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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... Full story
On school day mornings, roving rural speech language pathologist Yolie Bodie Jandreau hops into a car well stocked with a colorful array of games, toys, picture books and craft supplies and, depending on the day of the week, motors off to either Swan Valley Elementary School in Condon, Seeley Lake Elementary School, Greenough's Sunset School, or Potomac Elementary School. Depending on the weather and destination, the journey can take upwards of an hour, or a mere five minutes. (As a Potomac...
Two years ago, a Utah ski corporation and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) announced a plan to highly develop the rustic Holland Lake Lodge on public land in Condon in the rural Swan Valley. The ski corporation, POWDR, and USFS touched off a blistering public debate about the future not only of the small town and relatively wild valley, but a discussion about the future of Montana and the high-dollar outside influences changing the Big Sky State’s property, social and natural values. Skip ahead two years, and the situation has only become more c...
A free developmental and preschool screening clinic for children ages zero to five for Seeley Lake and Swan Valley School Districts will be held on Oct. 22, 2024, 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. at the Seeley Lake Elementary School. This free screening will include gross motor, fine motor, language concepts, communication concepts, communication skills, hearing and vision screening. Please call (406) 677-2265 to schedule an appointment for your child’s screening or to receive more information....
A Condon resident was severely injured after wind storms with speeds up to 70 mph swept through the Seeley-Swan valley on Aug. 23. Chris Soelter, who is a construction worker in the valley, received a call from a local business in Seeley Lake. The business had some roof damage after the storm and Chris and his son, Brandon, were leaving Chris's home in Condon to get to the job on the day of the storm. Brandon left the house a few seconds before Chris, according to Chris's brother, Mike, and...
Two avenues of purchasing Holland Lake Lodge were presented on Sept. 3 in Condon to a crowd gathered at the Swan Valley Community Center. Private equity investors Eric Jacobsen and Thomas Knowles introduced themselves and their intentions to those gathered, and a new nonprofit based in Condon announced its own plan to purchase the property. Jacobsen and Knowles have issued a letter of intent to purchase the assets of Holland Lake Lodge LLC and the liquor license, the property currently 80%...
The community of Seeley Lake is no stranger to long power outages. Fortunately, there are many resources available in town for when the power goes out. Cory's Valley Market is located right across from a substation. This location means the business has power as long as the substation has power. It sometimes has power when a lot of Seeley Lake doesn't, which was the case after the long power outage that resulted from the wind storm on Aug. 23. "We try to stay open if we can," says Cory Thompson,...
In recent weeks we’ve noticed that political yard signs for some candidates have come up missing. We have seen Democrats’ signs removed, yet most of the Republican signs are still standing. Upon further investigation, some were mangled and thrown into the brush, others were stolen off of private property by trespassers. Some people don’t like seeing political signs put up but they do play a role in helping voters know who is running for office. The signs lend a sense of seriousness to the campaign. If a candidate is willing to spend money for s...
Twenty years ago ... Thursday Sept. 16, 2004 Bridge Construction Temporarily Closes Two Swan Valley Roads A portion of Forest Road #561, Kraft Creek and the Red Butte Creek Road #9576, south west of Condon, MT, will close for a month while crews replace two culverts with bridges. The Kraft Creek Road will be closed about six miles from state Hwy. 83, September 27 through October 29. The Red Butte Creek Road will be closed at the junction with the Kraft Creek Road, about 6 miles from Hwy. 83, September 20 through October 29. Visitors won’t be ab...
Karen Dove's hands shake when she starts talking about what it takes to keep a rural pharmacy open. Each day, she orders drugs customers need at the Seeley Swan Pharmacy. She pays for the drugs before she gets reimbursed and before a customer uses insurance to compensate for what it doesn't pay. Dove doesn't get repaid the full cost of the drug, though, and has to choose an amount she's going to sell a drug on which she's willing to lose. Dove spends money when she's buying drugs and loses it...
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Park bear specialists are in charge of collaring a certain number of bears for research purposes. In 2016, a male grizzly nicknamed Walking Bear was captured and collared northeast of Ovando. This month that same bear was implicated in the deaths of four calves on summer pasture northeast of Ovando. Grizzly populations have been increasing in Montana over the years and the effort to delist the bears from the endangered species list has gone in and out of court...
I've been back in the Swan Valley for a little over a week now, having parked the boat in Pasadena, Maryland and prepared it for sale. Naturally, the boat market has completely tanked, with everyone trying to get rid of that impulse-buy boat from the pandemic. We have the preternatural ability to find the bottom of any market when we have something to sell. Our quick response unit in Condon had six medical calls the first four days I was back. The members suggested that I take my black cloud...
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...
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...
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...
On Sunday, Aug. 4, my husband and I were in a serious accident on Highway 83 north of Seeley Lake. We were towing a fifth wheel and a boat, both which will probably be totaled. Needless to say, we were unbelievably fortunate to not have been injured. We want to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank everyone who helped us, especially the Swan Valley emergency response team, Missoula highway patrol and Missoula County sheriff. We especially want to thank Bob and Ben at Clearwater Towing, who were exceptional at clearing up the huge...
Throughout the years, the Forest Service has had a lasting impact on the landscape and culture of the upper Swan Valley. Many residents were employed by the Forest Service from the local teenagers on the YACC (Young Adult Conservation Corps) crews, to the seasonal trail crews, fire crews, planting crews, spraying crews, building crews, fire lookouts, to the full-time employees. The Condon Work Center has remained an important part of the fabric of the community. When the Forest Service decided...
Alpine Artisans would like to give a big shout out of thanks to the Seeley-Swan and Blackfoot Valley communities for making our 24th Loon and Fish Festival a big success! Why do we call it a success? We rely on the sales of raffle tickets to fund our ambitious Youth Grant and Scholarship Fund, which awarded over $5,000 in grants to seven youth grant recipients and three senior scholarship winners in the last year. Next year will be even better. Your support of the raffle this year set a record in sales, enlarging our budget for these youth...
Fifty years ago, a new law significantly altered the landscape of wildlife conservation in the U.S. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) turned 50 on Dec. 28, 2023, providing an opportunity to reflect on its lasting impacts for species of all kinds, including grizzlies. After two centuries of willful persecution of wildlife in North America, the ESA formalized into our federal structures a counterforce of conservation. Environmental historian Dan Flores, who gave a webinar for Vital Ground last...
SUMEMR SALES ON PACE WITH PREVIOUS YEAR Following four years of a dramatic covid-19 real estate market that saw rapid price appreciation, very limited inventory and multiple offers on many properties, the past two years have seen sales in the local market stabilizing. Locally, we are coming off a real estate run with virtually no inventory, to an increasing inventory. Nationally, active home inventory for sale is 22% higher than it was this same time last year. Properties with unique aspects like creek front, bordering forest service, mountain...
A couple hours before a thunderstorm with hurricane level winds crashed through Missoula County on the evening of July 24, the Missoula National Weather Service posted an update on its Facebook page about a cluster of thunderstorms moving northeast through north-central Idaho with winds that have historically hit 50 to 60 miles per hour. The post instructed readers to secure outdoor items before the storms arrived, and was just about spot on with the time estimate - 9 p.m. Wind speeds of 81 mph...
Close to 15 years ago, Condon residents were ready to get out of Missoula County. A Missoulian article from 2009 highlighted the Swan Valley Preservation Group, then led by Ken Donovan, which hoped to join Lake County, looking for less regulation and less taxes paid for things the group felt were never realized an hour and a half away from the city of Missoula. Quite a bit earlier, during the first Constitutional Convention for the state of Montana in 1889, convention delegate Martin Maginnis from Lewis and Clark County yearned for a state of...
The Seeley Lake area is no stranger to wildfire and smoke. Both are a seasonal hazard here and can be unpredictable. We never know exactly where a lightning bolt will strike or a campfire will be left to wander, and often the smoke filling our valley comes from hundreds of miles away - beyond our control and reach. While there is a lot about wildfires that we individually cannot control, we can work to be prepared for the inevitability of their occurrence and effects. We know that it is not a...
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...
