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Oral histories provide us with wonderful experiences from the past with those who actually lived them. Arnold “Smoke” Elser’s memoir, Hush of the Land, covers six decades of his life as an outfitter and a passionate champion of the wilderness. It’s a well-crafted look back, built upon hundreds of hours of interviews. Elser, and his co-author, Eva-Marie Maggie, will present this memoir on Saturday, Dec. 7, at 2 p.m. at the Seeley Lake Foundation Building as part of Alpine Artisans’ Open Book Club. Free. Everyone is welcome. Early on, Smoke kne...
To commemorate the end of an era, the Pathfinder went back through the archives to find mentions of Pyramid Mountain Lumber all the way back to 1983 when the paper was published as The Valley Times. There aren't instances from each year since, mainly because we'd run out of space, and also because one gets the general gist from the compiled remarks. A main refrain after the announced closure of Pyramid Mountain Lumber on March 14 of this year was that it was the glue that held Seeley Lake...
The Clearwater Resource Council hosted a day-long conference on Sept. 6 focused on watershed hydrology, how water moves throughout the Clearwater Basin, the potential for it to pick up pollutants and how septic systems can play into those processes. Other topics included presentations on invasive fragrant water lilies and shoreline conservation. Experts emphasized the connectedness of the watershed. Karen Williams, aquatics director with the Clearwater Resource Council, said while much of the...
Sept. 29, 2024, marks five years since Frank Bonde passed on at the age of 90. Frank was born and raised in Pleasanton, California. Growing up in a farming family, he learned the importance of hard work and instilled those values in all that knew him. They say that when you have more years behind you than ahead of you, you begin to think differently and slow down. But that is when life really kicked into gear for Frank. And gears are something he knew a great deal about, having earned a living...
Edward E. "Jack" Hooker, at age 93 of Ovando Montana, passed away at home on Montana Mountain View Ranch. A celebration of life will be held on August 24, 2024 at 1 p.m. at Bill and Dena Hooker's residence in Ovando, Montana. Jack was born in Hermiston, Oregon on November 19, 1930. At age six he worked with his uncle, LaVern, learning to ride and break horses for surrounding ranchers. This started his passion for working with horses, which lasted his entire life. He would take a "troubled"...
Thirty-five years ago... Thursday June 1, 1989 Montana Senators seek compensation for forest fire losses Montana Senators Max Baucus and Conrad Burns are seeking $10 million in compensation for property losses from wildfires originating in Yellowstone National Park or National Forests in Montana and Wyoming. In a letter sent recently by Baucus, Burns and Wyoming Senators Malcome Wallop and Alan Simpson to Senator Robert Byrd, Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Department of the Interior, the...
While researching the history of the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area (Game Range), local nonprofit Protect the Clearwater (PTC) found an article written by Jay Kolbe in 2007. Kolbe was the Wildlife Management Area Manager and Wildlife Biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) for the area at that time. PTC feels this article highlights the critical role the Game Range plays and is worth reprinting. When the Clearwater Resource Council met this summer to identify some of...
The Montana Wildlife Federation is saddened by the closure of the Pyramid Mountain Lumber mill in Seeley Lake and the loss of close to 100 jobs in the Seeley Lake area. For over 70 years, Pyramid Lumber has been an important contributing member of the community of Seeley Lake. The owners and employees of the mill supported conservation efforts such as expanding protections in areas adjacent to the Bob Marshall Wilderness and the Mission Mountains Wilderness. The family-owned mill allowed community members to live locally, raise their children...
A version of this article was first published in Mountain Journal, a digital magazine covering wildlife and wild lands in Greater Yellowstone. Arnold "Smoke" Elser is a storyteller, but he's not a big reader. In his office, tucked into a faded red barn built around 1900 in Missoula, Montana, an entire wall of shelves contains binders and books on wilderness policy and regulations. They're more work than pleasure for Elser; he waves them off with an air of modesty. It's the mules strolling by...
In 1987, the Seeley Lake Writers Club started a project that two years later — in time for Montana's Centennial — was published as the book "Cabin Fever." This remains the best compilation of articles and interviews of the first 100 years of the Seeley Lake area. One of the key figures in the writers group was Mildred Chaffin. We have read many of the fascinating stories she wrote, but her own life makes for quite a story as well! Mildred was born in Evaro in 1908, back when Evaro seemed to be even more remote from Missoula than it is tod...
After seven years as its leader, Rebecca Ramsey is stepping down as the executive director of Swan Valley Connections, a nonprofit in the Swan Valley dedicated to conservation and education. The executive director position will be broken into thirds, welcoming Luke Lamar, Sara Lamar and Ty Tyler into leadership roles focused on different elements of the executive director position, like conservation, operations, education, board management and fundraising. The Pathfinder reached out to the...
HELENA – January 2, 2024 – Starting this month, the Forest Service is accepting comments on reauthorization of existing outfitter and guide permits for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. “We are working with a team of specialists from the Helena-Lewis and Clark, Lolo and Flathead national forests to evaluate and reauthorize permits that are set to expire in April 2025,” said Rocky Mountain District Ranger Mike Muñoz. “Outfitters and guides help connect people with their public lands and we are looking for comments from the public that voice...
Well-known author and forester Bud Moore began trapping at the age of fourteen and spent several winters in the 1930s running trap lines in the Lochsa backcountry. After working over 40 years with the US Forest Service, he retired in 1974. Anxious to get back to his roots and the land, he and his wife Janet moved to Swan Valley where they managed their 80-acre Coyote Forest. Later, he wrote the book, The Lochsa Story: Land Ethics in the Bitterroot Mountains. Beginning in 1983 at the age of 66, he spent a couple of winters living out of a tent...
A new project from the Flathead National Forest would do fuel reduction, logging and road management work on roughly 6,000 acres in the southeast area of the district, which officials said would help limit dangerous wildfires and increase forest health. The project stretches from the southern edge of the Flathead National Forest to Rumble Creek, with Highway 83 and the Bob Marshall Wilderness bordering the western and eastern sides. The area would also include Holland Lake and Upper Holland...
Both Montana Senators passed their separate public lands bills from a committee in the Senate, opening both bills up to a final vote as the federal government debates a potential shutdown. Sen. Jon Tester passed the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA) out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, while Sen. Steve Daines passed the Montana Sportsmen Conservation Act out of the same committee. The Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act would reclassify roughly 79,000 acres near...
Both Montana Senators passed their separate public lands bills from a committee in the Senate, opening both bills up to a final vote as the federal government debates a potential shutdown. Sen. Jon Tester passed the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA) out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, while Sen. Steve Daines passed the Montana Sportsmen Conservation Act out of the same committee. The Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act would reclassify roughly 79,000 acres near...
Twenty Years Ago Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003 Theatre camp tucked away on other side of Salmon Lake offers fun time Tucked away on the other side of Salmon Lake, there's a camp that allows kids to laugh, play, learn and be creative - It's called Aunt Kat's Theatre Camp. Kathleen Vosburgh (Aunt Kat) and her husband, bought the cabins and 10 acres on Salmon that fulfilled Aunt Kat's dream to provide kids with a safe, natural outdoor setting to write, create backdrops and act in their own play. This...
An inventory of lands and rivers on Forest Service ground that may be suitable for recommendation as Wilderness or Wild and Scenic River status in the Lolo National Forest Plan Revision is underway. “The initial Wilderness inventory looks at all the lands on the Lolo that might meet some of the basic criteria for consideration,” said Amanda Milburn, of the Lolo National Forest Revision Team. “The inventory doesn’t speculate whether any of this would be good, bad or indifferent as a wildern...
Lolo National Forest have opened for public comment this month. The Wild and Scenic Rivers draft, and the Outstanding Remarkable Values Framework and Wilderness Inventory Draft are open for comment until May 16, 2023. "The Lolo National Forest Plan is about issues that are important to people," said Carolyn Upton, Lolo National Forest Supervisor. "We're interested in hearing from forest users about how they see the future of both the forest and the uses of the forest and about issues that are...
Time to act! Update on the current situation regarding the purchase of Holland Lake Lodge, Swan Valley by POWDR Corporation proposing a destination resort. A critical and crucial US Forest Service decision on this public land use is about to be made. What can you do? Be bothered! Be upset! Be vocal! Reminder! Swan Valley, Montana is a small community situated in the middle of public lands and two wilderness areas. Over the past 40 years, there has been extensive work by property owners, timber companies, conservation groups and the USFS to...
On Monday, November 28, 2022, David Owen, loving husband, and father of four children, passed away at the age of 92. David was born in Madison, Wisconsin in March of 1930 to Gaylord and Frieda Owen. He grew up in Wisconsin and developed a lifelong love of the outdoors, including hunting, fishing, working, and playing football on the high school team. Following graduation, Dave spent a year in the army and then moved to Montana, earning his Airborne wings as a reservist, and, shortly afterward,...
In celebration of 36 years of the Seeley Swan Pathfinder, we will run parts of articles that appeared in the issue 35 years ago and 20 years ago. The entire issue will be uploaded to our website seeleylake.com for you to enjoy. 35 years ago... Alone in the Bob by Mildred Chaffin The hunting season was drawing to a close. Our helper had found other fields of interest, so I had gotten promoted. I was not chief camp guard! On the last trip that season, we were scheduled to outfit two hunters from M...
Seeley Lake - Barbara Ann Messerly Cebulski, 91, died on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022, at her home in Seeley Lake. She was born on July 8, 1931, the first of 10 born at the family ranch house on Beaver Creek, near Zortman, to Pete Messerly and Fannie Shurlock Messerly. Barbara rode her horse from the ranch to Beaver Creek School through the eighth grade and then moved to Malta to attend high school, graduating in May, 1949. Barbara was a proud member of the Assiniboine Indian Tribe. In the spring of...
From Save Holland Lake An ad-hoc coalition of citizens called Save Holland Lake says nearly 99 percent of public comments to the U.S. Forest Service opposes a massive development proposed by a Utah ski developer on public land at pristine Holland Lake. The Flathead National Forest received just more than 6,500 public comments on the Forest Service and ski developer POWDR's proposal to triple the size of the Holland Lake Lodge in western Montana's rural Seeley-Swan Valley, and about 99 percent...
Supports Tranel In my years as a wilderness advocate, I’ve come to profoundly appreciate the values we derive from the public lands around us. There are, of course, the products and incomes provided by drilling, mining, logging, and grazing. But more important than such commercial uses are the benefits we all freely enjoy: the opportunity to hunt and fish, the protection of watersheds and stabilization of climate, and the preservation of an untrammeled natural world. But we can’t assume public lands will always be here. The development pre...
