Glacier Memories: Smooth riding for 62 years

Of all the memories forged by visitors to Glacier National Park, few are any more enduring than a Spokane couple’s love-at-first-sight relationship.

Daryl Hagie was in his second season as a bus and limousine driver in the park in 1947 when he met a new secretary at the East Glacier transportation office.

He said she was a perfect match for the park’s beautiful scenery.

“We hit it off pretty quick,” said Jean Hagie, noting that they were married before the end of 1948.

“Every day we had off we went around the park,” she said. “Daryl had free passes to go on the red buses, so we had a lot of freedom.”

The early red buses (before automatic transmissions) were tricky to keep going up the steep Going-to-the-Sun Road, Daryl said: “We called them gear jammers.”

“We hiked around East Glacier, up to Twin Lakes,” Jean said, recalling her favorite park places. “I’m not big on hiking, and I wasn’t about to be scaling mountains, but we saw a good deal of the country. I’m still impressed by the turquoise lakes and their mirror reflections of the surrounding mountains.”

Daryl recalls countless stories from his chauffeuring, including the red-bus drive up to Logan Pass with a small convention group.

“One woman had such a fear of heights, she was terrified by the steep drop-off at the side of the road,” he said. “She sat next to me and pressed against me so tightly I could hardly drive. She faced the hillside the whole way up and never saw a bit of the scenery.”

Once while stopped in traffic to let his passengers snap photos of road-side bears, the situation went awry when somebody tossed food to the bruin.

“The bear leaped up on the top of the bus near the rear,” he said. “I put the bus in gear and jerked forward. Everybody fell back in their seats – not the smoothest ride they’d ever had – but the bear fell off.”

But the relationship of Jean and Daryl has been a smooth ride as they celebrate the 62nd anniversary of the love affair they forged in Glacier Park.