The well-known Glacier Park Lodge in Rogers Pass will likely be torn down in coming months.
Parks Canada says the 53-year-old hotel and service station has badly deteriorated since it closed four years ago and the safety of motorists at the rest area is paramount.
“We don’t have an easy answer as to demolition. The buildings have not been heated or serviced for a number of years. We have a serious pest problem — martens and birds and critters of all manner have set up shop in there,” said Nick Irving, superintendent of Mount Revelstoke and Glacier national parks.
“It’s very likely they will be decommissioned.”
Experts will evaluate the property over the next few months before deciding how to proceed with the buildings, remediate the site for past soil contamination and draft plans for potential redevelopment of the area on the Trans Canada Highway between Revelstoke and Golden.
The Glacier Park Lodge opened in 1963 with a longstanding lease that expired in 2010. The owners continued to operate the property on a month-to-month basis but went into receivership in 2012, after struggling to address “compliance issues” with Parks Canada.
There were a number of lawsuits and counter suits filed between former and successive owners and with Parks Canada. Irving said Parks Canada “came to a resolution settlement” this week with receivers and it has assumed control and responsibility for the hotel and service station.
During its heyday, the lodge was filled with backcountry hikers, skiers, and snowmobilers. It was a welcome refuge for stranded motorists stuck at the summit of Rogers Pass due to avalanches or snowstorms. The lodge with the green, steeply pitched-roof had 50 rooms, a dining room, a cafeteria, and the Grizzly Lounge replete with animal heads and skins, a store, outdoor pool and hot tub and service station.
Glacier Park Lodge was opened as construction wrapped on the last stretch of the British Columbia portion of the Trans-Canada Highway, allowing vehicles to roll through the often treacherous pass.
Irving agreed that it’s a sad end to the historic lodge but also said it’s a great opportunity.
“It’s an exciting beginning. We are experiencing an unprecedented level of funding in infrastructure in Parks Canada across the country. You’ve seen a lot happening in Banff and we’ll have the very same investments here.”
Irving said some of the upcoming projects in Rogers Pass include highway improvements, a permanent heated washroom facility adjacent to the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre, a state- of-the-art LED lighting system, improvements to avalanche control and upgrades to aging water and sewer infrastructure.
“We will see a fundamentally transformed place and it will position us for the next 50, 100 years to come.”
