Bob would have had a ball

SEELEY LAKE - The Bob Marshall Music Festival is coming June 27-28. For some people it is ironic that this festival name conjures feeling of the wilderness next door. The festive genre and activities experienced by the participants exhibit few of the solitude and primitive attributes of wild lands.

The Seeley Lake area is adjacent to the “Crown of the Continent” recognized as one of the wildest, most diverse and intact ecosystems in the temperate zones of the world. The “Crown” boundary extends from the Jasper-Banff area of British Columbia and Highway 200 in Montana but is defined more by the land than lines on a map.

The Bob Marshall Wilderness is named for Robert “Bob” Marshall (1901-1939), sometimes referred to as a 20th Century John Muir. He was a forester who worked for the USDA Forest Service as a very strong advocate for wilderness in the 1930s.

He had a boyish face and a goofy smile. Even though he was born to a wealthy family in New York, he remained frugal and modest, caring for the working class.

He enjoyed being the life of the party and danced with abandon, but was otherwise shy. His sense of humor was on the absurd side.  He once somersaulted through a door into a room with stuff flying from his pockets exclaiming, “I just rolled in.”

Although a romantic, he was practical. When he once needed to attend a formal dinner, he discovered mice had nibbled holes in his tux. He daubed shoe polish on his underwear to keep the holes from showing – problem solved.

He loved wild country from an early age. At 15, he summated his first Adirondack Peak and loved running down hills for the rest of his life. His trip planning sometimes consisted of selecting uncharted territory from his atlas and go there to research a natural subject for a thesis.

Other times he was known for solo hiking 40-miles wearing tennis shoes, resting three times each mile when the going got tough. His gear was in a 70-pound pack on a tumpline, and he ate raisins and cheese. He planned to do a 30-miler in every state. He was a great admirer of Lewis and Clark, feeling he’d been born too late. He remained a bachelor his entire, shortened life.

In one of his articles Marshall wrote “There is just one hope of repulsing the tyrannical ambition of civilization to conquer every niche on the whole earth. That hope is the organization of spirited people who will fight for the freedom of the wilderness.” In Marshall’s words “The Bob” is one place that shall remain “gloriously fresh” where people can find “no musty signs of human occupation”

While enjoying the festivities of the Bob Marshal Music Festival, most won’t be aware that an opposite experience is available just out of sight just over the hill. Bob would have had a ball in both places.

During the wild time of the festival, live music will be a side benefit of visiting the Seeley Lake Historical Museum and Visitor Center, 2920 Highway 83. They are open Tuesday – Saturday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sundays from 12 – 4 p.m. Admission is free as well as the information.