West Glacier residents are lamenting a mural that was recently painted on the historic Belton Bridge across the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.

The bridge, which was built in 1920, is not on the National Register of Historic Places according to the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, but has played a huge role in the history of Glacier National Park over the years.

Longtime West Glacier resident Sharon Bengston alerted the Hungry Horse News to the mural, which, from a distance, looks like a sun, but up close is just a blob of color.

“I was shocked,” when she saw the painting, Bengtson said last week.

After talking to neighbors she suspects it was painted sometime between May 15 and May 28.

While it has survived almost 100 years, the bridge served a great purpose after the Flood of 1964. The flood buckled the bridge at West Glacier, but the Belton Bridge’s now iconic concrete arch survived. The Park Service built a new deck on the structure and the bridge was the main entrance to Glacier for more than two years after that. (The new West Glacier bridge was still under construction in 1966).

The mural is on the south end of the bridge, so if someone is walking into Glacier Park from West Glacier to Park headquarters, they might not see it. The bridge has other graffiti painted on it as well.

Flathead County Public Works Director Dave Prunty said the bridge is not a county structure. According to archival stories in the Hungry Horse News, the bridge was remodeled by the Park Service to include both new and old facets of design sometime in 2004, though an exact date could not be immediately found.

Today it is a popular hiking and biking route and is not open to motor vehicles.

The Park Service is aware of the vandalism.

“The information has been passed on to the appropriate staff. There are no additional details at this time,” said Glacier Park spokeswoman Autumn Sifuentes.