Growing up in Bigfork: The Whitney's

Over 30 people packed into the Bigfork Community Center on Monday to listen to stories of Bigfork’s past.

“We have hours of stories and most of them have some element of truth,” Larry Whitney said, to open up the talk.

Larry Whitney and Jay Whitney were the first speakers in a six week series presented by the center titled “Growing up in Bigfork.”

The series features people who have lived in the Bigfork area to come and share about their family history, and what the town was once like.

The Whitney family’s arrival in Bigfork dates back to the early 1900s, when Ward Whitney moved from Minnesota to the town that was just being homesteaded by the Sliter family. In Bigfork, he met his wife Ida, who had also recently moved to the area.

Larry Whitney displayed an illustration of the Whitney family tree, with Ward and Ida at the roots.

“Most everyone on this chart has lived all or part of their lives in Bigfork,” he said.

Larry was born in Bigfork, but lived much of his life in Washington, where his parents moved to during World War II for work. However, the family would return to Bigfork every summer and Larry recalled mischief and adventures he would have with his cousins, like throwing snowballs at cars from their perch above the road into to town, which is now the Swan River Nature Trail.

Many of the Whitneys’ stories told of how Bigfork has changed over the years.

Larry and Jay recounted times in Bigfork before even they were born, before Bigfork had a high school. Until the 1930’s if you wanted to attend high school, you had to do it in Kalispell they said, which their fathers, Ralph and Arthur, did.

Jack Whitney, Ralph and Arthur’s younger brother, was the first Whitney to graduate from Bigfork High School. He actually helped build furniture and desks for the school. Because there hadn’t been a high school in Bigfork previously, Jack graduated when he was 20. It was at the high school that he met his wife, Ursula. Ursula had attended high school in Kalispell, and worked at Bigfork High School doing paperwork and keeping the books for $15 a month. They waited until after Jack graduated before they married in 1939.

Jay said that Commerce Street, which runs by the high school and outside the community center, didn’t exist when he started elementary school. Arthur Whitney was on the school board in the 1950s when the high school was built where it stands today. The old one no longer exists.

“They were just bursting at the seams by the late 50s,” Jay said. 

The elementary school used to sit where the tennis courts now do and Larry recalls his father bought the old one room schoolhouse for the family residence when the elementary expanded from its one room.

The cousins recalled many of the structures that once stood, and still stand in Bigfork that Ward helped build. 

He built a two-room cabin near what is now the Swan River Nature trail, where the whole family lived. The cabin is still there.

“All of the Whitney men are carpenters,” Jay said. “Most of the Whitneys like to tinker with stuff, and take stuff apart.”

The Whitneys have many more stories to tell and the crowd of listeners seemed to wish they could have talked longer.

The “Growing up in Bigfork” series will continue on Friday, Nov. 13 at 11:30 a.m. with Walt Bahr and Joe Eslick. The talks are free to attend at the Community Center. Lunch is served afterwards and reservations for lunch need to be made a few days ahead of time. Call 837-4157 on Monday, Tuesday or Friday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.  Suggested donations for lunch are $4 for seniors and $6 for everyone else.