Quinn's hosts bright display for 2023 celebration

It took the owner of Rocketman Pyros about two hours to set up his display, but only five minutes to run through the 550 rockets at Quinn's Hot Springs Resort to ring in the new year.

More than 150 people attended the annual celebration in the resort's Paradise Hall Saturday evening. In unison, the group counted down the final seconds as Steve Underwood of Spokane, Wash., launched his fireworks show for his seventh New Year's festivities at Quinn's. The rockets went off one after another, ranging from 75 feet high to just over 200, showing a multitude of colors in the dark sky.

"It was awesome," said Noel Furniss of Thompson Falls, one the few Sanders County residents at the party. Most of the 154 lodgers there traveled from outside the local area to participate in welcoming 2023. Tara Foley of Georgia might have traveled the farthest, though her central reason for her visit was Furniss, her boyfriend. "It was a good variety and there was not any downtime in between," said Foley. This was the first time for either of them to participate in the Quinn's celebration and the second consecutive year for the event to be held for lodging guests only. Denise Moreth, the general manager, said that some people are still leery of crowd gatherings due to the Covid situation. She said that the resort has had a New Year's party for the entire 21 years she's been there. "But it took on a whole new life since we've had it at the Paradise Hall events center," she said.

The Saturday party started at 8:30 p.m. with dozens of appetizers, desserts and drinks, along with musical entertainment by Northern Lights, which has performed for the Quinn's New Year's celebration several times. The crowd moved to the outside deck for the fireworks as the Missoula band played "Auld Lang Syne," the traditional tune to say farewell to the old year at midnight of New Year's Eve. People also joined in a toast with a glass of complimentary champagne.

Several vehicles used pull outs along Highway 135 near the resort minutes before midnight to watch the fireworks show. "We had a good crowd and some chose to watch the fireworks from the pools," said Silvia McSwain, the resort's events manager. She said they had people from Mineral County and quite a few from Idaho and Washington. She said she recognized several people who had attended previously, along with at least two couples who had been at all seven of the resort's New Year's celebrations.

Several people stopped to give Underwood accolades on his fireworks show while he was cleaning up the spent rocket casings. He has owned Rocketman Pyros since 2005, but has been in the fireworks business since 1986. Quinn's paid $2,000 for this year's fireworks show.