Essex’s Izaak Walton Inn, a beloved old railroad lodge on the southern edge of Glacier National Park, has been listed for sale for $18 million. The offering comes just weeks after its owner closed it and other properties amid significant financial issues.  Landmark Real Estate has listed the inn and the almost 90 acres it sits on as a “turnkey resort,” with numerous upgrades, including recently remodeled rooms, a bar and restaurant, as well as updated boilers and heat pumps. Five years ago, the property was listed at $17.95 million and was eventually sold in December 2022 for $13.5 million to LOGE Camps.  The inn was closed the following year for major remodeling and opened again in the fall of 2024. While LOGE (pronounced “Lodge” and standing for “Live Outside, Go Explore”) was working on the property in Essex, it was also actively expanding in its home state of Washington and across the West. The company was founded in 2016 with the mission of finding “forgotten motels near our favorite towns and trails, and bring them back to life.”  Shortly after purchasing the Izaak Walton, it also bought a hotel in Missoula. In a 2023 interview with MTFP, executives said they believed Montana would play a big role in the company’s future and promised more developments.  But behind the scenes, the situation was less than rosy. According to a report from the Flathead Beacon, the company’s board of directors discovered in late 2025 that the company was in “significant distress” and lacked the money to continue operating. According to emails reviewed by the Beacon, LOGE CEO Cale Genenbacher had told the board that the company had refinanced one of its properties. But in reality, LOGE had repurchased it after the lender foreclosed on the property, according to the Beacon.  Genenbacher resigned in November, and in January, the company retained a chief restructuring officer and insolvency lawyers, who typically guide a company through restructuring or bankruptcy. The day the Beacon broke the news that LOGE was in financial trouble, the company announced it was closing the Izaak Walton, also known as LOGE Glacier. The last guest checked out on March 1. Employees and locals who see the inn as something of a gathering place for the remote community said they were “blindsided” by the news.  While Essex has built a reputation in recent years as a haven for outdoor recreation, it began as a railroad town. Shortly after the Great Northern Railway built its main line over nearby Marias Pass, Essex became a “helper station,” where extra locomotives were added to trains for the climb over the mountain. It was also where plows were stationed to keep the tracks clear in winter. Every winter, the Great Northern would have about 200 railroaders based in Essex. But in 1935, the “beanery” that fed and housed those workers burned down. For a few years, the railroad had its employees stay in old boxcars, but the accommodations were far from attractive, and managers had difficulty finding people willing to work out of Essex during the winter. In 1939, the railroad made a deal with the Addison Miller Company to construct a hotel and lunch room next to the tracks in Essex. The Izaak Walton Inn opened later that year. While the inn’s primary purpose was to serve railroaders, the evocative name honoring a popular 17th-century outdoorsman and the Tudor Revival style were meant to attract tourists as well. Located about halfway between West Glacier and East Glacier Park, the Izaak Walton earned the nickname “the inn between” and was known as a quiet oasis away from the park’s busier east and west sides. In 1957, the Addison Miller Company sold it, and the inn passed through several private owners. One of the most consequential was the Veilleux family, which owned it from the early 1980s until 2006. During their tenure, the family helped develop a system of cross-country ski trails and leveraged the inn’s railroad connection by buying old cabooses and converting them into cabins. The family even sought permission from the railroads to paint the cabooses into the appropriate colors, logos and all, representing the companies that operated in Montana. Over the years, the inn became popular with outdoor and railroad enthusiasts alike.  In 2006, the inn was sold to Brian Kelly, who helped the business grow by acquiring a nearby motel and a cafe within Glacier Park. In 2022, Kelly put the inn and surrounding property up for sale, and nine months later, it sold to LOGE Camps. In-depth, independent reporting on the stories impacting your community from reporters who know your town. The post Izaak Walton Inn on the market for $18 million  appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less