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At an April 5 meeting in Missoula, various parties interested in purchasing Pyramid Mountain Lumber — Seeley Lake’s largest employer, which announced its closure on March 14 — gathered to learn about potential funding mechanisms available for buying the mill and modernizing its operations. A couple of options emerged as paths forward: the mill could be purchased and modernized — costing somewhere upwards of $40 million, the low-end of the current estimate — or employees, loggers and various land owners could form a cooperative. Like many, whe...
For the first time in 12 years, Swan Valley School in Condon is presenting voters with two levies to vote on. A combination of factors like rising costs, increased need for technology to support education, a drop in enrollment and the loss of ESSER funds — money provided during the covid-19 pandemic to support schools — led to a general fund and technology levy to be presented to voters in a special election on May 7. “Our school has navigated the difficulties of staffing needs, the rising costs associated with maintaining a high standard...
April showers bring May flowers, and also, quite likely, some mentally-earmarked spring projects. A handful of local businesses spoke to the Pathfinder about common spring improvement projects, things to keep in mind when embarking on a new project and the importance of septic tank maintenance. Tile and stonework Stan Davis and his wife Lacey, owners of Davis Tile, have been in the tile and stone industry for about 15 years. They started in California and brought their business to Seeley Lake when they moved a year ago. “We looked at the a...
At last weekend's track and field meet in Polson, Sophomore Lillian Boyd won the women's varsity 200-meter dash. This was a personal record time for Boyd - 28.57 seconds - and it was one of many PRs for the Blackhawk track and field teams. Coach Mike Haines said there were 24 PRs total throughout the meet. Some of that number did include first-time times. But there were many improvements and it was a warmer meet day, which Haines thought helped. "The kids have been working hard and have pretty...
Swan Valley School is nestled in between the Mission and Swan Mountains and inside Jamie Matthew’s classroom, light from the east-facing windows glows beautifully. The wood on her reading loft seems to stand out in the 3 p.m. sunshine. Students had just been released, and Matthew hugged a former student in the entrance to the school before walking back to her classroom to talk about something she kind of hates talking about — herself. Matthew was designated the Montana Rural Teacher of the Year...
The Seeley Lake Elementary School Board voted unanimously on April 3 to change the school schedule from a traditional five-day school week to a four-day week structure. Starting next school year, the new calendar will include 29.5 hours of instruction each week, with a proposed schedule starting at 7:50 a.m. and going until 3:50 p.m. Per state law, schools are required to provide 1,080 hours of instruction — 720 hours for kindergarten through third grade — over the course of a school year at a minimum. The proposed school year will begin Aug...
Jamie Jima has both lived in Seeley Lake and driven for the Seeley Lake Community Foundation I Ride program for just over a year. In that amount of time, she’s covered 5,000 miles, bringing older community members to Missoula or to the local clinic in Seeley Lake for various medical needs. She started volunteering to meet people and introduce herself to the valley. “I have met lots of interesting women,” Jima said. “Some of the women who have been in this valley are very interesting … They have...
The third season in Montana - construction season - has begun for drivers going to and from Seeley Lake. Montana's Department of Transportation and its contracting partner, Kiewit Infrastructure Company, has begun the last 30% of the Salmon Lake Highway Reconstruction project. Started last summer, the project intends to bring Montana Highway 83 up to current design and safety standards, said Lisa Gray, communications official with MDT's design consultant, HDR, via email. To meet those ends, impr...
More water testing done by the Seeley Lake Sewer District led to a conclusion that nitrate levels in the sewer district are related to human causes, something that has been questioned by the public and backed by the Missoula County Public Health Department for years. Now, the Seeley Lake Sewer District is focusing on moving efforts toward engineering solutions. The announced closure of Seeley Lake’s largest employer, Pyramid Mountain Lumber, one week before the sewer board meeting cast a shadow over the gathering, but some attendees saw the b...
Volunteer-organized Easter egg and treasure hunts brought color, candy and smiles to Seeley Lake and Condon....
The Seeley-Swan Blackhawks competed at the Frenchtown Invitationals in a variety of track and field events on March 28. Sophomore Lillian Boyd qualified for State discus throwing 124.6 feet. To qualify, an athlete must throw at least 108 feet. Derrick Brovold, also a sophomore, got close to State javelin, throwing 132.5 feet but needing to hit 153. Sophomore Kilty Hanson needed to jump 16 feet and two inches in the long jump to qualify for State and in Frenchtown she clocked in at 15.7.75, also...
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...
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
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 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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
