The announced closure of Pyramid Mountain Lumber on March 14 sent shock waves through Seeley Lake that extended throughout the state and various levels of government.
Concern for forest health, Montana’s timber industry and Seeley Lake’s economy and longevity were top of mind. Statements came out from Montana representatives at the federal level to local county commissioners, and solutions — from worker-owned cooperatives to private buyers to a tool launched by the state Department of Labor and Industry to help match laid-off timber workers to jobs with similar skills — began to percolate.
Pyramid’s current owners have put a deadline of May 15 as the last call for buyers. The Pathfinder reached out to a few folks in the Seeley Lake community to check in and pose the same four questions to each person — what’s been surprising since the closure was announced, what defines Seeley Lake, how would the community change without the mill and what would their magic wand bring to town — about a week before that deadline.
Quinn Carver, Seeley Lake District Ranger
What’s been the most surprising thing you’ve noticed as the community has responded to the announced mill closure?
I don’t know that there’s been anything surprising. With Pyramid there’s still hope that something’s going to happen. I don’t think you’re going to be able to see the true effects unless it actually does close and leave town. The one thing I do know about mills is once they close and leave, it’s very hard to get them back.
I think there’s a lot of surprise and grieving going on, but there’s still hope that something could happen. The Johnson family has been in this town for a long time and they do a lot. You see them at every basketball game, they support the high school, they support community efforts, and I guess until that’s not happening I don’t think people will feel the true effects of all the things that Pyramid does for the community.
What defines Seeley Lake, and how does Pyramid Mountain Lumber fit into that?
The thing about a mill that it offers to me personally is its stability. It’s an anchor for you to draw on. It’s more blue collar jobs, people that live in the community year-round. Recreation is transient. It comes through at various seasons, and the businesses in town are dependent upon a lot of that. But in reality, most of the people that come and recreate in Seeley Lake don’t stay here. It’s all transient. So, to me, it’s less stable. The mill is stable in that the same people are living and working and visiting stores and are here.
How would the community change without the mill?
Let’s hope we don’t have to do without them. The identity of Seeley could change pretty dramatically depending upon a couple of things — whether the community becomes an incorporated entity or not, the sewer situation. Some things sort themselves out that way. It would potentially take the town on a different trajectory. More potential for more year-round residents, if we were to get more housing. But those year-round residents are probably going to be more retirees or residents with their jobs somewhere else. The flavor of that would change in that they’re going to want different things from the community.
What’s needed in Seeley Lake to keep the community connected and vibrant? If you had a magic wand, what solution would you bring to town?
If I could wave my magic wand the community itself in Seeley would congeal around a common community goal. This is irrelevant to the Forest Service really, it’s just me more speaking as a resident. But it’s hard to do when a big portion of your town is only here seasonally. We need more young people to come in and energize and support the community and that would be fantastic.
Claire Muller, Seeley Lake Community Foundation Executive Director
What’s been the most surprising thing you’ve noticed as the community has responded to the announced mill closure?
What I’ve been most surprised by is how much support I’ve heard from outside the community. There are a lot of big players around western Montana who recognize what a huge blow this mill closure is to the region, and who are trying to find solutions for potentially keeping the mill going. Seeley Lake is a small place, but it’s incredible and I’m often surprised by just how many people care about this area.
I’ve also been really surprised to learn about the ponderosa pine element of Pyramid’s lumber production, and what massive impacts that production closure will have on wildfire mitigation and forest management and thinning across the state. It’s pretty scary, and land managers are worried.
What defines Seeley Lake, and how does Pyramid Mountain Lumber fit into that?
The chain of lakes nestled between two rugged mountain ridges really defines a lot of the recreation, geography, tourism and independent spirit of Seeley Lake. Pyramid also helps define Seeley Lake, keeping this a blue-collar sawmill town. I know how much Pyramid — the largest employer in town — cares about its people and about Seeley Lake. Family owned and operated since 1949, Pyramid is the oldest surviving family-owned and operated lumber mill in Montana.
How would the community change without the mill?
The impacts on the families of employees, schools, auxiliary businesses, other local businesses, and the culture of the town would all change — who knows to what degree. And I think the identity of Seeley Lake would change without the mill. It plays a huge role in the fabric of life in this community, from the sight and sound of it, to the jobs and the community support it has provided for decades.
What’s needed in Seeley Lake to keep the community connected and vibrant? If you had a magic wand, what solution would you bring to town?
What’s needed is for people to continue to care about Seeley Lake. It is incredible and special that a whole lot of people love this place. And, this town runs on volunteers — so many services and events happen because of people volunteering their time and energy. Volunteerism is still dearly needed to keep this community connected and vibrant.
If I had a magic wand, I would bring new mill owners to town who somehow share the Johnsons’ deep love and commitment to this area. It would be one thing to have a huge infusion of capital to keep things afloat. However, just that solution would still change the mill a lot, and the community’s interaction with it. It’s another thing to have owners embedded in the community who care deeply about this place and give back to it in so many ways. That will be hard to replicate; the Johnsons are highly respected and deep-rooted. However, we can hope and try to make whatever comes next a success.
Bruce Friede, Seeley Lake Community Council Vice Chair
What’s been the most surprising thing you’ve noticed as the community has responded to the announced mill closure?
I haven’t heard anything surprising. The employees I know that have lived here and worked for the mill have always had the feeling that something was going to happen. The fact is the town doesn’t have a sewer system. That’s another factor that probably set the hook on Pyramid’s (announced) closure because of affordable living.
But there are a lot of things that have come out of this. The Forest Service and Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation have made the comment that Pyramid was one of the only mills in Montana, in this area, that was capable of handling pine. In order to keep these harvests going so we continue to have a healthy forest, the timber that’s going to be taken will have to be trucked a long way in order to hit a mill that can deal with it. Of course that doesn’t doesn’t help our town out at all, unless this co-op thing goes through.
What defines Seeley Lake, and how does Pyramid Mountain Lumber fit into that?
Seeley Lake has been known as a timber mill town and it has become a destination spot both in the winter and the summer because of hiking, snowmobiling, ATVs, side-by-sides and camping, and we are grossly unprepared for what we were receiving as a community because there are things we need — and it isn’t just the businesses that need it, it’s the community as a whole — which would be a sewer system because this town can’t continue on the path it is on without some infrastructure.
How would the community change without the mill?
Thirty or forty percent of the mill employees that are about to lose their jobs were retirement age anyway. So they’re not gonna go anywhere. If we do get that co-op share, I mean, that’ll be good. People still can’t commute from Lincoln and Clinton and Turah and Missoula and work here without a fairly decent paying job. But as far as town is concerned, everybody’s going to take a hit. No matter what. I don’t believe some of (the businesses) will make it but I think as a whole businesses will have to restructure. There’s no two ways about it.
We will have to wait and see what happens with the mill. If someone comes in and just buys the property and they sell off the equipment, although some of that equipment is old, so I don’t know where it would go because everybody in that field, they’re updating.
What’s needed in Seeley Lake to keep the community connected and vibrant? If you had a magic wand, what solution would you bring to town?
What we have to do is work at getting everybody here working together in order to accomplish and do something for this community that will cause people to have some pride. Maybe we’ll hit everybody up for just a little bit of money and maybe we can get a permit that allows us to grass the side of the highway all the way through town…so that when you’re driving through town we have something we’re really proud of.
I think the structure of the community will be such — with the Community Foundation and all of these other agencies — we should be able to put something together where we don’t have to go find money. We can maybe get enough money out of what we have to accomplish these goals.
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