Few things could be more concerning for a business owner than a flood — especially if you have only just recently purchased the business. But that is exactly the dilemma Lisa Noonan faced in the spring of 2020.
Noonan purchased the Swan Lake Trading Post along Montana Highway 83 in 2018 and was still getting acquainted with running the store and campground when a tree fell on the property in early 2020. Of course, anyone who runs a seasonal business in Montana knows that a blown-down tree is par for the course sometimes. The problem was that this tree blocked a small creek running through the property, and it fell just as spring runoff was beginning. Before Noonan and the trading post crew could remove it, debris built up, and the creek began to overrun its banks. It flooded the pond behind the store and then overran those banks — sending water right into the store.
“It was basically a straight shot into the store,” Noonan said.
When the water finally receded (Noonan had to cut a hole in the floor to let some of it drain), she and her teenage son, True Lamb, began ripping up the flooring. Layer after layer of hardwood, vinyl and more hardwood came up — each representing another era and another owner of this roadside trading post — until they reached the bottom: the wood timbers first put down on dirt in 1926.
The Swan Lake Trading Post may not be as well known as local Flathead Valley landmarks like the Izaak Walton Inn or the Conrad Mansion, but it has an equally deep history and the same type of staying power. That longevity is primarily due to people like Noonan and the others who have owned this place over the decades, and who are dedicated to keeping it viable for decades to come.
“It’s a cornerstone of the community,” Noonan said one spring morning a few days before the trading post and campground opened for the season. “I mean, it’s been here for 100 years.”
In 1921, five years before the trading post was built, its founder, Carl Toycen of Wisconsin, arrived in Swan Lake. Carl was working for the U.S. Forest Service at the time and stayed with homesteader A.K. Millet, who also ran the local post office and goods store out of a tar-paper shack. Carl later went home to Wisconsin, where he met a woman named Betty and got married. In 1924, Carl and Betty packed up their Model A automobile and moved west to Swan Lake for good. At the time, Swan Lake was considerably more remote than it is even today. So remote, in fact, that Betty began to have second thoughts about moving to the wilds of Montana. According to legend, she put a note describing her situation in a bottle that she threw into the lake, in hopes that eventually someone would find it and learn what had happened to her. The bottle and letter were found decades later, but by then Carl and Betty had built up a life for themselves running the trading post, initially called Toycen General Store. They ran it along with Carl’s brother, Goodwin, who unfortunately died in a car accident in 1932.
Carl and Betty’s daughter Carla, born in 1940, recalled in a 2001 interview with the Bigfork Eagle how important the general store was to the remote community.
“All the men would meet up there for coffee and card games every day,” she said. “They would sit at the counter and play cribbage or whist. There was a hand-cranked gas pump with a glass tank on top, and the kids would come to buy penny candy.”
In the summer of 1960, the Toycen family sold the store to Hilbert and Rosamond Ingram, who ran it for a decade as Ingram’s. It would be sold again in 1971 and change hands several times before Joe and Jocelyn Watmuff purchased it in 2002. At the time, Joe and Jocelyn had just gotten married and were supposed to go on their honeymoon in Banff National Park in Alberta when they learned there was a tent-camping ban because of aggressive bears in the area. So, they decided to change their plans and go camping in Montana instead, landing in Swan Lake for a few days to unwind. Like many who pass through the area for a few days, they stopped in at the Swan Lake Trading Post for supplies. At the time, the couple had become discontent with their careers, and Jocelyn briefly romanticized the idea of owning a little shop like the one they were in.
“I said to Joe, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to run a place like this?’ And he said, ‘Well, it’s for sale,’” Jocelyn recalled.
The couple inquired with the owners, who were polite but didn’t know whether to take Joe and Jocelyn seriously. After all, plenty of people have wondered aloud while on vacation about leaving their old life and starting a new one. And while Swan Lake in July is an idyllic place, the owners knew that running a business in such a remote location is not a walk in the park. But the Watmuffs were persistent and, soon enough, they were the new owners of the Swan Lake Trading Post.
The Watmuffs made a number of improvements and changes to the site. Years earlier, there had been a trailer park on the property behind the store. The residents had long moved on, but the electrical and water hookups were still in place. The couple decided to open it as an RV park, as well as construct a few cabins and open up space for tent camping. They also set up a small cafe inside the store.
While the trading post was busy during the summer, things got especially slow in winter; if someone came in to get their mail and also picked up a few groceries, it was a good day. But most days in winter, the store was struggling to stay in the black. So the Watmuffs decided to close it during the winter. The post office mailboxes were moved out of the store and down the road (although some of the original 1926 ones are still in use there as shelving). That decision wasn’t necessarily popular at first among some locals — after all, who really likes change? — but most eventually came to understand why the Watmuffs made the decision they did.
The Watmuffs said they loved their time in Swan Lake, but that eventually they knew they would have to pass the torch along to a new owner.
“It was a lot more work than we ever expected,” Jocelyn said of their years running the trading post. “But we also made so many lifelong friends there.”
Among those friends was Lisa Noonan and her son, True Lamb. Noonan first came to Swan Valley about 30 years ago when she decided to join a friend on a road trip. They both fell in love with the area, and that friend eventually decided to move from California to Montana. Lisa briefly entertained the idea, too, but she had too much going on in her career, first in California and then Texas. About a decade later, however, not long after she had True, she decided to visit that friend in Montana and fell in love with Swan Lake and the surrounding area all over again. Lisa and True began to visit the area every summer, and often would stay at the Swan Lake Trading Post. Over time, True began to love the place even more, having fun on the water, exploring local trails or even just cruising around the campground on his bike.
“When we were back home, he would always say, ‘When are we going back to Montana?’” Lisa said. “He would just light up whenever we were here.”
In 2018, Lisa learned that the trading post and campground would be put up for sale. Being an entrepreneur herself, she thought it would be a fun project, especially considering how much her son loved it. While some new owners might want to come in and start making dramatic changes to the place, Lisa said that was never her plan: it was perfect the way it was.
“It was a little rundown, but it was quaint, and people love it. It was just so charming,” she said. “I didn’t plan to do a big remodel. I just figured I’d fix it up a little.”
Lisa recalled that while no one told her it was a bad idea to buy a store and campground in Montana, no one told her it was a good idea, either. Perhaps even she herself knew it was a little crazy.
“When you love something, you don’t think of it as a rundown mess. You see it how you want to see it,” she said.
By 2020, Lisa had just about gotten her feet under herself as the new owner of the Swan Lake Trading Post when two things upended her plans: a global pandemic and a flood. With the world essentially shutting down that spring and the summer tourist season looking uncertain, Lisa was already thinking it was going to be an unusual year at the trading post. But then the flood hit. If there was any chance that the campground would stay open that year, the water had dashed those hopes.
That spring, Lisa and some friends started ripping up the flooring, layer after layer. When they realized that the trading post (which had had multiple additions over the years) was basically sitting on dirt, they installed concrete footings. One project would lead to another. It made sense, Lisa said, since the store was already torn up, she might as well try and do as much as she could all at once. But throughout the entire project, Lisa kept to one guiding principle: she wasn’t trying to change the place, just give it a new lease on life.
The campground and cabins reopened in 2021, and in 2023, the store itself was opened. But there was still work to be done on it. Every spring, when Lisa arrived from Texas, she would spend a few weeks doing various upgrades before cleaning everything up and opening the store for the season. Finally, in 2026, Lisa declared the unplanned remodel done, just in time for the trading post’s 100th anniversary.
True said that while his mom never planned on remodeling the store, the work she put into it will ensure that it lasts for another 100 years.
“It was not something we ever expected, but it was kind of a blessing in disguise,” he said. “It really helped the store evolve, while still keeping its character.”
The Swan Lake Trading Post is usually open from Memorial Day until mid-September, providing visitors with a basecamp — either at one of the eight RV spots, three cabins or three yurts — to explore Swan Lake and the surrounding area. The store and cafe are also great for locals passing through or finishing up a day on the water or trail to grab a pizza or an ice cream cone. For more information, visit swanlaketradingpostcampground.com.
Lisa said, looking back at her time in Swan Lake — first as a traveler passing through, then as a regular visitor, and now as the owner of the Swan Lake Trading Post — she realizes it’s been an improbable journey. She never thought she would be the one running a little grocery store and campground in a pretty but remote corner of Montana. But she also said that there’s a certain magic about the Swan Lake Trading Post that has helped it survive for a century. After all, the Toycens could have just closed up shop all those years ago. But they didn’t, because the Ingrams came along. And then came the Loves, the Farris family, and so on and so forth. Every time the trading post needed a new caretaker, the magic of the place found one. Lisa said she never imagined doing this, but she knows she’s the right person to carry the torch forward to the next owner.
“It’s part of the fabric of this community,” she said. “It’s always been here, and hopefully it always will be here.”