Sunday's Snapshots: The last best tourist place

Recently I had the good fortune to travel to Maine, a state I’d never been to and wanted to visit since I was a teenager and became obsessed with Stephen King and later Elizabeth Strout. When our local librarian, Jennifer Z., moved there, I hounded her for updates until she admitted, (and I paraphrase) “it’s a lot like Montana but with more people and an ocean.” I still wanted to go see it for myself, but it reinforced a belief I hold that Montana truly is the last best place because of the lack of population (there are other reasons of course but come on).

Last month, as an early 45th birthday present, I finally got to see Maine for myself (after over 15 hours of travel). Ocean – check. Trees – check. People – check. And all the locals were sure to tell me how awful the winters are, how if I was only there from June to August, it was fine, but watch out for winter! Just like we tell visitors to Montana.

Much of last week’s paper was about business - did you notice? The store opening a food truck in Noxon, the Old Jail Museum in Thompson Falls dedicated to historical business in the valley, even the op-ed about speed radar signs getting motorists to slow down and note the businesses around them. It’s funny how much you can learn about a place by what it focuses on each season.

When living in a tourist reliant area, as we do, it seems obvious we’d be talking about business in the summer and not the best places to take a vacation or ways to beat the heat…although I’m sure those topics will hit the paper at some point, too. But right now, at the beginning of tourist season, our town is focused on business: keeping our businesses thriving, bringing business in, getting business back in business.

We’re also focused on keeping the tourists from becoming locals, making sure they know how lucky they are to be here in the now, and not six months from now. We want everyone to slow down long enough to buy something and then push on. Everyone everywhere seems to be obsessed with the fear of people ruining a good thing. I get that. Probably more than most people, I get that.

Still, it isn’t the tourists driving down Cherry Creek Road throwing their trash out the window. It isn’t the tourists driving too fast down side streets in an effort to avoid the traffic on Main. And it is the tourists keeping our businesses alive each season - without them our local businesses couldn’t afford to give back to our community so much.

How do businesses in a tourist town keep long-term residents happy while continuing to cater to the tourists? How do locals build their respect and pride for a place they feel they don’t get to enjoy, or that they feel doesn’t appreciate them?

The work the volunteers did this year for Beautification Days is truly astounding. Did you see the new flower garden on Main Street? Stunning! Did you see the mural the high school kids painted last year and refreshed earlier this year on the retaining wall by the train tracks? Fabulous! What about the awesome boots mural for the Spaghetti Western fundraiser that went up a couple years ago? Perfection! Beautiful sources of pride sprinkled like confetti throughout the town. (I’m sure there are equally beautiful things all throughout every town in our county, but I don’t get out much).

The community building events each town holds every year are wonderful, too: The Bison Stampede, Plains Day, The Fall Festival, The Huckleberry Festival, The Christmas Parade, The Chinese New Year Parade. And those are all for us, for the locals. And the businesses contribute the prizes, or stay open late, or come in on a day off to help make it all happen.

Our communities really come together so well, and our county comes through for its residents over and over, time and time again. And a lot of that ability is dependent on funding, funding that comes mostly from tourists. Like it or not, we’re a tourist destination, and if the Big Sky Passenger Rail happens, it’s going to get worse/better – increased tourism and tourist dollars.

A stoplight would be invasive, expensive, and an eyesore the nine months out of the year it’s not needed. So maybe these speed radar signs are a comfortable alternative? A walking trail that follows the river’s edge would encourage tourists to park their cars, stretch their legs, maybe spend some money in our shops and restaurants and then locals get to enjoy the same path each day before the tourists arrive and the other nine months of the year…well, maybe not in the icy months. Sometimes there are no perfect answers.

Sunday Dutro is an internationally published writer living in Thompson Falls with her beautiful family. Reach her at [email protected]