Columns
Explore Daily Inter Lake Columns featuring local sports commentary, outdoor adventure stories, lifestyle tips, and community perspectives from Northwest Montana.
Giving Together: Turning Tax Season into Opportunities for Students
On a spring morning in Kalispell, a group of elementary students huddle around a table, testing a small robot they…
Roundup grant shines a light on safety
On behalf of Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp, Ian Bartling, camp wilderness program coordinator, emailed the Inter Lake to thank Flathead Electric Cooperative’s Roundup for Safety program for providing funds for safet…
May Day memories; some are fuzzy
When the conversation turned to May Day last week in the Inter Lake newsroom, I was surprised at the range of memories my colleagues have about this particular holiday.
A mother's homecoming
When, at 92, a person ought to be dozing off in their easy chair while watching Turner movie classics, the past couple of months my mother found herself in a short-term facility recovering from a fall.
Spring brings choices
To a lot of folks, the end of ice fishing season can be pretty traumatic. Many of us end the season feeling like we “could of used just a few more days on the ice.” Well, I have news for you, there is still plenty …
A quandary of biblical proportions
Forty years ago I was at an estate auction in Moorhead, Minnesota, buying an antique oak dresser when I spotted a large, leather-bound Bible for sale.
Polson museum building new military barracks
The Miracle of America Museum in Polson recently inherited a building that is now in the process of being recreated as a World War II U.S. Army Air Corps barracks.
Herding calls part of my milk-maid heritage
I came across a YouTube video last week about “kulning,” the ancient Swedish herding calls used by women centuries ago to call the cattle back home to the farm in the evenings.
Mom's kitchen was 'Little Italy' with lots of love
About 10 years ago, my husband’s family began compiling a cookbook to honor and forever preserve my Italian mother-in-law’s cooking legacy.
Watching old movies: 'There Will Be Blood'
I know I’m stating the obvious, but it’s been an agonizingly long winter. In our 28 years of living in the Flathead, I can’t remember another winter when our long, rural driveway has been made impassable so many ti…
A tough season on the ice
I am sure by now that just about everyone who has ventured out onto a frozen lake in Western Montana has endured the worst of the conditions we see on the lakes when we have a heavy snow year.
Collaborative effort will preserve Conrad Mansion grounds
For nearly 125 years the east side of Kalispell has been anchored by the impressive Conrad Mansion, surrounded by 3 acres of meticulous landscaping and a handsome dry stone fence.
A lifetime of bad hair days
I routinely get Facebook posts from an entertainment website called “Grew Up in the ’70s and ’80s,” and had to laugh when it recently declared this observation about the telltale 1980s hairstyles most of us remembe…
Take a trip before winter wanes
What a difference a couple weeks make!
Payback time for love letter from long ago
Back in the day, if a couple living in different towns wanted to communicate with one another it was either by long-distance telephone or letters. Long distance was quite expensive back then and mostly reserved for…
Remembering fishing milestones over the years
I marvel daily when I think back on milestones or markers in my life, and how long it has been since something began, ended or lasted. Take, for example, my tenure with writing this column for the Daily Inter Lake.