A wedding to remember

Getting hitched is slang for getting married. “Without a hitch” means for something to take place without any problems. These two expressions do not always coincide with each other and that is often true with weddings. My marriage in 1967 fell into this category.

Aug. 24 dawned hot and dry in Glacier and it was my wedding day. The park had recently been besieged with fires and bear fatalities and the park staff was in lockdown mode.

As a seasonal ranger at Two Medicine I was fortunate to get a few days off to get married, but was still required to stay in the area. I had friends in high places at Glacier Park Lodge and managed to get the honeymoon suite for a reduced rate. We were all set and the wedding would take place that evening in Browning.

After a long delay due to the minister’s tardiness we were finally married. Our wedding was not a family affair due to distance issues and only our friends and fellow rangers were in attendance for the festivities.

We all returned to East Glacier for our wedding dinner. After the dinner was over we all went to a local bar for drinks and dancing and being a singer got to do a few songs with the band. It was a lot of fun and a good time was had by all.

Still it was our wedding night and the party finally wound down. My new wife and I had left our car in the Lodge parking and decided to walk the short distance from the bar to the Lodge. As we approached the Lodge we heard a commotion behind us and turned to see what it was all about. Two masked men appeared dragging a third unmasked man behind them.

The third man appeared to have ketchup running down his face. We weren’t worried as rangers are a fun loving bunch and like to play pranks … especially when one of theirs gets married! At least we weren’t being treated to a wedding trip around the Lodge in a bear trap. We were quickly ushered into the Lodge and along with the two night clerks made to stand behind the front desk.

The two desperados looked pretty cool with their masks and what appeared to be toy guns. What a wedding gag. I bantered back and forth with my captors, but after a while grew tired of the joke. After all it was our wedding night and we wanted to go to bed. I finally said we were leaving and we started for our room. In a moment the mood changed.

One of the masked men stuck a real gun in my face and said he would blow my head off if I said one more word. I looked at the third man realized the ketchup was blood and shut up. This was for real. The robbers wanted the payroll in the hotel safe. The clerks said that they did not have the safe combination and this angered the robbers that much more. The clerks emptied the cash drawers and gave it all to the masked men.

We were all taken downstairs to the safe room where the clerks again said they could not open the safe. The robbers were not happy and after a discussion among themselves decided to take us all outside. It was there that all hell broke loose. It seems the hotel secretary lived in the lodge and had made a call to the front desk. Getting no answer she came out of her room and stopped in her tracks…it was a robbery.

She returned to her room and called the cops. When we all stepped into the parking lot the police were waiting and went into full cop mode. My young bride and I ran across the parking lot and got into an unlocked car to hide. We quickly realized this unlocked car might be the getaway vehicle and got out just as quickly. We hid in the trees and stayed there till the cops found us. The cops determined that we were alright, set us safely aside, and went to look for the desperados. They were never found. We were questioned by the authorities and sent to our room. This was not the honeymoon were had planned, but we were OK.

When we awoke late the next morning we wondered if the last night’s events had been a dream. Of course we knew that they weren’t. After breakfast the police questioned us at length about the event, but we really had nothing new to add except that we had no clue as to the robber’s identity.

The other three involved in the matter could not provide any help in the identification as well.

We were minor celebrities for the rest of our honeymoon stay and Paul Harvey, a famous radio personality at that time, even mentioned the incident involving the young ranger and his bride on one of his radio broadcasts. The Lodge seemed rather embarrassed about the whole matter and gave us our meals free as a form of apology.

Our room charges were free too, but not due the Lodge’s generosity. It seems that the robbers in taking the money from the cash drawers also took the check I used to prepay for the room.

The check was never cashed. After a few days the event faded from the news like a dust devil on the Montana plains. I returned to my ranger position and went on to teach 7th grade science at the Browning Junior High. Our lives together had a few more “hitches” in them down the road, but nothing like the wedding night of Aug. 24, 1967. I guess Shakespeare was right…all’s well that ends well and this event ended pretty well after all.

Chris Ashby

Glacier Park Lodge

Ashby is a former Glacier Park employee and frequent contributor to the Hungry Horse News.