For Park concessionaires, fires added up to big losses

The fires of 2017 came with a economic wallop to what was shaping up as a banner year for Glacier area businesses.

Glacier National Park Lodges general manager Marc Ducharme said the company saw about $2 million in lost revenue due to the smoke and fires.

The company, a division of Xaneterra Parks and Resorts, operates the main lodges and the red bus tours in Glacier National Park.

Smoke from the Sprague Fire forced it to close the Lake McDonald Lodge on Aug. 29 for the season, nearly a full month ahead of schedule. The lodge and several guest cabins amount to 82 guest rooms that went empty.

Up until then, Glacier’s summer season was going gangbusters. July saw a whopping 1 million visitors — a record in the Park’s history and August saw more than 900,000.

As smoke rolled in, the Apgar Village Inn also closed.

The Sprague Fire forced the closure of the Going-to-the-Sun Road a few days after the lodge closed and it hasn’t reopened since.

Glacier Park Inc. also took a hit. It owns and operates the Motel Lake McDonald not far from the Lake McDonald Lodge. Most guests were able to find rooms at its other properties, noted marketing specialist Heather Cauffman.

GPI owns the Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier and the St. Mary Lodge.

But the company took a significant hint in Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, where it owns the Prince of Wales Hotel.

The Kenow Fire forced its closure on Sept. 8, about two weeks earlier than normal.

Most of that business was lost, Cauffman noted.

But at least the building is intact and survived the blaze.

“We’re so grateful to the firefighters,” Cauffman said.

Kevin Warrington has bigger problems. He owns Belton Chalets Inc., which runs the Sperry and Granite Park Chalets in the Park. Sperry Chalet was gutted by fire and the company lost all the inventory inside the building that it owned.

They had insurance, Warrington said last week, but insurance doesn’t get new beds and other necessary amenities back to the chalet if and when it’s rebuilt and reopens.

There are only two ways to the chalet — by foot or by helicopter. Transportation costs to get things like beds and mattresses to the chalet are expected to be significant, never mind the loss in revenue while the chalet is being rebuilt.

Warrington said he’s still not sure the company would be able to operate effectively running just one chalet in the interim.

Jane Ratzlaff started a gofundme campaign of $50,000 to go toward costs outside of insurance. As of presstime, it had raised about $3,000.

The fire smoke and closures ultimately have a ripple effect on the economy noted economist Jeremy Sage of the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana. Fewer guests mean that people will simply spend less in the region.

Sage said the institute will take a broader look at economic impact as data comes in later this year.

Meanwhile, the Glacier Conservancy has raised about $66,000 to date toward rebuilding the chalet and the Park Service also received just under $20,000 for stabilization work.

Next week is Give Back to Glacier Week for the Conservancy and it’s doing daily lunchtime interviews at locations around the valley and on Facebook Live Oct. 2-8, including an interview with Warrington next Friday.