High on a Windy Hill: The Story of the Prince of Whales Hotel

Ray Djuff's continuing efforts on the history of the Waterton Lakes area have hit pay dirt with his newest book, High On A Windy Hill. The book details how the Prince of Wales Hotel, a majestic wooden structure modelled on Swiss alpine architecture, came to sit atop a promontory above the scenic lakes area straddling the Alberta-Montana border. Djuff, a Calgary, AB newspaper editor, describes in great detail how Louis Warren Hill, head of the Minnesota-based Great Northern Railway, needed a Canadian hotel in the early century to match his significant tourism accommodations in Montana's Glacier National Park. Because Prohibition was still in effect, Hill envisioned well-to-do eastern Americans travelling by train west to his Montana hotels taking a short trip north to imbibe in a drink while on vacation. Hill's power of persuasion, coupled with a subtle but determined continent-wide public relations effort on Canadian authorities, a nearby Mormon teetotalling community and American tourists, eventually made his dream a reality. Djuff's meticulous research captures the drama in the rushed construction of the 90-room, $370,000 Prince of Wales, locally referred to as the POW. Devastating weather and countless design revisions vexed the local contractors prior to the July 1927 opening and the book is chockfull of period photos and anecdotes describing the ordeal. Ironically, the halcyon days Hill foresaw lasted only until America's 1933 repeal of Prohibition and the onslaught of the Depression. Twice in the ensuing decade, Great Northern closed the hotel due to lack of visitors. By the 1960s and 70s, rail traffic had given way to vacationers in cars and the company finally sold the hotel. The Prince of Wales is now owned by Viad Corporation of Phoenix, AZ and is open through the summer months. Djuff draws on his experience as a waiter and bartender at the POW in the 1970s to chronicle the hotel staff's dedication to service, regardless of the business's financial straits. He ably describes the culture of the community both outside and inside the resort. Perhaps most importantly, High On a Windy Hill is a story of how the raison d'etre behind such a grand edifice evolves over time through the visions of those who built and staffed it. For that alone, Djuff's book is worth the read.