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Thirty-five years ago ... Thursday Aug. 10, 1989 Willy Bill's founder in retirement The kitchen smelled of homemade rolls, grandchildren were running in and out, chattering and laughing. Several adults stopped by for a short chat. This kind of day is becoming typical for Bill and Ardyce Gehrke, retired after 18 years at Willy Bill's ChainSaw Business. And the Gehrkes are enjoying their family and retirement. Twenty-one years ago the Gehrke's and their six children moved to Seeley Lake from...
Alpine Artisans' Loon and Fish Festival returns for our 24th year on Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday, July 19-21 in downtown Seeley Lake. The festival is a celebration of art and nature in the Seeley-Swan and Blackfoot Valleys highlighted by a community art show and sale featuring the work of over 25 local artists from the Seeley-Swan and Blackfoot Valleys. Held in the Foundation Building in Seeley Lake, the show features marquetry woodwork, jewelry, paintings (all media), copper bowls, b...
Rain and cold did not dampen the enthusiasm of the youth attendees at the first Swan Valley Youth Outdoor Education Rendezvous (YOER), held on Saturday, June 15. Fifty youth ages eight through 18 attended outdoor workshops designed to provide wilderness learning experiences. Children came from as far as Creston, Seeley Lake and other communities in between to join Condon youth in this special experiential event. The Swan Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) in Condon hosted the event at the...
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"...
In the first biography of one of Montana's most celebrated writers, journalist Rebecca McCarthy presents a detailed and intimate portrait of Norman Maclean's life and work. Alpine Artisans' Open Book Club and the Seeley Lake Historical Society are co-sponsoring McCarthy reading from her biography on Thursday, June 6 at the Seeley Lake Foundation Building at 7 p.m. Visit the historical museum's Maclean display that same day from 10:00 am until 6:30 pm to see their collection of Maclean...
Spring is in full swing. We’ve got plenty of books on gardening and venturing outdoors. New titles in both fiction and nonfiction are arriving this month. Now is the perfect time — with road construction season also in full swing — to check out a new book to have on hand as you wait at the stoplight around Salmon Lake. A local patron has donated various materials on brain injuries and brain health. Due to their own injury and subsequent experience of people not understanding, the patron did t...
Have you ever been driving Highway 83 and noticed the surface of Salmon Lake rippling with rising fish? It's likely what you were seeing weren't trout, but rather the landlocked version of sockeye salmon called kokanee. These mini salmon have been stocked in the Clearwater chain of lakes for over half a century by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to provide recreational fishing opportunities. The story of the Clearwater kokanee is interesting and involves biology, laboratory science and most impor...
It’s been a few years since I deliberately fished for winter whitefish. The last time, I joined some friends at a café in Darby for a late breakfast. The object was to fuel ourselves up with enough calories to withstand a chilly afternoon on the river, where we planned to catch a mess of whitefish. After that, the plan was to cook a few for an early dinner according to one of Mike’s all-time-great whitefish recipes (he’s a great cook) and if enough were left over, to smoke them. Who would do the smoking was uncertain. Both Jim and Mike are gr...
This month’s Book Club pick is Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West. Swing by the library for a copy. The book club meets in the library the first Thursday of each month at 11:00 a.m. Next gathering is March 7. Your local Seeley Lake Public Library has added these new titles to the Montana Collection. For our quilters: Border to Border: Quilts and Quiltmakers of Montana. The quilts chronicle Montana's history over the last 150 years, tel...
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...
Two snowmobilers got stuck off trail above Marshall Lake on the evening of Jan. 13, prompting Seeley Swan Search and Rescue and Two Bear Air to extract them amid extremely cold temperatures. Seeley Swan Search and Rescue Chief Ken Brochu said the team got a call at around 5 p.m. that the snowmobilers were stranded. The temperature stood at negative 20 degrees, with wind chill of negative 35. That did not stop responders, as four members of search and rescue, Karl Zurmuehlan and an employee from Kra-Z Sports Rentals ascended the mountains with...
Alvin looked like he could have stepped out of an old-country Weiner schnitzel or biergarten commercial: rotund body, big features, big frame, distinctly Germanic features set in a jolly countenance, and big strong workingman's hands with calloused fingers the size of bratwursts. He wanted to learn how to tie flies. He enrolled in a course I was teaching. He was the nicest guy in the world, and we became good friends, but my first thought going in was that it would be a challenge for him to...
In a way I felt sorry for the guy and in another, thought he got what he deserved. The incident happened in a small café in Macdoel, California, a small town in northern California below the Oregon border, north of Mount Shasta, near the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath National Wildlife Preserves. At times it seems that every migratory waterfowl bird on the Pacific flyway would headquarter on the 90,000 acres of marshland on these preserves. On a series of crisp early winter mornings before first...
Matthew Eric Raimondi, 56 of Seeley Lake, Montana, was fatally injured on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at Pyramid Mountain Lumber while working as a millwright. His death was pronounced in the early morning hours Sept. 13. Matthew was born in Dayton, Ohio, at Miami Valley Hospital on Feb. 23, 1967 to Ennio Joseph Raimondi and Joan Therese Erickson. He was also joined by his big brother David. He was a chubby baby with a double chin and was cheerful and fun loving from the start. Little did David know how... Full story
Twenty Years Ago... Thursday, August 14, 2003 Wildlife well adapted to Montana Firestorms By Mike Thompson Hi, I'm NOT Johnny Cash, but we who live in Missoula are in a ring of fire this week. I've already fielded several questions from folks wondering how wildlife survives these live events. So, before you become weary of reading about fires this season, I thought I would offer a little information on the subject from the scientific literature. Back in 1988, when the Canyon Creek fire was...
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte visited firefighters and got a bird's eye view of the Colt Fire on Aug. 2. Gianforte landed at the Seeley Lake Airport on Wednesday afternoon, and quickly changed into a jumpsuit to fly off towards the Colt Fire. The Colt Fire is roughly 6,800 acres with 19% containment. Gianforte said the Colt Fire was the number one priority in Montana. While there was good news to report - evacuations for local residents have been lifted - fire managers and Gianforte said there is...
The Colt Fire went from 15 acres Wednesday morning to the largest in Montana by Friday night, burning heavy fuels and encroaching into private land. The strike was started by lightning on July 17. Firefighters from the Forest Service and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conversation did initial attack on the blaze, holding it to dead lodgepole stands and limited tree torching. After two days of smoking out heavy dead and downed lodgepole pines, the fire took off on Thursday, quick...
The theme of the annual Loon and Fish Festival hinges on its artists, and this year brought one of a kind items and old favorites to the Seeley Lake Foundation Building. The two day festival on July 21 and 22 brought scores of residents and visitors to look at and buy art, hear from a loon expert and get versed on all things fishing. The festival is sponsored by Alpine Artisans and use the profits raised by the art and ice cream sales to fund student scholarships. "It's a huge thing for artists...
The fire stood at 2,927 acres Sunday night, a figure that likely exploded on Monday, July 24, after a dry cold front brought dry winds to fan the flames in all directions. A red flag warning for critical fire weather will be in effect until midnight on Monday. Wind gusts could reach 30 m.p.h Monday night, adding power to the fire. Containment lines have been pressures, with radio dispatch reporting spot fires along the south side of Colt Creek Road. Air support is currently grounded with the...
(Update: 7 a.m. July 24) Infrared scans of the Colt Fire showed the burn at 2,927 acres late Sunday night, with much of the new growth burning to the south. The fire still stands at 0% containment, and could make large gains on Monday as critical fire weather enters the area. The fire has started to approach the West Fork of the Clearwater River near Lake Alva, and Colt Creek Road. Fire managers said in an update on Sunday that crews are building a fire line on Colt Creek Road and Beaver Lake... Full story
Jace Tyler Layman, age 20, passed away Thursday, June 22, 2023, due to an undetermined medical emergency while working for the Padlock Ranch in Sheridan County, Wyoming. Jace was born Jan. 2, 2003, in Missoula, Montana to his parents Heather and Justin, joining his older sister, Kiley. Jace was raised in Seeley Lake, Montana, until age 11, when the family moved to Havre, Montana. In 2017, the family moved back to Seeley Lake where Jace graduated from Seeley-Swan High School in June of 2020. At...
The Seeley Lake Fourth of July activities will have most — if not all of the activities in previous years. This year under the Seeley Historical Society, a flyover by the Montana Air National Guard will be one of the many treats for visitors and residents alike. “We’re thinking that everything here we have done at some point in the past, I was worried a couple months ago though,” said Tom Browder, the chair of the historical society and Fourth planner. “Nice thing about Seeley is you just go to people and they will help out.” With the Seeley...
Jace Tyler Layman, age 20, passed away Thursday, June 22, 2023, due to an undetermined medical emergency while working for the Padlock Ranch in Sheridan County, Wyoming. Jace was born January 2, 2003, in Missoula, Montana to his parents Heather & Justin, joining his older sister, Kiley. Jace was raised in Seeley Lake, Montana, until age 11, when the family moved to Havre, Montana. In 2017, the family moved back to Seeley Lake where Jace graduated from Seeley-Swan High School in June of 2020. At a young age, Jace enjoyed the outdoors. He...
Susan Monahan I have lived in Seeley Lake since 2019, came to Montana from Eastern Oregon in December 1989 for a job. This is my first time running for a public board in Seeley Lake, but I have served on the Kalispell Pee Wee Baseball Board and Libby School Board. My husband, Quinn Carver, is the Seeley Lake District Ranger. His job brought us to Seeley Lake. I enjoy being outdoors, kayaking, walking/hiking and reading. Experience: I have experience with collections, reading and creating... Full story
George N. McCabe was born on December 25, 1930, in Great Falls, MT to George N. McCabe, Sr. and Helen Florence O'Day McCabe. He was raised in Cut Bank, MT. He was an accomplished musician, playing the trumpet and saxophone. He played in the high school band. On weekends, he played in Cut Bank dinner clubs with his own band. He graduated high school as the Valedictorian in 1949. After graduating, George attended Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA. He was a member of the Army ROTC. After 3 years... Full story
