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| George C. Ruhle Library |
Catalog Hours
Support If you are interested in donating materials or in volunteering, please contact the librarian. Who was George C. Ruhle? In 1928, he was a year-round employee at Yellowstone, and came to Glacier in 1929, where he was the first chief naturalist, through 1940. At Glacier, his assignment was to establish names for Glacier's mountains and lakes. He provided more than 100. He also wrote “The Ruhle Handbook, Roads and Trails of Waterton-Glacier National Parks,” which is still used by visitors today. He established Glacier's first museum in a tent, and in 1974 Glacier's library was named the George C. Ruhle Library. A man of unbounded interests, he was a recognized authority on the Blackfeet Indians and the Hawaiian culture. Adopted into the Blackfeet Nation, he received the name of “Ninnah-istaku” or Chief Mountain. He is also known as “The Singing Naturalist” throughout Southeast Asia .
Doc's love and knowledge of the natural world is especially reflected in the classic books he has written on Glacier National Park, the park he made his own. |
Links to online materials about Glacier National Park : Birds of Glacier National Park field check list Changing alpine treeline ecotone of Glacier National Park Exploring visitor experiences on Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park (Giordano, 2002) Final commercial services plan and final environmental impact statement (see June 23, 2004) Glacier National Park general management plan and environmental impact statement (see July 15, 1999) Going to the Sun Road rehabilitation plan/final environmental impact statement (see May 15, 2003) Livestock trespass in Glacier National Park; crossing the great divide (Losleben, 2003) Many Glacier Hotel historic structure report (2002) Modeled climate-induced glacier change in Glacier National Park, 1850-2100 (Hall and Fagre, 2003) On the road again: Glacier National Park's red buses (Vanderbilt, 2002) Restoration of spotted knapweed infested grasslands in Glacier National Park (Stringer, 2003) Through the years in Glacier National Park: an administrative history (Robinson, 1960) What the people think – Glacier National Park and vicinity (Nickerson, 2003) |
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 Glacier
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Born
February
18, 1900 in Kankakee, Illinois, “Doc” acquired his
nickname by earning one of the first doctorate degrees conferred
in what is now known as nuclear physics, from the University
of California, Berkley. A genuine outdoorsman, the appeal of
the National Park Service as a career however was greater. His
career began in the summer of 1926 when Stephen T. Mather, first
National Park Service director, asked him to be a naturalist
at Yosemite National Park. 
In
1961, Conrad Wirth, the Director of the National Park Service,
called on Dr. Ruhle to set up a Division of International Cooperation.
With his friendly diplomatic ability to communicate information
and ideas, Doc became internationally known as “U.S. National
Park Service Ambassador,” exploring the world from the Arctic
to Antarctica . The Distinguished Service Award, the Department
of the Interior's highest honor, was conferred upon him in
1966. Dr. Ruhle died Dec. 7, 1994.