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HELENA — Lawmakers are considering a bill that would make local agencies ask voters for a specific dollar amount of property tax increases on ballot levies rather than rely on mills — a property tax-based increase that can help account for inflation and changes in property values. Local levies are often used for public services like libraries or fire stations. The bill would still allow mills for public schools. Supporters of House Bill 20 told lawmakers in the House Taxation Committee on Tuesday Jan. 7 that the change would stabilize loc...
Thursday Jan. 4, 1990 New S.O.S. doctor begins five-day schedule Dr. Robert (Bob) Nelson, 51, of Great Falls began practicing full time in Seeley Lake at the S.O.S. Health Center this week. This S.O.S. Center had announced in December it had secured a new doctor for the facility after a long search following the retirement of Dr. Schreiber last May. Dr. Nelson has rented a place to live here and will be working on a tentative five-day schedule Monday afternoons through Friday mornings. His...
To ring in 2025, the Pathfinder's looking back on staff-curated "best ofs," or the stories we thought were notable from the past year. We hope you enjoy our selections and that your New Year is off to a great start. Jan. 11, 2024 Lack of snow hurts towns economy By Griffen Smith Jack Frost went missing this December, and local Seeley Lake businesses said the lack of snow has hurt the town's winter sports economy, although there might be relief in sight. The Clearwater, Swan and Blackfoot... Full story
Ruth Ann Moody Maguire passed away peacefully the morning of Nov. 6, 2024 at the age of 81, at her home in Gunnison, Colorado. Born in Tucson in 1943 to Robert J. and Elizabeth M. Moody, Ruth Ann's family soon moved to Yuma, Arizona where her father became the Yuma County Agricultural Extension Agent. In 1948, her family moved to a farm near Somerton, where Ruth spent most of her childhood working with livestock, driving tractor, a nine year 4-H member and riding her horses. A proud graduate of...
The Governess disapproves of the Maid and Bulter's flirtations and she hates Drosselmeyer. She throws her hands up in dismay at Drosselmeyer's arrival and doesn't like his antics during the party. What she does get on board with, though, is the Nutcracker March. After watching the children dance it, she decides the whole crew should try it out. She stands front and center, the Christmas tree displayed behind her, and leads the cast of Garden City Ballet's 40th Nutcracker in the steps. For three...
Standing under western larches, pine trees and Douglas-firs, the first group of University of Montana seniors began their pitch. To finish off the semester, these students - including six groups of about six - ran through their project description: how many trees were in their assigned area, their ideas for removal and retention of different tree species and their plan of action under a December blue sky just north of Placid Lake. "Our objectives for the stand are to build resilience to fire thr...
The Blackfoot Watershed Recreation Planning Workshop held at the Ovando gym Dec. 3 drew 15 participants. This meeting presented a summary from the six community meetings held in Bonner, Potomac, Ovando, Lincoln, Helmville and Seeley Lake in November. Marley Held-Wilson, Blackfoot Challenge recreation coordinator, welcomed everyone and reminded participants of the ridgetop-to-ridgetop concept of management that the Blackfoot Challenge introduced at the community meetings in November. December's m...
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...
Sally Johnson carries bags of donated food as she walks up to the Seeley Swan Community Food Bank. It's a Wednesday, and even though the food bank is closed, that doesn't stop her from taking time out of her day to bring in donations. Johnson spends a lot of time at the food bank as both the volunteer coordinator and as a volunteer, and started volunteering at the food bank after she retired. Johnson appreciates that she has the opportunity to be so involved in the community, though...
Standing in a circle under an afternoon autumn blue sky, big fluffy clouds blocking the view here and there, the students of Swan Valley Elementary School were told to be a tree. More specifically, a model of a tree. Taylor Tewksbury, education program coordinator with Swan Valley Connections, explained that models are examples and scientists use them to understand something without, in a tree's case, needing to chop it down. Students made concentric circles of their classmates and were...
The best educators view their profession as a calling, not a craft, inspire in and out of the classroom, and never really leave the profession, seeing every individual encountered as a potential student. By this measure Jack was among the best of educators, and we were all his students. George Bernard "Jack" Copps, Jr. was born on March 22, 1937 and raised in Rapid City, South Dakota. His parents, Ruth Schmadlewsky Copps and George Bernard Copps, Sr., raised Jack along with his twin sister,...
Kaye A Mahoney, 78, of Casa Grande, Arizona, passed away on Oct. 25, 2024 in the presence of her husband and friends. She was born on Oct. 18, 1947, to Rollan and Dorothy Shaver in Alma, Michigan. Kaye attended Michigan State University and graduated with a Bachelor's in Education. She also earned her Master's in the discipline. She taught in public education for 35 years in Montana. There were many days spent grading papers by hand sitting in her living room. Those that knew her remember her...
With fishing access sites overflowing in the summer, drought pressure on the rivers, more garbage, increased weeds along roadsides and packed eateries, it's obvious there's more traffic in the Blackfoot watershed. Over the past few years the Blackfoot Challenge, a local watershed stewardship nonprofit focused on the Blackfoot River drainage, has been hearing more concerns about and interest in growing recreational pressures in the Blackfoot Valley watershed. Meetings have been held in...
Whoever wins the race for Montana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction in the general election on Nov. 5 — Republican Susie Hedalen or Democrat Shannon O’Brien — they will inherit an office in disarray. A recent legislative audit of the Office of Public Instruction, which the superintendent leads, found more than $67 million in questionable spending of federal education funds, including one school district that used the money to buy massage chairs for the teachers’ lounge. “OPI is kind of in shambles,” said Jessi Bennion, a professor of...
Twenty years ago... Thursday Oct. 28, 2004 Who homesteaded here? Another reason to visit the Seeley Lake Museum Have you ever wondered who homesteaded the property where you live? Have you ever wondered if any of your family namesakes homesteaded in the valley? Now you can find out. The Seeley Lake Historical Society has a listing of all the people who successfully homesteaded in the Clearwater Valley. A project entitled “Who Homesteaded Here?” was completed with a grant from the Hansen Endowment Committee through the Wilderness Institute at...
With political polarization strengthening across the country, even the races far down on Montana’s ballot are feeling the heat of identity politics. The state auditor is arguably the lowest-ballot race there is, but the position is responsible for supervising the state’s insurance and securities industries and investigating fraud. Two years ago, Republican Jim Brown mounted a campaign for the state Supreme Court, trying to secure a spot on the high court by stressing his support from Republicans. That race ended in Supreme Court justice Ingrid...
On a sunny September afternoon in Butte, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester stood in a small room in a brick building and rallied a group of volunteers by casting his opponent, Republican businessman and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, as a wealthy transplant out of touch with local values. “He doesn’t know Montana, and that’s the problem,” Tester told the crowd. “He doesn’t know Butte, America, and that’s the problem. He doesn’t know the labor movement started here, and that’s the problem. He doesn’t understand people had to work their butts off to...
Andre Kodiak Sainsbury, age 24, died on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in a car accident near Wisdom, Montana. Andre was born in Belarus on May 29, 2000. His original name was Andrei Viktorovich Azarov and his parents were deprived of parental rights when he was two. He spent time in a hospital being treated for rickets, then lived in an orphanage for six months. He was adopted by Lynn Sainsbury in September 2003. They lived in Potomac for two years where he learned the important skills of tricycle...
Steve Lamar has only lived in these parts for 48 years. I asked him if he was a rich out-of-stater who doesn't understand our Montana values. He assured me he isn't running for political office. Perhaps you have heard of the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park, the Lamar River or Lamar Mountain. An ancestor of Steve's was head of the Interior Department under Grover Cleveland. An army friend of Mr. Lamar was sent to the Yellowstone area to survey it and was given the responsibility of...
Whoever said "dyeing is easy" has never tried it. Twenty women took on the challenge to learn the process at the Nature of Art Workshops sponsored by Alpine Artisans on Saturday, Sept. 20-21 in Seeley Lake. The workshop convened for the second year to offer experimentation with new techniques in eco-printing as taught by Crystal McCallie, University of Montana textile art instructor. In the end, they turned the paper and fabric they had dyed into a lovely handmade book. Following the dying...
Many Americans express concern about how the political system is or is not working, but Montana voters will get a chance to change up the way elections are run in a way supporters hope will benefit more moderate candidates. The changes are included in two separate constitutional amendments, CI-126 and CI-127, on this fall’s ballot. CI-126 would amend the Montana Constitution to change the voting process to a “top four” primary election. This means that all candidates regardless of political party would appear on the primary ballot and the t...
Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Montanans will vote on whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. Constitutional Initiative 128, advanced by a group called Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, would create a new section of the Montanan Constitution establishing “a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion.” The initiative would allow the government to regulate abortion after fetal viability, except in cases when the mother’s health...
Scientists along backroads in the Blackfoot Valley have been seen holding up radio telemetry antennas. Instead of tuning into their favorite station, they could be dialing in a sharp-tailed grouse, part of a massive reintroduction plan. Sharp-tailed grouse were once the most abundant grassland bird in western Montana, as they are east of the Continental Divide today. For unknown reasons, the flocks began declining in the 1940s and the last known sharp-tailed grouse sighting in western Montana...
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...
Thirty five years ago ... Thursday Sept. 14, 1989 McNeely is new pastor at Blackfoot Parish The Blackfoot Parish voted this past Sunday to call Richard I. McNeely to be its new pastor. He will assume pastoral duties the first of October and will reside in the Parish Manse on Riverview Drive in Seeley Lake. Most recently, Rev. McNeely has been the interim pastor of the Libby Presbyterian Church, and prior to that served as an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Missoula. He has been active in the work of Glacier Presbytery, having served...
