Pine Grove name has long local history

The Pine Grove Pond will carry on a namesake that goes back to pioneer days in the Flathead Valley.

Robin Street, who donated 13 acres for the family fishing pond and worked with the state to get it developed, lives on the homestead his grandparents, Richard and Susan Street, began in 1883.

Street’s grandfather started Pine Grove School in the late 1800s near the family homestead on Whitefish Stage Road. The original school was a log cabin.

Calvary Chapel now owns and uses the schoolhouse that replaced the log building sometime in the early 1920s. Also on the site is the West Valley Fire Department satellite fire station, which doubles as the Pine Grove Community Center.

“When my grandparents came here, Demersville had the only school,” Street said. “His kids rode bareback to school and one night when two of the older kids got home he found the teacher had tied their feet together so they wouldn’t fall off the horse. That’s when he decided it was time to quit that school.”

Richard Street got approval from Missoula County — Flathead County had not yet been created — to start the Pine Grove School in District 16.

“My grandfather was on the first school board,” said Street, who is 77. “My dad [Mannington Street] was on the school board and I was on the school board.

“My dad went to Pine Grove School, I went there and two of my kids went there before they annexed to Kalispell,” he said.

The satellite fire station/community center was built in two stages, in 1980 and 1985.

At the request of Street’s mother, Maude Street, the original Pine Grove school bell was saved and is on display at the satellite fire station.

The addition of another Pine Grove amenity, the Pine Grove Pond Fishing Access Site, will preserve the name in perpetuity.