Crooked Tree pool building collapses under snow
The building that houses the pool at the Crooked Tree Motel collapsed under the weight of snow last week.
Kids walk down a street in East Glacier last week.
Checking out the snow depths in East Glacier last week.
Gabe Salois uses a snowblower to clear off Eddie’s Cafe in Apgar after a winter storm dumped about 36 inches of snow on West Glacier.
A Hungry Horse landmark was heavily damaged Feb. 7 after heavy snow collapsed the roof and crushed the building over the Crooked Tree Motel’s pool.
The snow was a result of a series of weekend storms which dumped tons of snow onto the roof of the building. Owner Henry Broers said no one was hurt in the incident. The pool isn’t open in the winter months.
“That’s the only good thing I know,” Broers said last week.
It was the only covered and heated pool in Hungry Horse and was open to the public. Broers said the pool itself is fine, but the building that surrounded it was flattened.
The pool first opened in June of 1966 by Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Nash. Broers bought the business in 1986. Broers said he wasn’t sure if insurance would cover the loss. He was still considering his finances to see if he could rebuild the building.
“We may have an outdoor pool this summer,” he said.
By Feb. 9, the snow turned to rain at lower elevations. The warm weather ramped up the avalanche danger to extreme levels and U.S. Highway 2 and the railroad was closed to traffic because of avalanche danger from Essex to East Glacier. One slide put about six to eight inches over the highway and even more across the rail tracks. The weather settled a bit by Friday, Feb. 10 and Highway 2 reopened, though fierce winds blew east of the divide. The Blackfeet Tribe was in a state of emergency until Monday, Feb. 13.
The blast of cold froze Lake McDonald completely over by Wednesday. The lake last froze over in 2014. The Park Service is urging visitors to use extreme caution if they venture onto the ice.
The northeast end of the lake is more solid than the southwest end.
The storms gave the snowpack a big boost. Prior to the storms, the snowpack was 77 percent of average for the Flathead River Basin. Now it is 97 percent of average.