Making a splash in Flathead Lake

A big round of applause goes to Ron Stevens, who is probably still drying out after spending 12 1/2 hours in Flathead Lake on Tuesday.

He spent those hours swimming the length of the big lake, becoming only the second person to stroke his way from end to end in Flathead Lake.

Taking advantage of a calm day on the lake, Stevens averaged about a mile for every half hour of swimming during his long-distance achievement.

Stevens had a George Mallory-like reason for the long swim: "I just wanted to swim the lake because it's there."

There's good news on the visitor front these days.

The timely rains this week and last week apparently have snuffed a budding wildfire season and may well allow the Flathead area to complete a successful tourist season without the threat of fires sending visitors fleeing.

And those visitors apparently are coming here in increasing numbers.

By one critical benchmark - Glacier National Park visitation figures - almost 1.1 million people had visited Glacier during the first seven months of this year.

Both the year-to-date and July figures show about a 4 percent increase over last year.

Those are welcome numbers for the many businesses and enterprises that depend on summer tourism.

What once was an air base near Lakeside has had a new mission for 20 years: Youth with a Mission.

Last weekend, Youth with a Mission celebrated two decades of operation at the Lakeside facility.

During those years, YWAM has sent hundreds of people through Christian discipleship training, frontier missions and mercy ministries.

That little corner near Lakeside has become a source of ambassadors to the world, since the Lakeside campus has sent teams to more than 75 countries and attracted students from 61 countries.

The mission specializes in the arts and using them to promote its ministry around the globe.

Congratulations on a successful 20 years.

The "international" part of Glacier Park International Airport will become a little firmer in October when Big Sky Airlines begins twice-daily air service between here and Calgary, Alberta.

Establishing an air link from Kalispell to Calgary has been a long-sought goal with only sporadic success over the years.

Let's hope this latest cross-border connection remains firm and gives Flathead travelers continued travel options to our neighbor to the north.