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Seeley Lake Kicks Off First Fridays

The Rice Ridge Fire seen from Seeley Lake on August 1, 2017.
Eric Whitney
The Rice Ridge Fire seen from Seeley Lake on August 1st, 2017.

The town of Seeley Lake is launching some First Friday events to try to bounce back after a difficult fire season. The first is this Friday night.

Chris Stout, Seeley Lake’s school superintendent, helped organize the event. He said, "The more we can offer in town, and the more that’s going on in it,  just benefits us because rural communities in Montana are sort of drying up.”

Missoula-based bluegrass band Good Old Fashioned will be performing at the Filling Station at 8:00 p.m. Local restaurants and stores will be opening their doors, trying to bring in more business in a month that’s traditionally been off-season.

Stout said organizers were inspired by similar First Friday events in cities like Missoula that boost morale and get people out together celebrating the community.

“This year town sort of shut down," said Stout, "so a lot of those businesses lost up to 50 percent of their revenue.”

The 160,000-acre Rice Ridge fire burned for weeks, and cut Seeley Lake’s summer tourist season in half.

Maxine is the All Things Considered host and reporter for MTPR. She got her start at MTPR as a Montana News intern. She has also worked at KUNC in Northern Colorado and for Pacific Standard magazine as an editorial fellow covering wildfire and the environment.
Maxine graduated from the University of Montana with a master's degree in natural resource journalism and has a degree in creative writing from Vassar College. When she’s not behind the microphone you can find Maxine skiing, hiking with her not-so-well-behaved dogs, or lost in a book.
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