Logging and the Double Arrow

For most of its history, Seeley Lake was a timber town. Logging began here in the 1890s, the lake itself served as a log yard, and a local sawmill was the community’s largest employer until production stopped in 2024. Alongside that working history runs another: the Double Arrow, a guest ranch founded in 1929 whose lodge is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

When did logging start around Seeley Lake?

Commercial logging began in the 1890s.¹ The lake and town are named for Jasper B. Seely, who built a cabin here in 1881,¹⁰ so timber cutting started within a couple of decades of the first recorded settler.

The Anaconda Company sales and the log drives

The best-documented early sale was Forest Service timber sold to the Anaconda Company. One account puts it at 50 million board feet in 1906.¹ The Seeley Swan Pathfinder instead refers to the 1907 to 1910 Big Blackfoot sale.² This guide has not resolved which date is right, so we give both.

What happened to the logs is clearer. Cut timber was staged on Seeley Lake near the site of today’s Big Larch Campground through the winter. In spring it was driven downstream to the mill at Bonner.¹

Today Big Larch is a Forest Service campground with a boat launch and swimming beach on the east shore, about a mile north of town.⁷ Little in the scene suggests it once held a winter’s worth of logs.

Pyramid Mountain Lumber

In the modern era, the center of the timber economy was the Pyramid Mountain Lumber sawmill. At the end, the Pathfinder described it as Seeley Lake’s largest employer and noted it had been family-owned for 75 years.³

The end came in 2024:

This guide has not verified what has become of the mill site since, or whether any part of the operation continues in another form. For current local reporting, the Pathfinder at seeleylake.com is the best source.

The mill closure and one other event stand out among recent changes to local life: the October 15, 2026, closure of the Partnership Health Center clinic, covered on community and services.

The Double Arrow

In 1929, Jan Boissevain and Col. George Weisel established the Double Arrow on what had been the Corbett Ranch.⁵ The first guests arrived on July 1, 1930.⁵

Milestones:

The original 1929 Double Arrow barn now houses the Seeley Lake Historical Society’s museum.⁵

Double Arrow Lookout

A separate historic structure carries the same name. Double Arrow Lookout, a Forest Service fire lookout, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 25, 2018 (reference 100002041).⁶ Forest Service recreation pages listed the lookout as closed when this guide was checked in October 2026.^{7, 8} Before planning a visit, confirm its status with the Seeley Lake Ranger District, 406-677-2233.⁹

Where can you see this history today?

Museum hours vary by season. The Pathfinder’s services listing has shown Monday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m., but call 406-677-2990 to confirm.¹²

What this guide could not confirm

• The exact year of the first large Anaconda Company sale (1906 in one source, 1907 to 1910 in another).^{1, 2}
• When Pyramid Mountain Lumber was founded, beyond the Pathfinder’s description of 75 years of family ownership at closing.³
• The future of the mill site after August 2024.
• Who operated the Bonner mill at the time of the early log drives. The source says only that the logs went to the mill at Bonner.¹

If you can point to a primary record for any of these, such as Forest Service sale records, company archives or the Historical Society’s collection, please use the corrections link on this page.

From logs to visitors

Seeley Lake today is still an unincorporated Missoula County community,¹¹ but the balance has shifted. Production at the mill has ended, while the lake, the trails, the guest-ranch history and the Forest Service land around town draw visitors. Both histories are visible if you know where to look: at Big Larch, where the logs once waited for spring, and at the Double Arrow barn, where the museum keeps the story. For the wider picture, see the history overview.