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SEELEY LAKE- This past hunting season, local trapper Rob Henrekin trapped and hunted five wolves for the second time in the approximately nine years he's been harvesting wolves. In 2021, the Montana Legislature directed Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) to reduce wolf populations, extend the wolf-hunting season and increase wolf-harvest threshold statewide. This was the first season Henrekin and all hunters and trappers have operated under the new guidelines. Despite the loosened...
SEELEY LAKE - Home baker Mickol Rathbun sells the sweetest treats at the Seeley Lake Market every Sunday at her stand Mickol's Goodies. Rathbun always loved baking as a hobby and said this is her first year at the market. "I've done a couple of other markets but this will probably be the only one that I've done long term," Rathbun said. She said she's used to making treats for family, but didn't consider selling her bakery goods until her family recommended it. "Just this past fall, I really...
SEELEY LAKE - This past July, three Seeley-Swan High School (SSHS) students and graduates visited Vietnam as part of a youth exchange to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Vietnam's bilateral relations on environmental issues facing Vietnam and Montana. Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, the exchange included 25 students each from Montana and Vietnam. All students from Montana involved in the exchange were enrolled in Missoula County Public Schools. The SSHS students and graduates who atte...
SEELEY LAKE - Seeley Lake District Ranger Quinn Carver stood looking up at the muddy debris that flooded Dunham Creek Road in a landslide approximately three years prior. Imprinted on the hill face above him are the scars of the 2017 Rice Ridge fire. Despite the rows of skeleton trees, the shrubs, forbs and grasses are green and flourishing. "We mobilized some equipment quickly but it took about two days to get it in drivable condition," Carver said. "You probably could cross through all the muc...
SEELEY LAKE - Raised on a rugged ranch in Northwestern Montana, Bozeman-based artist Amanda Stewart discovered the way Montana's unique landscape inspired her music from a young age. Her vivid memories of Country Fair karaoke contests with her mom and singing ballads in her dad's Silverado are part of the reason she signed onto the sixth annual Bob Marshall Music Festival - to experience the talent of Montana-based artists in a place close to the country. "The experiences Montana has are just...
SEELEY LAKE - Before 69-year-old triathlete Terry VanderWert turns 70, he wants to complete 50 triathlons across all 50 states. After participating in the 16th annual Youth for Christ (YFC) Triathlon on Saturday, Aug. 6. He's only one state away from achieving his goal. "My wife and I recently became empty nesters and we had traveled around at least the Midwest with our son but now he's gone," VanderWert said. "We like road trips, so we figured why don't we just take this triathlon on the...
SEELEY LAKE - Pyramid Mountain Lumber Resource Manager Gordy Sanders received the 2022 William Schlich Memorial Award for his 46 years of outstanding work that influenced local, state and national forestry policy. Sanders is one of only 39 recipients of the award in 88 years. The first two recipients of this award included the 32nd President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 and Gifford Pinchot, the first head of the United States Forest Service, in 1940. "When you look into the...
SEELEY LAKE - The sixth annual Bob Marshall Music Festival returns to Seeley Lake on Aug. 5 and Aug. 6. Festival organizers said they're excited to bring a new lineup of popular country, rock and folk artists from across the country to the festival grounds. There is also the Seeley Lake Duathlon/Triathlon Saturday morning. "We were really happy to bring the festival back this year," said Heidi OBrien, the Lewis and Clark Brewing Marketing Director. "This is now the third festival we've done....
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Jon Tester’s Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA) received a 10-10 tie vote in the Senate Energy and Resource Committee July 21, setting up a future vote to move the bill out to the committee. Senator Steve Daines voted against the bill but said he’s willing to work with Tester to find a compromise. The BCSA adds approximately 80,000 acres of wilderness to the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Mission Mountains Wilderness areas, opens 2,013 acres of currently closed land to snowmobiling and protects 3,835 acres for...
SEELEY LAKE - Carleen Gonder said if she ever writes a memoir, she wants to include a chapter about her time as the crazy lady up Bird Creek. She commandeered the nickname while living in a small cabin in the wilderness of the Ninemile valley. The cabin had no running water or electricity and Gonder and her son relied on kerosene lamps, a wood-burning stove and a nearby river to fetch water. Because they were roughly a mile and a half from any dirt or paved road, her son would hike and cross cou...
SEELEY LAKE - Since Carrie Darrah learned to throw clay on a wheel 17 years ago, she's been obsessed with making pottery. For the last eight years she's sold an assortment of bowls, mugs and soaps at the Seeley Lake Market. "Making pottery looked like a lot of fun, so I went and took a class and got hooked on it," Darrah said. "It just took off from there." Obsession Pottery offers patrons handmade soaps and pottery Darrah makes in Seeley Lake. When she's not selling at the market, Darrah...
SEELEY LAKE - Michelle Brumfield, the manager of Montana Gas N Shop, plans to host a swap meet at the grassy lawn between the convenience store and the Citizens Alliance Bank every weekend for the rest of the summer. Brumfield said the Swap Meet will likely start around 8:30 or 9 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday and end around 4:30 p.m. She hopes it will attract the attention of both the community and people passing through on Highway 83. “I thought it’d be kind of a neat thing for people to pay a little bit of money and put all their stuff the...
SEELEY LAKE - The Clearwater Resource Council (CRC) and the US Forest Service joined the Southwestern Crown Collaborative (SWCC) for a Seeley Field Tour on July 20. The SWCC brings together citizens, businesses, government agencies and conservation organizations to consider creative solutions in the management of National Forests in the Blackfoot, Clearwater and Swan River valleys. SWCC began meeting regularly in July of 2009 in response to the creation of the Collaborative Forest Landscape...
OVANDO - The grizzly bear that fatally mauled cyclist Leah Davis Lokan last summer was likely food conditioned, according to an official Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) Board of Review report on the Ovando grizzly attack. The IGBC reviewed the official report and recommendations at a meeting on Wednesday, July 13 with Fish and Wildlife Grizzly Bear Coordinator Hilary Cooley. Cooley said officials found food and toiletries in and around the tent, along with lingering food scents from...
SWAN VALLEY - Swan Valley Connections hosted their first Landowner Stewardship Fair at Swan Valley Community Hall Saturday, July 16. The event was to welcome both new and longtime residents of the watershed and share information about resources available to support private land stewardship. "We think it's really important to be able to give folks all the information that we possibly can to help them make decisions on managing their properties," said Eli Estey, Swan Valley Connections program...
SEELEY LAKE - This year, Sparrow’s Vine Parenting and Pregnancy Resource Center and the Seeley Lake Community Foundation (SLCF) received a $6,000 grant from Zero to Five Montana and the Montana Cooperative Development Center (MCDC) to help assess child-care needs and provide opportunities for people to apply for child-care licensure in the Seeley Lake community. Zero to Five is a statewide organization that helps coordinate local collaboratives to improve child care for children and families across Montana. Seeley Lake is one of 10 c...
SEELEY LAKE - Donna Hacker discovered her passion for candle-making after learning about it in a Martha Stewart Living magazine in 1998. Over 20 years later, Hacker and her sister Anabelle are selling handmade candles and soaps with their business Tin Shed Candles during the Seeley Lake Market every Sunday. "My mom told me you can paint and sculpt all you want but try to find something that you can make over and over that you might be able to make a living," Hacker said. "So I did and now it's...
SEELEY LAKE - Carol and Jerry Miller's relationship began with a spark. On their first date as students at Ronan High School, the couple and their peers traveled to their rival's home turf of Polson, Montana to vandalize its hillside letter P. Using some tires, the group turned the P into the letter R for Ronan. Then, they lit the tires on fire. "We were never caught," Jerry said wistfully. After the first date, Carol and Jerry were partners for life. After sharing their 60th anniversary on...
MISSOULA - In a meeting on June 28, the Missoula Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) unanimously approved a funding recommendation decision for the Horseshoe Hills Spring Creek Road Maintenance project. Submitted by Jack Rich, owner and guide at the Rich’s Montana Guest Ranch and Outdoor Adventures and the Forest Service, the project focuses on roadside brushing and ditch maintenance to allow and maintain winter trail grooming. Originally owned by Plum Creek, the Seeley Lake Ranger District purchased the Horseshoe Hill Area in the early 2...
SEELEY LAKE- For years, Julie Brown has baked cookies from old recipes her grandma used. Now, Brown and her daughter Kelsey Van Dyke are baking up those recipes for Seeley Lake patrons. "My mom has always been notorious for her cookies," Van Dyke said. "We've always kind of had this idea in our heads to start a little cookie cart at some point. We moved to Montana last year and decided that it would be kind of the perfect time to start." On June 10, Brown and Van Dyke opened their first...
OVANDO - After cycling around 550 miles in eight days for the Tour Divide, Shawn Cheshire and her team took a much-needed rest. While torrents of rain fell outside, they sat on the leather couches and chairs in the lobby of the Blackfoot Commercial Company and Ovando Inn. Cheshire sat on the floor with her back to the wall and her probing cane by her side. She said she was craving a nap. "I didn't expect the weather to be as extreme as it has been," Cheshire said. "I just remember when I could... Full story
MISSOULA- The Missoula Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously on June 23 to approve the Missoula County Community and Planning Services (CAPS) resolution to increase land use fees effective July 1. Missoula County Community and Planning Services (CAPS) assesses fees to applicants to cover the review of new construction and development applications related to subdivision, floodplain, zoning and more. The County adopted the proposal in response to the inflationary increases to the current cost of County project review, along with zoning...
SEELEY LAKE- Seeley-Swan High School student Cheyenne Gifford won the 2022 Loon and Fish Logo Contest. According to Kris Gullikson, the president of the Alpine Artisans Inc. (AAI), Gifford was one of two people who submitted their artwork and the first student to both enter and win the Loon and Fish logo contest. "Her art represented exactly what the Loon and Fish Festival is all about!" Gullikson wrote in an email. "Beautiful art! She's got talent for sure!" For winning, Gifford received $200 a...
SEELEY LAKE- Victoria Crisamore offers Seeley Lake Market patrons and their dogs a variety of handmade crafts every Sunday at her stand "Letti By Design." Crisamore has been selling at the Seeley Lake Market for around six years. Her products include dreamcatchers, beaded and paracord bracelets, dog collars and leashes, and white chocolate-covered dog bones. She said some of her most popular products are dog-related. "I absolutely love dogs," Crisamore said. "Funny enough, when I started doing...
SEELEY LAKE - At their June 13 meeting, the Seeley Lake Community Council reviewed Missoula County Community and Planning Services (CAPS) plans to raise land use fees and listened to a presentation from Trust Montana about their ideas to bring affordable housing to Seeley Lake. CAPS assesses fees to applicants to cover the review of new construction and development applications related to subdivision, floodplain, zoning and more. Without these fees, local taxpayers would cover the cost. According to Karen Hughes, the Assistant Director of...
