20/35 Year Look Back

In celebration of 35 years of the Seeley Swan Pathfinder, each week we will run parts of articles that appeared in the issue 35 years ago and 20 years ago. The entire issue will be uploaded to our website seeleylake.com for you to enjoy.

35 years ago: Nov. 20, 1986 issue

Governor's Cup and Seeley 200 get national attention

Ron Ogden has worked with dogs as a hobby "since high school," but he says he was never prepared for the kind of publicity Seeley Lake would get from sled dog races.

"There are international networks eyeing us for possible features this year," Ogden said. Ogden was appointed this fall as race marshal for the Governor's Cup 500, which begins Feb. 8. He is also president of the Wilderness Sportsman's Club, which is sponsoring the Seeley Lake 200 sled dog race set for January 29 through February.

"The Governor's Cup alone has become a year round job," Ogden said last week. Races in the past two years have offered substantial purses and drawn national television crews and corporate sponsors to Seeley Lake.

This year, a Montana documentary is scheduled to be filmed on both the Seeley Lake 200 race and the Governor's Cup 500. National television crews are tentatively planning to be here. An international sports network is also looking into the possibility of a feature story on the Seeley lake 200, which, by next year, is hoping to be a qualifying race for the 1,100-mile Iditarod, the ultimate sled dog race, run annually from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska.

To read the full article and more from the Nov. 13, 1986 issue visit https://www.seeleylake.com/home/customer_files/article_documents/1986-11-20.pdf

Nov. 20, 1986 issue

Down Memory Lane

Herb and Butch Townsend, Seeley Lake, have gotten a chuckle recently out of concerns over building a new school. Not that they don't admire the efforts of community members today, but they remember "the good old days" when Seeley Lake children attended school in a remodeled horse stable!

He was on the school board here in the late forties. He remembers a year when more than 50 children were eligible to attend the small schoolhouse that now rests near the Rammell home north of Seeley Lake.

Trustees knew they needed more room and, at first, community members found an old horse stable "a shed really," Townsend recalls. They had a logger skid it near the school with his cat, according to Herb.

"The women worked and cooked," Herb said. "Everybody turned out to turn that thing into a useful building." Townsend still recalls with pride the spirit of giving that existed in those post-war years. "We just had the greatest bunch of people here," he said.

To read the full article and more from the Nov. 13, 1986 issue visit https://www.seeleylake.com/home/customer_files/article_documents/1986-11-20.pdf

Nov. 22, 2001 issue

Gill netting produces data for fish biologist

Ten thousand years ago during the Ice Ages, glacial activity formed depressions in the ground between the Swan and Mission Mountain Ranges.

As the fingers of ice receded the depressions filled with water, five main lakes including Alva, Inez, Seeley, Salmon and Placid Lake were created.

These lakes covered 3,250 acres of water surface and came to support three native sport species of fish including westslope cutthroat trout, bull trout and mountain whitefish.

Native Americans camped on the banks of the pristine, natural lakes on their way to their hunting grounds in what is now the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Later, settlers arrived first seeking furs and then the wood of the lush green timbered valley. Humans in few numbers had little impact on the plentiful fish supply.

As human population grew so did the impact. Surprisingly, the largest impact was not from what was taken out of the lakes, but from what was put in, northern pike a non-native species, was introduced in Salmon and Lake Inez in the late 1980's. In 1997 after a high spring run-off, pike showed up in Seeley Lake.

To read the full article and more from the Nov. 22, 2001 issue visit https://www.seeleylake.com/home/customer_files/article_documents/2001-11-22.pdf

Nov. 22, 2001

'Barn' Again: County Commissioner, Museum directors from Missoula brainstorm ways to raise funds to complete the Barn Museum

As traffic streams by the old historic barn (future site of the Seeley Lake Historical Museum and Visitors Center), many glances pause on the quiet site and thoughts are usually followed by questions. "When is the barn going to get done?" "Why can't they get it done... it looks so close to being finished?" "Darn, the barn had such a great push in the beginning... has everyone forgotten about it?"

On Thursday, Nov. 8, a small group of interested people gathered to discuss ideas that might help the barn board gain some new momentum for completion of the project.

To read the full article and more from the Nov. 22, 2001 issue visit https://www.seeleylake.com/home/customer_files/article_documents/2001-11-22.pdf