OVERVIEW

Glacier is small, with perhaps 100 regular residents, but it looms large in the county’s psyche. It’s the last commercial outpost on Mount Baker Highway before you enter the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest and head skyward to Mount Baker Ski Area.

In the old days, Glacier was a rough-and-tumble logging and mining town with a store, pool hall, hotels and discrete brothels.

Today, visitors come for good hikes and river rafting each summer and for skiing and snowboarding each winter, and there’s still a bit of the wild and woolly when snow hounds gather after a day’s run. Popular gathering spots include Graham’s Restaurant and Milano’s Restaurant & Deli.

HISTORY

Chester Cornell was the first homesteader in Glacier, in 1888. He sold spuds to miners and opened a hotel. Of course, he named the place Cornell.

SCHOOLS

Kendall Elementary, Mount Baker Junior, Mount Baker High, Timber Ridge High.

District: Mount Baker School District, www.mtbaker.wednet.edu.

PARKS

Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, with campgrounds, trails and picnic sites; Mt. Baker Ski Area, including Artist Point.

QUOTE

“We love the outdoors, and living in Glacier is like perpetually living outside. There’s hiking, lots of birds and animal life, and the skiing is fabulous. I can’t think of any nicer place to live.”

Dee Sarich, Glacier resident for eight years