Dale Duff in his Cadillac touring car. (Chandler Melton photo)

FDR touring cars will hit Sun Road

By CHRIS PETERSON / Hungry Horse News

In 1934, the country was in dire straights. Unemployment was high. Wars loomed. But still, the President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, wanted to see this new road across Glacier National Park. The Going-to-the-Sun Road, they called it.

So Roosevelt took the train to Belton and he and his entourage were loaded up into 1927 Cadillac touring cars and away they went, across the new highway to St. Mary and then on to Two Medicine on Aug. 5, 1934.

Roosevelt has long since passed away and the chalets he visited at Two Medicine were burned down in the 1950s.

But several of the touring cars his group rode in are still largely intact and owned by American businessmen, including Bruce Austin, historian and bus aficionado. Austin has gathered the owners of the buses for a re-creation of Roosevelt's historic ride through the Park in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the event. They will arrive at Belton Chalet Aug. 4 and ride across the road Aug. 5; stay overnight at St. Mary and then tour to Many Glacier Aug. 6; then back over the Sun Road to Belton. Joining them will be Kate Roosevelt, the great-granddaughter of FDR.

The cars will come from across the nation, but at least one is local. Dale Duff, owner of Rocky Mountain Transportation, has a car and will participate in the ride.

Roosevelt gave his weekly radio address from the Two Medicine Chalets, saying this, in part, about Glacier:

"Today, for the first time in my life, I have seen Glacier Park. Perhaps I can best express to you my thrill and delight by saying that I wish every American, old and young, could have been with me today. The great mountains, the glaciers, the lakes and the trees make me long to stay here for all the rest of the summer."

Austin also formed the Jammer Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to public education and preservation of Park Service touring buses.