Articles written by Keely Larson


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  • Valley elementary schools discuss switching to a four-day school week

    Keely Larson, Editor|Mar 28, 2024

    Both Seeley Lake and Swan Valley Elementary School Boards are discussing switching to a four-day school week. A couple nearby schools — Seeley Lake High School and Potomac School being two examples — have adopted the four-day school week schedule, and statewide, as of 2022, 222 schools operate four days a week out of 826 total schools, according to the state Office of Public Instruction. Staff, board members and parents at both elementary schools are weighing the pros and cons of making the switch. Factors like better staff retention and rec...

  • Election information for the Seeley-Swan, few local seats remain open and a new House District for Seeley Lake

    Keely Larson, Editor|Mar 28, 2024

    Ballots this year will include a variety of political representatives for people in the Seeley-Swan Valley to choose from as the calendar rolls closer to primary elections, and some opportunities for people to get involved in local boards or districts. So far, it doesn't look like voters in the Seeley-Swan will have any special district or school board elections to vote in, though the school board candidate filing period is open until March 28. Ballot language for things like levies could also b... Full story

  • Blackhawk wins 300-meter hurdles

    Keely Larson, Editor|Mar 28, 2024

    Seeley-Swan track and field athletes took on the Blue Devil Invitational in Corvallis on March 23. The Blackhawk men and women varsity teams competed in shot-put, discus, javelin, hurdles, the 100-meter dash, high jump, the 1,600 meter dash and a relay race. The Blue Devil Invitational included class A, B and C schools. "When you place in one of those, it's a big deal," Coach Mike Haines said. Coach Haines said the Blackhawk's track and field teams are pretty young, and not as many athletes are...

  • Pyramid Lumber Mill to close, ending 75 years as a family owned business

    Keely Larson, Editor|Mar 21, 2024

    Pyramid Lumber Mill announced on March 14 that it will cease operations and close, ending 75-years in operation as a family-owned business and four generations as Seeley Lake's largest employer. In a press release from the mill, Pyramid Lumber listed labor shortages, lack of housing, rising costs, "plummeting" lumber prices and cost of living in western Montana as factors that "crippeled Pyramid's ability to operate." The company's board of directors and shareholders voted unanimously at their...

  • Seeley Elementary Superintendent to leave following the school year

    Keely Larson, Editor|Mar 21, 2024

    Seeley Lake Elementary School Superintendent Josh Gibbs will step away from his position at the end of this school year. His contract ends June 30. After four years at Seeley Elementary, Gibbs is taking a position as the principal at the high school in Colombia Falls, which he said is a step up in his career, but is also closer to both his and his wife's families in the Flathead area. "I love it here in Seeley Lake and I think the school and the teachers, all the staff, we've made great gains...

  • Dancing is good medicine, Supaman performs in the Seeley-Swan Valley

    Keely Larson, Editor|Mar 21, 2024

    Dressed in traditional regalia with a sound mixer, projector and speakers set up in the Seeley Lake Elementary School gymnasium, Christian Parrish Takes The Gun said good morning to his audience. "Are you happy?" Parrish Takes The Gun, a member of the Apsáalooke tribe, asked. "Yeah!" the Seeley Elementary students replied. "Turn to your neighbor, shake their hand, and say I'm glad you're happy," Parrish Takes The Gun said. A moderately muffled but in-tandem response floated through the...

  • Hearing the 'Hush of the Land,' Smoke Elser and Eva-Maria Maggi discuss their new book, Hush of the Land, chronicling decades of mule packing trips in the Bob Marshall Wilderness

    Keely Larson, Editor|Mar 14, 2024

    A version of this article was first published in Mountain Journal, a digital magazine covering wildlife and wild lands in Greater Yellowstone. Arnold "Smoke" Elser is a storyteller, but he's not a big reader. In his office, tucked into a faded red barn built around 1900 in Missoula, Montana, an entire wall of shelves contains binders and books on wilderness policy and regulations. They're more work than pleasure for Elser; he waves them off with an air of modesty. It's the mules strolling by...

  • Keeping it in the family, Deer Creek Excavating welcomes new owner

    Keely Larson, Editor|Mar 7, 2024

    Marcos Arroyo said there has been a running joke in the Lewis family that he was born to inherit Deer Creek Excavating. "Arroyo" is Spanish for creek, anyway. As of Feb. 20, Arroyo took the helm of Deer Creek Excavating from his father-in-law, Gary Lewis, who took ownership of the company in 1990. Before that, Lewis's brother had the company - then called Wilderness Excavation - for several years. Lewis's father had it as Lewis Excavating prior to that, which was one of two excavating companies...

  • Sharing a wastewater system, pros and cons of a membrane bioreactor in Seeley Lake

    Keely Larson, Editor|Mar 7, 2024

    RV park owners want to share a wastewater system with Seeley Lake and many experts see it as a good option for the town's wastewater challenges. During last month's Seeley Lake Sewer District Board meeting, members heard about a type of wastewater treatment system possible for a new RV park south of Seeley Lake, which was presented as an option for wastewater treatment in Seeley more generally. This system - called a membrane bioreactor, or MBR - has garnered attention in the past couple of...

  • Locals help in Marshall Lake rescue

    Keely Larson, Editor|Mar 7, 2024

    Seeley-Swan Search and Rescue were called to assist an injured snowmobile rider on the evening of Feb. 28. The injured 40-year-old man, along with two other people, were located above Marshall Lake. The injured person was in a “tricky spot,” Karl Zurmuehlen — one of the volunteer responders and owner of Kra-Z’s Snow & Water Powersports Rentals in Seeley Lake — said, but the rescue team, which included volunteers Kurt Friede and David Pitman and Search and Rescue member Kelly Darrow, had 40-plus years of experience riding in the area, so they w...

  • Potomac athlete heads to New York City, from gravel track to Nike stadium

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 29, 2024

    On an overcast day in early February, Potomac School's outdoor track was covered in snow. Cows and horses stood on a property nearby and the sounds of cars whooshing along Highway 200 could be heard a few miles away. Corbin Weltzien crunched footsteps into the snow as he walked out onto the track. He started training on this track in the fifth grade and grinned as he talked about some of its more run down elements. Now a Junior at Hellgate High School in Missoula, Weltzien and five other athlete...

  • Seeley Lake Fire Department welcomes a new volunteer, board discusses response times

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 29, 2024

    The Seeley Lake Fire Department is adding two new volunteers to its ranks and the addition of another paramedic makes it so the department is fully staffed with paramedics during the day at least five days each week. At February's Seeley Lake Fire Board meeting, Fire Chief Dave Lane said over the past couple of months there have not been any responses to filling open volunteer positions. But now the department has received two - one for a firefighting position and one for a chaplain. Michael...

  • Lady Blackhawks take fourth at Divisionals

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 29, 2024

    On a sunny Thursday afternoon, Seeley Lake's Lady Blackhawks were escorted through town in their traveling bus by a fire truck, cop cars, an ambulance and a bunch of waving and cheering elementary school students and faculty. Lined up in the parking lot of the school, students smiled and waved and held signs in support of their older peers heading to Divisional basketball tournaments. The Lady Blackhawks took fourth overall this year. "They finished with a lot of heart," Coach David Cahoon...

  • County school budget cuts fall easier on Seeley-Swan High

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 22, 2024

    Seeley-Swan High School faces significantly less budget cuts than the three Missoula high schools after the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees supported the school district administration’s budget plan. Business Director at Missoula County Public Schools Pat McHugh said the budget cuts are the result of an unfortunate combination of three different things: an anticipated reduction in ESSER funds — or emergency funding given to schools during the Covid-19 pandemic to help maintain staff — inflation; and growing special educa...

  • Seeley Sewer District hears wastewater treatment option, septic system standards discussed at Missoula County Board of Health meeting

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 22, 2024

    The Seeley Lake Sewer Board discussed a model of onsite waste management at a proposed RV park in Seeley Lake, which could serve as a model for the broader community. Quarterly monitoring well data was presented and the Sewer Board approved efforts by Missoula County to monitor nitrate levels monthly. Continued frustrations regarding the transparency of public process surfaced at a Missoula County Board of Health meeting regarding Seeley Lake’s septic system future on Feb. 15, the same day as the Sewer Board’s meeting. At the county mee...

  • A broken bridge changes Snow Joke course

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 22, 2024

    On the first day of February, the 2022 UltraRunner of the year was walking along Highway 83 in Seeley Lake. Adam Peterman, who won the 100-miler Western States Endurance Run in California and the World Trail Championship in Thailand in 2022 and who is a member of Run Wild Missoula, had just finished test running the new course for the Snow Joke Half Marathon - a 13.1 mile race held on Feb. 24 in Seeley Lake. Trisha Drobeck, executive director of Run Wild Missoula - a nonprofit devoted to...

  • Lady Blackhawks win District basketball tournaments

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 22, 2024

    The Seeley-Swan High School Women's Basketball team won the District basketball tournament and will advance to Divisonals. The Lady Blackhawks will play their first game in the Divisional tournament on Feb. 22 at 5 p.m. against White Sulphur Springs in Frenchtown. The men's team did not advance to Divisonals. "We came out in that first game. We were pretty nervous, and the girls did a good job staying calm," Coach David Cahoon said. Cahoon said it was a "huge experience" for the women's team to...

  • Swan Valley Connections welcomes new leadership

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 15, 2024

    After seven years as its leader, Rebecca Ramsey is stepping down as the executive director of Swan Valley Connections, a nonprofit in the Swan Valley dedicated to conservation and education. The executive director position will be broken into thirds, welcoming Luke Lamar, Sara Lamar and Ty Tyler into leadership roles focused on different elements of the executive director position, like conservation, operations, education, board management and fundraising. The Pathfinder reached out to the...

  • Funding approved for Clearwater Park upgrades

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 15, 2024

    Missoula County Commissioners approved funding on Feb. 8 for improvements to the Seeley Lake Lions Park, or the Clearwater Park. Missoula County will provide $4,103 — the amount requested by the Lions Club encompassing the cost of materials — which will be matched by the Lions Club using money, volunteer efforts and donations. The match does not have to be a complete cash match. The total project cost is $8,223. “The Seeley Lake community has consistently supported the Lions Club’s efforts to maintain the park by generously contributing to vari...

  • Rosendale enters the Senate race

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 15, 2024

    Matt Rosendale officially announced his candidacy for U. S. Senate on Feb. 9. The current Republican representative for Montana’s second congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives will be up against Republican Tim Sheehy — former Navy SEAL and founder of Bridger Aerospace, a firefighting company based in Belgrade — in the primaries. The winner of that race will be on the general election ballot against longtime Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester. Montana’s Senate President Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, and Speaker of the Hou...

  • Handmade trails, Lack of snow doesn't stop Seeley's Biathlon

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 8, 2024

    Under a sky threatening rain, Chris Lorentz was explaining to some Seeley Lake Elementary students what they were about to do. Tuesday before the Seeley Lake Biathlon on Feb. 3, Lorentz set up targets on the Seeley Creek Nordic Ski Trails and Friday the students were given a preview. "These are our local kids," Lorentz, race director of the Seeley Lake Biathlon, said. "I don't mind giving them a little bit of an edge." On Tuesday, the snow was thin, but Lorentz was confident in pulling off the...

  • Glacier Country Tourism hosts public meeting in Seeley, Tourism pros and cons discussed

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 8, 2024

    On Jan. 31, about 30 people including Seeley Lake residents, nonprofit representatives and Missoula County government officials gathered in the cafeteria at Seeley Lake Elementary School to discuss the town's struggles and suggestions regarding tourism in the area. Glacier Country Tourism — recognized by the state of Montana as the official marketing and management organization for western Montana — started developing its destination stewardship plan in response to the covid-19 pandemic in 2021. Racene Friede, president and CEO of Glacier Count...

  • Last week in the season, Seeley basketball looks to District

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 8, 2024

    Before the last week of the regular basketball season, the Seeley-Swan Blackhawks saw victories against Victor and Phillipsburg over the weekend, along with a forfeit for the men's team on Saturday against Granite High School in Phillipsburg. Against Victor on Friday night, the women's team won 59-13, and the men took it away with 46-18. Men's basketball coach Michael Haines said the team played good defense, but the "offense just wasn't clicking." He said he hopes that comes around for...

  • Snowball keeps it all local

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 8, 2024

    This year’s Snowball Dinner, a fundraiser for Scenic Montana Trails, was all about local businesses, sponsors, prizes and keeping dollars in the community. “Bottom line is our Snowball was a great success from pretty much every angle,” Tom Stanley, secretary of Scenic Montana Trails, said. Scenic Montana Trails buys fuel locally, as many parts as it can to fix any machinery locally and it pays groomers who live locally. “By and large, most of this money stays local in our effort to improve the recreational trails in the greater Seeley Lake area...

  • Race to the Sky canceled, Lack of snow leads to third cancellation in the race's 38 years

    Keely Larson, Editor|Feb 1, 2024

    Montana's Race to the Sky, a sled dog race winding from Lincoln to Condon and back in either 100 or 300 mile distances, has been canceled this year due to lack of snow and out of consideration for the safety of mushers and their dogs. The race has only been canceled two other times in its 38-year history - once in 2021 because of the covid-19 pandemic and once in 2005 also because of lack of snow and icy conditions. Pam Beckstrom, Race to the Sky board member and volunteer since 1986, said it's...

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