The timber industry is an important part of our cultural heritage, according to Dr. Bud Moore, retired Forest Service ranger and operator of this Swan Valley sawmill.
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 start to promote anything in a big way here in the Seeley Swan area, we ought to promote our culture, according to Bud Moore, Condon.
Timber and tourism are nothing new here, as Moore pointed out at the Seeley Lake Area Chamber of Commerce meeting last week. What is new, he explained, is the tremendous push for tourism, and the new 4% bed tax that will more than triple the amount of money available for promoting tourism. The resulting fear among forest managers is that increased tourism will lead to restrictions on logging.
However, Moore sees the presence of both loggers and tourists here as a positive part of our culture.
"We ought to see that as a blessing - not as a problem," he used Alpine Products of Condon as an example, pointing out that the managers there are working hard to utilize the small diameter lodgepole which is so abundant in our woods.
"They are doing something I believe in, and they believe in... and I think every tourist ought to see it!" he exclaimed.
Moore's own experience indicates that people would pay him for the opportunity to come here and spend time in the woods or work around his sawmill. He also pointed to a variety of businesses in the Seeley Swan area that would be attractive to visitors. "We ought to support each other," he added, and people here should promote both timber and tourism. "It's our culture," he said.
Moore is a former Forest Service ranger, present sawmill operator, logger and conservationist. He has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Montana for his work in forestry. He was invited to attend a recent series of quietly held meetings organized by Jeff Macon, chairman of the Economic Task Force in Seeley Lake. Representatives of the timber and tourism industries discussed ways that the two industries have been have been and could continue to be, compatible in our area....
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20 years ago: August 15, 2002 issue
Former superintendent charged in child sexual abuse case
William H. (Bill) Hyde of Seeley Lake was arrested and charged with child sexual abuse in Maryland last week.
Hyde, who served as school superintendent at Seeley Lake Elementary for the past two years, did not renew a contract offered to him for this school year, saying he wanted to pursue a consulting business.
According to an Aug. 10 news story in the Baltimore Sun's Carroll County edition, Hyde was arrested Thursday, Aug. 8, after a day of questioning at the Maryland State Police barracks in Westminster, Maryland. He reportedly had been in the area for a hearing Wednesday on his pending divorce.
Hyde faces charges of sexual contact with a 10-year-old girl in Maryland on July 15 at the home of the girl's family, according to court documents.
Tracy Gilmore, a prosecutor with the Carroll County State's Attorney's office, confirmed news reports of Hyde's arrest on the charge in a telephone call Tuesday.
Hyde, 61, resigned as superintendent of Maryland's largest school district, the 28,000-student Carroll County school system, to become superintendent of the Seeley Lake Elementary School District with just over 200 students two years ago...
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