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One thing was clear from the results of a survey sent out to Seeley Lake residents from the Seeley-Swan Hospital District — not everyone is totally clear on what’s offered at the local medical center. Even from a fairly basic level, the perception that it is a hospital and provides urgent care services was fairly widespread, which is not the case. “The Seeley-Swan Hospital District is not a hospital. We are a mission-driven board that oversees the facility and partners with Partnership Health Center, who provides primary care and other healt...
Trying to make use of remaining federal money, the Missoula County Public Works Department is submitting for three more grants to address various deteriorating bridges in the county. After an unsuccessful submission for a Bridge Investment Program grant, or BIP grant, in March, which would have funded the replacement of Boy Scout Road (Seeley Lake), Glacier Creek (Condon) and Sunset Hill Road (Greenough) Bridges, Shane Stack, public works department director, said the department is planning on resubmitting for the grant next year and using...
Nearing the end of his 18-state book tour to introduce "Becoming Little Shell, A Landless Indian's Journey Home," Chris La Tray, Métis author and Montana Poet Laureate, presented his new book at the Alpine Artisans Open Book Club on Nov. 9 at the Swan Valley Community Center. La Tray read from his new book, shared poetry and answered questions from the crowd. The book tells the story of La Tray's growing up around Huson and discovery of being Chippewa, and the history therewithin. While growing...
In last week’s first installment of the Pathfinder’s “winterizing” column, we shared pro-tips from locals for protecting homes, hearths and energy bills in the Seeley-Swan. Now, let’s venture to the place many Montanans care about most — outdoors — and discuss ways to winterize lawns, plants, chicken coops, livestock and more. Because as they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 1. Guard your gutters. When snowmelt can’t drain through your gutters, it turns to ice dams, which will wreak havoc on your roof (which you’ll a...
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...
A free Developmental and Preschool Screening Clinic for children ages 0 to 5 for Potomac and Sunset School Districts will be held on Jan. 16, 2025, 12:30 p.m. – 3 p.m. at Potomac Elementary School. This free screening will include gross motor, fine motor, language concepts, communication concepts, communication skills, hearing and vision screening. Please call to schedule an appointment for your child’s screening or to receive more information. (406) 244-5581...
If anything says “community spirit” it’s a $2,000 bid for one dozen phantom eggs. Traditionally Norma Hughes, 95-year-old Ovando resident, has brought two dozen eggs to the Ovando Harvest Dinner. The eggs are a high seller, earning $1,700 in 2023 to support the Ovando Sew and So club in its community projects. This year’s auction on Nov. 8 was a little different as a fox got into Hughes’ chicken house recently and killed all but two hens. Hughes sent a note to the Harvest Dinner explainin...
Thirty five years ago... Thursday Nov. 16, 1989 Winter woods invite skiers We woke up to find six inches of snow on the ground Monday morning, and a blizzard brewing in the northern skies. We couldn’t wait to pull on our boots and venture outdoors. Standing in the gray air, we heard the wild geese honk above us. The day before we had watched a pair of swans gliding south. At first we thought they were geese, but then we saw the long necks reaching toward the winter sun. Their powerful wings carried them above the trees. The calls of the w...
It started with the "Eagle Army" teaching the crowd how to do the wave. Then, Seeley Lake Elementary School students had the chance to compete in a bottle flipping contest with deputies from the Missoula County Sheriff's Office. The contest was followed by a helmet safety presentation during the afternoon assembly at the gym on Nov. 7. The presentation was hosted by the sheriff's office and the Brain Injury Alliance of Montana (BIAMT). BIAMT, a nonprofit organization dedicated to brain injury...
The Seeley Lake Water District Board voted to approve a rate increase to users’ monthly water fees. This increase is needed to balance the nonprofit water district’s budget after Pyramid Mountain Lumber, the district’s largest user, shuts down and stops using water. Vincent Chappell, Seeley Lake Water District manager, said when the mill does finally shut down the district will lose about $55,000 each year. “Unfortunately we have to find a way to make up that deficit and the only way to do that is to raise rates to other customers,” Chappell...
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...
Nonprofit organizations are invited to submit grant proposals to the Seeley Lake Community Foundation for 2025 projects. The SLCF awards grants of up to $3,000 for projects to benefit the area of Seeley Lake. Applications are due Jan. 31 each year and grant award decisions are made by early March. The Seeley Lake Community Foundation helps local groups fund important community projects in the areas of: art and culture, community and economic development, basic human needs, education and natural resources and conservation. In this capacity, the...
The Blackfoot Challenge has long hosted international groups to the Blackfoot Valley. Through a cultural exchange grant, a team of seven Blackfoot Challenge staff and a former Natural Resources Conservation Science Powell County District Conservationist were able to travel to Slovenia and Croatia in October to meet with colleagues with no expenses paid by the Challenge. "We have hosted groups from many parts of the world here in the Blackfoot," Randy Gazda, Blackfoot Challenge vice-chairman,...
A change in global atmospheric circulation that affects weather around the world, La Niña is a cyclic weather phenomenon marked by wetter-than-average conditions. And according to predictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), she’ll make her presence known throughout the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies from December through February, which means denizens of the Seeley-Swan and Potomac Valleys will want to be extra scrupulous about safeguarding their homes, hearths and energy bills from the ravages of Ol...
A grizzly bear was killed by a hunter on Saturday, Nov. 2 after an encounter south of Placid Lake in the Seeley-Swan Valley. The hunter reported the bear charging him at close distance, and he then shot and killed the bear. The hunter was not injured in the encounter. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens responded and confirmed the mortality of the adult male bear. No further management action by FWP is planned. This incident is still under investigation by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), who also assisted with the response. Be...
Thirty five years ago... Thursday Nov. 9, 1989 Gun range combined with multiple-use trailhead facility now ready for site plans At the November meeting of the Wilderness Sportsman's Club, the board of directors agreed to contact an architectural firm to draw up site plans for a shooting range and multiple-use facility at Seeley Lake. The WSC, in partnership with the Forest Service, is firming up plans for a new snowmobile/cross-country skiing trailhead in conjunction with a long awaited gun rang...
MISSOULA, Mont.- The Bureau of Land Management and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) are announcing the first completed land acquisition within the Gold and Twin Creeks area of the Blackfoot River Watershed. The recently purchased parcel, known as the Upper Gold Creek East Parcel, placed 3,264 acres into federal public ownership on Nov. 6, 2024, using funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This sale marks the first phase of the Gold and Twin Creeks land acquisitions, which aim to transfer...
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...
Missoula, MT — Missoula Electric Cooperative (MEC) has secured a $6.6 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to improve wildfire protection and storm resilience in a portion of its service area. The grant is part of the Wildfire Assessment and Resilience for Networks (WARN) initiative, which will provide more than $145 million to enhance grid reliability in rural, high-risk regions across 16 central and western states. MEC’s project, Seeley-Swan Undergrounding for Wildfire and Storm Safety, will bury approximately 46...
On the coldest day of 2024, Montana's Poet Laureate Chris LaTray spoke in tandem with author Peter Stark at an Open Book Club event in Seeley Lake, lending an Indigenous perspective to Stark's latest book about the West. Those of us lucky enough to attend have been eagerly awaiting LaTray's return. Fresh from a nation-wide tour, Chris LaTray will be presenting his newest book, Becoming Little Shell, A Landless Indian's Journey Home at the Swan Valley Community Hall in Condon, Saturday, Nov. 9...
Members of the community gathered at Seeley-Swan High School to celebrate Halloween. Businesses and families were represented at Trunk or Treat as they handed out candy and a carnival put on by the high school drama elective was a change from last year's haunted house. While Trunk or Treat usually takes place in the parking lot of Seeley Lake Elementary School, this year it was hosted at the high school. Seeley-Swan High School drama teacher Katy Pellet said this was so Trunk or Treat could be...
The Flathead National Forest has received an application from Eric Jacobsen and Thomas Knowles for a special use permit to operate Holland Lake Lodge with no proposed expansion. Private equity investors Jacobsen and Knowles held a meeting announcing their interest in purchasing the historic lodge in the Swan Valley in September and the Forest Service received notice of a purchase agreement between the two and the current holders of the lodge’s special use permit — longtime owner Christian Wohlfiel and POWDR, owner of ski resorts across the cou...
Alpine Artisans’ 2 Valleys Stage is honored to present a sophisticated jazz band out of Atlanta, Georgia, the Jazz Legacy Project, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 10, at the Seeley-Swan High School. Following the concert, Jazz Legacy Project will spend two days in our four local schools, providing workshops and in-school concerts. The Jazz Legacy Project was created in 2015 after an epiphany Justin Varnes had while teaching Jazz History at George State University. The JLP has an ongoing residency at the Velvet Note jazz club in Atlanta, where they ha...
Thirty five years ago... Thursday Nov. 2, 1989 Citations issued in moose shootings; general doe season ended Sunday The general hunting season seems to be going along "pretty normal," according to FWP game warden Jay Haveman, except for a couple of moose that were shot. "It may have been mistaken identification," Haveman said, but he issued citations in both instances. "One involved a bull moose that was shot near Squeezer Creek, east of Goat Creek, in the upper Swan Valley," Haveman said. The...
Seeley-Swan High School business instructor Michele Holmes was presented the Innovation in Education award by the Montana Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 30 during the Chamber's Titans of Business award ceremony. This fall, Holmes was selected as an Empowered Teacher of the Year, acknowledging her comprehensive use of the Empowered curriculum, which allows business instructors to use hands-on, real-world activities to teach business concepts like costs of goods sold or project pitching. Through...
