The Daily Inter Lake

Dennis Frownfelter, right, of Bolster's Towing, helps drag logs out of Swan Lake on Friday afternoon. The logs ended up in the lake when the rear trailer of a logging truck slammed into a guardrail and sent the entire load into the water. The logs were scattered over a half mile of lakeshore. The crew worked for more than six hours on the cleanup. Also assisting were Jody Bakker of Northwest Dive and Recovery Services and Norm Bernstrauch of Seeley Lake Trucking.

Log spill closes highway for hours

A loaded logging truck and pup trailer dumped their loads into Swan Lake on Friday morning, blocking traffic from 9:30 a.m. until late into the afternoon.

Montana Highway Patrol trooper Dustin LeRette said the driver of the Skeleton Log Hauling truck was southbound from Woods Bay to Seeley Lake when he rounded a corner on Montana 83 near mile marker 73.

The pup trailer "started creeping over the fog line" and caught the guardrail, LeRette said.

The pup and the trailer tipped and the pup disconnected from the rest of the rig, he said. Logs spilled into the lake as far from shore as 100 feet, according to LeRette.

It was "impressive visually," he said.

The driver was unhurt and wasn't cited, LeRette said.

The accident closed the southbound lane of the highway until about 4 p.m. while heavy equipment plucked logs from the lake.