When our community faces difficult times like these, it can help to look back at our history and see how tough and resilient we have been. Looking at the photos and exhibits in the Historical Museum at the Barn shows what the people who built Seeley Lake went through, and how we became what we are today.
In the early 20th century, when the first major timber sale took place in Seeley, loggers worked under conditions hard to imagine today. We have photos of winter camps, since trees were cut during the winter and logs skidded to the frozen lakeshore with horses. We see loggers standing on top of sledges using horsepower to stack four and five foot diameter larches. And we see the camp kitchens and those who cooked for these loggers all through the long winters. Meanwhile, the foresters in our area were developing some remarkable tools, like scaling, that became industry standards. All of this while working in a difficult environment when the comforts of Missoula were a couple of days journey away!
Our community today is the legacy of these strong people.
Does our future hold more recreation? This only time will tell, but history has something to tell us as well. In the 1920s we saw the emergence of three guest ranches: Binko's at Big Sky Lake, Double Arrow Ranch and the Tamaracks. While Binko's disappeared long ago due to fire, the other two are with us today, and continue a tradition started 100 years ago. The determination of those who began these operations is with us today, and is another reflection of the grit and determination of our community. Even our museum is a great reflection of how our past is manifested in our present — it was the working barn for Double Arrow Ranch, collapsed under a snow load over 20 years ago, was disassembled, and moved to its present location by the community. It is yet another symbol of our shared history.
In the museum there is a photo from about 1930 that shows the Seeley bound US mail truck (probably a Ford Model A) with snow up to the windows. Despite this, mail was delivered, our community functioned and our children went to school. Among other records we have an elementary school listing from the mid-1930s showing the students and their grades, of course written in very readable cursive handwriting. Even modern conveniences, like a paved road and electricity, were slow in coming to our valley. Electricity wasn’t available here until 1953!
We have other museum exhibits, including the restored Maloney Cabin, that show how our early Seeley Lakers lived. Items such as tools, kitchen utensils and horse tack were often handmade and certainly repaired here in Seeley. Self-reliance and self-sufficiency were necessary traits for those who chose to live here. We should not forget that we are their successors and share these same traits.
Our history may not help us predict what will happen in the next year, five years, or ten years, but it does show a valley that grew up facing real challenges. The people here overcame these in many different ways, and we should expect no difference going forward.
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