Seasonal ranger reflects on time in Many Glacier

The Many Glacier area changed Diane Sine’s life.

The long-time Lead Interpreter for the area, Sine says she fell in love with the area as a 10-year-old when she and he family hiked into Many for the first time in 1972. Forty-six years later, she still enjoys every minute she gets to spend in what will always be her favorite part of Glacier National Park.

Growing up in Seattle, Sine and her family visited numerous national parks during her childhood, but she says nothing compared to Many Glacier.

“I was impressed with the mountains and the great hiking opportunities,” she said recently. “On one of those trips, we came for the boat tour and ranger-guided hike from Many Glacier to Grinnell Lake and there was a woman ranger that led the hike. I had not seen a female ranger in a National Park before, and that really influenced my future.”

An accomplished cellist, when Sine learned that the Many Glacier Hotel hosted musical performances by its staff every evening (as it did under the direction of Manager Ian Tippett from the 1960s through the early 1980s), she made up her mind that Many Glacier was where she wanted to be. One day after graduating high school, Sine boarded a train to begin working at the Many Glacier Hotel.

While earning her elementary education degree from Seattle Pacific University, Sine spent the next four summers working in the hotel, starting as a “pantry girl” her first year before spending the next three years as a “singing waitress” in the dining hall.

“It all looked like so much fun that I decided to combine my love for national parks and music and come to work at the Many Glacier Hotel,” she said. “Every night, twice during dinner, one of the waiters would go to the piano and start playing – we all would skip to the fireplace and start singing – usually three songs ending with the Sound of Music medley – “because, just look out the window, why not?”

It was during those days as a singing waitress that Sine got to wait on Paul Simon (Art Garfunkel was there later that summer) and even got to join in a performance with Secretary of the Interior James Watt.

“We had to do this staged sing-along with him (Watt) singing “This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land.” It was a bit contrived,” she said.

After graduation, Sine spent the next summer as an intern with the park’s Division of Interpretation, the same division she continues to work for today. Sine also moved into the Flathead Valley to begin her teaching career, staying close to the park so she could continue to spend her summers working there.

Sine’s most memorable moment in Many Glacier came in 2002 when she married fellow seasonal ranger Dick Sine at the foot of Lake Josephine. The couple held their reception in the Many Glacier Dining Hall, where Diane had been a singing waitress.

Diane, who spends her summers living in Many Glacier after retiring from teaching 10 years ago, says she has seen a lot of changes since her early days in Many Glacier, including a dramatic increase in visitation, which helped lead to the restoration of the Many Glacier Hotel between 2001 and 2017.

“The hotel is in a lot better shape now than it was when I was working here and visitation has changed wildly since my first days here. There was no parking along the road back in those days, now we have no choice,” she said. “One of the biggest changes I have seen has been Grinnell Glacier. Just since I have been leading hikes to the glacier, I have seen it melt to half the size it was when I started working here. There are still places you can go in the park and not run into people, but they are becoming harder and harder to find. The well-publicized and really popular places are a very different experience than they used to be. The trails have become a solid stream of hikers.”

While Diane continues to enjoy leading hikers through the area, she admits there are some parts of the job she was not quite prepared for.

“People don’t think about it, but pit toilets at backcountry places like Iceberg Lake and Grinnell Glacier need to be cleaned – to the extent you can clean a pit toilet. Since my division is the people that end up being at those places every day, we end up doing it. I have the idyllic job where I have the wonderful experience of guiding people up the trail to Grinnell Glacier and Iceberg Lake and spending most of the day sharing amazing stories and scenery, and then I conclude the hike, put on rubber gloves and I clean the toilet,” she said. “This job is not all glamour. Don’t even get me started on what people can do to outhouses.”

Toilet cleaning duties aside, Diane says she could not have asked for a better job and she encourages anyone looking to follow in her footsteps.

“I think it’s a fantastic summer job and it can be life-changing. It was certainly life-changing for me. I would always encourage young people to take advantage of those kinds of opportunities,” she said. “Many Glacier has the combination of incredible scenery (just look out the window) plus the hiking opportunities and how the historic hotel connects us with the visitors of the past. We also have a great sense of community among the park service employees here. We are so isolated, so we all get to know each other. Once you get hooked on this place, it’s hard to leave.”