BESIDE STILL WATERS

Standing along the shore of the Stillwater River, it's hard to believe that a steady stream of traffic and acres of commercial activity are just a few hundred meters away.

Cars traveling down U.S. 93 are barely audible over the wind rushing through the trees. The river corridor is habitat for deer, birds and myriad other wildlife.

Pete Skibsrud has been dreaming of a trail along the Stillwater River for 25 years. While describing his vision of a trail running from Lawrence Park north past Semitool and Bucky Wolford's proposed mall, a great blue heron swooped down and landed on a log jam.

"When I found out the college owned the whole west shore, I went nuts," Skibsrud said.

Flathead Valley Community College owns the strip of land along the river behind Home Depot and Hutton Ranch Plaza.

Skibsrud has contacted a number of people about his idea - including Kalispell Mayor Pam Kennedy, college officials and Semitool - and has gotten initial support for the idea.

"It's just a dream piece of property. The possibilities are endless," Skibsrud said. "This is bringing everybody together. It's like it was meant to be."

Getting public access for a trail that crosses properties with multiple ownerships can be extremely difficult, but Skibsrud's endless supply of enthusiasm and optimism may tip the scale toward success.

"Follow the dream, right? Isn't that what everybody says?" Skibsrud said while hiking along the river. "Just do it, like the Nike saying."

An added twist to the proposed trail is that Skibsrud recently purchased a 200-foot section of the Old Steel Bridge in the hope of installing it somewhere along the trail.

"I've been eyeballing that bridge for quite awhile," he said.

Skibsrud paid $20,000 out of his own pocket to save part of the bridge from being scrapped and shipped to China. The bridge was built in 1894 by the Gillette-Herzog Manufacturing Co., and was the first steel bridge to cross the upper Flathead River. The structure included two 140-foot spans and a main 220-foot span. The smaller spans weigh about 17 tons each, and the main span tops 30 tons.

After no one took up the state's offer to claim the bridge and have it moved, the historic spans were scheduled for destruction. Skibsrud started making phone calls and jumped at the chance to buy the bridge.

"After about 20 calls, I said, 'I'll buy that bridge.' If I didn't do it, we wouldn't even have the option. It would be a piece of history by the river.

"Sam Bibler is my role model. Some people say, 'What would Jesus do?' I asked, 'What would Sam do?' Sam would definitely buy the bridge."

Bibler was a prominent Kalispell civic leader who fought to preserve Conrad Mansion, helped raise money to improve Woodland Park, and made innumerable other contributions to the city. He died in 2002.

Skibsrud's plan to develop a trail with a historic bridge still has some obstacles to overcome.

The first is how to move the bridge. The maximum height is 30 feet, which will make it nearly impossible to transport it through Kalispell. Skibsrud said maybe someone could fly the smaller section of the span to its new home, but it would take two Chinook helicopters to fly just the one half.

However the bridge finally gets moved will be costly.

Second, the city of Kalispell isn't flush with money to build the trail, especially if red tape and regulations demand that it be paved.

"Unless it gets funded privately, it would be a couple years before we could get to it," said Mike Baker, who heads up Kalispell's Parks and Recreation Department."

Baker does support the plan, though, and hopes the bridge can be a part of it.

"Having a bridge like that built would be very expensive," Baker said. "I think it's a very viable use of a bridge, and it has a historic twist to it, which is always interesting. It's a fitting end for the bridge and a valiant effort on Pete's part."

And although Skibsrud hopes the trail gets built sooner than later, he'll also have to wait for the college to finish revising its master plan, which includes the possibility of developing a trail system on its property.

Skibsrud waves off the obstacles because he believes this project can be a model to the rest of the country that a community can do something great at very little cost. He is enlisting the help of anyone he can bring on board.

"I'm only one guy," he said. "I can only do so much, but I'm going for it. Follow the dream, right? Follow the dream."

Reporter Michael Richeson may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at mricheson@dailyinterlake.com