If you wanna know what is happening in the Northwest corner of Montana, just give a call to State Senator Mike Cuffe, a longtime Republican legislator from Eureka. He's worked in the timber industry, he's worked in the newspaper business, and he's worked in Congress.

Sen. Cuffe is also the immediate past president of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER), which is an organization comprised of US states and Canadian provinces in the Pacific Northwest focused on mutual economic concerns.

Credit Aaron Flint
Credit Aaron Flint
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I got to spend some time in the Flathead and in Eureka last week during the mid-year meeting for the Montana Electric Cooperatives Association. While there, Mike Cuffe took me out on his pontoon boat to show me the border of the US and Canada on Lake Koocanusa.

If you look at the two photos below, you can see a cut line in the hillside to the West, and a cut in the hillside to the East. That, folks, is your US-Canada border just North of Eureka, Montana.

Credit Aaron Flint
Credit Aaron Flint
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Credit Aaron Flint
Credit Aaron Flint
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Lake Koocanusa was formed when they built the Libby Dam. Cuffe is a wealth of information on the dam, the Kootenai River, and the Columbia River Treaty that governs water flow between the US and Canada. He grew up in the area before the electric co-ops brought in electricity, and before the dam was created.

As Cuffe describes it, the water entering Lake Koocanusa comes into Montana from Canada, heads over to Idaho, and then flows back into Canada.

Here's a view looking North into Canada.

Credit Aaron Flint
Credit Aaron Flint
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By the way, Senator Cuffe also showed me a view of the impressive Abayance Bay Marina from the water. They're bringing some big-name concerts to their outdoor concert venue like Elle King, Blues Traveler, Queensryche, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Click here for the full story featuring my chat with the owner and developer Larry Stewart.

 

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