Record visitation is No. 1 Glacier Park story

Glacier National Park set a new attendance record in 2014 with 2,327,161 recreational visitors through November. That number eclipsed the previous record set in 1983.

All those visitors boosted the local economy. According to a National Park Service report in March, visitors to Glacier Park in 2013 accounted for $172.4 million in total spending, 2,754 jobs and $74.2 million in labor income.

Travel experts and readers of USA Today ranked Glacier Park one of the top 20 national parks in the U.S. Lake McDonald Lodge’s centennial and the Park’s melting glaciers may have attracted visitors.

Other top Glacier Park stories included:

• After 68 years of ownership, the Lundgren family sold its West Glacier and Apgar properties and inventory to Glacier Park Inc. for about $17 million. The sale gave GPI a continued presence in the Park after it lost the major concessions contract in 2013 to hospitality giant Xanterra Parks and Resorts. In their first year here, Xanterra officials reported everything went well after a slow start.

• A mountain goat study continued near Logan Pass, with two dozen animals radio-collared to track their movements. The goal was to describe impacts by the thousands of daily visitors at Logan Pass during the summer. A separate study found that goats were remarkably tolerant of humans and could be using them as “shields” against predators.

• Jordan Graham, the 22-year-old Kalispell woman who pushed her newlywed husband off a cliff near The Loop, appealed her 30-year prison sentence. Graham tried to cover up the crime, but Park rangers and the FBI soon unraveled her story and she admitted shoving Cody Johnson off the cliff. In the appeal, Graham’s attorneys claimed the act was a crime of passion, not premeditated.

• A four-year DNA study of Glacier Park’s wolverines found a relatively high density compared to other regions where they are known to exist. The study found 36 wolverines inhabit the Park, about one for every 30 square miles.

• With about $200,000 in donations and in-kind labor from local businesses and the Glacier National Park Conservancy, the Park’s fundraising arm, the transit center in Apgar was remodeled into a new visitor center.

• Reconstruction work continued on the Going-to-the-Sun Road’s east side, with a wider roadway in places, new pullouts and expanded parking at some trailheads. The east-side work will wrap up in 2015. The last leg of the decade-long project, from West Glacier to Avalanche, will run into 2017 according to projections.

• After more than 63 years as a Glacier Park Inc. employee, Ian Tippet announced he was retiring and would leave the company for good after the summer 2014 season. Tippet was the pivotal manager of the GPI-run lodges in Glacier Park through the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.