Reject Milhous plan for Kootenai Lodge

Editor,

Chain saws and bulldozers are about to destroy Kootenai Lodge National Historic site located at the confluence of Swan Lake, Swan River and Johnson Creek. Paul Milhous, a developer from Boca Raton, Florida, has won initial approvals from the Lake County Planning Department and Planning Board to eradicate old-growth timber, and destroy historic buildings to make way for 57 condominiums and single-family homes priced upwards of a million dollars each, plus a clubhouse, boat docks, and indoor swimming pool. If approved, the Milhous plan will force Kootenai Lodge to lose its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Sadly, textbooks cannot compete with the indelible impression gained from visiting an historic site.

If this development occurs, Kootenai Lodge will disappear, becoming only a few words, on a page in some book, perhaps accompanied by a photo or two.

Surely we wish to be remembered as the generation who preserved an Historic site for the benefit of our children, grandchildren, and generations to come, don't we?

Teddy Roosevelt, Will Rogers, John D. Rockefeller and Charles Lindbergh were a few of the notables who visited Kootenai Lodge. Western artist Charles M. Russell was a frequent visitor, as demonstrated by the cement etchings he left in the courtyard of the main building and by his well-known painting titled, "Kootenai Camp."

Kootenai Lodge is a unique collection of Montana land and buildings forming an irreplaceable, national, historic asset. It is also a profoundly spiritual place. Wandering across the property along the banks of Johnson Creek, beneath ancient trees whose roots rise up to form natural pools of water, one hears, in the whispers of water and wind, the reverent voices of other visitors who long ago walked this way, too.

No doubt this land will survive long after the bulldozers and buildings, their operators and occupants, have dissipated into the dust of time. But isn't it sad that centuries will pass before others will walk upon this hushed land and sense its antiquity? Even sadder is knowing these magnificent architectural buildings, unique symbols of the Machine Age, will be lost forever.

Help save Kootenai Lodge, and other Historical sites, from destruction.

Email or call the Lake County Commissioners Mike Hutchin, Paddy Tresler and Chuck Whitson at commissioners@lakecounty-mt.org or phone 406-883-7204.

Preserve the past for the future of our children, grandchildren, and generations yet to come.

Cathy Emery Walston,

Bigfork