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KALISPELL, MONTANA – On a snow-covered course, 85 runners battled cold and wind during the Class C girls race at the Montana High School Association championships on Oct. 24. The Seeley-Swan Blackhawks came into the race as defending team champions and lost a close race to Manhattan Christian by one point, 29-30. "It was tough watching them out there, they were slipping around on the course," coach Shawn Holmes said. "But they ran hard in these conditions. I'm so proud of them." The B...
Leigh Ann Valiton watched a customer meander the aisles of the Blackfoot Commercial Co. in Ovando, Mont. Valiton's store, and attached Inn, is open until seven every evening, but it was 10 p.m. and she showed no sign of leaving. The customer, Faye Cunningham from New Zealand, filled her basket with frozen burritos, energy bars, chips and a Mountain Dew. Cunningham was competing in the Tour Divide Race, a 2,735-mile long mountain bike race that stretches from Banff, Canada to the Mexican border....
MISSOULA, MONT - "Well that was a PR," said an out of breath Lane Mackie-Wendel shortly after he finished the Missoula City cross country meet Oct. 11. Despite an array of injuries plaguing the cross country team, the Blackhawks had five boys and two girls toe the line for the Wednesday night race that saw three athletes set lifetime bests. The cold, blustery evening meet started off with the girls varsity race. Jayla Kauffman and Chloe Robbins started the race and Kauffman finished with a time...
MISSOULA, MONT. – On a rainy Saturday morning Sept. 30, the Seeley-Swan Blackhawks battled hundreds of runners at the Mountain West Classic cross country meet. The meet is the largest in Montana and drew teams from Montana, Idaho and Washington. In the varsity boys race, sophomore Caleb Maughan finished the five-kilometer course in 21:04, 365 out of the 400 runners in the race. His brother, senior Logan Maughan, was running with a bone bruise and came across the line a minute later. "He sort o...
MISSOULA – Missoula County hosted a board member training session on Thursday, July 27. The county brought in Dan Clark of the Local Government Center to lead the training for anyone serving on a public board. Public boards, districts and commissions govern a vast number of public organizations and law-making bodies. Public boards control everything from public schools to county parks to the airport. Clark hosted two sessions, attended by nearly 100 county residents who serve on various boards and commissions of some sort. “What we do in the...
SWAN LAKE - Montana does not have a designated state fruit, but if it did, no one would question the nomination of the huckleberry. From border to border, in gift stores and truck stops, restaurants and ice cream shops, huckleberries can be found mixed into just about everything: milkshakes, lip balm, soap and jam. This weekend played host to several festivals celebrating the small tart berries. On the banks of Swan Lake, hundreds of people ignored the smoky air and showed up to the 36th annual...
MISSOULA – Smoke from wildfires around Western Montana settled in Missoula but that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of fair-goers and exhibitors at the Western Montana Fair. The Seeley Lake Trailblazers and Potomac Valley 4-H Club sent a combined 41 youth to the fair as exhibitors in livestock raising, shooting and everything in between. Condon resident James Webb came away with two purple ribbons for his hogs, while his brother Levi earned four purple for his lambs. Seeley's steer group swept the...
SWAN VALLEY - As the terminus of summer loomed nearer, and my tenure reporting for the Pathfinder approached with equal speed and horror, I knew I needed to get in one last adventure before trading in my lakeside life for one of city streets and lecture halls. For several weeks, I had the idea of bagging Holland Peak, the tallest mountain in the Swan Range, in the back of my head. For those same weeks, I was continuously thwarted in my attempts-first by a lack of adventure buddies, then by the e...
SWAN VALLEY – One of Swan Valley Elementary's longest serving employees will be leaving at the end of the summer. Karen Anderson will be retiring after serving as the school's secretary and business manager for 33 years. "It's kind of bittersweet," said Anderson. "I've had a lot invested in this school." Anderson attended SVE herself but never thought she would return to work in the same schoolhouse. "My mom will call and ask, 'Aren't you out of school yet?'" Anderson said with a laugh. B...
SEELEY LAKE – Governor Steve Bullock (D-MT) and senior Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) visited Seeley Lake to get a firsthand look at the efforts to fight the Rice Ridge Fire. The pair attended a morning briefing at Seeley Lake Elementary Friday, Aug. 4. "The number one fire in the nation is right here in Seeley Lake right now," said Bullock after the briefing. "I feel confidence in the crew doing it but it's heartbreaking for the community." The Rice Ridge Fire has burned more than 8,000 acres as o...
SEELEY LAKE - Around 11 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2, aerial operations on the Rice Ridge Fire near Seeley Lake were shut down due to a civilian drone flight. A local resident spotted the drone and U.S. Forest Service officers were able to identify and contact the man. He was not arrested at the time but will likely be charged. “At this point it’s an open federal investigation,” said Federal Officer Tyler Robinson. The incident is under shared jurisdiction, and the Forest Service is working with a special agent with the Federal Aviation Administratio...
SEELEY LAKE – Seeley Lake residents have had front row seats to a top notch, and pricy, airshow for the last week. As the Rice Ridge Fire moved up the national priority list to claim the number one spot, the ability for the Incident Management Team to request and receive aerial resources was bolstered. With a single day high of nine aircraft Aug. 4, there has been at least one aircraft flying around the fire every day. The public has seen modified DC-10 jets dumping brilliant red retardant on t...
SEELEY LAKE – Just over a hundred people showed up for the fifth Rice Ridge Fire community meeting at the Seeley Lake Elementary School Monday, Aug. 14. The Rice Ridge Fire is still the top priority in the Northern Rockies Region, but a surge in fire activity in the Northwest has shifted the national priority to the west. The Rice Ridge Fire showed no growth over the last day. It is contained at 10 percent and is 11,277 acres. There are 581 fire personnel currently working on the fire. The T...
SEELEY LAKE- Firefighters and support crew have moved into Seeley Lake Elementary. As of Monday, there were 137 personnel working based out of the school. The crews are working on the Rice Ridge Fire that is burning approximately six miles northeast of Seeley Lake. The fire, which started on July 24, is now more than 2,000 acres and has begun to burn up Pyramid Pass. This isn't the first time SLE has opened its doors to host wildland firefighters. "We kind of did it by accident a couple of...
SEELEY LAKE – A thick white binder sat on the dining room table inside the Sexton's home down the road from Kozy Korner. The binder detailed four years of 4-H projects that Dani Sexton has worked on. On one page, a set of photos show Sexton, decked out in sunglasses and a fake flower lei, kissing a steer-also wearing a lei and pink sunglasses-on the head. The steer, T-Bone, is her latest 4-H project, one that started back in September when Sexton and her sister Gabby began looking for steers t...
SEELEY LAKE—Anne Beach, executive director for the Seeley Lake Community Foundation, had her last day on the job Aug. 1. “Montana has been really good to us,” said Beach, who, along with her husband Alan is a Montana native. “We likely will be back to Montana sometime.” Beach has served in her position since 2014 and will be moving to southwest Colorado to be closer to her family. Beach lauded the opportunities she has had with the Foundation, including working with many of the non-profits, businesses and service organizations in Seeley La...
SEELEY LAKE – Seeley Swan Vacation Rentals is under new ownership. Carrie Sokoloski bought the company from the previous owner, Shelley Alsup, at the end of April. Sokoloski takes on the new company in addition to her property management business Circle S Property Management, which she has run since 2014. "It's funny because I never thought it would get as big as it did," said Sokoloski, who also works full time at Great Bear Properties. Property managers like Sokoloski provide a key service a...
SEELEY LAKE – For the second time this week, the Seeley Lake Elementary gym was filled for a public meeting about the Rice Ridge Fire. The Thursday meeting updated the community on fire operations for both the Rice Ridge and Liberty fires burning near Seeley Lake. The meeting began with a moment of silence for the two firefighters who have been killed fighting blazes on the Lolo National Forest. Nineteen-year-old Trenton Johnson died on the Florence Fire near Seeley Lake on July 19. and 2...
SEELEY LAKE – A now-familiar scene unfolded in Seeley Lake Elementary School Sunday evening. The noticeably smaller crowd gathered for the third public meeting to hear updates on the ongoing fire operations on the Rice Ridge Fire and other fires burning in the area. The most recent fire maps formed the backdrop of the meeting. A daily progression map showed the growth over the last 24 hours-fingers of fire spread west down Rice Ridge towards Highway 83 and a sizable section of fire pushed up t...
SEELEY LAKE - During the superintendent's report at the July Seeley Lake Elementary Board meeting, Chris Stout announced that SLE Outside, the retail/rental shop in the Bison and Bear Center will likely vacate their space when the lease ends in September. "I think that's what we're going to do," said Stout. "It really hasn't worked out for our needs and... it's still fairly expensive [to lease]." SLE Outside ended up with a $10,000 deficit from November 2015-November 2016, but Stout said that...
SEELEY LAKE- Girard Grove near the western shore of Seeley Lake is an almost sacred space. A dirt path traces its way around the trunks of larch trees that have an approximate age of 600 years. Typically, the only noise that can be heard is the wind brushing through branches and the occasional car passing by on Boy Scout Road. Last week however, the grove took on a new cacophony of sound. Saws buzzed, drills drilled and the prize of the grove, a 1,000-year-old western larch known locally as...
SEELEY LAKE- A double semi-truck caught fire on Highway 83 just north of Seeley Lake on Tuesday, July 18. The fire burned for about fifteen minutes before the Seeley Lake Volunteer Fire Department put out the flames. Just before 2:30 p.m., the semi-truck was driving south down the highway when one of the brakes froze up. "It doesn't take long for those to over heat and then boom," said Seeley Lake Fire Chief Bob Vanden Heuvel. The volunteer firefighters got the call at 2:28, and were dispatched...
SEELEY LAKE - The Bob Marshall Music Festival ended more than a week ago but the work is still ongoing. Revenue and expenditure checks are still coming in, hard numbers on attendance are still being calculated and feedback is being processed. The Seeley Lake Community Foundation, the organization that put on the music festival, had a board meeting on Monday to go over the results. “We are just so excited to have done it and we’re extremely pleased with the way it seems to have boosted the economy of all the businesses here in Seeley Lak...
SEELEY LAKE - More than 60 people came together for a volunteer work day at Fawn Pond on July 23. The Nature Conservancy hosted their sixth annual Revive and Thrive event to celebrate conservation and recreation efforts and create a new trail. Fawn Pond, a few miles west of Seeley Lake, now has a new mile-and-a-half nonmotorized trail around it. The trail includes a new bridge over Fawn Creek, which will replace a culvert downstream that has been impeding fish flow. This combination of...
SEELEY LAKE- The Seeley Lake Elementary School Board of Trustees received several updates regarding staff changes, SLE Outside, the new scoreboard, parking lot paving and preschool funding at their meeting July 18. One of the first orders of business was a letter of resignation from Andrew Wyatt. Superintendent Chris Stout will make his replacement recommendations at the next meeting. At the next meeting, Stout will also provide an update on the SLE Outside store. Stout stated that it is his tentative plan for the store to vacate its current...
