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The last units of lumber were processed at Pyramid Mountain Lumber on Friday. No more production will continue at the mill. In March, Pyramid Mountain Lumber announced their closure due to workforce shortages. The high cost of living in western Montana was cited as one of the main reasons for closure. Pyramid was the largest employer in Seeley Lake and has been family-owned for the last 75 years. Pyramid has been winding down through a five-part plan and are now in the final two stages, which...
A wind storm with gusts up to 60-70 miles per hour burst through Seeley Lake on Aug. 23 and left thousands without power, some going days before the lights came back on. The storm postponed the beginning of Seeley-Swan High School's school year. Freshmen were to have started school on Monday, and as of press time Monday afternoon, it wasn't clear when classes would begin either for the high school or the elementary school. A couple of log storage sheds at Pyramid Mountain Lumber were damaged...
With a new school year underway students at Seeley-Swan High School and Seeley Lake Elementary School will be greeted with many changes. One of the most visible changes at Seeley-Swan High School is the new sign that was built towards the end of the previous school year. History teacher Trace Stone worked with the student government to design and build the sign. Other high school students also helped with the construction. Materials for the project were provided by The Lodges, Peak Fabrication,...
Shortly before 10 a.m. on Salmon Lake, an eagle swooped in front of a boat that started collecting water quality data a couple hours earlier. The bird of prey dipped into the water, grabbed a fish and flew away. "You don't see that every day," Colleen Stone, who was volunteering that morning with the Clearwater Resource Council, said. Later on, a herring flew across the width of the six-mile long lake. Brea Dehm, aquatic technician with the Clearwater Resource Council, said these moments, and be...
Charles Dickens wrote “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” in his novel A Tale of Two Cities. Though the novel is an all-time best seller, I wanted to write to you about redistricting as the common sense conservative candidate for House District 92. HD92 for decades has been one of the last conservative leaning represented areas in Missoula County. It covered exclusively areas outside the city, from Clinton to the Seeley-Swan Valley. Unfortunately, in 2023 the Districting & Apportionment Commission changed that. Areas like See...
I’d like to provide constituents with an update on my legislative activities this summer. Most recently, I chaired the next-to-last legislative Revenue Interim Committee (RIC) meeting to review our state’s financial updates, the Governor’s Property Tax Advisory Committee’s recommendations, the Department of Revenue’s recommended bill drafts generated by that agency’s Land Classification Study Working Group (LCSWG), and finalizing our 2023-2024 Property Tax Modernization Study. The Property Tax Advisory Committee provided a comprehensi...
The Seeley Lake Pickleball Club is trying to get more people on the courts. About 55 people are members of the club and they play Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 8 a.m. until noon behind Seeley Lake Elementary School next to the baseball diamonds where there are six outdoor courts available for pickleball playing. Since the club practices at this time, members are required to have insurance, so each person pays $30 each year to cover those costs. People can play outside of those...
T-shirts emblazoned with the famous Clearwater cow hang on racks in the new Cow Store n' More that's taken up residence in the old bar behind the convenience store at Clearwater Junction. Speciality coffees, soft serve and Big Dipper ice cream and Montana made gifts and books fill the refreshed space. A soft opening happened on Aug. 23 and the grand opening is planned for Labor Day. "We had a branding party for local ranchers to bring in their brands and brand the new bar counter for the coffee...
The In the Footsteps of Norman Maclean Literary Festival announced that its biennial gathering will be held Sept. 27 to 29, 2024 in Missoula, Montana, featuring the theme, Finding Our Place In Nature: The Power of Story. Award-winning authors and artists will examine society's critical relationship to nature through literature, art and music. The Saturday daytime festival at The Wilma will be free, but registration is required at www.macleanfootsteps.com. "The Maclean Festival was initially...
The inner life of a writer and how it appears in their works is a mystery as deep and as wide as the canyon of the human spirit. How that grandeur leaves a haunting echo on the page is as curious a notion as is to suppose there is a meaning existing between two things. Namely that this piece of the story reflects or holds a piece of the author in some way, shape, or form. Being able to make those connections is the stuff of literary studies. Timothy Schilling is a master at this, leading us to...
At first I hated fishing tricos. They were too much of a mystery - not much was written about them then and all I knew about them were things I didn't like. They were too small. There were no standard patterns - that I knew about, anyway - so I had to start from scratch. The trout kept sipping them off the surface with maddening regularity for hours every morning. And when the tricos were on, it was useless to fish with anything else. If I wanted to catch these fish, I'd have to learn more...
This long slow process of the Pyramid Mountain Lumber mill shut down is just heartbreaking. Seeley Lake Community Foundation staff got to be a fly-on-the-wall at the Rapid Response hosted by Missoula Job Service in June, to see if there was any way the SLCF could help during this sad time. This meeting at the Community Hall was set up to get Pyramid employees info on next steps as the layoffs occur this summer. At that meeting, several mill employees asked the Job Service to offer their services...
Montana law states that "it is unlawful for any person to permit any noxious weed to propagate or go to seed on the person's land." It further states that "...any person who adheres to the noxious weed management program of the person's weed management district or has entered into and is in compliance with a noxious weed management agreement" is considered to be in compliance. (Montana Code 7-22-2116 (2023)). Legally, a noxious weed is any plant designated by a Federal, State or county...
Thirty five years ago … Thursday Aug. 31, 1989 Back to school at S.L Elementary The Seeley Lake Elementary PTA will be hosting an orientation for new families and a membership drive on the first day of school. Refreshments will be provided and families are invited to stop in the new cafeteria and visit with them. School starts for Seeley Lake Elementary on Tuesday, Sept. 5. Class times are 8:25 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. The school will be participating in the Free and Reduced Lunch Program with hot meals being provided everyday. The cost for the l...
