Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 295
SEELEY LAKE - Stevensville artist Trinity Gibson offers a unique pairing of hand puppets and jewelry at her Seeley Lake Market stand. This is her third year working as a merchant for the market, having skipped last year because of COVID-19. Gibson has been making beaded and charmed jewelry for roughly 22 years. "When I was pregnant with my son, my sister-in-law sent me a little bag of beads to keep me busy because we were new in a town far, far away from home," she said. "I just fell in love...
SEELEY LAKE - Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) Bear Specialist Jamie Jonkel said a medium “dark phase” black bear has recently been breaking into around 10 different vacant trailers at night in the Seeley Lake area. FWP is working on trapping the bear and removing it upon capture. The bear has been seen as far north as the northern turnoff to Boy Scout Road and as far south as Double Arrow. Since it does not stay in one area long, the bear has been difficult to pinpoint. It has learned to unlock camper doors by peeling the bottom of the...
SEELEY LAKE - The Bob Marshall Music Festival returned for its fifth year after taking a year off due to COVID-19. Max Pigman, Lewis and Clark Brewing Company CEO and one of the festival owners, said his second year as festival owner went well. "It was just a really, really fun event and we lucked out with the weather," he said. "I would say [this was] the highest attendance that I've seen in those ... previous years." Attendance was capped at 1,000 people. Pigman said they had 943 check-ins...
SWAN LAKE - For generations the Swan Lake community has celebrated art, music and food through their annual Huckleberry Festival. This year's iteration will take place Saturday, Aug. 14 marking the event's 40th anniversary. Since its beginning in 1981, the festival has taken place on the second Saturday of August in the Swan Lake Day Park near mile marker 72 on Highway 83. "Whoever picked that date was a genius because we have been blessed every year," said Lesly Olsen, who has been...
SEELEY LAKE - Nearly 50 runners tightened their running laces for the first ever Bob Marshall Trail Half Marathon and 10K Saturday, Aug. 7 at the Seeley Creek Trailhead. The top three finishers for the Half Marathon were Oshen Piller with a time of 1:36:11, Heather Sturdivant with 1:54:37 and Luke Jacobson with 2:01:30. The top three finishers for the 10K were Isabella Clinch with 53:55, Miles Bieber with 56:10 and Jake Kraemer with 58:24. Chris Stout of Wolf Pack Productions, the organization...
SEELEY LAKE - The fifth annual Bob Marshall Music Festival returns as planned to Seeley Lake Aug. 6 and 7. Festival organizers are eager to bring an exciting lineup and plentiful activities including family activities on the Festival Grounds. There is also the Seeley Lake Duathlon/Triathlon and Bob Marshall Trail Half Marathon and 10K Saturday morning. Lewis and Clark Brewing Marketing Director Heidi O'Brien wrote that the festival organizers are going to stick with their original capacity of...
MISSOULA - Seeley Lake Trailblazer Dani Sexton is excited to return to the Missoula County Fairgrounds for the annual Western Montana Fair with her new steer, Hollywood, after last year's event was restrained due to COVID-19. "I'm just ready to show again in front of a bunch of people instead of just the judge like last year," she said. "I really like being around a lot of people and ... going to the carnival at night." Hollywood was born in March 2020 and Sexton bought him in November from Two...
OVANDO - Ovando residents came together in the Ovando School gym Thursday, July 30 to discuss whether the community should decrease the minimum developmental acreage from one to ½ acre in order to allow for more potential housing. Powell County Planning Director Scott Hazelton led the presentation and facilitated the discussion. Overall the community did not support the idea of smaller lot size but was interested in adding other zoning parameters. Hazelton said Powell County's motivation...
CLEARWATER - Missoula County Commissioners and partnered agencies recognized employees at the Clearwater Junction Watercraft Inspection Station Monday, Aug. 2 as part of the statewide Watercraft Inspector Appreciation Week. County staff praised the station staff for their success at preventing aquatic invasive species from spreading in Montana's waters. "Inspection Station Supervisor Lindsey Bona-Eggeman and her team have done an outstanding job of being the first line of defense for our...
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - Incoming Seeley Lake Elementary School seventh grader Walter Shields returned from a five-day excursion to the National Youth Leadership Forum: Pathways to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) earlier in July. He participated in informational sessions about engineering, crime scene investigations and "small medical procedures." According to Envision Experience, the organization behind the program, the forum is hosted in over 20 major cities across the U.S....
SEELEY LAKE - Residents and visitors came together Saturday, July 31 to participate in Clearwater Resource Council's second annual Make the Cut Invasive Waterlily Removal Event. Participants competed to cut and bag as many waterlilies as they could within the span of a few hours. In total those involved collected 37 bags equaling 850 pounds of waterlilies, a couple hundred more than the previous year. According to CRC Executive Director Caryn Miske, waterlilies are "prolific" and push out other...
SEELEY LAKE - Local artist Terri Townsend sells just about any "useful item" made out of fabric at her Undafoot Creations stand in Seeley Lake Market. Some of her products include baby clothes, potholders, purses and reusable grocery bags. A product's final form is predetermined by whatever fabric Townsend has to work with and how much she has at her disposal. This is her sixth year working as a merchant for the market. She has previously participated in Missoula's Farmers Market but this year s...
SWAN VALLEY - Young adults of the Salish, Kootenai and Blackfeet Tribes have been helping with forest restoration efforts in the Swan Valley since mid-June through the Mission Mountains Youth Program. Their service will conclude at the end of July. This is the program's first year of existence. Program Leader Tim Ryan said his niece Marlee Ostheimere, from the National Forest Foundation, approached him to establish the program. He was inspired by another youth organization he was involved with...
SEELEY LAKE – On Friday, July 23, representatives of Clearwater Resource Council and the Department of Natural Resources led local homeowners on a tour through Double Arrow to describe what fuel mitigation methods they can take on their properties. CRC President Jon Haufler said fuel mitigation efforts are intended to reduce ladder fuels. Ladder fuels create continuity in the fuels for fire to spread from the surface into the tree crowns, creating a much more intense fire. By removing flammable...
SEELEY LAKE - Since early last week, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) Bear Specialist Jamie Jonkel said that he has received multiple reports showcasing bears with "extreme food conditioned behavior" in the Seeley Lake area. One is a small, dark black bear that was seen entering two homes in the Double Arrow area twice. Another medium, cinnamon-phase black bear had been seen in the Big Larch, Lake Alva and Lake Inez campgrounds. Jonkel said FWP set two culvert traps on a Double Arrow...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Elementary School Board unanimously approved a resolution allowing the public sale of the school’s surplus property during their regularly scheduled meeting Monday, July 19. They also approved new teachers, discussed curriculum upgrades and planned for next year. The extra supplies being offered to the public included file cabinets, TV monitors, computer monitors, tables and chairs. For a full list see the classifieds in this week’s Pathfinder. The items will be distributed in the form of a silent auction Tue...
SEELEY LAKE - Russ Talmo, Defenders of Wildlife program associate, wrapped up Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' bear exclosure project around the The Ice Cream Place's dumpster Friday, July 16. He electrified the fence adding the additional deterrent to hungry bears. The solar-powered electric fence will have a joule strength of 1.5 and will push around 10,000 volts of electricity throughout its wires. According to Talmo, a structure would need at least 6,000 volts to act as a deterrent to...
SEELEY LAKE - A group of Seeley-Swan High School students traveled around 70 miles in 10 days by foot through the Bob Marshall Wilderness as part of their own independent expedition. The group included recent graduate Eric Lorentz and incoming seniors Crystal Lopez, Oskar Murphy, Will Batchelder and his cousin Asa from Sandpoint, Idaho. The group left Sunday, July 4 from Holland Lake and returned Tuesday, July 13 via the Benchmark Creek Trail ending in Augusta. Murphy estimated that they travele...
SEELEY LAKE - Ovando resident LaVonne Jorgenson enjoys the extra income she gets when she sells her homemade pottery and pies as well as her "farm fresh" eggs every Sunday at Seeley Lake Market. Jorgenson gets her eggs from a chicken coop at her home. Jorgenson has been a merchant at the market for 15 years and originally began making pottery in the 1970s. "It looked like fun," she said. She makes cups, bowl sets and pie plates along with other various specialty pieces. She shapes her pieces in...
SEELEY LAKE - Students from the University of Texas at Austin stayed the night at the Seeley Lake Baptist Church Wednesday, July 14 as they made their way back to Texas from Glacier National Park as part of Texas 4000 for Cancer. Texas 4000 is a federally registered non-profit organization founded in 2004. University students participate in the longest annual charity bicycle ride in the world as a way of raising money for cancer research. In previous years participants would ride 4,000 miles...
SEELEY LAKE - Former Bob Marshall Wilderness outfitter Smoke Elser broke down the history and methods of packing during a special outdoor presentation at the Big Larch Campground amphitheater Thursday, July 15. Elser spent over 50 years as a wilderness outfitter in the Bob Marshall and as an instructor in packing, horsemanship and minimal impact camping. He currently lives in Missoula and teaches a packing class at Ninemile Ranger Station in association with the University of Montana. He started...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Elementary School Board unanimously approved the hiring of Aaron Morgenstern of Seeley Lake as the school's new principal and music teacher during their regular meeting Monday, July 12. In addition, they announced the departure of current Board Chair Nathan Richardson, unanimously approved policy updates on second reading and approved the appointment of their new trustee Kitty Logan, a former principal of the school. Missoula County Superintendent Erin Lipkind...
SEELEY LAKE - Snowy Peaks Off Road & Fabrication Owner Dean Ruth is prepared to make any welding or fabrication modifications his customers request with his new automotive customization shop based in Seeley Lake. He works with customers on modifications including suspensions, bumpers, rock rails, roof racks, spare tire mounts, roll cages and lift kits. Ruth specializes in square-body vehicles which he describes as "anything from '73 to '87" as well as 1991. These include crew cabs, blazers,...
SEELEY LAKE - Every Sunday at the Seeley Lake Market, Author Powell Swanser of Turah, Montana sells his first book, "John Colter Young Patriot," in addition to a knife set and aquatic creature carvings. This is his second year being a merchant at the market. Swanser said he is a direct descendant of Colter. Colter was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the first known person of European descent to enter what would become Yellowstone National Park and to see the Teton Mountain Range....
EDNA, CALIFORNIA - Seeley-Swan High School graduate Kyle Peltier is over halfway through his multi-month journey hiking along the west coast on the Pacific Crest Trail. He began his trek April 11. As of Friday, July 16 he has arrived in Edna, California. Within a few days he will have completed 60% of the 2,600 mile trail. For the last three months, Peltier has made his way through the entire state of California. Once he reaches Oregon he will have 900 miles left to his end goal of the Canadian...
