Glacier Park preservationist honored with national award

Glacier National Park cultural resource specialist and historical architect Lon Johnson was recently awarded the national 2011 Appleman-Judd-Lewis Award for excellence in cultural resource stewardship.

The award recognizes expertise and outstanding contributions to cultural resource stewardship and management by permanent full-time National Park Service employees.

Specifically, Johnson was awarded for his pro-active, collaborative and innovative protection and enhancement of unique and perishable Native American cultural resources at risk from ice and snow melting related to climate change, and for his stewardship of historic architecture at Glacier National Park.

Johnson currently leads the Glacier Ice Patch Archeology Project in cooperation with archeologists from the universities of Wyoming, Arizona and Colorado, tribal members from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Blackfeet Nation, and other Park Service employees. The project’s goal is to recover delicate items from melting ice patches in sub-alpine and alpine areas of Glacier Park used for hunting in prehistoric times.

His efforts to preserve the integrity of historic buildings, structures and roads in Glacier Park includes preservation and adaptive use of a 1949 park residence facility, creation of an historic walking tour of the Park Headquarters area, stabilization of Heaven’s Peak Lookout, preservation of historic concessioner structures, such as the Many Glacier Hotel, and preservation work on the Going-to-the-Sun Road during recent rehabilitation work.