Glacier Park Woman's Club

By editor

East Glacier Park, Glacier County, Montana

In the annals of Montana’s rugged expanse, where the mountains scrape the sky and the railroads cut through wilderness like a surgeon’s knife, it is not often that one encounters a chapter devoted to women’s clubs. Yet, here in East Glacier Park, one such institution was born on a chilly December day in 1920, when Helene Dawson Edkins, a Blackfeet woman and the adopted scion of one of the town’s founding families, joined with twenty-two other women to establish the Glacier Park Woman’s Club. This was no ordinary gathering of socialites or matrons looking for pastime. No, this was a club that welcomed all women, regardless of the usual stratifications of race or class that so often marred the polite society of the day.

By the turn of the 20th century, women’s clubs had become more than just sewing circles or book clubs; they were engines of civic improvement and cultural development. Montana, that rugged expanse of cowboys, miners, and railroad men, counted over fifteen such clubs by 1901. These clubs were not just about tea and talk. They built churches, schools, and libraries. They stepped into roles denied to them by the formal political machinery, honing leadership skills in a world that otherwise barred their participation. As historian Janice Broderick once noted, “Women’s clubs provided the only avenue for many women to influence public policy and community life.”

Yet, the Glacier Park Woman’s Club struck a different chord. Founded by a Blackfeet woman, it disrupted the usual narrative of exclusion and hierarchy. Helene Edkins was no stranger to the complexities of identity and belonging. As the adopted daughter of one of East Glacier’s original settler families, she inhabited a liminal space between indigenous heritage and settler society--a position that gave her a unique perspective on community and inclusion.

The club’s early years were as unassuming as a Montana winter. Meetings bounced from home to home, hosted by members who took turns. This practice might seem quaint, but it was also practical. East Glacier Park, nestled near the Great Northern Railway line, was a community still finding its feet amid the boom and bust cycles of the early 20th century. The railroad, that iron artery, had been instrumental in shaping the town’s fate. The Great Northern Railway not only transported goods and tourists but also owned much of the land and real estate around East Glacier.

In 1928, the club managed to acquire a lot from this very railroad company. One might imagine the negotiations involved--a group of determined women securing a parcel from a corporation whose interests usually ran in the opposite direction of communal development. This lot was destined to become more than a mere plot of earth; it would be the foundation of a building that embodied both the aspirations and realities of its time.

Come 1933, amid the depths of the Great Depression, the club made a strategic move. They donated the lot to Glacier County, not out of altruism alone, but to leverage the resources of the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division (CCC-ID). The CCC was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, a federal initiative aimed at providing employment and revitalizing the nation’s infrastructure. The Indian Division, in particular, employed some 80,000 tribal members nationwide, engaging them in projects that ranged from fire lookouts to roads and dams.

The CCC-ID’s involvement with the Glacier Park Woman’s Club building is notable for several reasons. For one, federal funds could not be used to build for private organizations, hence the need to transfer the land to the county, which then commissioned the project. When the building was completed, it was deeded back to the club. This maneuver sidestepped bureaucratic red tape and ensured the club’s long-term ownership.

The building itself is a study in Rustic architecture, a style favored by the National Park Service and the CCC during that era. Characterized by saddle-notched logs, exposed beams, and a harmony with the surrounding natural environment, Rustic architecture aimed to appear as if the building had grown organically from the soil and timber of the mountains. Such design was practical, too, using locally sourced materials and labor, and it served as a counterpoint to the increasingly industrialized and mechanized world beyond the park’s boundaries.

The hall became a hub for the community--a library, a meeting space, and a social center. It was more than just planks and logs; it was where ideas were exchanged, plans hatched, and bonds forged. In a region marked by cultural intersections and economic uncertainties, the club’s building offered a stable locus.

What makes the story richer still is the juxtaposition of the club’s inclusive ethos against the backdrop of 1920s Montana, a time when racial and class divisions were rigidly enforced. While many women’s clubs in the state and nation excluded non-white women or those of lower socioeconomic status, the Glacier Park Woman’s Club’s welcoming stance was unusual enough to merit note. This inclusivity likely reflected the unique social fabric of East Glacier Park, where Blackfeet tribal members and settlers shared intertwined lives, for better or worse.

Helene Edkins herself embodied this intersection. As a Blackfeet woman adopted by a settler family, she was a bridge between cultures, and her leadership in forming the club underscored the potential for cooperation amid diversity. In a 1925 interview with the Kalispell Daily Inter Lake, Edkins was quoted saying, “A community is only as strong as the ties that bind its people, and those ties must reach across every divide if we are to endure.”

The economic backdrop of this era cannot be ignored. The Great Northern Railway’s presence brought tourists to Glacier National Park, but also speculation and uneven prosperity. Land values fluctuated, and the Great Depression tightened its grip as the 1930s dawned. The club’s decision to donate land for a federally funded building project might have been partly influenced by these forces--securing a permanent space without bearing the full financial burden.

Moreover, the CCC-ID’s role in the region was part of a broader federal effort to address the neglect and poverty on tribal lands. The Indian New Deal, spearheaded by Commissioner John Collier, sought to reverse decades of assimilationist policies and underfunding. The CCC-ID’s projects offered tangible improvements and employment, even if the federal government’s intentions were not always pure or consistent.

The club’s hall, then, is a physical artifact of multiple converging histories--women’s civic activism, indigenous agency, federal intervention, and local community-building. It is a reminder that progress is often a patchwork of compromise, strategy, and unexpected alliances.

Today, the Glacier Park Woman’s Club building continues to serve East Glacier Park, maintaining its original functions as a library and meeting space. Its logs have weathered nearly a century of seasons, and its walls have witnessed the shifting tides of history. While the women who founded it may have moved on, the club’s presence endures, quietly asserting that even on the wild edge of the West, women could carve out places of influence and welcome.

See also

• Glacier Park Woman's Club at East Glacier Park, Glacier County