-shaped basins with steep walls) are also common features. At 10,466 feet (3,190 metres), Mount Cleveland is the highest point in the park.




meadow in Glacier National Park




The steep western slopes are covered in dense forests of lodgepole pines, spruces, firs, hemlocks, and cedars, and alpine meadows feature flowering heathers, bear grasses, and glacier lilies. Prairie grasslands spread eastward across the drier plains. Mountain goats and bighorn sheep inhabit the highest elevations; black and grizzly bears roam the woods, as do deer, moose, and elk. Small numbers of gray wolves began returning in the mid-1980s after having been eradicated from the region earlier in the century. Bald eagles are notable among the more than 250 species of birds that live in or pass through the park. Trout, turtles and an occasional salmon can be found in the numerous lakes and streams.



Popular activities include camping, cross-country skiing, and hiking and backpacking on the park’s 700 miles (1,130 km) of trails. The 50-mile (80-km) Going-to-the-Sun Road (dedicated 1933) crosses the park, allowing scenic views of mountains, meadows, and lakes; the high-country part of the road is open only in summer (mid-June to mid-September). Of the three visitors’ centres, two are open only in summer.

Bob Marley

Jamaican musician




Bob Marley, in full Robert Nesta Marley, (born February 6, 1945, Nine Miles, St. Ann, Jamaica—died May 11, 1981, Miami, Florida, U.S.), Jamaican singer-songwriter whose thoughtful ongoing distillation of early ska, rock steady, and reggae musical forms blossomed in the 1970s into an electrifying rock-influenced hybrid that made him an international superstar.
Marley—whose parents were Norval Sinclair Marley, a white rural overseer, and the former Cedella Malcolm, the Black daughter of a local custos (respected backwoods squire)—would forever remain the unique product of parallel worlds. His poetic worldview was shaped by the countryside, his music by the tough West Kingston ghetto streets. Marley’s maternal grandfather was not just a prosperous farmer but also a bush doctor adept at the mysticism-steeped herbal healing that guaranteed respect in Jamaica’s remote hill country. As a child, Marley was known for his shy aloofness, his startling stare, and his penchant for palm reading. Virtually kidnapped by his absentee father (who had been disinherited by his own prominent family for marrying a Black woman), the preadolescent Marley was taken to live with an elderly woman in Kingston until a family friend rediscovered the boy by chance and returned him to Nine Miles.


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