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Going-to-the-Sun Road

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

From the record

“Going-to-the-Sun Road is a scenic mountain road in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States, in Glacier National Park in Montana. The Sun Road, as it is sometimes abbreviated in National Park Service documents, is the only road that traverses the park, crossing the Continental Divide through Logan Pass at an elevation of 6,646 feet (2,026 m), which is the highest point on the road.”

Wikipedia article Going-to-the-Sun Road, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 168 National Register listings published here for Flathead County · listed in 1997 · category: District · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • Address. Glacier National Park, West Glacier, 59936
  • When was it listed? February 1997
  • Category. district
  • Also known as. Glacier National Park MPS; Glacier National Park MPS
  • Census division. Glacier National Park
  • Architectural style. National Park Service rustic
  • National Register reference number. 97000345 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

12 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Going-to-the-Sun Road between 2000 and 2017, burning about 17,143 acres in total. 11 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Natural11
Fireworks1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
5 September 2002Naturalunder an acreGlacier National ParkREBECKA
1 September 2012Natural160 acresGlacier National ParkAVALANCHE
1 September 2007Naturalunder an acreGlacier National ParkAVALANCHE
8 August 2006Naturalunder an acreGlacier National ParkHEAVY RUNNER
10 August 2017Natural16,982 acresGlacier National ParkSPRAGUE
31 July 2012Naturalunder an acreGlacier National ParkFISH LAKE
28 July 2012Naturalunder an acreGlacier National ParkBROWN
23 July 2000Naturalunder an acreGlacier National ParkFLORAL PARK

Every fire recorded in Flathead County

Storms near this property

9 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Glacier, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 2004 and 2015: 2 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 2 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
November 2006Flash FloodWest Glacier$7,000,000The Associated Press reported 7.0 million in damages. Glacier National Park received 9.1 of rainfall in 36 hours. An additional .5 to 1.0 million in damages occurred to the park's trails.
February 2015Heavy RainWest Glacier-A rockslide was reported along US-2 just east of West Glacier, MT. The eastbound lane was blocked by softball-sized rocks. Road crews cleared debris and the road was usable again an hour later.
July 2014Heavy RainWest Glacier-The Glacier National Park RAWS reported 0.76 of rainfall in one hour. Other heavy rainfall reports include 0.78 40 min. ending 4:10 pm MDT 3 miles east of Creston and 0.65 in one hour via Hungry Horse RAWS at 6:11 pm MDT.
May 2013FloodWest Glacier-Minor flooding occurred to agricultural lands in the low lying areas adjacent to the middle fork of the Flathead River near West Glacier.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindWest Glacier-no account filed
July 2006Thunderstorm WindWest Glacier-no account filed
May 2006FloodWest Glacier-no account filed
June 2006HailWest Glacier-no account filed
September 2004HailWest Glacier-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Flathead County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Gunsight Pass Shelter1.5 miles1986
Sperry Chalets1.9 miles1977
Mount Brown Fire Lookout3.4 miles1986
Thomas J. Walsh Lodge4.6 miles1998
Alice Beck Cabin5.0 miles2008
Greve's Tourist Cabins5.2 miles2008

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 97000345 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Flathead CountyAll 168 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.