First Lady talks education

While standing in the rain Oct. 6, St. Regis students spent some time learning about the natural world with Montana’s First Lady Nancy Schweitzer.

At a rest stop near Lookout Pass west-bound on Interstate 90, students commemorated the placement of an educational marker that was erected as part of the Governor and First Lady’s Math and Science Initiative.

The marker is one of more than 30 different markers that have been placed across the state to teach people about the Montana landscape.

“This state offers a tremendous opportunity for kids to learn,” Schweitzer said.

Norm Smyers, from the Ice Age Flood Institute, talked with the St. Regis students about the landscape surrounding the rest stop and what is was like when the entire area was consumed by a glacial lake.

He talked with the students, among other things, about how St. Regis acted as a mixing bowl when Glacial Lake Missoula drained and the water from where the St. Regis and Clark Fork Rivers now are creating a huge swirling area where water filled with sediments mixed together.

He said that today different rock and sediment deposits can be found that show how the two water drainages mixed together.

According to Smyers, Glacial Lake Missoula stretched from Lookout Pass all the way to where Drummond is now, and from the Bitterroot Mountains all the way to where Deer Lodge now stands. He said that the lake was as deep as 2,000 feet in some places and reached all the way up to the 4,200 foot elevation line.

The sign placed at the rest stop will teach passersby about the sediments surrounding the rest stop. According to the sign, Precambrian blue-green algae mats trapped fine particles of calcium carbonate and formed structures called stromatolites. The stromatolites show ripples in the mud and even spots where Precambrian rain drops fell.

“It was a great group of kids that were paying attention and appreciated that they were learning something,” Schweitzer said about the St. Regis group.

Schweitzer said that the Governor and First Lady’s Math and Science Initiative partnered with the Montana Department of Transportation to provide these roadside educational signs and an opportunity for people to learn about the landscape of Montana.

Jim Lynch, the head of the MDOT, was also present at the event, and he took the opportunity to talk with the group about the importance of wearing their seat belts.

“It’s a law you have to wear your seat belts,” Lynch said.

As I-90 traffic wizzed by, he explained to the students that 80 percent of all traffic in Montana is on roads with speed limits in excess of 50 miles per hour.

He said that in accidents at those high speeds, it is essential to wear a seat belt to prevent a life-threatening injury. Lynch added that in most cases, if someone is injured in an accident at high speeds they have 30 minutes to get to a hospital to avoid permanent injury and an hour to avoid death. With the isolated nature of many of Montana’s roads, it is essential that children and adults alike wear their seat belts.

“Please wear them, because we need you alive and well,” Lynch said.