Groups celebrates new access to Jefferson River

Members of the Jefferson River Canoe Trail enjoyed a fall picnic Saturday to celebrate after raising $270,000 in 2017 to fully pay for a new 30-acre walk-in fishing access site and paddlers' campsite on the Jefferson River segment of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

"We're turning a private property into something that the public has access to... it's our backyard, not just one person's backyard," said JRCT board member Judy Aaker of Butte.

Temporarily named Waterloo Grove, the property features a diverse mix of cottonwood, juniper, water birch, willow, rich forage, and whitetail deer. At 30 acres, it will be the only substantial piece of riparian public land on the upper Jefferson where people can walk their dog, go bird watching, or hunt for morel mushrooms.

"The campsite will serve local paddlers, Lewis and Clark enthusiasts, and anyone following the increasingly popular 3,900-mile source-to-sea route from Brower's Spring to the Gulf of Mexico," said JRCT president Tom Elpel of Pony. "This is an especially appropriate location because floaters often have to unpack all their gear to portage around the adjacent diversion dam anyway."

The group will invite students from Whitehall to rename the property based on the local journals of Lewis and Clark. The group hopes to have a management plan and public signage posted by spring.

JRCT members are immensely grateful to everyone who made the impossible possible. The project was recommended for a $195,000 grant from the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust in May. That started the ball rolling. The Chapter had $9,000 in the bank, and raised the final $66,000 over the summer through additional grants and donations, including $10,000 from Barrick Gold, $6,500 from the Cinnabar Foundation, $1,000 from the George Grant Chapter of Trout Unlimited, $500 from Northwestern Energy, $500 from 3 Rivers Communications, $200 from the Public Land/Water Access Association, and many, many thousands of dollars from local residents and Lewis and Clark enthusiasts.

The group is working to fill in gaps to provide convenient, quality campsites along the entire length of the Jefferson River.

"We're improving a unique portion of the Lewis and Clark Trail," said JRCT secretary Warren Swager of Sheridan.

This local project will eventually connect with other water trails downstream to form a national water trail along the Lewis and Clark route from here to St. Louis.