At the Seeley Lake Historical Society, a main focus of ours is maintaining and enhancing the museum at the Barn. Those of you who have visited us recently (we are open Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m - 4 p.m. throughout the winter) have seen the updated exhibits discussed in our December article, and now can view our Veteran's display. This includes uniforms and artifacts going back to the First World War. We have other projects in the works, so in addition to visitors, we love to have volunteers as well!
Understanding and appreciating history is more than viewing artifacts in a museum, however. Seeley Lake Historical Society has presented Walk 'n Talks over the years, typically in the winter. In keeping with this tradition, we led a group of history buffs on a walking tour of historic downtown Seeley on Sunday, Jan. 25, in conjunction with Winterfest. Thanks to research by Cheri Thompson and Ron Cox, we offered a guided tour from north to south, and showed how Seeley Lake developed over the past 100 years.
(Click here: http://www.seeleyhistory.org/museum.html and click the "Downtown" button for the excellent handout from this walk.)
For many of us, it is surprising to learn that the original heart of Seeley Lake, referred to as "Headquarters," was actually north of present day downtown, near the Veterans Memorial. This was the location of the Maloney compound, one of whose cabins is restored and sits next to the museum. This is also where the town saw its first gas pump. In addition, the early road through town did not follow today's Highway 83, but was some distance to the east. Standing where our town began, and noticing how it moved south over the years, makes us realize how much things have changed over the decades.
Once on our current main drag you get a feel for how extensive the Freshour holdings were, and how the development of this land over the years provided the lots where so many of our current businesses reside. You also get a feel for businesses that are no longer there. Jack Long, one of the largest loggers in Western Montana, and owner of several Caterpillar dealerships, had a maintenance shop where Rovero's now stands. On the south side of 83 there were several taverns located on the Freshour property — Ozzie's (which some of us remember from the 1960's!) and Barney's among them. Unfortunately fire consumed both of these.
Not everything from these earlier days is gone of course, and by taking a historical walk we can see where the old fits in with the new. The Filling Station started life as Coyle's in 1947, and remains one of our active establishments after 75 years. (Those of you who remember the days when Eddie Coyle had hundreds of photos in the bar can still see these gems from the '40's, '50's and '60 by visiting our museum.) Another early structure in our downtown that still remains is the Grizzly Claw. Dating back to the 1930's, it was the Mercantile into the 1970's, and for many folks in Seeley Lake was a place to buy groceries as well as gas.
There are many other examples of how our downtown has changed, and with the help of the handout mentioned above, you can take your own walking tour through downtown Seeley Lake.
For information on our past walking tours, such as Camp Paxson, the west side of Seeley and the Old Ski Hill, stop by the Historical Museum and Visitor Center. We would also like to hear from those of you with an interest in our area's history about additional subjects for our Walk 'n Talks. These do not have to be confined to winter months, and our board of directors is looking into possibilities for summer tours, so stay tuned to our website or Facebook page!
One area where we will definitely add on-site and walking tours relates to the first people to use our valley, the tribes who came to hunt, gather plants and fish. Thanks to a growing partnership with the Salish-Pend d' Oreille Culture Committee, we are working on mapping Indigenous place names to our valley. We have some examples already, and expect to have an interpretive map, showing the location, e.g. Placid Lake, the Indigenous name and the meaning behind this name. Combined with what we know about more recent history, this will give us a much deeper feel for the extent to which this area has been used by humans.
History is experienced in multiple ways: in museums, by walking the land, oral histories and of course, reading. The Seeley Lake Historical Society hopes to support all of these modes and encourages everyone in the valley to take time and learn about our past. When we are out in nature, whatever the season, knowing how the land has been used over the years adds an important dimension to our understanding. Likewise, when we are in town getting our mail or patronizing a business, having a sense of what has gone before in that location helps us appreciate just how long our community has been in existence.
We hope you will visit our website main page at http://www.seeleyhistory.org/ and also “Like” our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SeeleyLakeHistoricalSociety.
Feel free to email us at slhistory@blackfoot.net with questions, answers, stories, historical photos and anything else that broadens what we know about our community's past. We want to hear from you!
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