Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 1838
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...
The Fourth of July came at a perfect time, weather-wise, for the Blackfoot and Clearwater watersheds - just before temperatures were supposed to get into the high-nineties and even hundreds this week. Celebrations across the valleys were a delightful mix of some of the best parts of small town Montana, with elements that catered to locals and visitors alike. Books were available for purchase to support the Swan Valley Community Library, families wore matching outfits and water and popsicles,...
We have been up the Champlain waterways, through the Chambly Canal, down the St. Lawrence River to Montreal, up to Quebec on a train, and now on the Rideau canal, having passed through Ottawa. The foliage is verdant, the sky alternately weeping or dazzlingly blue, the churches ancient and towering, and the towns along the way quainter than quaint. There are a plethora of monster vacation palaces with 200K wake boats along the way, but they don't quite fit the narrative. This adventure is way...
There are days that depth of spirituality looms massively. There are other days that there is just a steady stream of awareness that God is good and present in day-to-day living. As the country song reminds us, “some days a diamond, some days a stone.” Diamonds and stones both have value, it just depends on where you find them and what you do with them. A Christian faith is like that as well. It is stony times that build foundations for us. Try building anything with a diamond but try carrying a foundation stone on your finger. Neither wor...
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...
Leita Elaine Anderson passed away on May 23, 2024 of natural causes in Enterprise, Oregon. Leita was born on April 17, 1932 to William (Babe) and Dorothy Moore Clothier in a log cabin outside of Pablo, Montana, weighing in at less than three pounds. Her mom kept her on an oven door inside a cigar box as there was no such thing as an incubator. She was an only child until she was seven when she was joined with little sister, Dixie, and two years later by little sister, Karen. Since Babe had no...
Forty-foot long cinder block cooking pits lined by piles of cherry, pine and oak wood, folk music in the background, kids flying homemade kites and beef quarters seasoning on kitchen tables mark the beginning of the second annual Old Salt Festival. The festival was the brainchild of Cole Mannix of the Old Salt Co-op in Helena and fifth-generation Montanan from Helmville. Mannix said the Old Salt Festival was designed to bring together local food, local people and agriculture through...
Nearly 90 plant enthusiasts gathered for Prairies to Potholes, the 2024 Native Plant Society annual meeting held at Camp Utmost June 28-30. The meeting was highlighted by 22 workshops and field trips throughout the Blackfoot and Seeley valleys. Trips visited public and private locations from Gold Creek to Browns Lake and north to Clearwater Lake. "This was a remarkable way to see some of the plant and ecosystem variety in the Swan Valley," Susan Ballinger, from Washington, said. "I've been a...
The Northern Region of the Forest Service, based in Missoula, is beginning the process of transferring its ownership of the Condon Work Center due to a backlog of maintenance on the property and associated costs. Swan Valley Connections, a nonprofit focused on conservation and stewardship in the Swan Valley, has an office in the work center and leadership has been encouraged to start searching for a new office space with a tentative deadline to be out of the work center by March 2025. Swan...
