In The News

The old log building that stands at the corner of Highway 83 and Glacier Creek Road has been Swan Valley’s Community Hall for the past 84 years. Built from 1938-39, this treasured building is widely used as a central gathering place and is the cornerstone of our community. The Swan Valley Community Hall is located on land that once had...

Whether by natural lightning or by human hands, the landscape in Swan Valley has been shaped by fire. Only in the past hundred years or so have there been organized, concentrated efforts to suppress forest fires. During the historic forest fire of 1910, over three million acres burned in the course of a few days...

 If you were to look at a map of the Mission Mountains 100 years ago, you would see a lot of blank space. Except for verbal descriptions and sketches shared by the early-day Native people, priests, trappers, hunters, and prospectors, the Mission Mountains were, for the most part, uncharted at that time. McDonald Peak was was one of the few mountains named on the early maps...

 If the early history of Seeley Lake is intertwined with the lumber industry, the rise of the United States Forest Service is incontrovertibly intertwined...

 I had brought the pack string out of the Little Salmon just before the start of hunting season in about 1971 or so and had stopped at what was called...

 Many unforeseen changes have unfolded in our local communities since the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services announced...

The Stark House, built by hand along with its furniture by John Stark, will be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places...

 The Montana History Foundation (MHF) announced its 2020 grant cycle will put $164,800 into 29 historic preservation projects in 27 communities...

Margaret MacDonald visited her Aunt Isabelle and Uncle Dr. Robert Gordon in August 1905 at the Gordon Ranch. In a letter to her mother, Margaret eloquently... 

Gifford Pinchot, who later became chief of the U.S. Forest Service, was working for the National Forest Commission in 1896...  In the previous installment of  the series, they had arrived at Skunk Prairie...

 In the previous installment of the series, they had prepared to cross the Swan River after realizing they may have been presumed drowned. "I kept the forward end of the raft upstream...

 In the previous installment of the series, they had used deer carcasses for bait and shot a bear. "I was using the .30 caliber...

 In the previous installment of the series, they had finally located the deserted cabin, baked biscuits from the flour they found, and killed two deer.,,

 In the previous installment of the series, they had failed to reach a deserted cabin where they could find flour, and they had been unlucky hunting bear...

 In this installment of the series, they had arrived at a cabin inhabited by a trapper named Wood, who sent them on their way with venison and a sketch map to a deserted cabin where they could find flour...

 Neil Meyer, longtime Salmon Prairie resident, said that making a living as a logger in the early days was hard work in the Swan Valley. He shared stories about...

"In the course of work on the National Forest Commission, I camped last summer, on the shore of Swan Lake, through which passes on the tributaries of the Flat Head River...

In 1896, Gifford Pinchot, who later became the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, traveled through the Swan Valley inspecting this region of Montana...

 Neil and Dixie Meyer of the Swan Valley received the Montana Good Neighbor Award presented by the Governor's Office. The Meyers posing with Montana Governor Steve Bullock and their award.