AgentSkelly wrote:Glacier National Park, because of its heritage with the railroad has two stops in the park on the Empire Builder.
I know this is getting real nit-picky but it depends on the defintion of "in the park"...
West Glacier, a.k.a. Belton, is located at the west entrance to Glacier Park and the west end of Going-to-the-Sun Road where it meets with U.S. 2. I believe this is the busiest entrance to the park due to its proximity to the Flathead Valley (Kalispell, Columbia Falls, Whitefish) and the Glacier Park International Airport. Apgar Village is located just north of the tracks. But, technically, you aren't "in the park".
Essex (Izaak Walton Inn) is located just west of the Continental Divide and is very, very close to the southern boundary of the park. If you take Izaak Walton Inn Road from the Inn to U.S. 2, turn right, and cross the Flathead River - you enter the park. There is a ranger station, a number of trails, and an overlook...but before you know it U.S. 2 dips underneath the railroad and is again outside the park.
Glacier Park, a.k.a. East Glacier is located within a very short walk to
the Glacier Park Lodge. It, like the lodges within the Park (but not the Belton Chalet or the Izaak Walton Inn) are operated by Glacier Park Incorporated and owned by the National Park Service. However...it is some two miles from the park's boundary, and some 23 miles as the crow flies from the eastern end of Going-to-the-Sun Road (the only road that runs from the western to eastern edge of the park).
So no station actually lies "in" the park, and despite the name of "Glacier Park" it is actually the furthest from the park, and West Glacier and Essex are tied for the closest as the crow flies, and West Glacier wins by actual road distance (it's about 1 1/2 miles from Essex's Amtrak stop to the nearest official entrance, albeit a remote entrance and with no access to Sun Road).
Regardless of how technical one wants to be - the fact that there are not one, not two but THREE stations that serve Glacier National Park is still a huge deal for both the Park and for Amtrak, and that it is possible to access tour vans or Jammer tours (the vintage red buses) from each of the three stations. Still, many folks stop in Whitefish to the west where one can avail themselves of rental cars and spend more time on their own pace within the park and the surrounding area which gives Glacier technically a fourth station although it is some 28 miles away. (Browning is not much of a destination, nor are there significant services available there, but it is the largest town immediately east of the park until you get to Cut Bank. But if you really wanted to, you could consider Browning another Glacier Park station.)
Compared with Crater Lake National Park which is some 30 miles from Chemult or 50 miles from Klamath Falls (albeit the park boundary is only 8 miles from the UP mainline), Mount Rainier National Park which is 30 miles as the crow flies from the NW boundary to Tacoma and over 50 miles by closest highway, Olympic National Park which is 45 miles from Olympia/Lacey and North Cascades National Park which is nearly 60 miles from Mount Vernon. On the other hand, if you want to count "Historical Parks" and "Historic Sites" Fort Vancouver is a very short distance from the Vancouver station, and the Seattle Unit of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park is just a couple blocks away from the Seattle station.
It should be noted that many National Parks - Yellowstone and Glacier are two prime examples - can lead their establishment to the railroads who often promoted the parks and then promoted tourism to the parks by their trains. (I'm sure it was covered in the television special but I didn't watch it.) To this day, the logo for Glacier Park Incorporated is virtually identical to the Great Northern Railroad's logo, and IIRC it was a subsidiary of the GN that built and operated the lodges within the park. The GN sold the arrangement in 1960, and in a slightly ironic twist it was purchased by Greyhound (yes,
that Greyhound) in 1981. Today, the GN successor (Amtrak's Empire Builder) still serves the park, but the nearest Greyhound bus route is on I-90.