Bigfork's River Parks Are Public by Permission, and the Permission Is for Sale

You can start at the end of Grand Avenue, follow the Swan River upstream past the Wild Mile, and come out at a small parking lot just over the bridge on Swan River Road. PacifiCorp puts that walk at about 2.5 miles. On the way you pass a vault restroom at the midpoint. You can also cut over to Powerhouse Park, Pacific Park, Sliter Park, or the Kearney Rapids Boat Launch.

None of that ground is public land. A power company based in Oregon owns all of it. All of it stays open under a federal license tied to a dam that's now for sale. Sliter Park also relies on a lease that renews one year at a time.

Bigfork has no city government, so there's no town agency to own these spaces. Over the next few months, the decisions about them will be made in a private sale process that isn't open to public comment.

Who Holds What Along the River

The arrangement is easier to follow laid out place by place.

The license is held with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It requires PacifiCorp to provide public access to waterways and to manage recreation sites, and the current 50-year term is set to expire in July 2053. Under the license, PacifiCorp must keep public access to the 2.5-mile Swan River Trail, Powerhouse, Pacific and Sliter parks, and Kearney Rapids.

Sliter Park has one more layer on top of that, and it changed hands this summer.

How Sliter Park Ended Up With a Nonprofit

Flathead County Parks and Recreation leased Sliter Park from PacifiCorp for 45 years and ran it as a county park. On April 30, county commissioners voted unanimously not to renew. They followed the recommendation of the Weed, Parks and Recreation Board.

The money involved was small by county standards. Parks Director Chris Maestas said Sliter Park cost the county about $4,000 a year. He told commissioners his bigger concern was staffing: the park takes 200 to 250 man-hours each summer, and the county runs more than 70 parks.

The Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork was already paying its share. The foundation had split maintenance costs with the county since 2013, when the county first looked at stepping away. President Megan Shoultz said the foundation spent about $10,000 on the park during the 2025 season. In April, she told commissioners that taking on the whole park would mean "tens of thousands of dollars annually in operations and maintenance costs" for a small nonprofit.

No other group came forward, and the foundation took the lease anyway. As the Daily Inter Lake reported, the lease began Aug. 1, runs one year, and renews annually. Shoultz said the park stays open to the public. She also confirmed that the Whitewater Festival and the Riverbend Concert Series will continue, which let Riverbend finish the second half of its summer schedule. Taking over the park nearly doubled the foundation's financial commitment to it.

That fixed the immediate problem. It didn't change who owns the land. The same article notes that if PacifiCorp finds a buyer, "the new owner will decide what to do with the park property."

What the Bidders Are Actually Buying

PacifiCorp announced in June that it plans to sell the Bigfork Hydroelectric Project. The company has owned the dam since 1954 and pointed to stricter federal dam safety criteria that would require significant investment. The sale includes the project and about 277 surrounding acres.

Offers closed Sept. 4, and PacifiCorp says it received more than one. It hasn't said how many or who sent them. Here's how PacifiCorp spokesperson Drew Marine described the next step in an email to the Bigfork Eagle:

"We expect to take some time to consider the proposals, then enter into discussions with one or multiple parties. The final outcome may not be known until early 2027."

The proposals PacifiCorp is reviewing would have the buyer take over the existing FERC license and keep running the dam. That matters for the trail and parks, because the recreation requirements come with the license. If a new operator takes over the license, PacifiCorp says those requirements still apply. The company's disposition FAQ also says it has no immediate plans to close the parks.

Sliter Park is the exception. The license covers access there, but the day-to-day stewardship rests on a one-year lease, and the next owner would decide whether to keep it. At the April meeting, Andrew Sliter, great-grandson of Bigfork founder Everit L. Sliter, put the community's worry plainly: "there is no guarantee that a private company could not sell that land."

The Path If No Buyer Takes the License

PacifiCorp has said that if it can't find a buyer willing to take over the federal license, it would pursue decommissioning and possibly removing the dam. That route is slow and runs in a set order:

1. PacifiCorp prepares a decommissioning plan under FERC criteria. That process includes public input, unlike the current sale.
2. Federal regulators approve the plan. Marine said the whole process would take at least five years.
3. The company completes site restoration.
4. The commission signs off on the completed work.
5. Only after all of that is the land disposed of.

Nobody has said where the trail and parks land would go under this scenario. The Flathead Beacon reported that it's unclear what happens to access if the dam is decommissioned and the land is sold to an outside party. David Meyers, who organizes the Bigfork Whitewater Festival and runs Montana Kayak Academy, told the paper he hopes it doesn't become a private land sale. "My dream would be to turn it into an easement," he said, with the community working alongside a land trust.

Bigfork Chamber of Commerce President Rebekah King spoke for many in town when she named what's at stake: "It's the Wild Mile. It's Sliter's Park. It's the nature trail."

The Rapids Are the Safer Bet

One common fear has a clear answer. The Bigfork dam is a run-of-river project. It's a 12-foot-high diversion dam that sends water through a flume and returns it to the river above the powerhouse, so it doesn't hold back a reservoir.

Whitefish fluvial geomorphologist Ryan Richardson told the Beacon that the Wild Mile is wild because of its gradient, and that gradient doesn't go away without the dam. He added that Bigfork Bay's water level is set by Flathead Lake. "The only place where hydrology is changed is in the Wild Mile itself," he said.

Removing the dam could actually lengthen the paddling season. With the dam in place, Meyers said, the Swan River usually drops below its 800 cubic feet per second minimum by late June. Without it, he estimated the season would run about six weeks longer. Today, PacifiCorp's license-required whitewater releases run only from 5 to 9 p.m. in July and August.

That leaves the land, not the water, as the real open question.

Walking It This Fall and Winter

Nothing has changed on the ground while the sale plays out. These are PacifiCorp's current rules:

• Hours: The trail and Kearney Rapids are open year-round, 24 hours a day. Powerhouse and Pacific parks switched to winter hours, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., the morning after Labor Day, and stay on them through the Thursday before Memorial Day.
• Snow: "Snow is not removed from recreation sites," and winter weather can restrict access.
• Dogs: Leashed dogs are welcome on the trail. Park rules require leashes "no more than 6 feet in length."
• Who else is on the trail: It's a non-motorized multi-use route for hikers, bikes and horses. Authorized maintenance vehicles occasionally use it too.
• Restrooms: Powerhouse Park doesn't have one, and PacifiCorp points visitors to nearby Sliter Park. Pacific Park has a vault restroom, along with fire rings and grills.

You'll see two different lengths for the trail. The Bigfork Chamber calls it two miles along the old River Road. It describes the first mile running beside the Wild Mile and the second beside slower water. The Chamber also notes that PacifiCorp built the east-end parking lot and restroom on Swan River Road in 2022.

The trail sits in the middle of the village's history. The dam went up in 1900, a year before Bigfork was founded, and was producing power by 1902. Electric Avenue is named for it.

The next real news will come from PacifiCorp, possibly not until early 2027. The other date to watch is the Sliter Park lease renewal next summer. If you want to help with that lease, the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork is the group carrying it.

I follow the Bigfork dam sale the same way I follow anything that affects how people use this town. If you have questions about what it could mean for the streets near the river, or you'd just like to talk through what's known so far, Maureen Gerber is happy to help. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.