A new home for Glacier National Park’s red bus fleet has been found. Xanterra Parks & Recreation recently acquired a 10-acre site on Montana 206 next to Newton Supply, spokeswoman Amy Dempster said.

“We currently have an RFP out for contractors, so nobody has been selected and construction has not started yet,” she said. “We do anticipate the project to be complete by October of 2015.”

The 40,000-square-foot facility will serve as the off-season storage facility for the historic red buses and as headquarters for Xanterra’s transportation and maintenance departments, she said.

The facility will include four bays, including two with lifts and one for washing. The red buses were stored at Glacier Park International Airport this past winter.

Glacier Park’s current fleet of 33 red buses, nicknamed the “Rubies of the Rockies,” were first acquired in the 1930s for about $5,000 apiece. After the Ford Motor Co. spent around $6 million restoring them about a decade ago, each bus is estimated to be worth $250,000.

The White Motor Co. built more than 500 Model 706 buses for national parks across the United States. Of the 33 remaining in Glacier Park, 17 were built in 1936, 11 in 1937, four in 1938 and one in 1939.

Buses came in different colors for each national park. The color chosen for Glacier Park is called Ripe Mountain Ash Berry.

Motorized transportation had basically replaced horse-drawn carriages by the time Going-to-the-Sun Road opened in 1933. Red bus drivers were nicknamed “jammers” because of the sound the gear box made when they shifted. The first automatic transmission was installed in 1989.

Today’s upgraded red buses still have the oak-frame, metal-clad bodies designed by industrial stylist Count Alexis de Sakhoffsky, but they’re attached to a modern chassis with a V-8 engine that can run on gasoline or propane. The black fenders are not original — they’re plastic.

The Glacier fleet is considered to be the oldest touring fleets of vehicles in the world. Each red bus on average transports 60,000 visitors through Glacier Park in summertime.

This is the first year Xanterra Parks & Recreation, through Glacier National Park Lodges, is operating the red bus fleet, and a new logo has been affixed to the side of each bus. 

Ten tours are offered, including:

• The eight-hour Big Sky Circle Tour starts at Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier and runs west on U.S. 2 over Marias Pass to West Glacier, then east on the Sun Road over Logan Pass, and then back to East Glacier.

• The 2 1/2- to 4 1/2- hour Eastern Alpine Tour connects Glacier Park Lodge with the St. Mary and Many Glacier areas.

• The 3 1/2-hour Huckleberry Mountain Tour runs along McDonald Creek and the Camas Road.

• The 8- to 9 1/2-hour West Side Crown of the Continent Tour starts in the Lake McDonald valley and runs over Logan Pass to Many Glacier in time for lunch.

 For more information, go to www.glaciernationalparklodges.com

Hanners is the editor of the Hungry Horse News in Columbia Falls.