Going-to-the-Sun Chalet historic
— — the chalet the road forgot to keep.
Not only on a wall.
“The Great Northern Railway built it in 1913, a wooden chalet on a small peninsula above Saint Mary Lake, on the east side of what would become Going-to-the-Sun Road. For three decades it held travellers who came in by launch and stagecoach. By 1948 it was gone. The point is still there, and the wind, and the long line of the lake under the peaks. — from the studio
Going-to-the-Sun Chalet historic, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Going-to-the-Sun Chalet stood on Sun Point, a small peninsula on the north shore of Saint Mary Lake on the east side of Glacier National Park. The Great Northern Railway opened it in 1913 as part of the chalet circuit it built to draw travellers to the park. The complex held a main lodge, cabins, and a dining hall, and was reached by boat across Saint Mary Lake or by horseback. The National Park Service razed the buildings in 1948 after years of decline. The point itself, and the trail to it, remain.
The chalet opened in 1913 and operated for thirty-five summers before the Park Service removed it in 1948. It belonged to a circuit of nine Swiss-style backcountry lodges Louis Hill commissioned for the Great Northern, of which Sperry Chalet and Granite Park Chalet still stand. Saint Mary Lake sits at 4,484 feet, almost ten miles long, and freezes most winters. The Sun Point Nature Trail, a short loop from the road, traces the old foundations and reaches a viewpoint over the lake toward Little Chief Mountain.
Sun Point is reached from Going-to-the-Sun Road on the east side of Glacier, about ten miles inside the Saint Mary entrance. A short signed pull-off leads to a quarter-mile trail to the point itself. The road is fully open from late June through mid-October; vehicle reservations are required during summer daylight hours. Saint Mary Lake boat tours from Rising Sun pass directly below the point. Wear layers; the wind off the lake is steady even on warm afternoons.