Whenever navigating profoundly altered Highway 93 between Kalispell and Whitefish, I recall John and Fred Zauner, onetime hardware merchants in the valley, saying it was only a matter of time until “progress” linked our two largest cities.
The parlous prediction of “bright lights stretching for 15 miles” was difficult to fathom, given little infrastructure blotched the scenic corridor during the 1980s.
Our local leaders, I countered, would never surrender the richest farmland in Montana, with unparalleled panoramas of Big Mountain and Glacier National Park, under the guise of progress.
Furthermore, Flathead County in those days touted La Salle Road and Highway 2 East as the go-to commercial corridor.
Needless to say, the Zauner boys were right.
To the extent here we sit today, in very close proximity to every conceivable big-box retailer, fast-food restaurant, national hotel chain, automotive dealership, and self-storage facility, yet somehow it’s still not enough.
Even worse, given our wholly inadequate city and county comprehensive plans—which at a minimum must demand and guarantee strict, careful and orderly growth, particularly atop this fragile ecosystem of ours—we’ve allowed large commercial and residential developers, many from out of state, to ride shotgun through the valley.
And they’re still coming at a furious clip, their tempting blueprints geared to feed cravings we never knew we had.
It might not be too noticeable yet in the Flathead amidst all the new construction, but there’s a move in this country away from brick-and-mortar—large and small retail chains to local specialty shops and boutiques—in favor of online shopping.
Those changes in customer behavior, coupled with folks desiring a more carefree lifestyle, are also altering the restaurant and hospitality sectors, which struggle to retain employees.
“The COVID-19 pandemic boosted [these new consumer and lifestyle patterns] and the convenience became ingrained,” the U.S. Census Bureau reported at the end of 2025.
As a result, retail stories and restaurants have sat empty only a few years after launching (nationwide, 17 to 20 percent of restaurants fail within the first year, and 50 to 60 percent close within the first five years, with the average restaurant lifespan being four to five years).
Apart from community planners and the chosen few who ultimately approve these new developments, it behooves each of us in this new year to weigh-in on the risks associated with our rapidly changing landscape—the only one we have.
Maybe ask ourselves how much more “progress” this valley can sustain until what little is left is lost.
At the very least let’s climb back into the driver’s seat and learn how to apply the brakes.
John McCaslin is a longtime journalist and author who lives in Bigfork.