Laura Bush to visit the Park

Former First Lady Laura Bush will visit Glacier National Park this week, capping off her stay with a fundraiser appearance at the Lake McDonald Lodge on Friday afternoon.

The fundraiser is for the Glacier National Park Fund, the non-profit fundraising arm of the Park. Bush will hold a press conference prior to the event.

"Laura's commitment to national parks means a great deal to us," said Jane Ratzlaff, executive director of the Glacier National Park Fund.

Ratzlaff said the fundraiser has already raised $20,000 for future park projects, including work on historic structures, education programs and repairs to trails that were damaged by this year's high water.

Bush often takes vacations with family friends in national parks. She last visited Glacier Park in July 2004 when her husband, George W. Bush, was president. She made no formal public appearances, although several people met her as she visited local establishments and restaurants.

She also attended a fundraiser in the Park that year for the National Parks Foundation. This week's Lake McDonald event is by invitation only.

Glacier Park has been a destination for high-profile political figures in the past. Vice President Al Gore visited the Park and witnessed its melting glaciers in the late 1990s. Then-President Richard Nixon visited the Flathead Valley in 1971, although it was a brief appearance at the airport en route to Anchorage Alaska. The last sitting president to visit the Park was Franklin Roosevelt in 1934.

President Barack Obama was planning a visit to Whitefish this week but canceled his plans.