The last larch fire in Bigfork started August 24, 1921 near where the dam is on the Swan River today. It burned all the way to the Swan Range, taking out the Swan River School before burning out in early September. When assessing a homes risk of going up in flames during a wildfire firefighter […]

The Game Center at flatheadbeacon.com will have updated tournament coverage after each game throughout the weekend. Click here to see images from Thursday’s round one. Click here to see images from Friday’s semifinals. Click here for images from Saturday’s Championships. Saturday’s Games: Boys: No. 2 Columbia Falls defeated No. 5 Libby; No. 1 Polson def. […]

Conservation easements are a hot topic. There is no shortage of opinion and some folks aren’t shy about voicing those opinions. I read newspaper editorials every day and believe, without a doubt, that the editorial forum remains one of the strongest bastions of America’s defense of free speech. I enjoy reading opinions reflecting philosophical beliefs […]

Good morning and happy birthday George Washington. Our top story this morning reports on BP’s decision to drop its plan to drill for coal-bed methane in the Canadian Flathead. U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., made the announcement yesterday at an informational meeting at FVCC. A teenager was hit by a train near Libby yesterday. And […]

MISSOULA (AP) – A University of Montana student has been arrested on suspicion of murder after officers investigated a trail of blood leading from his third-floor apartment to the parking lot. “We haven’t found a body yet, but everything so far is leading us to believe there will be one,” said Capt. Marty Ludemann, head […]

After school, 11 students piled into Matt Holloway’s English classroom at Whitefish High School. School was out, but these students—all jabbering at once—passed around Xerox copies of magazine stories about the impacts of mining in the upper Flathead Valley. “I’ve got to cram this all in my head,” one moaned. As Holloway tossed two boxes […]

In Missoula last weekend during the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, I attended the premiere of a film titled “Little Mom Full of Color,” by a friend of mine, Katy Garton. The hour-long documentary follows the last year of the life of Katy’s mother, Susan, who was diagnosed with terminal melanoma as she weaves her […]

SOMERS – A two-headed brook trout is preserved in a jar of alcohol at the Flathead Lake Salmon Hatchery south of Somers. Next to it sits a letter from the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks confirming the bizarre creature died on April 13, 1914. The hatchery is full of history, some encased in glass and […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Thursday included the following: 11:03 a.m. Someone drove away without paying for gas in Evergreen. 11:47 a.m. There was a wayward dog standing in the middle of the road near Underpass Hill. 3:05 p.m. A man called in to report that his ex-lady said she wanted […]

Click here to see images from Thursday’s round one. Click here to see images from Friday’s semifinals. Click here for images from Saturday’s Championships. The Polson Lady Pirates scrapped with the No.1 Bigfork Valkyries for three quarters in the first of Friday’s Northwest A girls semifinals, but a three-and-a-half minute scoreless drought midway through the […]

HELENA – Gov. Brian Schweitzer and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester said Montana’s June primary voters will influence the key votes they hold as Democratic superdelegates for the party’s presidential candidate pick. Schweitzer, like six of the state’s seven superdelegates, says he is waiting to commit to either Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. The superdelegates […]

MISSOULA – A 22-year-old man was charged with murder Friday as officers searched the Clark Fork River west of here for the body of his 31-year-old roommate, police said. Cyril K. Richard II told police he and Michael J. Meadows of Jackson Hole, Wyo., had fought over money early Thursday and he stabbed Meadows in […]

Click here to see images from Thursday’s round one. Click here to see images from Friday’s semifinals. Click here for images from Saturday’s Championships. The No.4 Whitefish Bulldogs will have a chance to repeat as the Northwest A divisional champions after stunning No. 1 Polson on Friday afternoon 44-37. Polson opened up with an 11-2 […]

Live Music: Friday: Can’t Hardly Playboys at Red’s; Jazz by Brad Lee at The Lodge at Whitefish Lake; Bad Larrys at Blue Canyon; Silver’s Platter at The Cottage; Karaoke at Grizzly Jacks; Badwater Bill at Scotty’s; Big Daddy and the Blue Notes at Rocky Mountain Roadhouse; Russ Nasset and the Revelators at Great Northern; Mobile […]

I stumbled across this Wharton article today and thought of all the Flathead business owners who aren’t able to find the staff they need. http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1899