Last summer, the wifey and I stayed at the Belton Chalet, a fantastic historic hotel just outside the Glacier National Park (Yes, the glaciers are melting, so book a room today!)
The Belton Chalet is an old railroad lodge that got abandoned after World War II and was presumably haunted by ghosts until an enterprising couple sank a bunch of cash into and it reopened a decade ago.
It's got a killer restaurant, the famous Red Jammer Buses drop off/pick up just outside the lobby, and the spacious balconies are ideal for putting up the dogs, and sipping on a Moose Drool while spying for wildlife. I didn't see any moose drooling, or standing tall doing nothing for that matter, but we did see a bear shaking a tree, so good enough for Glacier. If you're headed up yonder, hunker down at the Belton Chalet. Trust me, I know from hunkerin' down.
A lodge on the edge of the park in West Glacier with 25 rooms and two cottages, the Swiss-style chalet just happens to be celebrating its 100th birthday this year too. Constructed for the Great Northern Railway, the lodge -- which first opened its doors on June 27, 1910 -- has a colorful early history, but it was closed during World War II and didn't fully reopen to the public until 1999. Husband-and-wife duo Cas Still, 63, and Andy Baxter, 52, bought the Belton in 1996, set about restoring it, and today have one Montana's hotel gems and one of the state's best restaurants. (Try the emu. Seriously. It's delicious.)
As the Belton prepared for the 100-year mark on June 27, Baxter was out-and-about fixing up the property, so Still shared the ins-and-outs of running a historic hotel, the centennial happenings, and the importance of bear repellent.
Are you and your husband native Montanans?
No, we moved here from Key West in 1987. He was a charter sailboat captain and I held every type of tourism job you can have -- bartender, housekeeper, property manager. Our specialty in Key West had been restoring old Victorian buildings, so we had a lot of experience, although we had never run a hotel before.
Did you move to Montana to take over the Belton Chalet?
We were here 10 years before we bought the Belton. We had two small children and wanted an affordable place to live where we could have a garden and horses. Andy spent three years restoring a small cabin on Flathead Lake, then he continued doing the same type of work on other houses.
His skills must have come in handy when you purchased the Belton.
He's known around here as "Handy Andy." All our general contractors were guys he'd worked for in the past. He got to be the boss, though, which is kind of fun.
The Great Northern Railway ran it until shutting down the hotel during World War II. After the war, motels became a lot more popular, so it didn't reopen to the public until we took it over. It was sold to private hands, and at some point, the Luding family purchased it. They ran the back-country chalets in the park and always thought they would get the Belton back up and running, but never did. Kay Luding saved the Belton, though. It was suppose to be torn down in the 1970s when the highway was expanded, but she got it listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The bar and restaurant was open back then, and the Tap Room was known as one of the rowdiest spots in the area. Around 1990, Kay Luding went into a nursing home and the place was sold for back taxes. Everything was shuttered.
(Click right here for the rest of the interview with the owners of the Belton Chalet)
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