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SWAN VALLEY - Swan Valley residents commented on the Swan Valley Regional Plan (SVRP) draft at a public hearing March 2 held at the Swan Valley Community Hall. According to SVRP committee chair Cilla Moseley, there will be more public hearings on the draft in the future. Moseley encouraged residents to follow the plan through all stages of approval with Missoula County Community Planning and Services (CAPS), the Missoula County planning board and the Missoula County Commissioners. The SVRP is an update of the 1996 growth plan developed by the...
SEELEY LAKE – More than a dozen riders descended on Seeley Lake March 5 to partake in the Sasquatch Fat Bike Ride. "It was super fun. The conditions were amazing. The weather was perfect. It was really well put together," said rider Steve Suvilla. "How can you beat a bacon and beer stop? It was like an oasis." That was the reaction ride organizer Mike Lindemer wanted to hear. With the exception of a rider who got mixed up near the end and turned the 20-mile ride into a 22-mile ride the event w...
SEELEY LAKE – Seeley Lake's Sam Bolton has created the perfect niche product. A niche product is defined as one made and marketed for use in a small and specialized but profitable market. Bolton's niche is knitting needles made from exotic woods. It started because Bolton's wife Terry, owner of Seeley Lake's former Books Yarn and More store and an avid knitter, kept telling him he ought to make wooden knitting needles. It took a couple of years but Bolton eventually decided to give it a try. H...
Seeley Lake Pond Hockey Organizer Mike Lindemer presenting SLE Outdoor Program Coordinator Bridget Laird with a $2,000 donation check. The donation will be used for the SLE Outdoor Program....
Who do you call when your love one is sick, has fallen or has a life or death emergency? Of course, everyone calls 9-1-1 and talks to a dispatcher who tries to get as much information as he/she can so help can be sent. But who shows up? In Seeley Lake, Ovando, Condon and Potomac, it is your neighbor, the person you see at the grocery store or someone you say hello to at the Post Office. Owning the paper for the past three years, Nathan and I have gotten to know our local volunteer firefighters, medical responders and Search and Rescue...
I thought about how people leave a legacy after I read Heather Layman’s article in her Cowgirl Ramblings column entitled “Leaving a Legacy.” It was thrilling to read her words about the inductees in the Cowboy Hall of Fame. She said, “.... the commonality was all of these people were and are tough as a new bride’s biscuits.” Layman went on to describe how tough they were tending livestock in the worst of weather, cut trails, built barns, rode rough horses in even tougher country all so they could provide for their families, community a...
Despite Montana’s strong public information laws, news organizations in many Montana counties have long fought for the public’s right to access the photographs taken of accused criminals when they are booked into jail. Thanks to a recent district court ruling, that fight has been largely settled. Not surprisingly, public access triumphed. News media across Montana will soon be able to publish booking photos along with relevant crime stories. Booking photos – or “mugshots” in news industry parlance - are important public information. For one,...
Please keep March 15 on your calendar for the Cakes for K-9s breakfast at Pop’s Place Restaurant. It’s FREE - donated by Tim and Connie with donations for their great support for Paws Up Safe Home Animal Shelter of Potomac. Donations are badly needed from everyone in our communities! The shelter, which has approximately fifty dogs and twenty cats, is in deep need! Thank You. Well, we have some good news! The golden retriever who was lost for nine days was found. The gracious couple who had found him, and was taking good care of him, saw a pic...
SEELEY LAKE - Zoning and the proposed sale of Drew Creek Park will be the main topics at the next Seeley Lake Community Council (SLCC) meeting Monday, March 14. The informal part of the meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. at the Seeley Lake Historical Museum and Visitor’s Center, with pizza and sodas followed by the meeting at 6 p.m. Nick Kaufman, Land Use Planner at WGM Group, will discuss the pros and cons of zoning for a small community like Seeley Lake. The Council does not currently expect to take a position on zoning. Kaufman’s pre...
In 2015, common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) became the first county listed noxious weed in Missoula County. The process involved with listing common buckthorn began early in the year when an application form was sent to local land managers requesting submissions for species not on the state list that they thought had noxious qualities. Common buckthorn was the only species submitted for consideration. The application was submitted by the City of Missoula Open Lands Program (OLP). The OLP had found common buckthorn along the majority of...
SEELEY LAKE - Seeley Lake is an amazing and beautiful place, surrounded by millions of acres of forests and wilderness. These forests are natural habitat for our incredible diversity of wildlife and provide migration corridors for many of these species. These forests naturally burn, but in many places are also thick with trees, underbrush and ladder fuels that present a real danger of wildfire. As the summer temperatures increase and our snowpack melts, the possibility of wildfire becomes a concern that each of us faces annually. Last summer...
SEELEY LAKE – After 32 years working for a newspaper agency in Salt Lake City, Utah, Basche (Bay-sha) Wahlberg realized the trend toward digital newspapers would eventually eliminate her job. Deciding it was time for a new adventure, she considered things she would like to do. High on the list was decorating fingernails and toenails, something she had enjoyed since she was a teenager. Accordingly, she trained to become a nail technician and moved to Seeley Lake. On March 9 and 10 she begins o...
HELENA – Montana State Parks announced that 2015 annual visitation was more than 2.48 million visits, setting a record for the third straight year. According to the 2015 Annual Visitation Report, statewide visitation for Montana State Parks was up 11 percent from 2014 and up 34 percent over the last 10 years. A new trend in 2015 was increased visitation during the spring and fall shoulder seasons (February – April, October – November). “We’re encouraged to see our State Park visitation continue to set record numbers in 2015,” said Chas Van Ge...
“Ecce homo”...“Behold the man.” These are the words, in his native tongue, of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judea, Israel during the trial of Jesus Christ. Jesus had been brought to the Romans with the hope that they would condemn and execute Him, rather than His enemies themselves doing it. But amid all of the other events surrounding His arrest, trial, persecution and eventual crucifixion, there was one particular interaction that occurred just prior to these words being spoken as Pilate presented a brutally beaten and scourge...
SEELEY LAKE - Mary Jane (Dardis) Tanberg, 90, a former resident of Great Falls Seeley Lake and Missoula, died of natural causes and went home to be with her Lord and Savior, Friday, Feb. 26 in Billings, Mont. with family at her side. Mary Jane was born in Great Falls, Mont. May 14, 1925, to William and Anna (Rasmussen) Dardis. She was raised in Great Falls and attended local schools. At age 17, she joined the war effort as a "Rosie the Riveter" in Long Beach, Calif., riveting panels on B-24s.... Full story
POTOMAC - The 13th Annual Bingo Night and fundraiser kicks off March 12 starting at 6 p.m. at the Potomac/Greenough Community Center (PGCC). This year monies raised will go towards bringing the PGCC kitchen up to code, bringing fine arts programs to Potomac School for the 2016/17 school year and creating a long jump pit at the Potomac School track. The Potomac Parent/Teacher Club (PTC), a non-profit, school-focused organization comprised of a core group of teachers, parents and community members...
SEELEY LAKE – Maryland and Montana may be a couple thousand miles apart, but on March 22 they will come together at Seeley-Swan High School. Alpine Artisans' 2 Valleys Stage is sponsoring a free concert jointly performed by orchestra students from Hellgate and Sentinel High Schools of Missoula, Mont. and the Barbara Ingram School for the Arts (BISFA) from Hagerstown, Md. The thread tying these schools together is William Hollin. From 2004 to 2009 Hollin directed the school orchestras for M...
SWAN VALLEY - On March 20 at 3 p.m. Queen Nur takes the stage at Swan Valley School. And I mean, takes the stage! Living in western Montana, we rarely have a chance to see and hear a glimpse of a culture so far removed from our own. In her public concert, accompanied by African instruments, the incomparable storyteller Queen Nur will present a tasty treat of stories, songs and dance celebrating her African-American Heritage. Alpine Artisans and 2 Valleys Stage are pleased to present Karen...
SWAN VALLEY - The entire student body of Swan Valley Elementary School (SVE), 28 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, performed in the Montana Children's Theater (MCT) production of "Rapunzel" Friday, March 4. "Performing builds confidence and teaches skills [the students] can use all their lives," said SVE Supervising Teacher Susan Bracha. Physical Education aide Todd Townsend, who was in drama in high school, added that performing takes the kids out of their comfort zone and at the s...
Most parents put countless miles on the car driving kids back and forth from various practices and games throughout elementary and secondary school. As for the actual dollars behind all that driving and purchasing of uniforms, equipment, lessons and various activity fees, the numbers are pretty eye opening. A 2014 study by the Utah State University's Families in Sport Lab (http://www.usufamiliesinsportlab.com) shows that the average annual family financial investment in youth sports came out to...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Elementary Eagles girl's basketball comes to a close this week. Following their tournament Feb. 6, they played Copper League teams extending their season for a month. As of March 7, they had gone undefeated in the Copper League. While the Eagles have played Copper League teams in the past, they have never played as a part of the Copper League. The fifth-graders' season ended with the SLE tournament. The 14 sixth through eighth grade girls continued playing. The only...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Nordic Team (SLNT) finished their race season at the 2016 Yellowstone Rendezvous March 5. Other locals that participated in the event included Kim Grover of Seeley Lake, Darren Zellman of Condon and Zia Kloetzel, Tim Swanberg and Madeline Swanberg of Ovando. Racers participated in the 2-kilometer (K), 5K, 10K, 25K and the 50K races. In the 2K, Hattie Batchelder 10:33, took third for the girls, 9-11-year-old with a time of 10:33. SLNT racers that participated in t...
Spring Ice Conditions Exist on Salmon Lake SEELEY LAKE - Avid local fisherman Roger Miller said spring ice conditions exist on Salmon Lake. Anglers should use extreme caution. In an email to the Pathfinder Miller wrote that he fished Salmon Lake south of the primitive launch near the island that fronts the Island Lodge last Friday, Feb. 26. There was 12 inches of ice of which nine inches was good ice and the other three were slushy. On Friday, March 4, he fished the exact same spot and there was only five inches of ice. Three inches were good...
