In the beginning, the log barn sheltered grand horses and pioneer men and women who worked and invested their lives to settle a corner of the retreating wilderness. Reflecting those distant years and endeavors, the barn today beckons visitors to come inside to fully understand the promise of what the valley can offer. The Seeley Lake Historical Museum and Visitors Center is the final evolution of the old Double Arrow Barn in its new role. The old stalls that once housed the strong stallions of the ranch now display colorful artifacts and collections in the museum operated by the Seeley Lake Historical Society. The Visitor’s Center, staffed and operated by the Seeley Lake Chamber of Commerce, holds court on the upper floor, the Hayloft, as it is known, which today serves as one of the few public “hot spots” in the valley where visitors can take advantage of a wireless connection.
Technology and moccasin memories mix easily to create the flavor of the barn’s eclectic evolution. Early on, the Salish Indians frequented the area and camped near the barn as many early photographs show. Owner Jan Boissevain wrote, “A beautiful, carefree people who never waged war…who were my neighbors and after many years, my most trusted friends.” Every fall, Eneas Granjo, chief of the Flatheads, his wife Teresa and their daughter Sophie would stay in the ancestral camp nearby. Often, dudes would be entertained as the Indians performed ceremonial dances. The old logs now hold the secrets of the past and the distant echoes from the shadows seem to become more audible as the displays on the lower floor recount the settlement of the wilderness valley and the people who created the foundation to shape its future.
But logs and haylofts and even the now silent tread of stallions do not create the entire story. The barn is testimony to a complete story of the people of the Seeley-Swan—people who chanted and danced near its walls in handmade moccasins, people that endured endless winters to tame the forest and meadows, and a people who harvested the timber and created boards that built a new country. Reflected in its new role, the barn tells the story of those that moved it, log by log, from the old foundation to its new home along the Highway to prepare a facility to enhance valley businesses and resources. Today, the barn reflects the past as it prepares for the ever-changing future. Standing in quiet testimony to the united effort of federal, state, county, and local agencies and the hundreds of volunteers who made an old log building acceptable to today’s stringent building codes, the barn is the story of the Seeley-Swan—the past, present and ultimately, its future.