Dale Jones 92 pages softcover
Anyone with an interest in Glacier National Park or the Great Northern Railway has probably seen Fred Kiser’s hand-colored photographs and postcards. The subject
and scenes of Glacier Park are timeless - the muted colors are the quintessence of the mountains.
When
James Jerome Hill built his Great Northern through the Rocky Mountains,
tourism was not considered a high priority; transporting settlers and
development of natural resources was his foremost interest. In the early 1900s, Jim Hill stepped away from sole control of the railroad, leaving his son Louis Hill in charge of expanding the company’s holdings. Among advancing transportation endeavors, Louis Hill became enamored by the beauty of the region that is now Glacier Park. Mr. Hill joined George Bird Grinnell in fostering support for national park status with Glacier National Park being officially created May 11, 1910.
In the early years of the 1900s, Fred H. Kiser, [apparently the “H” it is not an abbreviation of any other name, it is just “H.”] and his brother Oscar had achieved the reputation
as excellent commercial photographers specializing in mountain
landscapes. In 1905, Fred was chosen as the official photographer for
the Lewis and Clark Exposition at Portland, Oregon. Louis Hill
recognized the potential of using Mr. Kiser’s unique hand-colored
images. Fred was hired as the official photographer of the Great
Northern Railway, and for six years spent his summers in the Glacier environs. Kiser coined the phrase See America First in 1906 as part of the railroad’s publicity campaign.
In 1909, the Great Northern supplied him with a private railway car.
This book is a tribute to Fred Kiser - who brought color to Glacier National Park in the age of black and white 