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SEELEY LAKE – Seeley Lake Elementary (SLE) librarian Michele Holmes has worked for years to find an affordable way to provide students with access to eBooks as part of the school library offerings. At the October 2016 meeting of the Montana Education Association, Holmes helped form a consortium comprised of representatives from small Montana schools. Acting as a unit, the consortium established a shared catalogue of more than 1,900 eBooks for K-12 students. SLE's involvement in eBooks started i...
SWAN VALLEY – David Moskowitz is a biologist, expert wildlife tracker, photographer, author and outdoor educator. In Montana shooting photos for his Mountain Caribou Initiative project, Moskowitz was invited by Swan Valley Connections to share some of his findings at the Swan Valley Community Hall March 9. While not advocating any specific solution, Moskowitz said his goal was to help illuminate a really complicated ecological and cultural story. The story of the mountain caribou is i...
A bored teenager might be forgiven for saying, "After 7 p.m., Seeley Lake is dead as a doornail." But what exactly is a doornail, and how did it become the epitome of dead things? In the Medieval period and probably even earlier, a doornail was a hand-forged, iron nail with an extra-large head. Such a nail was hammered into a door consisting of vertical wood panels braced on the back by horizontal cross boards. The doornail was long enough that even after passing through both pieces of wood the...
SEELEY LAKE - Quilters of the Tamaracks rent the Seeley Lake Community Hall for 12 days each year. Roughly once a month the quilters bring their sewing machines to the hall, spread out their material and proceed with their individual projects in fellowship with one another. Since the community hall is large, there is room to spare and the quilters are now inviting other crafters to join them. Knitting, scrap booking, needle point, wood working, crocheting, painting - any type of craft portable e...
SEELEY LAKE - For the past two-and-a-half years Clearwater Resource Council (CRC) has been laying the foundation to allow the Seeley Lake community to plan a comprehensive trails system. To begin building on that foundation, CRC formally kicked off the public input phase of the Seeley Lake Trails Project Feb. 25. CRC Executive Director Cathy Kahnle said during those two-and-a-half years the organization gathered information from Missoula County, other counties, other trails-planning groups, surv...
SEELEY LAKE – Alpine Artisans Incorporated (AAI) has a long-standing policy of each year honoring an AAI member or members who have exhibited exceptional support of the arts in the Clearwater Valley. Most often, the person chosen is a practicing artist in either the visual, performing or literary arts. However, the 2017 award recipient claims no outstanding ability in any of those realms. Nevertheless, AAI award presenter Russ Abolt called recipient Sue Cushman of Condon an artist in the largest...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Elementary Culinary Club, one of the afterschool programs available through the Twenty-First Century Grant, cooked a Mexican meal in October, baked Thanksgiving pies in November and Christmas cookies in December. The January session was skipped due to weather issues but interested fifth through eighth grade students regrouped in February for "Cupcake Decorating 101" with professional cake artist Laura Devins. Devins said she started working in a Seattle, Wash. b...
SEELEY LAKE – Brook Bezanson told Seeley Lake Elementary (SLE) students she was called stupid and lazy as a child because she had dyslexia and learning was difficult for her. She said in high school a lot of people called her Goth because she liked wearing black. This year however, the whole world calls her Miss Montana. On Jan. 23, Bezanson came to SLE to tell students, "What you believe is what you achieve." The message Bezanson elaborated to students was, "If you believe people who say you c...
SEELEY LAKE – Hip-hop music was blaring, colored lights were flashing and three 14-foot screens carried rotating Say Something logos as fifth through eighth-grade students from Seeley Lake Elementary (SLE), Potomac School and Swan Valley School entered the SLE gymnasium Jan. 17. The ultimate purpose was to convince them to say something if they saw or experienced bullying, were having thoughts of suicide or knew of someone else contemplating suicide. An evening program covering the same topic w...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Community Council (SLCC) heard several presentations from local organizations at their Jan. 9 meeting. Missoula Aging Services (MAS) Resource Specialist Linda Howard presented information about services available to community members age 60 and older and to persons with disabilities. Howard said she has access to a database listing more than 400 resources. People can visit her at the Seeley Lake Community Foundation office in the Bison and Bear Center and she will do a Benefit Checkup to see what services they qual...
When a person feels things are at their very worst, a friend might try to offer hope by saying, “Every cloud has a silver lining.” The advice is based on the observed phenomenon that when clouds disperse and sunlight begins to shine through, the first sign is the appearance of a silvery edge on the cloud. The inferred meaning is that if the depressed person looks hard enough, he or she will discover something good comes out of their misery. So where did the phrase originate? Sources attribute the first written use of the phrase to John Mil...
SEELEY LAKE – Over a seven-year period, what started as an opportunity for friends to play broomball on Seeley Lake has grown into an officially sanctioned Pond Hockey Tournament. The Jan. 6-8 event featured four playing rinks and 44 competing teams. The tournament's Volunteer Coordinator Lynn Mitchell said, "Without our volunteers, it would not happen." From top to bottom, the event is run by unpaid workers. At the top of the volunteer roster is Event Coordinator Megan Lindemer. Her duties i...
SEELEY LAKE – One of the popular activities leading up to Christmas is the making of gingerbread houses. A Google search for "images of gingerbread houses" pulls up a wide variety of confectionary structures from humble six-graham-cracker buildings, to miniature replicas of the White House (a tradition started by Pat Nixon and escalating from there), to life-size structures with people walking around inside them. But where did gingerbread houses originally come from and why did they become a...
Those who savored a piece of apple pie for dessert this Christmas may have some understanding of the answer American soldiers’ shipping out in World War II gave journalists who asked why the young men were willing to fight in the war. With all the bravado of youth, their typical reply was, “for mom and apple pie.” It wasn’t much of a leap from there to the declaration that X, Y or Z was “as American as apple pie.” But the funny thing is, apple pie is not American. Apples are not native to North America. Apple trees were not cultivated...
SEELEY LAKE – Preparing dinner for a large family gathering such as Thanksgiving or Christmas can be stressful for the cook used to feeding only two to four people. Seeley Lake resident Anita Boddington takes it right in stride. She was a cook in the United States Army and regularly fed 100-200 soldiers. Boddington grew up in Nashville, Tenn. and lived what she called a very sheltered life. Among other things, her parents wouldn't allow her to learn to drive a car. She said by age 20 she felt h...
SEELEY LAKE - Part I of this two-part article posited a time between 1935 – 1940 when Burt and Dagmar Sperry may have lived in the Homestead Cabin now belonging to the Double Arrow Ranch Landowners Association (DARLOA). But it is almost certain the cabin was built earlier than that time period. Exactly when is hard to establish, though DARLOA resident George Frasca estimates the age at 110 years based on word-of-mouth information he was given by Seeley Lake residents who have since passed a...
SEELEY LAKE – Seeley Lake residents Chris Flinders and Patty Dillree said it has become a tradition to get in the Christmas spirit by pulling chairs in front of the big fireplace at Double Arrow Lodge and listening to the music of the Seeley-Swan Mountain Bells. A packed crowd on Dec. 1 proved they were not the only ones who enjoyed the bell carols. The Mountain Bells presentation, called Music by the Fire, began with "Joy to the World" and continued with traditional Christmas carols i...
SEELEY LAKE – Located off Dolly Varden Drive at the end of the meadow bordered by Trail Creek is an old log building commonly referred to as the Homestead Cabin. Now owned by the Double Arrow Ranch Landowners Association (DARLOA), the cabin is valued as a symbol of the pioneering days of Seeley Lake. The official designation for the land on which the Homestead Cabin stands is NW¼ of Section 12 (16N, 15W). According to the records at the Bureau of Land Management General Land Office, A. B...
SEELEY LAKE – The five University of Montana (UM) students who make up the 2016 Celebration Brass Quintet had a busy three days Nov. 20-22. They traveled the Seeley, Swan and Potomac valleys to perform four informances, four workshops and one community concert. Though the quintet played many of the same pieces at each venue, their presentation differed from group to group. The full musical playlist was performed at the community concert at Swan Valley School. Incorporating music from Bach to con...
SEELEY LAKE – An estimated 80 to 90 people piled some combination of turkey, ham, gravy, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes on their plates at the annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner at the Swan Valley Community Hall, Nov. 20. They then chatted with their neighbors, visited with old friends or met new acquaintances. When their plate was empty they went back for a slice of apple or pumpkin pie, both of which disappeared quickly. The Condon Community Church sponsors the event. C...
SEELEY LAKE – To follow up on the Resource Team Assessment conducted Sept. 19-20 by Montana Economic Developers Association (MEDA), four of the team members returned to Seeley Lake Nov. 10 to help prioritize and kick-start the projects deemed most urgent by Seeley Lake community members. Following a brief review of the topics and issues resulting from the team's September interviews, attendees were separated into five groups of six to eight people. Each group decided which three topics they f...
SEELEY LAKE – Seeley Lake resident Adrian Vanderwielen said he is proud to wear a shirt or cap bearing the name or insignia of the United States Air Force. He said he feels even prouder when some stranger comes up to him and thanks him for his service. There weren't many thanks being offered when he returned from Vietnam. Despite his experiences in that war, Vanderwielen is grateful for the training and advantages his military service gave him. Vanderwielen was born in Germany in the midst of W...
SEELEY LAKE – Winter is on its way and the Seeley Lake Regional Outdoor Center for Kinetic Sports (SL ROCKS) is prepared for its arrival. Monday Oct. 10 volunteers began assembling the yurt at the Seeley Creek Nordic Trail System. They finished Tuesday with the help of Kelsi Luhnow's third grade class from Seeley Lake Elementary (SLE). After donning high-visibility vests, the SLE students hiked from school to the trailhead. Luhnow said as they walked they talked about western larch needles t...
SWAN VALLEY – On Nov. 20 Alpine Artisans’ 2 Valleys Stage is bringing five of the University of Montana’s (UM) most talented horn players to Swan Valley School. They will be performing a community concert Sunday at 3 p.m. and working with students in the local schools on Monday and Tuesday. Called the UM Celebration Brass Quintet, the group is funded by scholarships donated by Keith and Wendy Kuhn as a memorial to their son Philip David Kuhn who died in 2012 at age 29. Assistant Professor of Horn and Music Theory Zachary Cooper is facul...
SEELEY LAKE – While one of the main goals of the Twenty-First Century Grant program is to widen educational opportunities for children, a complementary goal is to promote parental involvement and strengthen the family unit. With this in mind, Bridget Laird, who organizes the Seeley Lake Elementary (SLE) grant activities, decided to encourage families to enjoy some Halloween fun together while also supporting a new endeavor in Seeley Lake. On Oct. 29, youngsters and their parents converged on H...
