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Showcasing a real-life project where the Colt Fire and a forestry management unit interacted was the purpose of a tour held Tuesday, Sept. 26 on the burn area. Attendees included regional Forest Service, DNRC and BLM personnel plus members of the Montana Forest Action Advisory Council. "Fire doesn't stop at fence lines and property boundaries, and forest and fire management shouldn't either," said Quinn Carver, Lolo Forest Service district ranger. "We always get more done working together than...
I want to thank the Missoula County Commissioners and their staff for coming to Seeley Lake on Sept. 18 to talk about the future of this town and our “vision for the community.” The Seeley Lake Community Hall was packed, and County Commissioners heard from almost 100 residents that they care about the future of this place and valley and want to keep it clean, safe and community oriented. Commissioners and staff sat at tables to hear the concerns and dreams of residents for this place, and, at least, at my table, the most recurring theme was...
The Seeley Swan High School Volleyball Team has hit its stride during the midsection of the season, winning five games in a row and sitting 4-2 in conference play. The team is also 8-3 overall - one of the better records in Class C Volleyball The Blackhawks played three games last week, taking a three set victory against Superior High School, a five set victory over Lincoln High School and a three set victory at home against St. Regis. The team has handedly defeated other regional schools, but...
The Swan Valley Community Council went over emergency preparedness tips, concerns over electricity in the community building and heard from a candidate running for Condon’s state senate district, which will not be the same as Seeley Lake this year. John Hallman with Swan Valley Emergency Services kicked off the Sept. 19 meeting with a new program to share safety tips for the public. Last week, he discussed basic facts of the department. Hallman said the volunteer medical and fire department currently has 33 members. The department looks over M...
SEELEY LAKE RESIDENTIAL SALES FAST FACTS Thus far in 2023, there has been a total of 27 homes sold, which is behind the pace of the 45 total homes that sold in 2022. The number of homes for sale has continued to rise as sales have slowed not only in our area but throughout Montana. All markets have seen increases in inventory, price reductions and increasing days on the market. In the past year, the average home price in Seeley Lake rose slightly from $575,000 to $582,200. The average home...
Condon, MT – Community Firewood Day has lived up to its name by becoming a staple in locals' calendars each October. Swan Valley Connections celebrates the small-but-mighty populus of Condon (a mere 350 people) by hosting an annual volunteer event to provide firewood for people in need in the area. For the last 22 years, Community Firewood Day has provided an average of 20 households with one or more truckload(s) of firewood, delivered and stacked as the resident requests. Volunteers gather at t...
The whispers of "Heads up, something special is going to happen at the beginning of the rodeo," floated around the grandstands, building suspense for the opening of the 59th Helmville Rodeo. Following the presentation of the Montana and Armed Forces flags, Bonnie Weaver, rodeo club secretary and Bill Baker, Rodeo Club president carried the American Flag to the center of the freshly groomed arena. Lily Boyd, a Seeley-Swan High School student from Condon climbed onto a barrel and prepared to...
A new request from Lolo National Forest would open roughly 22,000 acres of federal land to commercial timber harvesting, fuels reduction and road decommissioning, with the main goal of clearing dead and infected trees to prevent wildfires and beetle kill. Similar projects have been completed on the west side of Highway 83. While parts of the treated forest burned during the Colt Fire, Seeley Lake District Ranger Quinn Carver attested that the active management stunted the fire and kept it from...
The Seeley-Swan Volleyball Team enjoyed a 3-0 set victory over Lincoln on Sept. 6, dominating the play in front of a loud home crowd. Blackhawks Volleyball entered the game 1-2, with all three games going on the road. The Lincoln game was originally scheduled Aug. 31, but an illness with the team caused both sides to reschedule. "We were transitioning, we were talking, we just had energy," head coach Janelle Greenwood said. The team is starting fresh this year, as no starters returned from last...
On August 19, 2023, Mallory Swirka and Bobby Gressle wed at the Double Arrow Lodge. Both Mallory and Bobby reside and work in Denver. She is a nurse practitioner and he is in film production. The couple is grateful to all the family and friends who gathered from near and far to celebrate their marriage and enjoy a wonderful Montana weekend. The Gressle family has a home on homestead property in the Swan and Bobby’s great, great grandmother’s cabin is the homestead exhibit at the Upper Swan Valley Historical Museum. The formal photographs wer...
Parents across the Seeley-Swan and Blackfoot Valleys got a sigh of relief last week as the 2023-2024 school year officially kicked off. With more than 250 students in Seeley, Condon, Potomac and Ovando, some new faces and projects will mark what educators hope will be a successful semester. Seeley Swan High School, Swan Valley School and the Helmville School were too busy teaching to comment for this story by press time. Seeley Lake Elementary Students are returning back to Seeley Lake Elementary with a big list of items for the fall,...
It was a cold, rainy June back in the 70s when I and other members of the Rustics log home company assembled the logs for what would become the Hungry Bear Restaurant in Condon. Many fond memories since—I brought my now wife Pam there in 1982 to show the city girl Montana, only to have my Rustics coworker Tuffy Anderson say “I like her better than the last one you dragged in here.” The Hungry Bear has endured the many decades with different owners, a significant expansion, and evolving gastronomic emphases. Current owners Rick Medeiros and Deb...
Last winter several Seeley Lake area residents concerned about bear activity and conflicts met with local conservation groups, wildlife agencies, bear specialists, and biologists. We wanted to know how to best tackle bear population issues, sparking the formation of a local working group. This is the first of several articles that will introduce the community to the group. Why are we called the Clearwater Valley Bear Smart Working Group? With bear issues being served by Swan Valley Connection and Blackfoot Challenge, we realized the Clearwater...
Twenty Years Ago Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003 Theatre camp tucked away on other side of Salmon Lake offers fun time Tucked away on the other side of Salmon Lake, there's a camp that allows kids to laugh, play, learn and be creative - It's called Aunt Kat's Theatre Camp. Kathleen Vosburgh (Aunt Kat) and her husband, bought the cabins and 10 acres on Salmon that fulfilled Aunt Kat's dream to provide kids with a safe, natural outdoor setting to write, create backdrops and act in their own play. This...
Ten years ago, Renee Kay dreamed about working with her family in Seeley Lake, often eyeing The BBQ Pit as she drove through town to her family's land in Condon. This summer that dream has come true: Kay and her family reopened The BBQ Pit this August, and plan to usher in a new era by staying open later into the year and offering community events like a family movie night. "If you showed me what we were doing back (10 years ago), I would have renewed hope on a lot of aspects about myself," Kay...
Twenty Years Ago Thursday, August 28, 2003 Weather is a blessing...high in the Mission Mountains Wilderness By Gary Noland An earlier invitation to take photos on the front line at the Crazy Horse Fire hadn't taken into consideration that rains late Friday and Saturday morning would make possible a break in fire activity and action. So even though the only action was high in the Mission Mountains Wilderness west of Lindbergh Lake, we trekked as fas as our energy allowed and found some hand...
The final outcome of the Holland Lake Lodge could still be years away, but Forest Service officials in Washington D.C have joined the process in deciding the future of the resort. Representatives from the nonprofit Save Holland Lake told members of the public at the Swan Valley Community Council on Aug. 15 that questions submitted by Save Holland and the public have been routed to the Forest Service national headquarters. With new development looming, the council also started the process of...
The Missoula County Sheriff's Office reserves three deputy jobs for the Seeley-Swan Valley, but since May just one officer lives in the area full-time, and sometimes there is no law enforcement on patrol. With the high price of housing, there's a chance that there will be no resident sheriff deputies in the future, although there will always be patrol cars in the area, according to Missoula County Sheriff Jeremiah Petersen. The sheriff's office hopes to hire a second Seeley Lake deputy from its...
For thousands of years, members of the Salish Tribe would cross the Mission Mountains into Lindbergh Lake - what they called Long Ridge Trail - and up Holland Creek to reach hunting grounds in the Bob Marshall and Rocky Mountain Front. The story weaved with countless others as the chair of cultural and language studies at Salish Kootenai College Tim Ryan connected with the past practices of Indigenous groups that lived across western Montana during the annual talk at the Upper Swan Valley...
Country music, a dunk tank and food trucks drew a crowd of almost 300 to the Blackfoot Challenge's block party Aug. 11 in downtown Ovando. Seth Wilson, executive director, welcomed everyone to the celebration of 30 years of partnerships, friendships and conservation. The Blackfoot Challenge was formed in 1993 following conservation efforts from the 1970s to build partnerships with public agencies. Early on, participants focused on working together to accomplish public access goals. In the '70s...
Despite near-record breaking temperatures in the Seeley-Swan Valley, any growth on the Colt Fire has been stifled over the last few days and little activity is expected as cooler temperatures come into the region. The Colt Fire sat at 7,154 acres as of Aug. 19, a decrease of about 50 acres from earlier estimates in the week. Containment has shored up to 51%, with hand line and heavy machine line around most of the fire. Fire crews have continued to mop up areas where there is residual heat....
Twenty Years Ago... Thursday, August 14, 2003 Wildlife well adapted to Montana Firestorms By Mike Thompson Hi, I'm NOT Johnny Cash, but we who live in Missoula are in a ring of fire this week. I've already fielded several questions from folks wondering how wildlife survives these live events. So, before you become weary of reading about fires this season, I thought I would offer a little information on the subject from the scientific literature. Back in 1988, when the Canyon Creek fire was...
Fire crews across western Montana saw minimal fire growth last week, but August will roar to life this week with record-setting temperatures across the Rocky Mountains. The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for the Seeley Swan Valley from 11 a.m. Aug. 15 to 11 a.m. Aug 17. Temperatures in Seeley Lake are expected to be 95 degrees on Aug. 16 and 94 degrees on Aug. 17 - both on track to beat records set in 2003 and 1967, respectively. With the hot weather, fire conditions will...
The Swan Valley Elementary School Board voted unanimously to approve its school budget for the 2023-2024 school year on Aug 8. With higher taxes on the area, Business Manager Heather Mincey said school taxes will be spread across more people. The general fund stands at $435,576, compared to $402,435 last year. Most of the increase came in the technology sector, which has grown with the need for computers. The total budget stands at $667,164.46. Other funds, like the building reserve, have also increased with help from state grants and...
Almost 100 years ago, hoards of out-of-state visitors climbed on trains to visit Seeley Lake for its downhill skiing along the Double Arrow Ranch. The hill, one of the first in Montana's history, recently got a touch up with new signs showing the past adventurers who once came to Seeley Lake just for the rope tow. Children of ski hill creator Bob Manchester joined to see the legacy their family has brought to the area. "It was the thing to do before World War II," said Kenny Manchester, son of...
