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This story was updated on July 24 at 10:27 a.m. to make clarifications regarding senior and junior water rights, and to correct that the main stem of the Blackfoot River has been placed under a hoot owl restriction, not the north fork. Like many other people who make or have made their living working the land, Denny Iverson saw this year’s drought coming. The winter was drier than normal in Montana and the snowpack didn’t build up well. On top of that, it was an El Niño year, which from decades of experience Iverson knows to mean drought in the...
The Seeley Lake Sewer Board was presented with conceptual designs from engineering firm Water & Environmental Technologies, or WET, for an anticipated sewer project and heard an update on earmarked money for the project from the federal government on July 18. Bill Decker, Seeley Lake Sewer District manager, provided the update about the earmarked money from Representative Ryan Zinke’s office for a sewer project in Seeley Lake. The grant application is making its way through the approval process within the U.S. House Appropriations C...
Christina Hartmann had teaching on the brain as a career path from a young age. She always played school with her three younger siblings, where she was the one in the role of the teacher and made sure her siblings were organized into various parts to conduct the role play. In high school, she was asked to be a teacher's aide in a kindergarten class. She worked with a non-verbal student for two years, and was inspired by how she was able to see this student's lightbulb moments from the gains they...
Mike Fowler brought a small temperature sensor with him from Seattle to a presentation he was a part of held at the Foundation Building in Seeley Lake. On that Wednesday, with outside temperatures in the nineties, Fowler said his sensor showed 78 degrees in the Foundation Building. Fowler is the sustainability integration leader for Mithun, an architectural firm in Seattle. He and other members of his team came to Montana in May to tour five schools to start thinking about potential design upgra...
It’s been just over six months since I started as the editor of the Pathfinder. I wanted to write here to explain a couple of things, introduce a new intern and offer some gratitude. As I’m sure many of you have noticed, our office hours and responsiveness in some ways have been wacky. We’ve been without a working computer for a month, which has made our office manager’s job quite difficult. I’ve been so grateful to Jessi for continuing to do as much as she possibly can without a computer. As of last week, we have a new computer, and Jessi wil...
The last of the log inventory at Pyramid Mountain Lumber was run through the sawmill on July 3. The mill, which announced its closure in March due to a workforce shortage largely attributed to the cost of living in the Seeley Lake area, stopped accepting new log inventory on March 31 and has so far laid off no more than 10 people, said Pyramid Mountain Lumber General Manager Todd Johnson. As of July 3, the sawmill department of the mill has ceased operation. The boiler and kiln department will...
The Fourth of July came at a perfect time, weather-wise, for the Blackfoot and Clearwater watersheds - just before temperatures were supposed to get into the high-nineties and even hundreds this week. Celebrations across the valleys were a delightful mix of some of the best parts of small town Montana, with elements that catered to locals and visitors alike. Books were available for purchase to support the Swan Valley Community Library, families wore matching outfits and water and popsicles,...
Editor's note: When I worked for two weekly newspapers in Ennis and Big Sky, we would run features each week that we either called the B feature - because it was the first page of the B section in The Madisonian, which is based in Ennis - or the Not So Average Jane/Joe in the Lone Peak Lookout, which used to be used in Big Sky. These focused on members of the community either really well known of whom we felt folks could use a broader picture, or people who weren't known at all but had a really...
The warming hut on Forest Service Road 465 near Deer Creek was vandalized on June 18 just after 3 p.m. According to Jeannette Smith, public information officer with the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, someone shot the building a number of times — impacting the door, door frame, some walls and the wood shed roof — incurring at least $1,500 in damage. There are no suspects or witnesses, and the sheriff’s office has gathered all applicable information so far. The case is considered inactive by the sheriff’s office, but an additional investiga...
The Seeley Lake Sewer District met at the end of June to hear an update on the sewer project proposal from its engineering firm and on various funding opportunities available, and considered putting together a letter showing support from the sewer board for the project. Steve Anderson, engineer with Water & Environmental Technologies, or WET, gave an update on the project proposal. It will make sense to design treatment zones based on elevation and treatment needs, Anderson said. This could require pump and lift stations, which in the case of l...
The Northern Region of the Forest Service, based in Missoula, is beginning the process of transferring its ownership of the Condon Work Center due to a backlog of maintenance on the property and associated costs. Swan Valley Connections, a nonprofit focused on conservation and stewardship in the Swan Valley, has an office in the work center and leadership has been encouraged to start searching for a new office space with a tentative deadline to be out of the work center by March 2025. Swan...
This summer, no operations at Holland Lake Lodge have been approved. Holland Lake Lodge Owner Christian Wohlfeil submitted an operating plan for 2024 but since the wastewater treatment system is unable to function at the level needed for the plan, the Forest Service has not approved any operations and Wohlfeil hasn’t submitted an updated plan, Chris Dowling, Swan Lake District Ranger, said at a June Swan Valley Community Council meeting. A design firm is looking at a replacement or repair of the wastewater treatment lagoon, which was found t...
Clint Rice was in Washington on Friday picking up fireworks for a stand he's been running in Seeley Lake since 1990. For over 30 years, Rice has been coming up to Seeley Lake in the summers to run the firework stand, formerly called Pyromania and rebranded as the Boom Shack. He opened the shop for New Years sales in 2000. Most recently, Rice relocated to Seeley Lake to live full-time as of September. While in high school in Arlee, Montana, Rice worked for a firework stand and then for a company...
On a sunny day buzzing with the anticipation of summer days to come - people lining up outside The Ice Cream Place, a boutique pop up outside of Good Times Gifts - some Seeley Lake locals were gathered outside the Seeley Lake Community Foundation building to celebrate the end of a month-long fundraising event. Twenty groups participated to raise $126,000 during the ninth annual Change Your Pace fundraising challenge. Both of those numbers are record-breaking, Seeley Lake Community Foundation...
Rebecca McCarthy got a call from Norman Maclean's daughter during an event at the Missoula Public Library. Based on the way Jean Maclean Snyder spoke on the phone, it could have been her father. Maclean had a deliberate way of speaking, which translated to the way he spoke over the phone. Per McCarthy's memory it would go like this: "Rebecca, dear." Pause. "How are you?" She'd answer and Maclean would respond with a particular exclamation that sounded like, "Gaaaaaaawd." That was the same way...
In June’s primary election, Seeley-Swan voters had 12 candidates for the Montana Statehouse to choose from on their ballots, along with levies related to local government studies. According to Montana’s Secretary of State tabulations, voter turnout statewide for the primary election was 40.9%, with 308,226 voters turning in ballots out of the 753,698 registered voters. Missoula County’s turnout was a bit lower, coming in at 39.5%. After the decennial redistricting process, some of the state House and Senate districts were rearranged perta...
Shortly after a swimming safety assembly at Seeley Lake Elementary School, a mermaid and a lifeguard walked into the Grizzly Claw. Olivia Colburn (lifeguard), Melanie Blank (mermaid) and Michela Reese (local chiropractor) had wrapped up a three-week round of swimming lessons in Seeley Lake for about 70 school-aged children, four and up. The Double Arrow Lodge allowed the instructors, who all went through Red Cross training funded by the Seeley Lake Lions Club, host the swim lessons at the...
Last week Swan Valley Elementary School celebrated the school's eighth grade graduate, Noah Morgan, and three kindergarteners moving up to first grade. Three Swan Valley teachers spoke warmly about Morgan's positive attitude, hard work ethic and artistic skills in addition to his track and field prowess and ability to see the good in everyone. Morgan asked Swan Valley School Secretary Katie Gleason to be his guest speaker at the celebration. "I'm so honored that Noah asked me to speak today,"...
At 17-years-old, Ben Kesterke understands that business interactions hinge on the foundation of making deals with others. In meeting that end, Kesterke has spent the last year developing his social and networking skills despite having a lot of social anxiety around the same time. He wasn't bad at socializing, Kesterke said, but it made him really anxious and he wanted to get better at it. Kesterke traveled to the Bozeman-based Prospects business competition, hosted by the Montana Chamber of...
In an area where history, hindsight and remembrance are important, it's not surprising the Seeley and Swan Valleys - where at least in Seeley Lake 14.6% of the population are veterans, according to Census data - treated Memorial Day as something special, and not just a three-day weekend. The Pathfinder was able to attend three celebrations throughout the valleys, and further afield, to see how the holiday was being commemorated. From Condon, to Seeley, to Helmville, one thing was for sure - the...
Two days before graduation, Seeley-Swan High School seniors sat in the gymnasium to receive scholarships provided by local and state-wide organizations. Anywhere from $750 to over $300,000 was awarded per student. A throughline from those handing out the awards was the importance of community service and volunteerism. Steve Bowen from the Seeley Lake Lions Club said community service is what drives our lives. Mary Stone, who presented the Seeley Lake Leo Awards and the National Honors Society...
When Shelia Devins had the Seeley Elementary sixth graders as first graders in music class, they were upset after learning how sea turtles can get caught in plastic that makes its way into the ocean. At the time, it was the last week of school and there wasn't a ton of time to dive in, so Devins and the class looked at what else could be used instead of plastic, like biodegradable straws or packing peanuts. Flash forward to this school year and the sixth graders harkened back to their concerns...
About a month ago, some of the greens at the Double Arrow Golf Course were looking quite brown. Before that, pictures of the course looked like it could have been a lake frozen over due to all the ice that formed on top of the grass. Kyle Darrow has been working at Double Arrow for 17 years. He's experienced years when the dead grass post-winter was rough and generally thinks worse seasons for the course are during El Niño years when winters in the United States are generally drier. But this...
Seeley-Swan Blackhawks took on state championships for both golf and track and field before the school year wrapped up. Two golfers - Juniors Mia Nicholas and Aiden Posthumus - were successful at both Divisionals in early May and at State May 14 and 15 in Hamilton. Posthumus tied for second out of 47 men at State and Nicholas placed third out of 47 women at State. Golf Coach Colleen Stone said Nicholas was basically undefeated through the regular golf season, winning almost every meet she...
A day before Montana’s Drought and Water Supply Advisory Committee met to discuss the low precipitation levels of April and look at what was in store for the months to come, a traffic-stopping, Search and Rescue-compelling snowstorm occurred on Bozeman Pass on May 8. According to KBZK, the interstate was closed for almost 24 hours and some travelers were stuck in their cars for 15 hours. Those presenting at the committee meeting — including representatives from the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Geological Survey — said...
