Historian Ron Cox speaks to tour participants in front of the Maclean cabin and next to Norman Maclean's memorial stone on the west shore of Seeley Lake Sept. 13.
Mary Pitch, great granddaughter of C.H. McLeod, shared about her family and went through the photos hung in the McLeod Room in The Lodges on Seeley Lake's new Lodge. The McLeod family built the main cabin on the property before 1920. It wasn't until after the McLeods sold the property in the mid-1940's that it became a commercial resort.
SEELEY LAKE – More than 20 people toured the Maclean family's neighborhood Friday, Sept. 13 as part of the third "In the Footsteps of Norman Maclean Festival: Writing the West: A Way Forward." Seeley Lake Historical Society historian Ron Cox led the tour around Boy Scout Road on the west side of Seeley Lake.
The tour started at the Seeley Lake Historical Museum with the display featuring the Maclean family. Cox shared that the Maclean family came to Seeley Lake in 1921. Their family received one of three Federal leases issued for cabins on U.S. Forest Service property on the west side of the lake. Several other people applied for special use permits for Forest Service recreation lots on "Seeley Lake Villa Sites." Among those who built the first summer cabins were the Wilcox families, Rev. John Maclean, the Powell Family, Burly Miller, the Toole and McLeod families.
Cox said the only other development in the early 1920s was the Seeley Lake Ranger Station on the north end of the lake. It wasn't until several years later that more development came in.
"It was pretty much a settlement within the wilderness," said Cox. "The Macleans saw the development of Seeley Lake."
Prior to the Maclean family moving to Seeley Lake, the McLeod family obtained the first Forest Service lease on the west shore of Seeley Lake where The Lodges now exists. C.H. McLeod's son Walter and daughter Helen Richards got the first lease sometime after 1914. They built the main cabin by 1920. Mary Pitch, great granddaughter of C.H. McLeod, was on the tour and shared about her family history.
The McLeod family used the property as a recreation compound hosting their family and friends.
Shortly after the end of World War II in the mid-1940s, the McLeod family sold the property. The Forest Service permitted the cabins to be enjoyed as a commercial resort.
Charles Lindbergh was a frequent visitor, claiming the view of the mountains from the cabins was one of his favorite views in the world. It was named Leisure Lodge up until the early 1990s.
When Brian and Kerry Bertsch purchased The Lodges in 1996 there was a main lodge located in the middle of the resort. To remodel required to bring the building up to code was too extensive, so they moved the building and made a cabin out of it. They since have remodeled all 25 and opened a new lodge and conference facility in June 2018.
Cox said The Lodges houses one of the oldest buildings and the newest building on the lake. One of the rooms in the new lodge is named "The McLeod Room" where McLeod family photos from the early years on the property are displayed.
Cox highlighted other points of interest on the west side of Seeley Lake that he tied into the Maclean family.
The world's largest western larch tree, affectionately named Gus stands among a historic stand of larch named Girard's Grove on the west side of Boy Scout Road. The Forest Service has maintained the stand using prescribed burning to clear the understory mimicking the frequent fires that used to be lit by the Native Americans of the area.
Maclean and Elers Koch, author of "40 Years a Forester: 1903-1943" were friends. They both wrote a lot about the area and the larch grove.
Just across from Girard Grove, is Camp Paxson. K.D. Swan started Camp Paxson in 1918 as a Boy Scout camp.
Cox shared the story about a young man from Flathead Lake that heard about the Boy Scout Camp. He rode 90 miles or better to the camp on horseback to sign up to be a Boy Scout. However, once they learned he was only 11-years-old, they refused him because he was too young.
"He made all that trip for nothing but I'm sure they accommodated him," said Cox with a laugh.
One of the Rev. Maclean's claim to fame was starting the first Boy Scouts of America troops in Missoula. Cox said this was one of two troops in Montana at the time.
In the 1930's, the Civilian Conservation Corps built the log cabins at Camp Paxson.
In the 1940s, Cox said it turned into the first training center in the Rocky Mountains for smokejumpers. The first seven smokejumpers did their training at Camp Paxson in 1941. Cox said soon after World War II broke out, all of the able bodied men went off to war. Some in the Civilian Public Service, a program to enable conscientious objectors to serve their country during World War II without having to fight, volunteered to fill the smoke jumping void. They moved to Camp Paxson to do their training. Cox said as soon as the war was over, even though many wanted to continue smoke jumping, they were forced out.
Cox said the first jump tower was on Seeley Lake. They jumped off the tower into the water, "as a soft landing to train on."
Outside of the Maclean cabin on Seeley Lake is a granite memorial dedicated to Norman F. Maclean, son of Rev. Maclean and father of author John Maclean. "Norman F. Maclean who celebrated Seeley Lake and the early days of the United States Forest Service in his books 'A River Runs Through It and Other Stories' and 'Young Men and Fire' and to his wife Jessie Burns Maclean who shared the life here. Missoula Smokejumpers"
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