“I was working as the first seasonal river ranger on Corn Creek, down on the Salmon River,” he said. “I knew nothing about rivers or boating, but it sure was a great job.”
It was 1974 and Missoula, he said, was his occasional “shot of city life.” He wintered up the Swan, on Placid Lake and did a brief hitch of hiking through Glacier National Park, just for kicks.
It is not, he said, the first time he has followed in Holm's footsteps. Once before, at North Dakota's Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, Cartwright found himself in a superintendent's seat recently vacated by Holm.
“Mick has filled me in on what's going on up there at Glacier,” Cartwright said. “There are plenty of issues, but in my experience most of them can be solved just by taking the time to build relationships.”
Topping the list of management challenges at Glacier Park must be the ongoing reconstruction of the famed Going-to-the-Sun Road, a project already a decade in the planning and now a whopping $100 million over budget.
It is, Cartwright said, a daunting project, but not so very unlike a road reconstruction he currently oversees as superintendent at Virginia's Shenandoah National Park. There, he's been struggling to rebuild a mountain road that, like the Sun Road, is a sensitive historic landmark as well as a conduit not only for tourists but for their dollars - a fact that keeps him squarely in the eye of local communities.
“The Sun Road repair is a huge project,” Cartwright said, “and it's going to take constant attention. Fortunately, Mick has left me in very good shape there.”
Holm held the helm at Glacier for six years before retiring, and the 58-year-old Cartwright likewise has “no doubt that Glacier will be my last assignment. I anticipate being at Glacier for quite some time, because you need to spend enough time in a place to have a lasting impact. My intention is to spend more than just a few years” at Glacier.
During his 36 years in federal service, the last 21 years with the National Park Service, Cartwright has steadily climbed the ranks. Trained at Michigan State University, he signed on with the Bureau of Land Management as an archaeologist, then with the U.S. Forest Service as a fire lookout, firefighter and, of course, in 1974, as a novice river ranger.
Cartwright joined the Park Service in 1987, as archaeologist at Canyonlands and Arches national parks, as well as Natural Bridges National Monument, in Utah.
He later was named associate to the NPS deputy director in Washington, D.C. He has held a number of superintendent positions at Park Service units, including Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and Colorado, Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, Knife River Indian Villages in North Dakota, and Hovenweep National Monument in Utah and Colorado.
Cartwright also served as acting superintendent at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico and Natural Bridges.
“Chas brings a wealth of in-depth knowledge and broad experience to this vital position,” Mike Snyder, director of the Park Service's Intermountain Region, said in announcing the Glacier appointment.
Snyder called Cartwright “a seasoned superintendent,” committed to protecting park resources, and armed with “a keen ability to interact with partners, communities and congressional leaders.”
All of which he will surely need in Glacier, given the park's high political profile and top-dollar federal projects, not to mention its 1 million acres, $12 million budget and 151 staffers.
But what Cartwright is looking forward to is none of that.
Instead, he's ready to come home to the West, to biking and skiing and hiking and kayaking his way back into the Rocky Mountains.
“To say that my wife Lynda and I are excited about moving to Glacier country is an understatement,” he said. “I am honored to be selected as superintendent, and look forward to getting acquainted with all of the various individuals and groups who care about the park.”
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