Are we missing something?

Maybe you opened your paper today thinking, I’m pretty sure the Pathfinder’s missing something. Don’t we have a new president? Statehouse representative? You’re probably right. Since our papers are printed on Mondays, it made for a very quiet Nov. 7 paper regarding election details. We sent the paper off to press before Election Day even began.

I intend to publish a story online focusing on the statehouse races pertinent to the Seeley-Swan and Blackfoot Valleys on Wednesday or Thursday this week. But in the meantime, there are plenty of other resources that will have your election result needs, including Montana Free Press (https://montanafreepress.org) and the Montana Secretary of State website (https://sosmt.gov/).

I hope you enjoy our commemorative spread on Pyramid Mountain Lumber this week and a few other stories that have nothing to do with politics at all. Perhaps it’ll be a nice palate cleanse, as would a walk among the larches.

Lastly, there have been a few other bylines in the Pathfinder recently and I wanted to introduce these writers.

Regan Jones, a senior at Seeley-Swan High School, has taken on an internship with the Pathfinder for her last year in high school. She is a busy gal — member of the Leos, high school yearbook, volunteer at the elementary school — but has still found time to write about sports and other goings-on at the high school for the paper, and it’s been so fun to see her writing develop.

Katie O’Reilly has joined us to write about happenings in Potomac and then some, including the recent secession conversation and the Copper Cliff Cafe. O’Reilly used to work as an editor for the Sierra Club’s magazine and I feel really lucky to have her on the Pathfinder’s team. She, like myself and Jean Pocha and all the contributors to the paper, really know how to fill a community paper.

To end on an election note, I hosted a debate for our statehouse candidates at the end of September. It was a lot, but I was so glad I did it. The respect and consideration from the candidates and from the audience, for the most part, blew my mind. Despite how divided things feel, I was proud to know that in the Seeley-Swan Valley, people can still gather to opine and listen with care.