"Those two feel like the heart of Bigfork, and if those are changed in the ways that we're thinking are possibilities, it would be drastic change for us. I think a lot of people would be very heartbroken to see those changes, including myself."

In June, the Flathead Beacon quoted Megan Shoultz while she was talking about the Whitewater Festival and the bay. She runs the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork, the nonprofit that signed a new lease to keep Sliter Park open while PacifiCorp began a federal process to sell or decommission the dam.

The park lease and dam sale are separate developments. Sliter Park's new lease took effect August 1, while PacifiCorp's search for a buyer remained unresolved in late September.

Two Clocks, Not One

The confusion is understandable. Both stories involve the same stretch of the Swan River, the same nonprofit, and the same sense that something Bigfork has always had access to might not stay that way. But they're running on different legal tracks that happen to overlap in the news.

One track is a real estate lease. Flathead County Parks and Recreation managed Sliter Park for 45 years, and split maintenance costs with the Foundation starting in 2013. The Flathead Beacon reported that county commissioners voted in May not to renew that arrangement, citing budget constraints. The county's own justification was that its parks department now oversees more than 70 properties with rising use and no added capacity. When no other entity stepped up, the Foundation signed a one-year lease directly with PacifiCorp, effective August 1, keeping the park open under the new lease. That lease renews annually. The Daily Inter Lake reported that Foundation President Megan Shoultz called the lease something the organization was "extremely proud" to take on.

The other track is a federal license transfer, and it moves at a completely different pace. PacifiCorp has operated the Bigfork Hydroelectric Project since 1954, and the dam itself dates back further than that. It was built in 1900 by Lafayette Tinkel, who dug the canal and flume by hand to divert Swan River water to a powerhouse more than a mile away. By 1902 it was producing electricity, one year after Bigfork's own founding, which is why the road running through downtown is called Electric Avenue.

PacifiCorp announced in June that tightening federal dam-safety standards had made continued ownership too costly, and that it would try to sell the project before considering decommissioning. That process answers to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, not the county, and is separate from the Foundation's lease.

What the Foundation Actually Signed Up For

Worth being specific about what the Foundation's August lease does and doesn't cover, because "Sliter Park is saved" oversimplifies a document that's really about maintenance responsibility, not the property's ultimate ownership.

The Foundation spent around $10,000 on park maintenance during the 2025 season alone, according to Shoultz, and taking over the full lease nearly doubles what had been a shared financial commitment. As an unincorporated community, Bigfork has no city government of its own to fall back on for green space upkeep, so a small nonprofit is now solely responsible for a park it doesn't own, on land whose ownership is itself unresolved.

That last part matters. PacifiCorp still owns the ground under Sliter Park. If the dam sells, the new owner decides what happens to the park property, not the Foundation and not the county. The August lease keeps the lights on for now. It doesn't answer the bigger question.

The Water Still Comes With a Catch

Here's where the timeline actually stands as of late September. PacifiCorp accepted buyer proposals through a September 4 deadline and confirmed it received multiple offers, though the company has declined to say how many or name any of the parties involved, calling it a private business matter not yet subject to public comment. Communications specialist Drew Marine told local outlets that officials expect to spend time reviewing proposals before entering discussions with one or more parties, and that a final outcome likely won't arrive until early 2027.

If a sale closes, the license conditions that require public recreation access carry over to whoever buys it. That's 277 acres total, including the 2.5-mile Swan River Trail, Powerhouse Park, Pacific Park, Sliter Park, and the Kearney Rapids Boat Launch. It also includes the water releases that make the Whitewater Festival possible in the first place: PacifiCorp is required to release flows supporting Class IV boating on the "Wild Mile" section from 5 to 9 p.m. through July and August.

If no buyer materializes, the alternative is decommissioning, a process Marine has said would take at least five years and would require FERC-supervised public comment before any disposition of the land takes place. Removal of the dam itself is one possible outcome of that process, though not a guaranteed one.

The rough shape of the next year, based on what's been publicly confirmed:

• June 2026 — PacifiCorp announces intent to sell or decommission the project
• August 1, 2026 — Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork's lease on Sliter Park takes effect, renewable annually
• September 4, 2026 — Deadline for buyer proposals passes; PacifiCorp confirms multiple offers received
• Early 2027 — Expected timeframe for PacifiCorp to name a buyer or move toward decommissioning
• 12 to 16 months after a signed agreement — Estimated closing window if a qualified buyer is found
• 5+ years — Estimated length of a decommissioning process if no sale occurs

None of those dates are close enough to call this settled. PacifiCorp is expected to announce something concrete about a buyer in early 2027, while the Foundation's lease renews annually.

The Bay Has Its Own Waiting List

Shoultz's June comment mentioned the bay in the same breath as the Whitewater Festival, and that wasn't incidental. Where the Swan River meets Flathead Lake, a Polson-based developer has proposed a 97-slip marina with floating docks, a public swimming area, and a boardwalk connecting to the Flathead County Public Dock. The application, filed by Cougar Ridge Development and Water Source LLC on behalf of developer Michael Maddy, landed with the Flathead Conservation District in April and was tabled in May pending additional geotechnical and hydrologic reports.

Part of the holdup is jurisdictional. Because Flathead Lake is dam-regulated, its water backflows into Bigfork Bay, blurring the line between lake and river. A 2004 Montana Supreme Court case, Paulson v. Flathead Conservation District, settled that the Highway 35 bridge marks where lake jurisdiction ends and river jurisdiction under the Conservation District begins, which is exactly the stretch of water this marina would sit in.

So the bay Shoultz worried about isn't hypothetical scenery. It's a second, separate approval process moving on its own schedule, involving different agencies than the dam sale, layered onto the same stretch of shoreline.

What This Adds Up To

Sliter Park isn't going anywhere this year. The Foundation's lease is signed, the park stayed open through the summer, and the events that use it, including the Riverbend Concert Series in the bandshell the community fundraised to build, ran as scheduled. That's real, and it's worth being glad about.

But the thing that determines whether that arrangement survives past next August, whether the Whitewater Festival still has water to run on, and whether the bay looks the way it does today, sits with PacifiCorp and a still-unnamed buyer, not with the Foundation. Early 2027 is when that answer starts to take shape. Until then, the park's calm is a maintenance agreement, not a resolution.

If you're keeping an eye on how Bigfork's waterfront changes over the next year, whether that's the dam sale, the marina application, or anything else moving through the county and conservation district, Liz McGavin tracks these local developments as part of daily work in this market and is always glad to talk through what's actually happening on the ground.

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