The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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Lincoln was awash in off-highway vehicles last weekend as people took advantage of nice weather and back to back rides here during the long Memorial Day weekend. The weekend kicked off with the annual Memorial Day Weekend ATV Fun Run, hosted this year by Bushwackers. The Fun Run, which traditionally has served as the first major event of the summer season, was complemented this year by a new event: the Blackfoot Valley Optimist's Scavenger Hunt. The idea for the scavenger...
At the Lincoln American Legion Post 9 Memorial Day observance, Doug Vulcan told the story of the red poppy, memorialized in Lt. Col John McCrae's 1915 poem 'In Flanders Field' and how it became the Official flower of the American Legion in memory of the fallen. He told of Moina Belle Michael, who penned 'We Shall Keep the Faith' a poem in response to McCrae. She created the tradition of wearing poppies with a pledge "to KEEP THE FAITH and always to wear a red poppy of...
After a coronavirus-related hiatus last year, an abridged Tour Divide once again brought cyclists racing down the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route through the Blackfoot Valley, en route to the Mexican border. With the Canadian border still closed and travel restrictions still in place for many countries due to COVID-19, this year's Tour is a 2450-mile, border-to-border race called the Great Divide Classic. About 300 miles shorter than the regular Tour Divide, it follows the Gr...
"There's a lot going on, for sure, but I'm excited," Rob Gump, the new Lincoln District Ranger, told the BVD last Wednesday. Gump, a U.S. Forest Service veteran, took over from Acting Ranger Tory Kendrick last week and is still settling into the job, and he's looking forward to getting to know both the district and the community of Lincoln. "Lincoln is...from the Forest Service side, a quintessential district. It's that place that has all those things you really enjoy working...
OVANDO –The long Fourth of July weekend came to a tragic end early Tuesday morning after a grizzly bear attacked and killed an adult female cyclist who was camping in downtown Ovando near the Brand Bar Museum. Powell County Sheriff Gavin Roselles said his office received word of the attack at one of the in-town campsites at 3:30 a.m. Roselles couldn't provide detailed information about the victim, pending notification of her family, but confirmed she was traveling with o...
A young grizzly bear spotted in Lincoln Sunday afternoon caused some alarm on social media, but it apparently headed back to the Blackfoot River without incident. A Facebook post by Brandi Langlois indicated the bear had crossed her yard on Meadow Street on the west side of Lincoln and was headed toward town. Lincoln Fire Chief Zach Muse attempted to locate the bear, but it had apparently gotten spooked and headed back south to the Blackfoot River without making its way into...
This year, with COVID-19 restrictions lifted across Montana, the Fourth of July events returned to communities across the state this weekend, but the competition didn’t seem to do much to dampen Lincoln’s busiest weekend. Although there is no confirmed count of the number of visitors who arrived in town for the annual Independence Day Parade, which coincides with the first day of the Lincoln Rodeo, downtown Lincoln was awash with visitors, who lined Main Street from First Ave...
Although it was the last major point of discussion at Lincoln Government Day, an update on the progress of the Dalton Mountain Road Bridge replacement was a key subject during the Aug. 2 meeting. Montana Department of Transportation District 3 Administrator Jim Wingerter and Jimmy Combs, the District 3 pre-construction engineer were on hand for the meeting, to hear concerns about local MDT efforts, as well as to provide their perspective. The Dalton Mountain Bridge has been a...
Work on the new $315,000 bridge on Poorman Creek was completed last week and Lewis and Clark County Engineer Dan Karlin and Karl Yakawich with Great West Engineering did a final walk through of the bridge Friday morning. Although some minor touch ups around the bridge still need to be completed, the bridge was opened for use and the traffic control signage came out earlier this week...
After forcing the cancellation of last year's Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild programs, COVID-19 is still affecting events planned for this year, through both ongoing concerns about transmission of the disease and an artist's backlog of commissions resulting from 2020's restrictions. While most of the schedule remains unchanged, circumstances led Bently Spang to push his residency back once more, into 2022. Spang, a Northern Cheyenne artist, was originally slated to...
Two small lightning-caused fires near Rogers Pass, July 30, each about an acre in size, were knocked down quickly with water and retardant drops by aircraft. Although the fires were natural and not human caused, they served as a reminder of the high fire danger in the area and came the day before Stage 2 Fire restrictions went into effect throughout Lewis and Clark County at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 31. Based on the recommendation of the Rural Fire Council and Sheriff Leo...
With wildfire smoke lingering in the air across western Montana, and warm, dry conditions across the region pushing fire dangers ever higher, fire restrictions are the order of the day. Tuesday morning, July 27, Lewis and Clark County Commissioners approved a resolution to extend Stage 1 Fire Restrictions to areas west of the Continental Divide effective Wednesday, based on the recommendation of the Rural Fire Council and Sheriff Leo Dutton, who also serves as Fire Warden....
Work on a new bridge over Poorman creek, just below McClellan Gulch is well underway, with the project projected to be complete by about the second week of August. The new bridge replaces a culvert that proved to be undersized during high water and that hampered the migration of native bull trout and cutthroat trout that make their way up Poorman Creek from the Blackfoot River. The new bridge should also help the county with maintenance issues related to the culvert during...
The Lincoln Telephone Company – now known as LincTel - welcomed community members to a public barbecue at Hooper Park Thursday Afternoon, July 22 to celebrate 100 years of telephone service to Lincoln. The laid-back celebration featured plenty of food and activities for the kids, and drew in guests throughout the afternoon. One hundred years ago, when many of the telephones in the state still used barbed wire fences to make calls, the Helena Commercial Club saw the value in r...
A motorcyclist from Ovando died in a single vehicle accident on highway 200 about seven miles west of Lincoln on Saturday evening, July 24. According to the Montana Highway Patrol fatality report, the 59-year-old man, who was not identified, was riding a 2012 Harley Davidson westbound a little after 6 p.m. He drifted off the right side of the road just beyond the Powell County line near mile marker 65. He went down into the ditch and up the other side, where the bike skidded,...
In the wake of a tragic grizzly attack that claimed the life of visiting cyclist Leah Lokan on July 6, Ovando has seen an outpouring of support as it makes plans to ensure nothing like that ever happens again. A retired registered nurse and an avid mountain biker, Lokan, 64, was eight days into a trip along a portion of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route with her sister Kim Lokan and a friend, Katie Boerner. Lokan opted to spend her night in Ovando in her tent, in a camping...
Lincoln saw a busy, loud weekend as the 2021 Lincoln Bike Rally Came to town. Hundreds of bikers spent the weekend here enjoying concerts, poker runs and Lincolns bars, restaurants and businesses. The Bike Rally, hosted by the Tenacious Dames Riding Club, raised money for Lincoln School's POUNCE after school program. "It's been beyond anything we had imagined," Laurie Ricahrds at the Wheel Inn said. "It's been great for the entire town and I think everybody is having a great...
Lincoln Fire Rescue responded to a car fire on Highway 200, a couple hundred yards east of Lone Point Road, Saturday afternoon July 10. No one was injured in the blaze, but a suspected fuel leak destroyed the Jeep Cherokee, which . was fully engulfed in flames by the time Lincoln Fire Chief Zach Muse arrived, just three minutes after receiving the page. Muse said the driver, who had only owned the vehicle for a couple days, was heading from Missoula to Great Falls with his...
After COVID-19 prompted the community to call off their famously informal Fourth of July parade last year, Ovando was in full swing this year as the town square was filled with people who made the trip to the small Blackfoot Valley town for the event. "We come a thousand miles every year for this parade, " said Darren Dreessen of Moorhead, Minn., a relative of the Geary's from Helmville. He said they also have friends with family in Ovando who fly in from Coral Springs, Fla....
Resurfacing paved streets in Lincoln has been the hot topic for the past few months, but updates on the roads and bridges outside of town dominated the Upper Blackfoot Valley Community Council meeting Tuesday, June 15. Cattle Guards Lewis and Clark County Road and Bridge Superintendent Kevin Horne said cattle guards were installed earlier this month on Stonewall Creek Road where it crosses property owned by Mike Stahly. The cattle guards ended a three-year dispute over access...
Envision Lincoln and the Lincoln Valley Chamber of Commerce have been working with Lewis and Clark County and the Montana Business Assistance Connection to develop a comprehensive master plan for Lincoln. Earlier this month, Lewis and Clark County approved a request for proposals for development of a comprehensive master plan. The RFP will go out for bid to professional consultants who have experience in master planning for rural communities like Lincoln. But just what is a...
A semi carrying a load of building materials on a flatbed trailer tipped over near Roger's Pass Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Jeff Groschelle said the flatbed truck was traveling too fast as it entered the first big corner east of the pass, tipped over and spilled its load of building materials. "A lot of people misjudge that corner," Groschelle said. Lincoln Fire Chief Zach Muse said most of the material - a type of fiber cement board called Hardie Board - wound up in the...
The Lincoln Fireman's Ball was the latest local event to make a comeback as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes and restrictions loosen up. Normally scheduled a weekend in March around St. Patrick's Day, the Ball had to be cancelled last year as the Lewis and Clark Public Health began implementing restrictions related to the spread of the novel coronavirus. Instead they hosted a successful auction via Facebook to help raise funds for the fire company. Despite the success of last...
Lighting that moved through the area on the evening of June 3 caused two small fires near Lincoln that required a response by firefighters. Bill Cyr with the Montana DNRC reported at the June 4 Lincoln Government Day that one fire was on the McInnis property along the Blackfoot River, near Highway 279. The second was near Moon Drive in the Lone Point area. Cyr said they also had reports of two other fires, but had no information on them. One was reportedly in the Stemple Pass...
The June 4 Government Day meeting served as the first in a series of projected meetings in Lincoln to discuss the funding for maintenance of Lincoln’s hard surface streets. Lincoln is generally on a seven to nine year cycle for chip sealing to preserve the paved streets in town. The streets in town were last chip sealed in 2014. They were originally slated to be redone this year, but due to COVID-19 meeting restrictions, Lewis and Clark County officials opted to push it back a year to ensure they could hold the necessary p...
