Six miles west of East Glacier Park on U.S. Highway 2, one can catch a fleeting glimpse of the log bunkhouse at the edge of a small mountain lake, a lonely sentinel, an isolated reminder of the homestead family that once carved a niche out of the wilderness on the shores of Lake Lubec.

About the Book

Unable to survive on her own, Clara married a man she didn’t love and moved to his homestead at the southern edge of Glacier National Park where she had to leap from the moving train in her wedding dress to live in isolation on the shore of Lake Lubec.

Her husband, Glenn C. Smiley, dreamed of having a small store in Glacier Park, and the family became one of the first businesses in the rough, western town. Shortly thereafter, tragedy struck the family, the stock market plunged, and the Depression wreaked havoc within the family.

Three years of research, interviews, perusal of family letters dating back to 1913, and oral history are the foundation for this unforgettable family saga, Dream Chasers of the West   A Homestead Family of Glacier Park.

 The author remained true to the subject and used the words of Clara as she told her  story to her children. The original homestead at Lake Lubec can be seen from U.S. Hwy. 2.  The original Smiley store, The Glacier Cash Grocery, is now known as  The Brown House and maintains the ambience of the tiny store just as it was eighty years ago when the aroma of Clara’s famous donuts wafted through the street.

B. L. Wettstein

Dream Chasers of the West   A Homestead Family of Glacier Park

Log Cabin Publishing

P.O. Box 368

Pateros, WA  98846

www.logcabinglacier.com

E-mail:   logcabinglacier@hotmail.com

Log Cabin Publishing,  P.O. Box 368, Pateros, WA  98846       www.logcabinglacier.com