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Glacier National Park Recreational Visits (1910-2020)

Of the 60 National Parks in the United States, Glacier National Park ranks an impressive 10th place for recreational visits. This number has more meaning than most people realize, it is high enough in the rankings to indicate strong popularity, especially among hikers, but not so high that visitors will be contending with excessive crowds.

Although the park was established on May 11, 1910, there are no firm data for recreational visits, but general census was that of a low number, likely due to The Big Blowup where over three million acres burned in Idaho and Montana.

From 1910, when President Taft first signed the bill establishing Glacier as the country’s 10th national park, to 1920, the park was hosting over 22,000 visitors.

Despite WWI, Prohibition in the United States and the Stock Market crash of 1929, park attendance continued to rise, and by 1930, recreational visits rose to 73,000.

Some interesting statistics moving forward include a dip in attendance the year the Going-to-the-Sun Road was completed (1932), and a rise during the year that marks a record number of fires in Glacier National Park (1936).

The second World War had a much bigger impact on attendance than WWI. From the Park’s highest numbers just preceding the war to a shattering 23,000 in 1943. But things quickly returned to normal the year immediately following the end of WWII with attendance reaching 200,000 visitors in 1946 and 327,000 in 1947.

In 1949, when Harry S. Truman unveils Fair Deal Program, the Park’s numbers shot through the roof, surpassing 900,000 visitors and hovered around that number for the next 20 years.

In 1969, for the first time in park history, Glacier National Park broke the 1 Million Visitor mark. Continuing this trend until 1983 when the Park would see 2,000,000 recreation visitors, coincidentally the same year World Communications Year begins.

For the next few years, attendance would dip and rise until 1991, the end of the Gulf War, when the Park would again reach 2,000,000 visitors.

From 1995 until 2011, recreational visits would fluctuate along side major events in history such as; the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Massive Ice Storm in Eastern Canada and Northeastern United States, Columbine High School Massacre, September 11 Attacks, Iraq War, Facebook, 1st female Speaker of the House, Black Monday in Worldwide Stock Markets, Barack Obama Administration, Removal of HIV Infection from list of Communicable Diseases, the Fidel Castro resignation, and the killing of Osama bin Laden by US Special Forces.

By 2012, visitor counts would remain above two million, most notably in 2016 when the National Park Service turned 100. And by 2017, for the first time, National Glacier Park exceeds 3,000,000 visitors.