People have asked me where I got the name for my carving business. Well here goes;
I have spent most of my life in Montana. Thanks to my parents, I was introduced to Glacier National Park and fell in love with the place. Growing up in Great Falls, we spent time visiting the eastern side of the park and would drive up to the top of The Going To The Sun Highway. I remember leaving Great Falls on Friday evenings and driving to East Glacier. We would spend the night in East Glacier and in the morning, drive up the pass, visit Many Glacier Lodge or visit the Two Medicine area. While driving up the pass, we would always stop to view Wild Goose Island.
Wild Goose Island is located in Upper Saint Mary lake. The lake was formed around 10,000 years ago when the ice age began to recede. Massive glaciers moved down the mountains and formed the sharp feathered ridges and the deep bowl shaped valleys. Upper Saint Mary lake was formed this way and a single rock formation was strong enough to withstand the centuries of glacial movement to become Wild Goose Island.
There is a chain of two lakes; one with in the boundary of Glacier National Park and the other within the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. Their original Blackfoot name was Puhtomuksi Kimiks - The Lakes-Inside. In 1846, Father DeSmet planted a wooden cross at the foot of the lower lake and christened it Saint Mary Lake. In Blackfoot, it is called Patoake - The Good -Spirited-Woman. Now the lakes are called Lower and Upper Saint Mary Lake.
If you drive to East Glacier, go under the BN tracks, drive by East Glacier Lodge (or stop for a Moose Drool) and head north on highway 49. After 10 - 15 minutes, you will connect to Highway 89 north. Drive north to the town of St Mary (you can stop and have another Moose Drool). Sober up a little, enter the park and head up The Going To The Sun Highway. On the left, you will be traveling along Upper Saint Mary Lake. About two thirds of the way up the lake, you will take a sharp right turn - slow down - there on the left, through the trees will be Wild Goose Island. That's where I got the name.
