Rediscovering home: St. Regis Resort District

The rivalry in Mineral County was a real cat fight. The Tigers, Panthers and Bobcats hated to lose to each other. It was like brothers, and now sisters, going at each other in the backyard.

I had the recent privilege of getting reacquainted with two of my rivals, Tiger Clay Jensen and Panther Darrell Cooper. We couldn’t tackle Darrell as he racked up, if memory serves, up to 200 yards against us my senior year. Jensen was a menace in whatever sport he played. I had my best football game ever my junior year, subbing for an injured Jeff Brockway, rushing for more than 100 yards in St. Regis.  

But our quarterback fumbled twice within the two-yard line. We later learned he was playing with a concussion. Clay intercepted a pass that would have probably given the Tigers the win, but it was called back because of a clip. 

Our rivalry was sometimes taken a little seriously and individuals were a little “offended” by my attendance at dances in St. Regis. Clay, Dick Seng, and Stephen MacDonald made quite a set of bodyguards, all three towering over my 5-5 frame.   

Darrell and his wife, Pam (of Superior) hosted my wife and me at his family’s beautiful spot up Petty Creek. Clay met me at the Fourth of July Parade in St. Regis. The participants must excuse us as we missed most of the parade reliving high school glory. 

One remarkable aspect of my return home is the success story that is St. Regis. The community has the natural advantage of being located where I-90 meets the route to Glacier Park, known to locals as the “cutoff road.” My family would travel to the Sanders County Fair in Plains when the road was gravel and you had to cross the Clark Fork on ferry. I had nightmares as a youngster of my family crossing, with me waving frantically for them not to leave me behind. 

Trestle Creek Golf Course and the Travel Center are important ingredients of St. Regis’s success, but so is the foresight to create a Resort Area District.   

I stopped in for a burger in St. Regis shortly after returning home, and found I had to pay a few pennies in tax. State law allows a resort area to levy up to 3 percent on sales from businesses utilized primarily by visitors. A resort district may acquire property and issue bonds. It has authority to build infrastructure. 

The St. Regis District was formed in 1992 by the voters within the area proposed to be included. Two longtime families, the Jaspers and the Stangs, were instrumental in its creation. Of course, the Lincoln family has led the way with the Travel Center. 

According to online records from the state of Montana, the district had revenues of $245,888 in Fiscal Year 2018. That had risen to $414,663.20 in FY 2023. Visitor dollars have been used to lure more visitors to pay more tax. St. Regis is obviously doing something right.   

Most of the revenue is generated by the Travel Center, according to board clerk Jessica Schaak. She said the revenue took a jump as Montana became popular as a place to get away from it all after the pandemic. Of course, the Yellowstone TV series has also brought folks here. Glacier Park has continually gained in popularity 

The district has only three part-time employees, a maintenance director and his assistant, and a shuttle bus driver. Schaak, a 2002 graduate of Superior High, is a contract employee. She took over the clerkship from Jessica Connolly, who served in the position for a long time before joining the board. Others on the Board are Chair George Bailey, John Cheesman, Kenny Jasper and Al Dunlap. 

The District does the street landscaping and takes care of the signs adorning the street lights in the community. It does not do much advertising other than maintaining several billboards and a web site. A recent St. Regis High grad, Jack Connolly, developed an app for the community and the district helped pay for the project. 

As St. Regis is not incorporated, the board acts in place of a town council. It has provided local money to leverage outside funds for projects. It can act as the “pass through” for grants requiring a governmental entity. The district provides grants to local non-profits and businesses for projects that will serve visitors. The board issues the grants each June. This year, grants were awarded for golf course equipment and the senior center for kitchen equipment.  

One recent example of the foresight St. Regis has shown is the new dog park put in by the Travel Center. Some were skeptical but a surprising number of folks travel with their animals and the park has been a success. 

I will need to circle back regarding the apparent use of tissue-like paper by workers filling the cracks on Interstate 90. I saw a worker with a hook at the end of a long handle, rolling out what appeared to be toilet paper. The questions swirled in my mind. Really, toilet paper?  Whether it is toilet paper or not, why paper the cracks at all?  

Well, my call to the Montana Department of Transportation Friday came too late to clean up the confusion. So I hope my voicemail question won’t fall through the cracks, and, once they stop laughing, Department spokespersons will roll out the answers.  

On a serious note, the Transportation Department needs to at least paint the Mineral County Veterans Memorial Bridge in Superior. Its current condition does not honor veterans.