WHITEFISH (AP) – A Columbia Falls woman died in a head-on crash on Montana 40 near here Wednesday after her vehicle crossed the center line and struck an oncoming pickup truck, the Montana Highway Patrol said. Kyong Smith, 65, died at the scene. The crash was reported at 7:50 p.m. It was unclear why she […]

A boat full of teenagers and 20-somethings pulls a wakeboarder out of the shadows of a secluded bay on Echo Lake northeast of Bigfork. Nearby, two elderly men speed across the choppy water through a channel to an isolated fishing spot. These two parties have little in common, except both are breaking the law – […]

Bob Keenan’s phone has been ringing off the hook. It’s getting so he has to turn it off for hours at a time just to get a little peace. It began last week when the National Republican Senatorial Committee conducted a poll and found only two Montana Republicans with the name recognition to challenge U.S. […]

WHITEFISH – An ambitious project at the new Whitefish Middle School to provide a state-of-the-art home for plays, symphonies and ballets is still a month away from completion, but event coordinators are already booking their shows there. First, though, they need to check the schedules of the rightful owners: the kids. The Whitefish Middle School […]

HELENA (AP) – Residents of another 60-plus homes along the Missouri River north of here were asked to leave Thursday as a wildfire in the popular Gates of the Mountains Wilderness nearly tripled in size, prompting river and recreational closures. The lightning-sparked Meriwether fire grew from 2,200 acres to 6,018 acres, or nearly 9.5 square […]

I live almost equally between the Flathead Valley of Montana and the East Kootenays of British Columbia, and have been involved in conservation efforts in the Kootenays for more than 30 years. Consequently, I was bitterly amused to read a recent letter to the Flathead Beacon’s editor carrying on about the potential impact coalbed methane […]

Males can be so predictable. Give them a chance to spend some quality time with their ladies and all they want to do is posture and preen, the better to tell other dudes to back off when a female is spoken for. Such behavior spans species and continents, and it was on display the second […]

HELENA (AP) – Two fires in west-central Montana were burning in such rough terrain that fire crews planned to use explosives to create fire line on one, while the other was being fought from the air. The Ahorn fire, burning out of the Bob Marshall Wilderness into other parts of the Lewis and Clark National […]

2007 Fort Benton Invitational – 7/21/2007 to 7/22/2007 Boys 8 & Under 100 SC Meter Freestyle Relay 1, Conrad Swim Team ‘A’ (Cassidy, Shawn 8, Dugan, Nolan 8, Cassidy, Jerry 7, Vanderbush, Brad 8), 1:48.81. 2, Bitterroot Swim Team ‘A’ (Wilson, Matthew 8, Madeen, Henry 8, Morin, Tim 8, Schreckendgust, Guy 8), 2:31.53. Girls 8 […]

HELENA (AP) – A series of fortunate events helped three people from Washington state escape a plane crash in the Flathead National Forest with no major injuries, Powell County Sheriff Scott Howard said Tuesday. For starters, the single-engine, 1952 fixed-wing plane that went down Monday night ended up in a meadow surrounded by rough terrain […]

Storm water in Bigfork drains directly into Flathead Lake, untreated, picking up goodies like oil and assorted chemicals along the way. Many in Bigfork believe this is certainly a problem, but before anything can be done, sufficient money must be raised to fund an engineering report. In the meantime, amateur engineers are investigating the town’s […]

HELENA, Mont. (AP) – Fire crews in northwest Montana worked to keep a fast-moving wildfire from destroying homes Wednesday, as officials in the south announced a new round of fire restrictions. The 3,000-acre Garceau fire, likely sparked by lightning Tuesday morning, forced the evacuation of two homes in the Irvine Flats area southwest of Polson, […]

The Starling subdivision project is coming to north Kalispell: 3,000 new homes on one square mile over the next 20 to 30 years. It’s the city’s biggest planned development since downtown itself was laid out and sold off in anticipation of the railroad. At its most recent meeting, Kalispell City Council granted The Aspen Group, […]

Reminder postcards from your favorite business are common these days. Some of them are hand-written – after all, your receptionist isn’t exactly swamped with work since your appointment book isn’t full. In some cases, the business actually uploads a list of “people due for appointments” to a service, and that service prints and mails the […]

With parched timber and a bubbling-hot thermometer, fire season sizzled in like a burger with too much grease slapped on the grill. In reaction this week, all of northwest Montana upped fire restrictions to Stage I with Stage 2 smack on its tail beginning Monday, July 30. Until Monday, campfires are still permitted in local […]