FOOD & DRINK

MISSOULA, Mont. — The Columbia Falls Community Market won't be held at its historical location this year. Organizers say new leases between businesses are keeping the market from setting up along the building commonly known as the "Coop," so you will be shopping, eating and dancing in a smaller area. The market organizers report this is beyond their control, and they are working diligently to find a solution. They ask for your continued patience.

Amanda and Colten Hart have a history of starting community-minded businesses. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit their town of Kalispell, Montana, the pair saw a need for face masks to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. “People were wearing socks as masks,” Amanda recalled. They started manufacturing masks and employed people who had recently been laid off.

The Bigfork Monday Market (formerly the Bigfork Village Market) is back for its sixth season in 2023 and there are a few changes in store for the new year. The market will continue to take place at the Riverview Bar/Lake Bakes from 5-7 p.m. on Mondays, but this year will run from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Once again under the umbrella of the Bigfork Innovations Group, the market sports a new logo this year and will feature rotating vendors to help keep the selections ever changing. “A lot of the feedback we get from locals and the people who have come to...

The Bad Rock Skate Park Association hopes to soon do a formal land survey at Fenholt Park in Columbia Falls for a new skatepark after the city concurred with the idea. The nonprofit, created in 2021, is coming into the project with $400,000 raised for a park in Columbia Falls, the Association said in a release last week. The Association would finance construction of the park and then the city would take ownership when complete. The full Columbia Falls City Council recently considered the park May 1. While Mayor Don Barnhart expressed reservations, councilmembers Darin Fisher and Jenny Lovering expressed support. The natural contours...

70 years ago May 22, 1953 The Flathead National Forest was fighting spruce bark beetles by cutting down some spruce trees, waiting for the beetles to infest them, then spraying the down trees with ethylene dibromide to kill the bugs. The story didn’t explain how it would kill beetles that were on healthy trees. 60 years ago May 24, 1963 Boy Scouts from Columbia Falls planted 800 spruce trees up Emery Creek. Snow plows in Glacier National Park had crossed Logan Pass. May was warm and unusually dry, with humidity levels closer to July than May, forest officials said. 50 years ago May 25,...

Avelo Airlines is offering flights from Kalispell, Montana to Los Angeles starting today, and is the only airline to offer flights between Glacier Park International Airport and Hollywood Burbank Airport.

The art featured above, called "Cloudsplitter", was completed using watercolor and pen by Whitefish High School senior Zoe Tremper in the WHS art class. It was inspired by music by Carl Strommen and the locations pictured are Whitefish lake and Washington D.C. The Pilot will be periodically featuring art from Whitefish High School students.

Whitefish is now home to an octopus, a monster of the deep. In a bright new artwork by Eliya Olstad, a large, colorful octopus represents the overwhelming power methamphetamine can have over people who get caught in its grasp. Olstad, created the moving work as part of the Montana Meth Project’s Paint the State 2023 initiative, a program that engages teens and adults to help prevent drug use. Paint the State is an art contest that invites Montanans to make large-scale public artworks that inspire viewers to live drug-free lives. Artists are asked to incorporate the Meth Project’s “Not Even...

Flathead County officials report there has been an increase in transient encampments and people using the horse stalls for shelter.

Flathead County residents entering the Montana Meth Project’s Paint the State 2023 art contest now have the opportunity to compete for major cash prizes thanks to the generous support of the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation. Prizes totaling more than $100,000, including three $10,000 grand prizes, will be awarded to the top submissions. One winner could win up to $20,000.  The Meth Project launched Paint the State 2023 earlier this year as a much-needed on-the-ground drug prevention initiative. The contest invites everyone 13 years of age and older to create monument-sized original public works of art that inspire vibrante drug-free lives, while incorporating the Meth Project’s “Not Even Once” message. Flathead County teen...

Plein Air Painting simply means painting landscape images outdoors, on location. For around 15 years these artists in the Flathead have gathered at locations across the valley.

FLATHEAD LAKE — The 2023 Spring Mack Days final day of the fishing competition on Flathead Lake was Saturday, May 13th, with a total of 33,297 lake trout that were entered in the event by 200 of the 615 anglers registered making it one of the better events in the history of Mack Days! The total fish count for the last weekend was at 1,514 lake trout.

The Columbia Falls City Council Monday night mulled a new Animal Conflict Prevention ordinance, but decided to further discuss the matter rather than go ahead with a broad ordinance at the moment. The city passed an emergency “bear law” last fall when numerous bears were getting into garbage and other attractants. It’s now considering making the law — in some form or another — permanent. But councilmembers raised concerns about the enforceability of some sections of the proposed law. They agreed that securing garbage from bears was easily enforceable, since garbage is typically viewable from the street without going onto private property. But...

The Whitefish Theatre Company will present the uproarious comedy “Suite Surrender” as their final show of the 2022-2023 season. A true love note to the classic farces of the past, “Suite Surrender” opens with a sneak preview night on June 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish. Performances continue on June 2, 3, 8, 9, and 10 at 7:30 p.m. and on June 4 at 4:00 p.m. It's 1942 and two of Hollywood's biggest divas have descended upon the luxurious Palm Beach Royale Hotel to perform at a USO benefit. Complication number one: the two ladies have a...

Bigfork High School student Wyatt Barnes is the 2023 Authors of the Flathead student writing competition winner for his poem “My Eyes Belong to Me.” Barnes was awarded $300 and free tuition to attend the Flathead River Writers Conference in the fall. His poem was also forwarded to the Whitefish Review literary journal for consideration. This is not the first award Barnes has received for his writing. This year, he entered the prestigious Scholastic Art and Writing competition and won a Silver Key for his poem “Message in a Bottle” and honorable mention for “Captain’s Log” for the West region at-large. “I’ve always...

With a wetsuit, a camera and an indomitable passion for the depths of Flathead Lake, Kyren Zimmerman and the members of the Flathead Maritime Archaeology Project are hard at work documenting the underwater mysteries of the area’s waterways before they disappear forever. What began as a cooperation between Zimmerman and the Bigfork Art and Cultural Center last summer to explore a few sites in the lake has turned into the Flathead Maritime Archaeology Project, an ambitious project which looks to identify, locate and document underwater historical sites in the north part of Flathead Lake and beyond. With the help of Project Historian/Writer...

The art featured above, called "The Great Rescue", was completed using alcohol markers and pen by Whitefish High School sophomore Scotty Dalen in the WHS class Art 1: Drawing. The Pilot will be periodically featuring art from Whitefish High School students.

Ticket sales opened up Friday morning for a series of shows taking place in local music venues after each night of the Under The Big Sky music festival taking place this July in Whitefish. The shows, dubbed After Parties, are put on by Outriders, the same promotional group behind the...

Northwest Montana’s student musicians recently showcased their talent at the District 1 Music Festival. Bands, orchestras and choirs from nine schools participated in the festival held at Glacier and Flathead high schools in April. Entries were judged as either superior, excellent, good, fair or poor on a 1 to 5 scale. Solos and ensembles receiving superior ratings qualified to attend the State Solo and Ensemble Festival, which was held this month. Following are District Music Festival results for Whitefish: Superior performance and sightreading: Orchestra and Wind Ensemble. Superior performance and excellent sightreading: Concert Band. Excellent performance and superior sight reading: Concert Choir. Band Superior solos: Skyler Cameron, tuba; Ella...

Whitefish Theatre Company and the Whitefish Performing Arts Center are co-presenting the ninth live on-screen performance of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD 2022-2023 season. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s outrageous comedy “Don Giovanni” will be shown on Saturday, May 20 at 10:55 a.m. at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center. Approximate run time is 3 hours and 40 minutes, including one 30-minute intermission. Tickets are sold only at the door which will open at 10:30 a.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students, paid by cash or check only. Please call 406-862-5371 to inquire about 10 student scholarships. Sung in...