The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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The May 7 Lincoln Government Day meeting featured updates on several Public Works and infrastructure related projects Speed and passing zones The speed limit on Highway 200 east of Lincoln will be going down…a little. Lewis and Clark County Public Works Director Eric Griffin said the Montana Highway Commission, during their April 22 meeting, approved lowering the highway speed limit east of Lincoln out to Airport road from 70 mph to 60 mph. The decision is in keeping with the speed study completed by the Montana Department o...
These two photographs bookend a journey. The first has been seen by possibly millions of Junior High and High School students over the years. An image from the National Archive, it has became an iconic image of post-civil war westward expansion and has appeared in several U.S. history textbooks. The second image is probably known only to the readers of Gold Pans and Singletrees. Together, they show both ends of the Tuck family's journey from Litchfield, Neb. to Lincoln, Mont....
The Lincoln Valley Community Foundation endowment was established in 1996 and provides grants to local nonprofits. Money for the fund was originally provided as gifts from the Lincoln Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Phelps Dodge Seven Up Pete Joint Venture Mine, according to Jessica Stewart-Kuntz. Stewart-Kuntz is the Vice President of the Montana Community Foundation, which oversees the fund. The bulk of the money came from the LVCC, which had been raising money to build...
Master Planning Envision Lincoln continues to work on master planning. Lewis and Clark County and the Montana Business Assistance Connection were awarded two separate grants totaling $47,000 to fund development of a professional master plan. "The one thing we will have to do is a (Request For Proposal) for a contractor to develop a master plan," she said. A committee will develop the RFP based on templates used by other communities and then it will be submitted to the county...
In September, a thirty acre piece of ground along Highway 200 just west of the MDT equipment shop at about milepost 68.5 was sold to "Lost Moose Meadows" a business partnership that proposes to build an RV campground there. Plans, which we have seen, were filed with the Montana Department of Transportation. As the land owners immediately to the west of this property, we want to bring your attention to some of the problems it poses. We're sure that many of you will agree with...
Editors Note: Rick Graetz with the University of Montana selected Lincoln to be the first town featured in a new series of community profiles in the 'This is Montana Community Vitality Program.' Graetz allowed the BVD to be the first publication to run the Lincoln article before it goes out for wider distribution. A limited human presence, single main street, towering ponderosa pine trees reaching up toward snow covered peaks, a lumberjack atmosphere, and a ranger station is...
Jesse Sallin, Rosaire Hoffman and Kate Radford Created a 62-inch by 84-inch queen size quilt out of the late Lola Arvidson's varied and unique vintage aprons. The quilt is being raffled off, with the proceeds supporting the Upper Blackfoot Valley Historical Society's Matt King House reconstruction and restoration project. The Quilt will be on display at Citizen's Alliance Bank in June. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5. Tickets can be purchased from Jesse Sallin or Erin Dey...
Editors Note 2021: This story, looking back 20 years later at the media deluge following Ted Kaczynski's arrest and the aftermath, ran in our April 7, 2016 issue. Included are images from 2018 following the filiming of 'Ted K,' a movie filmed on location that should be released in in late 2021 or early 2022. Editor's note: This is the second of two stories looking at the events surrounding the arrest of Ted Kaczynski. For a couple long weeks in April 1996, Lincoln was the...
Lincoln Volunteer Fire Rescue hosted firefighters from five other districts last weekend for a Basic Wildland Firefighter course sponsored by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. Twenty volunteer firefighters from Lincoln, Seeley Lake, Potomac, Ovando, Helmville and Greenough participated in the twenty-hour course that got underway Friday night and wrapped up Sunday afternoon. "DNRC sponsors these trainings. The fire department is doing the legwork,"...
The future of downtown planning and revitalization took a major step forward this week with the notification that Lincoln has been awarded a Montana Main Street Grant for $20,000 to help fund development of a master plan. Karyn Good, the lead organizer for Envision Lincoln, learned of the award Monday after receiving a call from Gov. Greg Gianforte's office. While the announcement came later than expected, she was fairly confident Lincoln had been successful. Her cautious...
Easter is just a little more than a week away, and Lincoln Volunteer Fire Rescue is bringing back their traditional Easter Egg Hunt at Hooper Park. Kids up to sixth grade are welcome to come to the park Easter Sunday, April 4 at 1 p.m. to gather up hundreds of the candy-filled eggs scattered around by the firefighters. "We want to start getting things back to normal for folks, especially the kids," Lincoln fire Chief Zach Muse told the BVD. The Hooper Park Easter egg hunt has...
The Lincoln Community Garden is sponsoring a seed exchange and educational programming event at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 27 at Valler's Heritage House. The event is free and open to everyone in the community. Jean Pocha, from Ovando will be leading the seed exchange and discussing the basics of saving seeds. Jean has been gardening in the Blackfoot Valley for many years and is eager to share her knowledge with other gardeners in the area. Please bring seeds you have to trade...
As the snow piles up and the wind chill goes down, my thoughts turn to gardening. Hi, I'm Jean Pocha and have been learning from our vegetable garden in Helmville for the past 30 years. This time of year I really want some fresh veggies and that spurs me to start planning the garden. With seeds ordered in December, I've got all the "basics". Now I'm getting the calendar out and deciding when I can plant things where, and what that means about when to start some seeds in the...
Lincoln Prosperity During last week's Upper Blackfoot Valley Community Council meeting, the council heard from Jordan Reeves of the Wilderness Society on the status of the Lincoln Prosperity Proposal, which was developed by a diverse group of local and area individuals and groups who agreed "the status quo isn't working" when it comes to forest management on the federal land surrounding Lincoln. The work of the Lincoln Prosperity Group is poised to take a major step forward...
February 22, 2021 marks the 10th Anniversary of the opening of the new building at Parker Medical Center! The Parker Medical Center was created by and is sustained by the people of Lincoln. The people of Lincoln, Montana have a long history of seeking medical services for the Lincoln area as exhibited by the ad placed in a newspaper that brought Dr. Elmer Smith from New York to Lincoln in 1957. That good doctor served Lincoln for twenty-five years until he retired at the age o...
The Lincoln Loggers Wrestling Club has seen many successes since it started in 2016, placing twice as a team at State Little Guy Wrestling competitions, taking home the 2017 first place trophy for small teams. This year, the Loggers are looking to build on those successes with the purchase of new mats and uniforms with the help of several community partners. Mats are a significant expense for the wrestling club, with 6-foot by 30-foot mats costing an estimated $765 each. The...
The Upper Blackfoot Valley Historical Society received a grant from the Lincoln Valley Community Foundation in January to continue reconstruction of the Matt King house. The Lincoln Valley Community Foundation is run through the Montana Community Foundation, and grants are issued to local nonprofits. The $8,800 grant award to the UBVHS will be used to complete the roof on the Matt King house. Any grant funds leftover after the roof is completed will be utilized to complete...
If you've been around in the Blackfoot long enough, there's a good chance you've heard the words "Murphy right" or "Milltown right" thrown around. If you're an irrigator in the watershed, you've probably been affected by one or both of these instream water rights. Due to recent changes in water law, any surface water rights with a priority date junior to 1904 could be called in a drought year if flows in the Blackfoot River are low enough to warrant restrictions. Luckily,...
The Lincoln Council for the Arts and the Upper Blackfoot Valley Historical Society have banded together for a local fundraiser selling pasties using Olga Perkl’s recipe. The fundraiser came to fruition after both organizations realized they were planning pasty sales independently. “The two organizations were thinking about doing pasties, so we just joined forces to sell more,” said UBVHS president Erin Dey. Dey and Laura Butler, president of the Lincoln Council for the Arts, are competing to see which president can sell...
In spite of a worldwide pandemic and all the associated changes to human life that have gone with it, I'm happy to report that our Trumpeter Swans have kept calm and carried on with normal swan life in the Blackfoot. Although we only had six pairs of swans attempt to nest this year (following eight attempts in 2019), five of those nests were successful, hatching a total of 20 cygnets. And all 20 cygnets survived to fledging (flying) age! One hundred percent fledging success...
Lewis and Clark County Public Works told the Upper Blackfoot Valley Community Council they favor pushing back a planned chip sealing project for Lincoln streets until 2022, to provide time for public meetings and feedback after COVID-19 restrictions ease up later this year. The discussion dominated the Jan. 19 meeting, which provided the first opportunity to dig into the details of the maintenance project that was slated for this year. The streets on Lincoln's, Lincoln and...
Insurance firm burns, smoke water damage newspaper office Lincoln's big news story of the week is going unreportedd at home because fire has temporarily delayed publication of the Blackfoot Valley Dispatch. Fire gutted Steve A. Stolp's accounting office, and heat, smoke and water heavily damaged the adjoining Dispatch newspaper office on the west end...
Strong winds that tore through western Montana last week up trees, damaged buildings and led to power outages throughout the Upper Blackfoot. An extended period of abnormally strong, gusty wind began Jan. 12 and intensified throughout much of the day Jan. 13, with peak wind gusts recorded in the early afternoon Wednesday. The weather station at the Lincoln Ranger District, near the Lincoln airport, reported a peak wind gust of 41 miles per hour at about 2 p.m. The reading was...
The Lincoln School Board, in their regular meeting Monday Jan. 11, heard a number of updates on how the faculty and students are handling the return to school. Classes resumed in-person Jan. 4, after more than a month of online distance learning prompted by an increase in possible COVID-19 cases and close contacts in the community. Both Lincoln High Senior Lindsey Weisner, the student representative in the meeting, and Lincoln Schools Superintendent Jen Packer noted initial...
The Blackfoot Valley Optimist Club held a successful fundraiser over the Christmas holidays and is looking forward to new events and opportunities for 2021. "It went very well," said club president Shayne Lindsay. "It looks like our net on it was just over $3000." The Optimist Club had planned to raffle one quilt as well as a large stocking filled with donated items. There were so many donations that the club was able to raffle off two, said Lindsay, one that included a...