Students tour wood carving playground in Seeley Lake

SEELEY LAKE – Since Jim Haueter started wood carving over 10 years ago, his five acres of land on Double Arrow Ranch transformed into five acres of colorful wooden birds, bears and famous cartoon characters. For years, it attracted the attention of both passing locals and tourists. Now it's a wood-carving playground for Ovando School Students, who for the first time got to visit Haueter's land on May 23. 

Haueter took the students on a tour across the grounds, explaining the process of carving, painting and oiling some of his most famous wood statues. While this was the first time the students visited, Haueter worked with Ovando School this year to teach them how to carve comfort birds. He said he hopes the tour will inspire students.  

"I think it'll give them a good hobby," Haueter said. "I have retired, I worked for years, I've never really had a hobby. It's kind of nice to just develop it early on." 

After working as a businessman in Minnesota for most of his career, Haueter wanted a hobby. When a bark beetle outbreak killed most of the trees on his land, he decided to pick up woodcarving. Using the dead logs and a chainsaw, he carved his first iconic character Pinocchio. 

Since his first creation, Haueter's carved everything from Captain America to Daffy Duck to Jabberjays. He's also become more involved in the local community. 

After his wife passed away in 2018, Haueter signed up to be an RSVP volunteer for the Missoula Aging Service. He worked with 13 seven and eight year olds at Seeley Lake Elementary two years ago, spending a few hours a week leading reading or math centers, working on sight words and helping with art activities. 

This year, he visited Ovando School to teach students how to carve birds. After carving, the students painted them, oiled them, then took them home. Andrea Tougas, Ovando School's supervising teacher, said she thinks integrating these kinds of activities in school is important for students and hopes Haueter will return to teach again in Ovando. 

"Art appreciation and creativity and seeing the ability to take something and turn it into something else is a vital part of education," Tougas said. "You can't learn that in a textbook." 

Because of the bad spring weather and a recent trip to Arizona, Haueter said he hasn't gotten a chance to carve much before summer, but that he has his eyes set on something beyond this world like E.T. He said he got the idea after seeing a big statue of E.T. and thinks carving will be fairly easy. Ovando school students also provided Haueter with ideas for future projects like the comic-book character Wolverine, a hungry beaver and a fully plucked Thanksgiving turkey. 

Haueter said he's happy with how many ideas the students came up with and hopes to continue to teach. 

"They sure have a whole lot of energy," Haueter said. "It's refreshing for old folks to see all that energy and enthusiasm and interest. They throw a lot of stuff at them and they take it all in stride." 

 

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