Week of October 10, 2024

  • Second annual Dryland Showdown in Seeley Lake kicks off the sleddog season

    Clara Kyrouac, Intern

    People came from across the country to Seeley Lake for the 2024 Dryland Showdown. The event took place on Sept. 28 through Sept. 29 and was hosted by Bitterroot Dog Powered Sports. This event was significant because it was the first race of the season. Some participants were preparing for the Dryland Dog Dash Continental Championships that will take place in Wisconsin later this month. According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, dryland racing is a dog-powered sport that can be...

  • Small grass fire starts in Seeley Lake, updates on burn seasons

    Keely Larson, Editor

    Last Wednesday, a one-acre, human-caused fire started in open grass near the intersection of Riverview and Grizzly Drive in Seeley Lake. No structures were damaged, but residents received evacuation warnings early that morning, around 6 a.m. The warning was lifted by 10 a.m. The cause of the fire is being investigated by the Missoula County Sheriff's Office, Seeley Lake Fire Chief Dave Lane said. As of Oct. 3, it was fully put out. Lane said there were "remnants of items" where the fire started...

  • Congressman Zinke touches down in Seeley to test water quality and champion sewer systems

    Katie O'Reilly, For the Pathfinder

    In a move meant to champion public sewer systems, Rep. Ryan Zinke expertly tossed a well casing line down a hole drilled some 40 feet into the ground on School Lane near Seeley Lake Elementary School last Thursday. "Well, I did come from three generations of plumbers," the Republican U.S. Congressman reasoned to the small group of civic leaders and reporters gathered around the groundwater monitoring well Zinke had come to test. Reeling in the well water sample - which was later revealed to...

  • One dead after highway chase south of Seeley Lake

    Keely Larson, Editor

    A person is dead after a high-speed chase south of Seeley Lake on Saturday. Shortly after 3 p.m. on Oct. 5, a male driving south on Highway 83 passed another vehicle over double-yellow lines and fired shots through the driver’s side window, according to a news release from Missoula County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Jeannette Smith. Information from Smith said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks located the dark blue Toyota pickup the person was driving and followed the truck from the Clearwater Junction as he traveled west...

  • Blackhawks get ready for homecoming parade-style

    Clara Kyrouac, Intern

    Seeley Lake started off the homecoming weekend in style with a parade requested by student athletes and assembled by the newly re-established Seeley Swan Blackhawk Booster Club. Various official vehicles and floats with the football and volleyball team players drove down local roads for about 30 minutes to help get the town hyped for the football game later in the day on Oct. 4 and the volleyball game the day after. The booster club also sold burgers at the football game. Jamie Wood-Hanson,...

  • Potomac School employee wins WOW award

    Sarah Schmill, Potomac School Principal

    Amy Truett, Potomac School food service manager, was presented the Montana School Nutrition WOW award by Patrice O'Loughlin, President of MTSNA. This award recognizes a school food service employee in Montana with a lot of heart. As Potomac knows, Ms. Amy works tirelessly each day feeding students nutritious, well-balanced meals. The WOW award is sponsored by the Julie Leister family of Missoula and memorializes Julie who passed away from cancer. Her school nutrition legacy lives on every year...

  • Seeley Lake groomer gets a new home

    Keely Larson, Editor

    The Seeley Lake Nordic Ski Club held a ribbon-cutting event on Saturday to celebrate moving their groomer into its new home. Chris Lorentz, nordic ski club president, said over the past 35 years the club has been outgrowing its facilities. The new building will allow the club to have a space to store the groomer - instead of having it sit out in the snow with volunteers waiting about three hours to get it warmed up before starting the actual grooming work - that will protect it from the...

  • Annual Tour of the Arts begins this weekend

    Jenny Rohrer, Alpine Artisans

    Tour some of western Montana's most amazing artist studios while driving through the explosive fall color of our region's tamaracks during the 22nd annual Tour of the Arts. Alpine Artisans offers this self-guided artist studio tour on Oct. 12-13. Saturday hours are 10-5 p.m., and Sunday from 12-5 p.m. This free tour stretches from Condon through Seeley Lake to Ovando and Lincoln, Montana. The tour features 10 studios and galleries and over 25 artists showing and demonstrating their work...

  • Upcoming glass recycling event

    Claire Muller, Seeley Lake Community Foundation

    The Seeley Lake Community Foundation, in partnership with Missoula-based nonprofit Recycling Works, will hold the last glass recycling drop-off event of the year in Seeley Lake from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Oct. 12. Community members are invited to bring their glass to the parking lot of the Foundation Building, where Recycling Works staff will help load clean glass into their recycling trailer. The Foundation Building is located at 3150 MT Hwy 83 N, in downtown Seeley Lake. You can sign up to receive a text message the week before the event...

  • Archives

    Pathfinder staff

    Thirty five years ago... Thursday Oct. 5, 1989 A black bear is released to the wild It was a quiet year for bear and people confrontations - up until a couple weeks ago. Suddenly, reports of bears in and around town became numerous. People were hearing the critters rumbling through trash cans at night. And, a bold bear entertained himself on the front porch at Rich and Sharon Stauffer's home on Double Arrow while Sharon photographed some interesting pictures through a window. Sandie Baker found...

  • It takes two to tango: federal forest funds and local government spending

    Ted Morgan, House District 92 candidate

    A few weeks back my opponent and I were able to share both of our visions for rural areas like the Seeley-Swan. I respect Rep. Connie Keogh for coming to our rural community to debate topics from property taxes to 2nd Amendment Rights. As I’ve stated, I respect Rep. Keogh, and thank her for her service as a representative for House District 91, a city house district. We agree on topics, such as preserving our public lands, and a Homestead Exemption that will lower full-time resident property taxes, and make second homeowners pay their fair...

  • 'Street Medicine' in Missoula creates access to health care

    Eric Halverson, Partnership Health Center

    On a sunny Thursday in August, Lisa Hathaway and Rachel Jaquith knelt on the concrete floor of Missoula's Johnson Street Emergency Shelter to help a patient with a painful wound on his abdomen. "Let's see what we can do to help you out today," said Jaquith calmly. Jaquith, a registered nurse, and Hathaway, a physician assistant, are members of Partnership Health Center's Community Care Team, or CCT. Sometimes called a "street medicine team," the CCT supports Missoula's unsheltered neighbors...

  • Who is representing our middle-class?

    Don Larson, Polson

    Montana leads all 50 states in the total federal aid it receives as a percent of its total state revenue, 31.8%. Stated another way you could consider us a “welfare” state. Also, the largest employer group in Montana is government, local, state and federal combined. So when a candidate says he or she is going to cut federal spending and shrink government, we must understand we may be the most adversely affected. Montana has a large amount of federal forest service, BLM and national park land. Our state and federal park areas are combined...

  • Support Judge Dan Wilson for the Montana Supreme Court

    Kathleen Jenks, Missoula

    As a retired Missoula Municipal Court Judge, I write to ask for your support of District Court Judge Dan Wilson, candidate for the Montana Supreme Court. I have known Judge Wilson for many years, and he embodies the qualities we need on the Supreme Court. His background demonstrates a solid foundation to serve the state in that role. He has served as a prosecutor, and defense attorney, a civil attorney, a Justice of the Peace and, for the last eight years, a District Court Judge. He has provided training and mentoring to lower court judges....

  • A weapon with the power of the Almighty God

    Diana Taylor, Defendress of the Catholic faith

    Allow me to share how the Rosary changed my life tremendously by helping me to understand the Faith more deeply, though it took many years after converting to start reciting and praying the Rosary daily. Why? Ignorance of the Rosary commanded by God through the Blessed Mother and also repetitious prayer seemed monotonous, but not as monotonous as my repetitive sins must be to God, I fear. What is the Rosary? The Rosary is a recitation and meditation on the life of Christ with prayers assembled from Holy Scripture: the Apostles’ Creed, Our...

  • We all share our Seeley Lake history

    Tom Browder, Seeley Lake Historical Society

    By reading the column “A Place for All” in the Pathfinder over the years, we can learn about the places, organizations and programs that make our valley a special place. We can remember what went on in the past underlies all of what we have now. In times like today with lots of changes happening, it’s important to look back at this history and ask ourselves a question. Is what we are today because of external — things from the outside -— or internal, driven by those who live here? The answer is both. Indigenous peoples were present...

  • Home sweet homecoming

    Regan Jones, Intern

    The Seeley-Swan girls' volleyball team and boys' football team faced off against challenging teams on homecoming weekend. Playing against their toughest opponents yet, the pressure was on, and unfortunately, the teams came up short. Football On Oct. 4, the Seeley-Swan football team took on the Valley Christian Eagles. The Blackhawks entered the game undefeated at 5-0, the same as the Eagles. The Blackhawks knew this game would be the toughest they've faced all season, and anticipated an...

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