Jette helped bring highway to Upper Swan

The fifth in the series covering the Roads and Trails program presented Aug. 7 by the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society (USVHS).

CONDON – Upper Swan Valley Historical Society President Steve Lamar introduced Dennis Jette as one of the local residents who worked in road construction when the highway and power lines were being installed.

Jette said his grandfather homesteaded on Kraft Creek in 1912, though his family didn't move to the valley until 1951. He was in the eighth grade at the time.

"The school was down behind the Work Center," he said. "And Russ Conklin, who started a store down here where the Post Office is, he had a Suburban that was his school bus. There was, I think, 19 kids in the school. And that was the whole valley. There was two of us in the eighth grade. Kathryn Wise and myself. I don't remember who all was in school. I graduated and got out of there."

In 1955 or '56 Jette said he and his father worked in the valley putting in the right-of-way for the new power lines. A right-of-way is the cleared corridor that provides a safety zone between the power lines and trees or other obstructions.

"We did quite a bit of work on the main line," Jette said. "Started up by the Gordon Ranch on the old highway. Don't remember how far down we came. We did Guest Ranch Road and the roads that took off from that. You know it's so dang long ago, I can't remember all this stuff."

An audience member said she had seen a photo of the Jette family digging a trench for a power line.

"Yes, "Jette said. "That was in '57 from the main line to our house. We didn't have too many poles then except the main line. The side roads, they had trenches."

It was also in 1957 that construction began on the highway. Jette got a job working on the crusher, which pulverizes rocks into smaller aggregate usable for road construction. In 1959 he worked on the paving crew.

Jette said, "I never had such a hot job in all my life."

Lamar asked Jette what influence the new road had on the logging in the valley. Jette answered there really wasn't much logging going on before the highway came in. He said there were some small sawmills in the valley and enough local logging to keep those mills in business. Apparently Uno Strom had a sawmill that mainly produced 2X4 lumber that was hauled to Intermountain Lumber Company in Missoula.

Jette closed with a story about catching a ride with the Strom lumber truck. "I remember when we first moved up here I'd go ride with him all the way to Missoula. And I had to be back at a certain spot or I'd be left until two days later! It was a crooked road and he had a big ole GMC truck with a V-12 in it or something to power up and down those hills."

Despite the hardships of traveling on the old roads, as the USVHS program ended, Nathan Kauffman said, "It's been a good place to live. Wouldn't be any place else."

Though this ends the Pathfinder's coverage of the formal Roads and Trails program, other stories percolated up from the audience as memories were jogged. Watch for those tales under the heading Roads and Trails Tailings.