COLUMBIA FALLS — On the Friday afternoon before Christmas, as some in the Flathead Valley left work a little early or rushed to the store to do some last-minute holiday shopping, a small group of students were hard at work inside the woodshop at Columbia Falls High School as if it was any other day of the year.
While a long holiday break awaited them when the final school bell rang, there was no desire to cut corners or put their tool belts down a little early, the Montana Free Press reports.
Since 2019, students at Columbia Falls High School have helped build cabins for employee housing and other important structures for Glacier National Park. This school year, the students are finishing their sixth two-bedroom cabin for the park and their 13th structure overall. They have also constructed entrance kiosks and tool sheds.
Glacier officials said the student-built homes have helped the park deal with a shortage of employee housing in recent years, especially on the east side of the park.
“Glacier National Park struggles with hiring and retaining employees because of the limited in-park housing we have and how unaffordable housing is outside the park,” wrote Jim Foster, Glacier’s chief of facilities management, in an email to Montana Free Press. ”Providing housing like these cabins for seasonal employees can help entice those interested to apply for and then accept a position to work in Glacier.”
The School-to-Park Program was the brainchild of former deputy superintendent Eric Smith, who had seen a similar program in Denali National Park in Alaska. The partnership between the park and the school is a win-win for both sides; the park gets much-needed structures at cost and the students get experience in carpentry, plumbing, electrical work and more.
Columbia Falls High School wood instructor Manolo Victor and Glacier Park carpenter Bob Jellison lead the class. Jellison has worked for the Park Service since the 1990s and has been the coordinator between the park and the school since the program’s beginning. He said he’s enjoyed working with the students — 76 in all — and is always impressed with their work ethic.
“They’re getting to work on a project from start to finish,” Jellison said. “Every day these kids get to see the progress that they’re making on the cabin and what they’re able to do with their own hands. You can really see them take pride in their work.”
Among the students working on the Friday before winter break was senior Janna Gorelkin. She took the class because her brother had and the experience has been helpful as her family is remodeling their house.
“I learn something every day in this class,” she said.
Support your reliable lens on Montana with a gift today! Give by Dec 31 and your donation will be doubled.Gorelkin was working with Noah Baker Kelley, a junior, to install siding on the structure. The employee cabins are 468 square feet and have a small living room, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms. Jellison said the buildings are “tight but comfortable.”
Jellison said Foster has been instrumental in securing funding for the program over the last few years. Presently, it’s funded by the National Park Foundation, which is also supporting a historic preservation carpentry intern in partnership with the Great Basin Institute during the summer of 2025.
The Glacier National Park Conservancy has also been an important partner for the project, including providing funding for electrical service at the school’s shop facility when it started. The conservancy has also paid for tool bags and tools that are gifted to the students at the end of each school year.
When the cabins are completed in the spring, they are loaded onto a truck and taken to their permanent home. So far, two cabins have been installed in Many Glacier, two at Rising Sun and one in Polebridge. This year’s structure will be installed in Many Glacier.
Columbia Falls High School students are not the only ones building cabins for the park this year. Welding students are also building bear-proof boxes to store food at campgrounds.
This fall, the advanced welding class has been building a prototype, and in the spring, an intermediate class will construct seven more, said instructor Ben Schaeffer. Like the cabins, the bear-proof boxes provide students with valuable skills and a way to give back to their community.
“Knowing that these boxes will be in the public eye — that they’ll be used by thousands of people over the years — encourages the students to do their best work,” he said.
