The Geologic Story
of
Glacier National Park
{Cover} CHIEF MOUNTAIN
Special Bulletin No. 3
GLACIER NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION
Price 25 Cents
THE GEOLOGIC STORY
of
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK
By JAMES L. DYSON
Head, Department of Geology and Geography
Lafayette College[1]
Until recently a geologist was visualized by most people as a queersort of fellow who went around the countryside breaking rocks with alittle hammer. Fortunately, the general public today has a much clearerpicture of the geologist and his science, but there are still many amongus who mistakenly feel that geology is something too remote for practicalapplication.
Geology is the science of the Earth. It includes a history of ourplanet starting with its origin, and a history of the life which has livedupon it. From it we can determine the reason for every feature of thelandscape and every rock structure underneath the surface, and we canfurther learn what processes gave rise to them.
Practically everything to be seen on the face of the Earth owesits origin directly or indirectly to geological processes. These may begrouped into two great categories: Internal forces or agents whichraise, lower, bend, and break the Earth’s crust; and external, morefamiliar agents such as water, wind, and ice, which wear away the surfaceand carry the materials to another place—ultimately to the sea.Let us consider a few of the products of these geologic agents: (1) Thesoil covering most of the landscape and furnishing the plant productswhich serve as our food; (2) the solid rock, so conspicuous in all mountainranges; (3) the hills, the valleys, and the mountains; (4) all thestreams, ponds, lakes—even the sea. If you live in a place where manhas covered up the rock and the soil evidence of geological processesis yielded by the buildings themselves, whether they be of stone quarriedfrom the Earth’s crust, or of brick made from clay. The stone and brickare supported by a framework of steel originally taken from a mine inthe form of iron ore. The concrete and asphalt of the roads came fromrocks within the Earth, as did every drop of gasoline which plays sovital a part in world affairs today. Even those commonplaces of American2life, the bottle and the “tin” can, are products of geology. As youread this you need look only at your watch or perhaps an item of jewelrywhich you wear to see something—gold, silver, platinum, a diamond orother gem stone—which is a part of geology.
Thus, from here it is a short step to the realization that a number ofgeologic processes and agents working over long periods of time havegiven rise to innumerable features and structures ranging from the loftiestmountains down to the smallest hills and valleys; from the soil whichgrows our food to the gasoline and coal which feed our industries; fromour huge iron ore deposits down to the much smaller, but now no lesssignificant, deposits of uranium.
How is all this related to a national park? Nowhere within ourland can the accomplishments of the great geological processes, or theirpresent-day operation, be seen to better advantage than in many of ournational parks and monuments. In fact, it is for this reason principallythat many of them were established. Notable is Grand Canyon NationalPark, containing the most spectacular part of the Colorado’s mile-deepcanyon