A little North Fork Road history

Over the last century the most controversial topic on The North Fork has been the road. First fight was to get a road built from Columbia Falls to the Canadian border. The biggest battle, from 1910 until the 1950s was almost exclusively a battle to improve the road.

After the 1950s the battle started between pro-paving and those opposed to paving. This battle intensified after the North Fork Road was paved to Canyon Creek and the county paved a five-mile stretch between Coal Creek and Hay Creek. However, after Flathead County began actively reducing dust levels the battle has died down in recent years.

Flathead County, spurred by Bob Grimaldi and his group drawing attention to the dust problem and by applying for and receiving several Resource Advisory Council grants has added six inches of crushed rock and sprayed it with mag-chloride on the North Fork Road from Camas junction to Polebridge.

This made the road smoother and virtually dust free and quieted the pro-paving group—at least temporarily, obviously emotions both pro and con remain close to the surface.

This was really obvious when a meeting was called by state Sen. Dee Brown with the city of Columbia Falls and county officials to gather information on the North Fork Road to plan for possible impacts in 2017 when the South Fork bridge is scheduled for replacement. It is thought by many that traffic delays at the bridge site may divert at least part of the traffic north through Columbia Falls to go to Blankenship Road. No one said that it was likely that all U.S. Highway 2 traffic would be detoured through Columbia Falls.

Word of the meeting spread rapidly on the North Fork. It brought out both pro- and anti-paving groups all obviously ready to fight for their point of view.

Wisely, Brown allowed the gathered citizens to remain and listen but did not open the meeting to public comment. At the conclusion of the meeting I was convinced that there was nothing for either side to get excited about. It is both fitting and proper that our senator should support prethinking and pre-planning before the bridge project is started. 

To wait until it starts would be too late to mitigate any problems. Much better to be ahead of the curve so we are best prepared to mitigate any problems.

Flathead County did make what I consider a major and welcome announcement about the upper North Fork Road. They said that Homeland Security may provide up to $100,000 for north end improvements, the Forest Service would open Whale Creek pit to crushing rock and with other partners involved we might see the following:

1. Crushed rock from Whale Creek to the border, mixed with bentonite to hold it together.

2. Final fix for Wurtz Hill

3. Repair, stabilization of slump near Harts

4. Rebuild road from Trail Creek junction to the border

Any one of these would be tremendous, I hope they are successful, but at least I am convinced they are doing their best. 

What do you think?