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MISSOULA – The discrimination lawsuit against Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS) was dismissed last week. In February 2022, MCPS filed a request for summary judgment to dismiss the suit brought against Seeley-Swan High School (SSHS) and MCPS by Owen Mercado and his mother Deidre Lechowski-Mercado in January 2021. The plaintiffs sought $2.4 million in damages. Dana L. Christensen, United States District Court Judge for the District of Montana Missoula Division, stated in a brief filed Aug. 15 that the disputed facts need not be reviewed s...
GREAT FALLS - Frances Mae Jorgensen (Fran) Wylder, 91, of Great Falls, passed on Saturday, Aug. 13 at Benefis Grandview Cottages in Great Falls of complications of Alzheimer's disease and COVID-19. Fran was born Aug. 3, 1931 in Great Falls, Montana, the first child of Robert F. and Frances J. Burleigh Jorgensen, both of whom were also born in Great Falls. Fran was raised in Great Falls by her parents, with special help from her aunts Mae Taylor, Zita Burleigh, Marguerite Schaefer, Helen Wellens... Full story
MISSOULA – Seeley-Swan High School 2018 graduate Keaton Johnson grew up around sports and attended the University of Montana Griz Football games. "Certainly growing up, going to the games with my family and my family being passionate about it too, it is ingrained into me now," Johnson said. "They were walking super heroes or legends. You look up to those people." Even though he never played football, Johnson worked his way up with the Griz Football team - from computer work during the week as a...
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...
MISSOULA - BroadbandMT (dba, the Montana Telecommunications Association-MTA) awarded its first annual rural educator stipend to Abby Stitt, fourth/fifth grade teacher at Potomac Elementary School. Stitt will receive $1,500 annually from the MTA's Rural Education Fund for three years. Additionally, Blackfoot Communications is matching MTA's stipend for Stitt for a total of $9,000. MTA represents locally owned, community-based broadband providers serving rural Montana. "MTA's member companies...
OVANDO - “We know that prescribed fire is an important part of the ecosystem here. It makes our plant communities and forests healthier and makes our home safer,” said Steve Kloetzel, landowner. A prescribed burn was done May 21, 2021. It included 80 acres of the Kloetzels’ land, 10 acres of Blackfoot Challenge land and 10 acres of Larry Richardson’s land on Boot Tree Road near Ovando, Montana. “While prescribed burning is often used on public lands to benefit wildlife and reduce fuels, th...
In celebration of 36 years of the Seeley Swan Pathfinder, each week we will run parts of articles that appeared in the issue 35 years ago and 20 years ago. The entire issue will be uploaded to our website seeleylake.com for you to enjoy. We hope you will enjoy the journey with us as we follow our community through the past 36 years as documented by the Pathfinder. 35 years ago: August 13, 1987 issue Promoting our culture Timber, tourism and cottage industries create a unique lifestyle When we st... Full story
SEELEY LAKE – Monday, Aug. 1, the Seeley Swan Pathfinder turned a new page. The weekly publication sold to brothers Jesse Mullen and Lloyd Mullen, owners of Ponderosa Publications, and will be managed by Mullen Newspaper Company. Ponderosa Publications looks forward to continuing to provide a positive environment for community journalism to thrive. The Mullen brothers grew up in the newspaper industry. They worked as delivery boys for Sioux City Journal and began writing stories for the N... Full story
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 – Looking back over his 20 years in the U.S. Navy, Bryce Smith said, "It's such a beautiful collage. There were people from every walk of life and every corner of this country that were just amazing to have spent a piece of my life with." Fueled by an early fascination with aviation and especially the Navy's F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, Smith entered the Navy's Delayed Entry Program while still a senior in high school. Upon graduation in 1998, he fulfilled his promise to enlist in t...
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...
After 1919 and the end of World War I, Montana state government responded to other pressing needs in the wake of the war and provided little immediate assistance to the multi-campus University of Montana. Faculty salaries and the repair and renovation of existing facilities fell to new lows, causing the chancellor and the board to discuss enrollment limits and reductions in instructional staff to deal with the problems. Prior to American entry into WWI, the board had authorized the chancellor... Full story
In both 1993 and 1995, the Department of Geology at the University of Montana did a study called "Cumulative Effects of Domestic Sewage Disposal on Groundwater of Missoula County: An analysis of Carrying Capacity" for the Missoula County Commissioners. The second site that was tested was within the Seeley Lake Water District, directly to the east of Highway 83. One complication they found was, although it was quite densely populated, there weren't many wells since it is in the water district....
DEWEY, ARIZONA - Carol Ann (Cleckner) White peacefully went home to be with our Lord and Savior on June 15 in Dewey, Arizona with her family by her side as her partner and two children held her hands as she took her last breath. Carol was born in Wadsworth, Ohio, Oct. 21, 1947 to Robert and Helen Cleckner. Carol's family moved to Arizona in 1950. Carol attended Sierra Vista Elementary and South Mountain High School. While in school she excelled academically, honor student and quite the popular... Full story
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...
When wildfire smoke billows from its source and lingers in the air, the haze brings coughs and questions for many Montana residents. Among them: How should I interpret air quality ratings? How does smoke affect my indoor air quality? Is it safe to walk my dog or head out for a hike today? Montana Free Press (MTFP) put those questions and others to public health officials and researchers. While the answers are sometimes tricky to navigate - and leave plenty of space for personal choice - the... Full story
OVANDO - The new Region 2 Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Biologist Mike Ebinger was eager to come to the Blackfoot-Clearwater Region when the job opened. The reputation the Blackfoot area has as a leader for community-based collaboration on stewardship issues caught his attention. He replaces Scott Eggeman, who left FWP in fall 2021. Ebinger said time spent hunting and fishing while growing up in Michigan, coupled with an affinity for animals, guided him to study Resource Ecology in college....
The enormity and beauty of Flathead Lake has captured the imagination of Montana residents for generations. As the largest freshwater lake in the western U.S. (outside of Alaska), it's no surprise that people have been asking and trying to answer questions about this body of water for a very long time. Flathead Lake Biological Station, located on the lake's east side, is the second-oldest research station in the U.S. Perched on the peninsula of Yellow Bay, the biological station consists of 60...
SEELEY LAKE – The results from Montana Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest (BNC) are in and the Seeley Swan Pathfinder continues to be recognized as an award-winning newspaper. The Pathfinder received 14 Division 1 awards including seven first place awards. Division 1 encompasses weekly newspapers with a circulation of 1,250 or less. Though many of the awards for articles and photos were earned by Pathfinder owners Andi and Nathan Bourne, reporter Henry Netherland also garnered s...
SEELEY LAKE – As has been the tradition for the past 18 years, music directors from across Montana gathered at Camp Paxson for the annual Montana Bandmasters Association (MBA) Rendezvous June 20-23. Not only is the four-day schedule jam packed with hands-on and technical educational sessions, it also affords a relaxed atmosphere that fosters relationship building, networking and an opportunity to unwind. The idea for the Rendezvous was birthed 19 years ago. Now retired Swan Valley School and S...
Missoula Aging Services announced that it will be hosting weekly Medication Review appointments in partnership with the University of Montana Skaggs School of Pharmacy. The hour-long appointments will be with both a UM Pharmacy student and a supervising licensed pharmacist and will be available Wednesday and Thursday afternoons beginning Wednesday, June 29 through Wednesday, Aug. 31. The appointments will be held at the Missoula Aging Services office located at 337 Stephens Avenue, Missoula. Kat...
HELMVILLE – While running across America, Greg Nance passed Helmville on Highway141 June 27 and spent the night in Seeley Lake. During an impromptu interview near the Highway 141 and Highway 200 junction, Nance shared his life passions and motivation for the adventure. Beginning in Long Island, New York City April 25, Nance aims to finish July 17 at Ocean Shores, Washington. The journey is planned to take 85 days, running an average of 38 miles a day. "Being naturally hard-headed and liking t...
SLFF Movie Night, July 9 SEELEY LAKE – Join the Seeley Lake Fire Foundation for their bi-monthly Movie Night July 9 at the Fire Station, 200 Firehouse Drive. They will be showing “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.” Come enjoy hot dogs for dinner, popcorn and ice cream starting at 4:30 p.m. Movie starts at 5:30 p.m. Bring a comfy pillow and blanket for the kiddos and hope to see you there. Free Caregiver Workshop Do you take care of someone with memory loss and live in a rural area? Have recent months left you stressed and isolated? The U...
